Constitution Day

By Dr. Buck Jones, professor of Political Science at Louisiana College

The federal government has declared September 17th to be Constitution Day, a day set aside to study, commemorate, and celebrate the U.S. Constitution, our foundational document politically and arguably the most important political document in the history of our republic. We are urged to use this day as a time to reflect upon the Constitution, and to examine such topics as its history and context, meaning, major provisions, impacts, etc.

Written in 1787 and approved in 1788 by the required nine of our 13 states, our Constitution took affect in 1789. Today, as in 1789, this document provides the foundation or framework for our U.S. political system. It replaced the “Articles of Confederation,” a weaker and flawed form of government that had been established for our nation in 1781, during the Revolutionary War. Philadelphia was the site where the framers of the Constitution came together in the summer of 1787 to create this political masterpiece. Their work was completed on September 17th, and thus we have set that date aside as a time to celebrate the Constitution.

The Constitution is currently about 8,700 words in length (which is brief by comparison to many similar documents) and is one of the oldest continually existing political documents in the world. It can be divided into three parts: the Preamble (an introductory paragraph), seven articles (or chapters), and the amendments, of which there are today, twenty-seven. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution are known collectively as the “Bill of Rights” and were approved by the states for inclusion into the original manuscript in 1791. It is in these 10 amendments that many of our most cherished freedoms and our most important protections as citizens are enumerated.

In addition to protecting our basic freedoms, the Constitution provides for much of importance in other areas. It creates for us a federal system, establishing the major functions and responsibilities for a strong central government while also reserving certain other powers for our state governments. It divides our national government into three separate branches and outlines the basic powers of the other two branches. Moreover, it provides for measures that insure the smooth interaction between and among our states, as integral parts of our federal system. It also provides for limits on the powers of governments in our federal arrangement, so as to narrow the scope of government in our daily lives and allow us to make choices for ourselves without undue influence from our governing bodies.

Since it took affect in 1789, our Constitution has been formally amended only 27 times, and 10 of these amendments, the Bill of Rights, were added to the Constitution only two years after it was enacted. Thus, in more than 200 years of our history, as we have moved from an agrarian society to the post-industrial era of the 21st Century and have experienced dramatic changes in our republic, our Constitution has been amended (since the Bill of Rights) only 17 times. As a tribute to the wisdom and insight of the framers of the Constitution, it has stood the test of time largely unchanged. It is a remarkable document that is as viable and relevant today as in 1789. Take time on Constitution Day (and the rest of the year, too) to study and delve into this marvelous piece of work. It is indeed the foundation on which our great nation is built.