#230YearsAgo: Out for Ratification

From Declaration to Constitution

On September 24, 1789, the U.S. House took up the report of the conference committee. The committee reconciled the differences between the House’s 17 articles of amendment and the Senate’s 12 by changing the text in two of them.

The committee’s version of the Senate’s article III became the language we now know as the first amendment prohibiting Congress from making laws establishing a religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, freedom of press, assembly or the right to petition the government. Its version of the Senate’s article VIII became the language we now know as the sixth amendment, consolidating the rights to speedy, public trials by jury in criminal cases.

The House journal for that day reported the vote was 37-14 in favor of the amendments. This met the requirement for 2/3 approval. The Senate journal reported unanimous approval on Friday, September 25, 1789.

The Article V of the…

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Genius of the US Constitution #230YearsAgo #ConstitutionDay

From Declaration to Constitution

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document that would become the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. We mark that historic event as Constitution Day each year on the anniversary.

It took most of a year to get 9 states to ratify the document putting it into effect. One wonders how long the delegates or Founders expected the charter to last. 231 years is quite a season in the politics of national governments. It is now the longest existing charter of a republic based on democratic principles in the world.

Perhaps its genius lies in a handful of key principles:

• “We the People” created the government with limited powers.
• Those powers were divided among 3 branches with checks and balances on each other
• The States also served as a check on the expansion of the national government
• The amendment process requires time and great consensus
• the subsequent Bill of Rights

Working together, these…

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