Constitution Day
Database Spotlight
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
–Preamble to the United States Constitution
September 17 is designated as Constitution Day to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The Federal Convention had first convened in May to revise the Articles of Confederation, but the need for an entirely new frame of government became clear. State delegates debated issues, such as federalism and representation, all through the summer as they drafted the articles of the new Constitution.
Constitution of the United States
Ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, for over two centuries the Constitution has remained in force because its framers wisely separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments. The Constitution has evolved through amendments to meet the changing needs of a nation now profoundly different from the eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived.
The United States enjoys a representative form of government, shaped by three separate branches as established in the Constitution:
- Article I states that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”
- Article II states that “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
- Article III provides for a “judicial Power of the United States.”
