Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Sept. 14, 2005

The Constitution ... 218 years and counting

It has served us well for 218 years, and after all that time, this Saturday marks the first time Sept. 17 has been designated by the federal government as a special day of remembrance. Sept. 17, 1787 was the birth date of the United States Constitution. It was Senator Robert Byrd, D-WV, who introduced the law. He is well known for often waving the pocket size copy of the Constitution he carries in his pocket as he addresses the Congress.

The law requires all schools receiving federal funds as well as federal agencies should provide materials about the Constitution on that day. Since the date on this first year falls on a Saturday, any such activity will take place on Friday.

It was a California citizen, Louise Leigh, now 91, who began pushing for such legislation in 1997. That year she founded a nonprofit organization called Constitution Day, Inc. and each year since she has organized activities in California to stress the importance of the Constitution. This year she has arranged for retired General Tommy Franks to lead a simultaneous recitation of the Preamble to the Constitution in sites around the world.

Have you ever read the entire Constitution? I am ashamed to admit I had not until I began working on this column. Most of us are familiar with the Preamble and even the Bill of Rights but not the "whole scheme whereby a country is governed." In about 7,000 words described as "confined to basic, permanent principles in broad and generous terms" eight articles followed by a number of sections under each the leading legal laws were collected into a document that is the Constitution.

After our founding fathers' Declaration of Independence was accepted in July 1776 , the work began on how to govern this new country. They spoke of it as the Articles of Confederation and the constitutions of each individual state were used as models as they framed this new constitution. They attempted to retain the independence and sovereignty of the states as much as possible while at the same time establishing a federal government to carry out national interests.

James Madison has been called the "Father of the Constitution." Twelve states chose 74 delegates to work on this important task, but only 55 actually took part in the long process from May 25 to Sept. 17, 1787. Meeting in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the body was made up of men of property, well educated and distinguished in their abilities. The final draft was signed by 39 representatives.

Next, state conventions began studying the document and they felt there were no guarantees of individual rights and as it was written the constitution these rights were limited. Work began again and James Madison drafted 12 amendments and ten were accepted. These ten are known as the Bill of Rights.

With this addition, the Constitution, with the ten amendments, was ratified by the states in December 1791.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday. She may be reached at ebrush@frontiernet.net