FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT US CONSTITUTION

 FASCINATING FACTS  ABOUT US CONSTITUTION

#1. 4,440 words are in the U.S. Constitution. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world.  

#2. It took 0ne hundred days to “frame” the Constitution.

James Madison 

#3. The word democracy does not appear at all in the Constitution.

#4. Of the spelling errors in the Constitution, “Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring.

#5. The Constitution was “penned” by Jacob Shallus, a Pennsylvania General Assembly clerk, for a fee of $30 (at that time).It was stored in various cities until 1952, when it was placed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.During the daytime, pages one and four of the document are displayed in a bullet-proof case.The case contains helium and water vapor to preserve the paper’s quality.At night, the pages are lowered into a vault, behind five-ton doors that are designed to withstand a nuclear explosion.  The entire Constitution is displayed only one day a year-September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document.

#6. There was initially a question as to how to address the President.The Senate proposed that he be addressed as “His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties.” Both the House of Representatives and the Senate compromised on the use of “President of the United States.” 

#7. When the time came to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin’s mind was active, but his body was deteriorating.He was in constant pain due to gout and having a stone in his bladder.He could barely walk.Benjamin Franklin entered the convention hall in a sedan chair carried by four prisoners from the Walnut Street jail in Philadelphia.As he signed the Constitution, tears streamed down his face.

#8. The Pennsylvania State House (where the Constitutional Convention took place) was where George Washington was appointed the commander of the Continental Army in 1775 and where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.It was also where the Articles of Confederation were adopted as our first constitution in 1781.

#9. Thomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution.He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister.John Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either.

#10. Since 1952, the Constitution has been on display in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.Currently, all four pages are displayed behind protective glass framed with titanium.To preserve the parchment’s quality, the cases contain argon gas and are kept at 67 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 40 percent.

#11. Constitution Day is celebrated on September 17,the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document.

#12. Patrick Henry was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but declined,because he “smelt a rat.”

#13. The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81).The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26).

#14. A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789.The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.

#15. The first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.

#16. As Benjamin Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House after the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, he was approached by the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia.She was curious as to what the new government would be.Franklin replied, “A republic, madam.If you can keep it.”

#17. On March 24, 1788, a popular election was held in Rhode Island to determine the ratification status of the new Constitution.The vote was 237 in favor and 2,945 opposed !

#18. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, at the age of 84.The 20,000 mourners at his funeral on April 21, 1790, constituted the largest public gathering up to that time.

#19. Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, 1791, even though it had not yet become a state.

#20. The Constitution contains 4,543 words, including the signatures and has four sheets, 28-3/4 inches by 23-5/8 inches each.It contains 7,591 words including the 27 amendments.

#21. Daniel Webster (1782-1852), of Massachusetts, has been called the “Expounder of the Constitution”.

#22. From 1804 to 1865 there were no amendments added to the Constitution until the end of the Civil War when the Thirteenth amendment was added that abolished slavery.This was the longest period in American history in which there were no changes to our Constitution.

#23. The election of George Washington as the first President under the Constitution was not really “unanimous”.In actuality,two electors from Virginia and two electors from Maryland did not vote.New York was entitled to eight electoral votes but the state legislature could not decide how these electors would be chosen, so the state of New York officially did not vote for the President.The electoral vote in 1789 should have totaled 81 but only 69 votes were cast.

#24. Although the United States Treasury Department stopped distributing currency denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 in 1969, for all intents and purposes the production of each stopped after World War II.However, these notes are still legal tender and may be found on rare occasions in circulation.James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” is on the $5,000 bill.

#25. At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention,Benjamin Franklin observed the symbol of a half sun on George Washington’s chair and remarked,“I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

#26. Benjamin Franklin made a suggestion at the Constitutional Convention that the sessions be opened with a prayer.The delegates refused to accept the motion stating that there was not enough money to hire a chaplain.

#27. The term “others” is used in the Constitution to categorize ethnic minorities.

#28. Four of the signers of the Constitution were born in Ireland.

#29. During an event to celebrate the Constitution’s Sesquicentennial in 1937, Harry F.Wilhelm recited the entire document through the newly added 21st Amendment from memory. He then obtained a job in the Sesquicentennial mailroom!

#30. The Constitution does not set forth requirements for the right to vote. As a result, at the outset of the Union, only male property-owners could vote.African Americans were not considered citizens, and women were excluded from the electoral process.Native Americans were not given the right to vote until 1924.

#31. James Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” was the first to arrive in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention.He arrived in February,three months before the convention began, bearing the blueprint for the new Constitution.

#32. Of the forty-two delegates who attended most of the meetings, thirty-nine actually signed the Constitution.Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign in part due to the lack of a bill of rights.

#33. When it came time for the states to ratify the Constitution, the lack of any bill of rights was the primary sticking point.

#34. George Washington and James Madison were the only presidents who signed the Constitution.

#35. There was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5,000 men.George sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no invading army could number more than 3,000 troops!

#36. Rhode Island was the only state not to send delegates to Philadelphia in 1787. At that time the state legislature was controlled by the agrarian party and was fearful that a stronger central government would demand that debts be paid in specie (hard money).It was the last state to ratify the Constitution on May 29, 1790 (over a year after President George Washington’s inauguration) by a vote of 34-32.

#37. Of the fifty-five delegates who attended the convention 34 were lawyers, 8 had signed the Declaration of Independence, and almost half were Revolutionary War veterans.The remaining members were planters, educators, ministers, physicians, financiers, judges and merchants.About a quarter of them were large land owners and all of them held some type of public office (39 were former Congressmen and 8 were present or past governors).

#38. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania was known as the “Sage of the Constitutional Convention.” He was also the mediator at the convention and often counseled that “we are here to consult,not to contend”.

#39. The only other language used in various parts of the Constitution is Latin.

#40. John Tyler was the first Vice President to assume the responsibilities of the Presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841.There was nothing in the Constitution that provided for the vice president to BECOME the president.Article II,Section 6 of the Constitution states that: “In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President...” The Article did not state that the vice president would BECOME the President!Tyler immediately began to refer to himself as the President with no actual Constitutional authority to do so, and every succeeding vice president in the same position did the same.It was not until the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was passed in 1967 that the vice president technically BECAME the president.This amendment legitimatized Tyler’s unconstitutional assumption!

#41. The Preamble was the last element added to the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention.

#42. The Preamble was composed by Pennsylvanian Gouveneur Morris, who was extremely talkative and among the most profound of all the delegates.This short paragraph sums up what the Constitution  and the Government it created was meant to accomplish.