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Fascinating Facts About The U.S. Constitution ♦♦♦♦♦ The U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any major government in the world. ♦♦♦♦♦ Of the typographical errors in the Constitution, the misspelling of the word "Pennslyvannia" above the signers' names is probably the most glaring. ♦♦♦♦♦ 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. minster to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either. ♦♦♦♦♦ The Costitution was "penned" by Jacob Shallus, a Pennslyvannia General Assembly clerk, for a fee of $30. 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 prederve 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 per year- September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. ♦♦♦♦♦ 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. ♦♦♦♦♦ 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. ♦♦♦♦♦ 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 due in part of the lack of a bill of rights. ♦♦♦♦♦♦ When it came time for the states to ratify the Constitution, the lack of any bill of rights was the primary sticking point.♦ ♦♦♦♦♦ The Great Compromise saved the Constitutional Convention, and probably, the Union. Authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, it called for proportional representation in the House, and one representative per state in the Senate. Th compromise passed 5-to-4, with one state, Massachusetts, "divided". ♦♦♦♦♦ Patrick Henry ws elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but declined, because he "smelt a rat." ♦♦♦♦♦ Because of his poor health, benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his face. ♦♦♦♦♦ Gouverneur Morris was largely responsible for the "wording" of the Constitution, although there was a Committee of Style formed in September 1787. ♦♦♦♦♦ The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26). ♦♦♦♦♦ When the Constitution ws signed, the United States' population was 4 million. It is now more than 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation's largest city, with 40,000 inhabitats. ♦♦♦♦♦ A proclamation by President 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. ♦♦♦♦♦ The first time the formal term " The United States of America" was used was in the Declaration of Independence. ♦♦♦♦♦ It took one hundred days to actually "frame" the Constitution. ♦♦♦♦♦ There was intially a question as to how to address the President. The Senate proposed that he be addressed as "His Highness the President of the United Stated 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." ♦♦♦♦♦ James Wilson orginally proposed the President be chosen by popular vote, but the delegate agreed on a system known the Electoral College. Although there have been 500 proposed amendments to change it, this "indirect" system of electing the president is still intact. ♦♦♦♦♦ George Washington and James Madison were the only presidents who signed the Constitution. ♦♦♦♦♦ In November of 1788 the Congress of the Confderation adjourned and left the United States without a central government until April 1789. That is when the first Congress under the new Constitution convened with its first quorum. ♦♦♦♦♦ James Madison was the only delegate to attend every meeting. He took detailed notes of the various discussions and debates that took place during the convention. The journal that he kept during the Constitutional Convention was kept secret until after he dies. It was purchased at a price of $30,000. The journal was published in 1840. ♦♦♦♦♦ Although Benjamin Franklin's mind remained active, his body was deteriorating. He was in constant pain because of gout and having a stone in his bladder, and he could barely walk. He could enter the convention hall in a sedan chair carried by four prisoners from the Walnut Street jail in Philadelphia. ♦♦♦♦♦ On March 24, 1788, a popluar 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! ♦♦♦♦♦ The members of the first Congress of the United States included 54 who were delegates to the Constitutional Convention or delegates to the various start-ratifying conventions. The number also included 7 delegates who opposed ratification. ♦♦♦♦♦ Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, 1791, even though it had not yet become a state. ♦♦♦♦♦ The word "democracy" does not appear once in the Constitution. ♦♦♦♦♦ There was a proposal at the Consstitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5,000 men. George Washington sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipilation was added that no invading army could number more than 3,000 troops! ♦♦♦♦♦ John Adams referred to the Constitution as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen" and George Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette that "It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle." ♦♦♦♦♦ The Pennslyvannia State House 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. ♦♦♦♦♦ During an event to celebrate the Constitution's Sesquicentennial in 1937, Harry F. Wilheim recited the entire document through the newly added 21st Amendment from memory. He then obtained a job in the Sesquicentennial mailroom! ♦♦♦♦♦ To amend the Constitution, a proposal must gain the support or two-thirds of the House and Senate, and three-fourths of the states. As a result, of the thousands of proposed amendments, only 27 have passed. Amendments must be proposed either by a two-thirds vote in Congress. Such a convention can only held if two-thirds of the states' lesislatures support it.
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