Today is Constitution Day, marking 238 years since the signing of the U.S. Constitution. This remarkable document shaped not only our nation but also influenced the course of Western civilization. Yet, it rarely receives the attention it deserves. Too often, our schools neglect civics in favor of social engineering—a troubling shift that appears anything but accidental.

Here are few fun facts about the U.S. Constitution:

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

-Of the written national constitutions, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest and shortest.

-The U.S. Constitution commands that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” Many think that this is a provision of the First Amendment, set forth in the Bill of Rights adopted in 1791. In fact, it is a provision of the original body of the Constitution, adopted in 1789.  It is found in Article 6. For the Framers, religious liberty was not an afterthought.

-More than 11,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress. 33 have gone to the states to be ratified and 27 have received the necessary approval from the states to actually become amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

-Thomas Jefferson did not sign the U.S. Constitution. He was appointed a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles in France during the Convention. John Adams was serving as the first minister from the United States to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either.

-George Washington and James Madison were the only presidents who signed the U.S. Constitution.

-Of the spelling errors in the U.S. Constitution, “Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring.

-The word “democracy” does not appear once in the U.S. Constitution.

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

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

-When the U.S. Constitution was signed, the United States population was 4 million.

-Established on November 26, 1789, the first national “Thanksgiving Day” was originally created by George Washington as a way of “giving thanks” for the U.S. Constitution.

LEARN MORE

• Read (or re-read) the U.S. Constitution for yourself and with your family. Teach your children, or read it with them. Here’s the link!

• High resolution copies of the original paper versions of the Declaration of Independence, the main body of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments), and all subsequent amendments are available for downloading at no charge at the website of the National Archives, HERE!

The handwriting on the original parchment text of the U.S. Constitution — the text one sees in the Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. — is that of Jacob Shallus.  Mr. Shallus, who was 37 in 1787, was the American-born son of immigrants to America from Germany.  At the time of the Convention he was the Assistant Clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, in whose premises — the building now known as Independence Hall — the Constitutional Convention met.

It took Mr. Shallus four pieces of parchment and about 40 hours to write out the entire text of the document in his fine, clear hand.  He was paid $30.00 (about $1,030 in today’s dollars) for his labors.  All the penmanship in the document, including the famous opening words, “We the People”, is his, save for the closing section, where the signatures were affixed by each of the delegates in their own hands, listed by States, and where the roster of States under which they signed was written in by the hand of Alexander Hamilton.

• Learn more about the U.S. Constitution in a fantastic PragerU series, covering everything from why America is a republic to how the Constitution impacts the U.S. Supreme Court. Watch it HERE!

• Watch a cartoon telling the story of the U.S. Constitution by Liberty’s Kids. Watch it for free HERE!

• To celebrate the bicentennial, a musical movie called 1776 was created, retelling the story of the final weeks of debate leading to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It went on to win the 1969 Tony Award as Best Musical.

Today, more than ever, defending the U.S. Constitution must be a priority for every American citizen. Increasingly, political activists and legal scholars reject its principles of individual liberty and limited government. In their place, they promote coercive schemes of big government—experiments that history has shown repeatedly fail to “improve” humanity.

The U.S. Constitution is also under attack through efforts to undermine the judiciary and surrender America’s God-given gift of self-government to international law and globalist institutions. Such betrayals—driven by short-sighted and craven political motives—must be firmly and unapologetically opposed.