Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world. [ 4 ] [ a ] The drafting of the Constitution , often referred to as its framing, was completed at the Constitutional Convention , which assembled at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between May 25 and ...
Gouverneur Morris (/ ɡ ʌ v ər n ɪər ˈ m ɒr ɪ s / guh-vər-NEER MOR-ris; [1] January 31, 1752 – November 6, 1816) was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been ...
The document was written at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention and was ratified through a series of state conventions held in 1787 and 1788. Since 1789, the Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; particularly important amendments include the ten amendments of the United States Bill of Rights and the three Reconstruction Amendments.
Altogether, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote the 85 essays of what became known as The Federalist Papers in six months, with Madison writing 29 of the essays. The Federalist Papers successfully defended the new Constitution and argued for its ratification to the people of New York. The articles were also published in book form and became a ...
According to the Archives, these documents "have secured the rights of the American people for nearly two and a half centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States." [43] In addition, as the nation's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union is also a founding document.
Jacob Shallus or Shalus (1750–April 18, 1796) [1] was the engrosser or penman of the original copy of the United States Constitution. The handwritten document that Shallus engrossed is on display in the Rotunda of the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
Madison had written in Federalist #45 that the proposed federal government would have powers that were "few and defined" (as enumerated in Article I of the Constitution). He felt strongly that to interpret it otherwise would be a breach of faith with "We the People" who had ratified the Constitution based on that understanding.
The idea of adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution was originally controversial because the Constitution, as written, did not specifically enumerate or protect the rights of the people, rather it listed the powers of the government and left all that remained to the states and the people.