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Constitution Day - September 17th

Fascinating Facts:

  • 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.
  • All 13 original states with the exception of Rhode Island were represented.
  • George Washington and James Madison were the only presidents to sign the Constitution.
  • The first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.
  • The word “democracy” never appears in the Constitution
  • At 81, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest and at 26, Jonathan Dayton, the youngest to sign the Constitution.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Those words are familiar to most Americans as the Preamble to our Constitution. Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine brave men on September 17, 1787.

What is Constitution Day?

Constitution Day memorializes the signing of the most influential document in American history – The United States Constitution that was signed on September 17, 1787.  Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia passed a bill in 2004 designating this historic day as the day for citizens to commemorate the historic signing.  He once said, "Our ideals of freedom, set forth and realized in our Constitution, are our greatest export to the world."