Constitution Day is a holiday worth celebrating
By Santa Ynez Valley Star Staff · Tue Mar 17 2020
By John Copeland
Americans celebrate July 4 as our nation's birthday, but Sept. 17 is a “birthday” that most of us overlook. That date is Constitution Day, and the birthday of our government.
It was on Sept. 17, 1787, that the delegates of the Constitutional Convention signed the document they had created, the United States Constitution.
Constitution Day also celebrates the ideals that make us Americans. These are the ideals our nation was founded on — commitment to the rule of law and the concepts of liberty, equality and justice that are embodied in the Constitution.
Today, there seems to be some confusion between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Though connected in spirit, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are separate, distinct documents.
The Declaration of Independence declared that the 13 colonies were independent states and that the United States of America was a free and independent nation. The Constitution, on the other hand, is the basis of our government and is the supreme law of our nation.
From the start of the Constitutional Convention, it became clear that the delegates were forming an entirely new form of government.
The Preamble makes this abundantly clear:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.”
Take the words: “more perfect” in the Preamble. They refer to the delegates’ task of perfecting the framework of their government. At the time those words were written, for example, colonists could still legally own slaves and women could not vote.
At the end of the Civil War in 1865, a trio of constitutional amendments abolished slavery and gave rights to former slaves. In 1920, the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.
Amendments are the formal process by which lawmakers and government leaders debate and vote to modify the Constitution, and that remains a part of their mission to continue making our union more perfect. Two hundred and thirty-two years later, constitutional amendments remain a vital reminder that perfection is an ever-evolving goal, one that our nation must continuously strive for as the world changes, societies grow, and those living within them need to adapt.
James Madison is often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” because so many of his ideas made their way into the final document. Indeed, he was a driving force at the convention throughout the summer of 1787.
The delegates worked to develop a framework that would provide balance and freedom, taking into account federal and state interests, as well as individual human rights. The main body of the Constitution focuses entirely on how the government runs: