Us constitution how long to write

The Constitution was a new set of rules that told our government how to work. Rules and laws help people get along with each other. Rules can help to keep us safe.

What rules do you follow at home and at school? Why are rules important? What might happen if you don't follow them? The 55 men who wrote the Constitution worked on it for four months. That would be as long as from now until December.

Sometimes they agreed about what they wanted to write, at other times they didn't. Did you ever work on a big project with other children?

Did you always agree with each other about your project? The United States Constitution was drafted in days. The Constitutional Convention was a group of delegates from each state that gathered to write the Constitution.

It convened on May 25, and adjourned on September 17, The Constitution was written and signed in It was a charter of government that came to be ratified by the states, and it continues to be the supreme law of the land. Both documents have played an important role in American history and the spread of democratic ideals around the world. They were both signed at Independence Hall, steps from where the National Constitution Center now stands. This was the same place the Declaration of Independence was signed.

The Constitution was written during the Philadelphia Convention—now known as the Constitutional Convention—which convened from May 25 to September 17, It was signed on September 17, The National Constitution Center owns a rare, original copy of the first public printing of the Constitution. This printing was published in a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser , on September 19, —two days after the Constitution was signed.

The Constitution did not go into effect the moment it was signed by the delegates. James Wilson originally proposed the President be chosen by popular vote, but the delegates agreed after 60 ballots on a system known as the Electoral College.

Although there have been 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 the Congress of the Confederation adjourned and left the United States without a central government until April 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 died.

The journal was published in 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 would enter the convention hall in a sedan chair carried by four prisoners from the Walnut Street jail in Philadelphia. As Benjamin Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House after the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, , he was approached by the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia.

She was curious as to what the new government would be. Franklin replied, "A republic, madam. If you can keep it. On March 24, , a popular election was held in Rhode Island to determine the ratification status of the new Constitution. The vote was in favor and 2, 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 state-ratifying conventions.

The number also included 7 delegates who opposed ratification. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, , at the age of The 20, mourners at his funeral on April 21, , constituted the largest public gathering up to that time. Vermont ratified the Constitution on January 10, , even though it had not yet become a state.

There was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5, men. George Washington sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no invading army could number more than 3, 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 the Constitution appears to me, then, little short of a miracle.

The Pennsylvania State House where the Constitutional Convention took place was where George Washington was appointed the commander of the Continental Army in and where the Declaration of Independence was signed in It was also where the Articles of Confederation were adopted as our first constitution in Rhode Island was the only state not to send delegates to Philadelphia in