Constitution Day is today

Many people are aware of what the Preamble of the constitution is, at least the beginning phrase, “We the People of the United States…”

Exactly 233 years ago today, the founding fathers officially signed the constitution in Philadelphia. Because of this, we celebrate two holidays, Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.

Citizenship Day started as “I Am an American Day” in 1940, and it was celebrated on the third Sunday in May. According to constitutionfacts.com, Olga T. Weber of Louisville, Ohio, was the woman that started the petition to change the date of the holiday to the anniversary of the signing of the constitution. 

After passing through Congress, Senate, and the House of Representatives, “I Am an American Day” became “Citizenship Day” and was moved to be celebrated on Sept. 17. Citizenship Day is meant to recognize everyone who has become a U.S. citizen, either by age or by naturalization.

Constitution Day officially became a holiday in 2004 to be celebrated on the same day as Citizenship Day. Despite the fact that the holiday became official 16 years ago, most people associate the day with the constitution over citizenship. 

From a convention for the constitution to supporting essays written by three delegates, there were 55 delegates total, each representing one of the states. 

From May to Sept. 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia. The reason for this convention was to address and fix the problems of the government that the Articles of Confederation had formed. According to history.state.gov, the constitution that came from this convention “…established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments.” Our current constitution slowly emerged throughout the five months of this convention.

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were the three that wrote the Federalist Papers anonymously, which was a series of essays that defended the reason to fix and enforce a new constitution. Originally, the trio was going to write 25 essays between Oct. 1787 and May 1788. In the same time span, they ended up publishing 85 essays. John Jay wrote five, James Madison wrote 29, and Alexander Hamilton wrote 51. 

Thirty-nine of the 55 delegates signed the constitution on Sept. 17, 1789. A few of these key figures being John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. The state that had the most delegates sign was Pennsylvania who had eight sign the constitution.