Happy Constitution Day!

On September 17, 1787, our Constitution was signed by 39 men, setting into practice one of the most amazing governments set into motion by mere humans. Though the Constitution seems largely forgotten, it’s still the law of the land, and it behooves every one of us to study it and learn what we can from it. In addition to the Heritage Foundation’s celebration suggestions, here are some quotes you might enjoy.

“The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon.”
~ George Washington

“[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to
cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political
foes – rejecting all changes but through the channel itself
provides for amendments.”

~ Alexander Hamilton

“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
~ James Madison

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

~ Patrick Henry

“And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.”
~ Samuel Adams

“The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now.”

~ South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S. 437, 448 (1905)

“If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an Amendment in the way which the Constitution designates, but let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
~ George Washington

Visit Constitution Facts

Mark Alexander’s A “Living Constitution” for a Dying Republic