Constitution Day Ad

by Randall Coyne

On September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Constitutional Convention held its last meeting, with 42 of the 55 delegates in attendance. The sole item of business was for the framers to affix their signatures to the four-page handwritten document. Thirty-nine did so and the result was the most enduring written constitution ever created by human hands. In a very real sense, American democracy was born that day.

Heeding James Madison’s warning that “ SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 [t]he accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny,” the framers established a government with three separate, coequal branches. Article I of the Constitution created the legislative branch (the House and Senate); Article II established the executive branch (the president, vice president and departments); and Article III created the judicial branch (the Supreme Court and lower federal courts). Each branch has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited – or checked – by another branch. In simplest terms, the legislative branch makes the law, the executive branch enforces the law, and the judicial branch More >