Trashing the Constitution; Americans Must Renew Appreciation for Their Protective Pact
Feulner, Ed, The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
Byline: Ed Feulner, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
John Adams got everything right except the date. The Second Day of July 1776, he wrote to his wife, ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with [Shows], Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
Americans commemorate the Declaration of Independence on July 4. But there's certainly room on the calendar for another celebration, even if a somewhat subdued one.
Monday, Sept. 17, marks the 225th anniversary of the signing of the nation's second great founding document, the Constitution that provides Americans with limited government. Constitution Day never became a day off from work, and it's hardly marked with pomp and circumstance.
That's fitting, though. Unlike the Declaration, the Constitution never aimed to stir hearts or encourage uprising - quite the opposite.
The Constitution was drafted more than 11 years after the Declaration. The United States had won independence but was struggling under the weak Articles of Confederation.
The Founding Fathers wanted to draft a document that would provide an effective but carefully limited federal government. Through a series of compromises, they did just that.
They designed three branches of government - legislative, executive and judicial - that would check each other. If one tried to usurp too much power, the others would have an interest in bringing it back into line. Just as competition brings down prices in economics, competition would tend to keep any particular branch of government from acquiring too much power.
Appropriately, the most powerful branch would be the legislative. That's where all laws would be written and where all spending bills would originate. So the Constitution further divides Congress into two branches. In the House of Representatives, every member would stand for re-election every two years. In the Senate, six-year terms would promote more deliberation. These two forks of the same branch would provide further checks, preventing the rash use of Congress' great power. …