Constitution and Citizenship Day

September 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.  This day commemorates the September 17, 1787, signing of the United States Constitution.

Written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, the United States Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government.  Its first three words – “We the People” – affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens.  For over two hundred years, the Constitution has remained in force because its framers wisely separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the federal and state governments.

Since 1789, the Constitution has evolved through amendments to meet the changing needs of a nation now profoundly different from the eighteenth-century world in which its creators lived. To encourage all Americans to learn more about the Constitution, Congress in 1956 established Constitution Week, to begin each year on September 17, the date in 1787 when delegates to the Convention signed the Constitution.