The United States Constitution is the set of laws and regulations upon which the civilization of the United States of America is based. The United States Constitution is 222 years old as of September 17, 2009,, and is housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Wikipedia has the following to say about the united states constitution:
In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in the Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. Twelve states, Rhode Island being the only exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in May 1787. The resolution calling the Convention specified that its purpose was to propose amendments to the Articles, but through discussion and debate it became clear by mid-June that, rather than amend the existing Articles, the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution. The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep the debates secret, so that the delegates could speak freely. They also decided to draft a new fundamental government design. Despite Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation stating that the union created under the Articles was “perpetual” and that any alteration must be “agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State,” Article VII of the proposed constitution stipulated that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify for the new government to go into effect (for the participating states). Current knowledge of the drafting and construction of the United States Constitution comes primarily from the diaries left by James Madison, who kept a complete record of the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention.
Unlike The Declaration of Independence, the United States constitution isn’t necessarily designed as a work of literature in addition to being a work of politics. It is an inelegant, and somewhat unwieldy document rather than a work of art. That’s because its primary function is one of law, not one of politicis.
The United States constitution has been amended dozens of times in order to cover areas of the law of the land that the original draft and Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) left barren. The most recent amendment to the united states constitution came in 1992, the 27th amendment which limits congressional pay raises.
