On March 11, 1861, in Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from the seceded Southern states adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, a document that at once resembled and diverged from the United States Constitution it sought to replace. Written in the opening weeks…
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On March 4, 1909—the same day he took the oath of office—President William Howard Taft faced an awkward constitutional puzzle. The man he wanted as secretary of state, Philander C. Knox, appeared to be barred from the job by the very document Taft had…
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On December 7, 1787, Delaware earned its nickname “The First State” by becoming the first to ratify the United States Constitution. This moment marked the start of the Constitution’s path to becoming the supreme law of the land. Delaware’s unanimous decision reflected its leaders’…
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On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed to the state legislatures twelve amendments that would enshrine American freedoms directly into the Constitution. Soon to be called the American Bill of Rights, ten were later ratified by the states and…
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On September 17, 1787, within the revered walls of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaders finished the work of creating what’s been called the greatest government ever devised. After several months of intense deliberation, the framers of the United States Constitution signed a document…
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