Letter from the NEH Chairman
 Our founding fathers were moral philosophers as well as political activists.
Thomas Jefferson, whose uplifting political poetry graces the Declaration of Independence, was the philosophical godson of the English philosopher John Locke. James Madison, who more than any other founder is considered the architect of the Constitution, was steeped in the philosophy of the French political theorist Montesquieu.
In ecclesiastical terms, the Declaration decreed to the world that all men are created equal and that government is legitimate only if it has the consent of the people. The Constitution that followed was rooted in the secular notion that because human nature is flawed, no public official or public institution should be given too much authority.
This combination of rights held by the people and limited powers granted to the government defines the American political way.
As we celebrate Constitution day, it is important to underscore that the hallmark of the American political system is separation of legislative, executive, and judicial authority. This separation of powers established under the Constitution at the national level found a triple echo at the state, county and city levels. Distinctions came to be drawn between levels as well as branches of government. Tension was inevitable as governance structures overlapped.
The thrice duplicated nature of our Constitutional framework has had the effect of keeping government close to the people and fostering significant political diversity, some of which has had to be abandoned on fundamental moral grounds. Hence, in our greatest historical blemish, the institution of slavery existed in a significant part of the country for almost a century, making mockery of our founders’ revolutionary commitment to individual rights. In the wake of a civil war,the civil rights and suffragette movements, the Constitution was modified to provide meaning to Jefferson’s eloquent words.
The underlying Constitutional framework, which established limitations on government, has provided the world the most enlightened model of governance ever created. Its capacity to accommodate change and advance individual rights deserves celebration. It also requires constant care.
—Jim Leach
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[replay introduction]
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Visualizing
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Read the Constitution
 The
Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia and lasting nearly four
months, was fraught with debate, discussion, and compromise. From May
25, 1787 until the signing of the final draft on September 17, 1787,
every issue was on the table, every word was scrutinized. Follow the
link to George
Washington's annotated draft of the Constitution, digitized as part
of the NEH-funded Papers of George Washington Project, to gain a sense
of the meticulous care the delegates gave to the drafting process.
Follow the links below to obtain a transcription of the Constitution
or an image of the original document, provided by the National Archives
and Records Administration.
Visualizing the Founders
In 1939, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the
U.S. Constitution, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United
States Congress commissioned Howard Chandler Christy to produce the
20 by 30 foot painting of the signing. This famous painting was unveiled
in 1940 in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Christy had established
his reputation with the "Christy Girl" posters that presented images
of smart, sophisticated young women, often in conjunction with patriotic
themes. His "Signing of the Constitution" reflects a deep commitment
to historical accuracy, including the obscuring of the faces of delegates
for whom no contemporary portraits were available as models.
Professor Gordon Lloyd, working with the Ashbrook Center for Public
Affairs, has produced an interactive version of this painting (accessible
by either clicking on the image or here).
Roll the cursor over the figures of the delegates to learn more about
their lives and contributions to America. Read more about Christy and
his painting at TeachingAmericanHistory.org.
Learn More
The framing of the Constitution over the long, hot summer of 1787 is
a fascinating and instructive story of how agreement came only after
months of grueling debate and contentious argument.
In a series of
recent lesson plans on the Constitutional Convention, students examine
the roles key delegates played in drafting the Constitution and the
challenges they faced. They will learn why many Americans in the 1780's
believed that reforms to the Articles of Confederation were necessary,
and about the steps taken to authorize the convention in Philadelphia.
They will become familiar with the main issues that divided delegates
and how the spirit of compromise was necessary for the convention to
fulfill its task of improving the American political system.
The balance of power between the federal government and the states
was a hotly debated issue throughout the convention. Read The
Federalist Debates: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments
and The Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on Diversity and the Extended Republic to learn more about this debate as it progressed through the drafting
of the Articles of Confederation to the signing of the Constitution.
Born from the experience of an overly powerful central government in
the form of the British monarchy, or an ineffectively weak central government
under the Articles of Confederation, the framers of the Constitution
designed a national government that clearly assigned power to three
branches, while at the same time guaranteeing that the power of any
branch could be checked by another. Read Balancing
Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances to learn
more about this inventive use of power to check and balance power.
Each year, NEH's EDSITEment project
adds new lesson plans for K-12 educators, many of them on key moments
in American history. The two articles above have been adapted for a
general audience from two EDSITEment lesson plans. If you are interested
in sharing other resources with your family or students, continue reading
the sections for parents and teachers that follow.
Take the Constitution to Your Family
As a document that defines the structure of our federal government
and delineates the rights of the states and individual citizens within
the nation, the Constitution has become a symbol to Americans and to
the world of the American government and way of life. What better way
to celebrate this important document, its place within our society and
history, than to investigate the words of this document up close. Parents
and caregivers, bring your children along for a tour of the United States
Constitution, using a variety of EDSITEment-reviewed resources! EDSITEment's
September Monthly Feature is all about the Constitution, and contains
links to a number of resources, websites, and lesson plans that you
can use to explore one of our nation's most important documents.
For Teachers
EDSITEment, NEH's website that helps teachers bring online resources
into the classroom, provides a number of lesson plans and reviewed websites
that help you commemorate Constitution Day with your students. Read
our September
Feature: Constitution Day to find several lesson plans appropriate
for all grade levels, or refer to our Constitution-specific lesson plans
in the list below.
Listed here is a lesson plan for each grade band that can help you
bring the Constitution into your classroom.
- K-2
The
President's Roles and Responsibilities: Understanding the President's
Job
As a nation, we place no greater responsibility on any one individual
than we do on the president. Through these lessons, students learn
about the roles and responsibilities of the U.S. president and their
own roles as citizens of a democracy.
- 3-5
The
Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union?
Archival materials and other resources available through EDSITEment-reviewed
websites can help your students begin to understand why the Founders
felt a need to establish a more perfect Union and how they proposed
to accomplish such a weighty task.
- 6-8
The
Constitutional Convention: What the Founding Fathers Said
By examining records of the Constitutional Convention, such as
James Madison's extensive notes, students witness the unfolding
drama of the Constitutional Convention and the contributions of
those who have come to be known as the Founding Fathers: Madison,
Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and others who played major
roles in founding a new nation. In this lesson, students will learn
how the Founding Fathers debated, and then resolved, their differences
as they drafted the U.S. Constitution.
- 9-12
The
Constitutional Convention of 1787
The delegates at the 1787 Convention faced a challenge as arduous
as those who worked throughout the 1780s to initiate reforms to the
American political system.
NEW:
The Federalist and Anti-federalist Debates on Diversity and the Extended Republic
The proposed Constitution, and the change it wrought in the nature of the American Union, spawned one of the greatest political debates of all time. In addition to the state ratifying conventions, the debates also took the form of a public conversation.
Magna
Carta: Cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution
Magna Carta served to lay the foundation for the evolution of parliamentary
government and subsequent declarations of rights in Great Britain
and the United States. In attempting to establish checks on the king's
powers, this document asserted the right of "due process" of law.
James
Madison: From Father of the Constitution to President
Even in its first 30 years of existence, the U.S. Constitution
had to prove its durability and flexibility in a variety of disputes.
More often than not, James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution,"
took part in the discussion. Madison had been present at the document's
birth as the mastermind behind the so-called Virginia Plan. He had
worked tirelessly for its ratification including authoring 29 Federalist
Papers, and he continued to be a concerned guardian of the Constitution
as it matured.
“An
Expression of the American Mind”: Understanding the Declaration of
Independence
The major ideas in the Declaration of Independence, their origins,
the Americans’ key grievances against the King and Parliament, their
assertion of sovereignty, and the Declaration’s process of revision.
Finally, explore the bibliography and webography below to find even
more resources for the U.S. Constitution.
Bibliography
- Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
- Berkin, Carol. A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American
Constitution. New York: Harcourt, 2002.
- Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story
of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787. Boston:
Back Bay Books, 1986.
- Carey, George W. The Federalist: Design for a Constitutional
Republic. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
- Ellis, Joseph. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.
New York: Knopf, 2000.
- Leibiger, Stuart. Founding Friendship: George Washington, James
Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 2001.
- McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster,
2001.
- McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins
of the Constitution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1985.
- Morgan, Edmund S. The Birth of the Republic 1763-89. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1977.
- Rakove, Jack. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making
fo the Constitution. New York: Knopf, 1996.
- Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Webography
Selected EDSITEment Reviewed Web Resources on the Constitution
About This Site
The National Endowment for the Humanities
is an independent federal agency established to promote knowledge of
human history, thought, and culture. For more than thirty years, educators
and students throughout the nation have benefited from NEH grants that
create and preserve knowledge, identify and disseminate reliable learning
resources, and empower teachers through professional development programs.
EDSITEment is a partnership
forged in Spring 1997 among the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the Verizon
Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities. EDSITEment
offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching
for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature
and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and
social studies. All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed
for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom.
On Constitution Day 2002, President George W. Bush announced We
the People, an NEH initiative to explore significant events and
themes in our nation's history, and to share these lessons with all
Americans.
Additional Credits: EDSITEment has been made possible through generous
funding from the Marco Polo Foundation since 1997, and currently from
the Verizon Foundation. Opening animation voice-over was graciously
provided by Aaron Lewis. Interactive Christy painting was provided to
NEH through the courtesy of Professor Gordon Lloyd and the Ashbrook
Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University, in conjunction with
Teaching American History.org.
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