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 Record Administration.

• Text of the Constitution
• Image of the Constitution
• Washington's Annotated Draft of the Constitution

Visualizing the Founders

In 1939, two years after the 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.

• Launch the interactive Christy "Signing of the Constitution" painting

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 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.

• The Federalist Debates: Balancing Power Between State and Federal Governments
• Balancing Three Branches at Once: Our System of Checks and Balances

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.

• EDSITEment Spotlight on the Constitution

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 EDSITEment Spotlight on the Constitution to find several lesson plans appropriate for all grade levels, or refer to our Constitution-specific lesson plans in the list below.

• EDSITEment Spotlight on the Constitution
• EDSITEment Constitution Day Lesson Plans
• EDSITEment First AmendmentLesson Plans

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 whom 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.
  
  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 of 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

• Digital Classroom (http://www.archives.gov/education/index.html)
  • The Charters of Freedom
    (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters.html)
  • The Constitution
    (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html)
  • Meet America's Founding Fathers (http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/
    charters/constitution_founding_fathers.html)
  • Constitution Mural
    http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-
    experience/charters/charters_mural_constitution_b.html
• Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
  (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm)
• The Articles of Confederation
  (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/artconf.htm)
• The Constitution of the United States
  (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/usconst.htm)
• The Federalist Papers
  (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed.htm)
• The Madison Debates from the Constitutional Convention
  (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/debates/debcont.htm)
• American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/)
  • A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation
    (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html)
  • To Form a More Perfect Union:
    The Work of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
    (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/intro01.html)
• CongressLink (http://www.congresslink.org/)
• Congress for Kids (http://www.congressforkids.net/)
• The Constitution: Checks and Balances (http://congressforkids.net/Constitution_checksandbalances.htm)
• The Federal Judiciary (http://www.uscourts.gov/)
• Digital History (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/)
  • The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?TitleID=55)
• Oyez, Oyez, Oyez: Supreme Court WWW Resource (http://www.oyez.org/)
• The Papers of George Washington (http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/)
  • Washington's Annotated Draft of the Constitution
    (http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/constitution/draft/draft_1.html)
• History Matters (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/)
• The Supreme Court Historical Society (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/)
• HarpWeek (http://www.harpweek.com/)
  • The Looking Glass for 1787: A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand (http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/DisplayCartoonMedium.asp? MaxID=12&UniqueID=6&Year=1787&YearMark=17)

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 nearly forty 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 Marco Polo Foundation, the National Trust for the Humanities, and the Council of the Great City Schools. As a partner in the MarcoPolo Consortium, EDSITEment offers exemplary online teaching resources in the subject areas of history and social studies, literature and language arts, foreign languages, and art and culture. All websites linked from EDSITEment have been rigorously reviewed by humanities scholars and classroom teachers 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 MCI Foundation since 1997. 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.