United States · September 17, 2026

Constitution Day

September 17 — the day the Constitution was signed in 1787.

What happened

Thirty-nine men signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on 17 September 1787, at the end of a summer of argument behind closed windows. It was not law yet; it had to be ratified by the states, and that took until 1788. Benjamin Franklin, eighty-one and carried to the hall in a chair, said he consented to it "because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best."

Why it stuck

It is the oldest written national constitution still in use, and it is short — you can read the whole thing in under half an hour. Everything the American government is allowed to do is in it, and everything it is forbidden to do is mostly in the ten amendments added four years later.

What a family can do

Read the Preamble aloud. It is one sentence, fifty-two words, and it says who is doing the ordaining: "We the People." Then find one thing the Constitution says the government may NOT do.

Questions to work through

1. Copy out the Preamble by hand. It is one sentence. Where would you put a full stop if you had to add one?
2. The Constitution splits power three ways. Name the three, and say what each one cannot do alone.
3. Franklin said he was not sure it was not the best. Rewrite that sentence in plain words. Is it praise?
4. The first ten amendments are the Bill of Rights. Pick one and explain why somebody in 1791 thought it was needed.