In honor of this occasion, here are some interesting points, courtesy of Constitution Facts:
The U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any government in the world.
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Of the typographical errors in the Constitution, the misspelling of the word Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring.
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Thomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution. He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister. John Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either.
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The oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26).
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The word “democracy” does not appear once in the Constitution.
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When the Constitution was signed, the United States’ population was 4 million. It is now more than 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city, with 40,000 inhabitants.
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There was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5,000 men. George Washington sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no invading army could number more than 3,000 troops!
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There was initially a question as to how to address the President. The Senate proposed that he be addressed as “His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties.” Both the House of Representatives and the Senate compromised on the use of “President of the United States.”
Go here for the entire list of Constitution facts and use this Constitution Facts link for all sorts of games, quizzes, documents and other cool things related to U.S. historical documents.
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