Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
Constitution Day, September 17, marks the 222nd anniversary of the nation's founding document.
Samuel Adams, Boston patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence stated: "The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men."
The U.S. Constitution was signed by thirty-nine delegates attending the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia. In 2004 Congress designated September 17 as Constitution Day with the passing of the Consolidated FY2005 Appropriation Bill HR 4818, which stipulates that educational institutions receiving federal funding hold Constitution Day programs on that date.
Selected Web Sites Commemorating Constitution Day:
Read the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments, and other Primary Sources
Citizenship Resources
Research Resources
