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By SALLY ANN BOARD
and HELEN FAIRFAX
Rappahannock News Contributing Writers
The Minute Men Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Madison, Rappahannock and Culpeper counties is asking their communities to join with them in observing Constitution Week from Sept. 17 through Sept. 23.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America. The independence granted to the American people by this document enables us to ei\joy freedom and liberty unknown to people of any other country.
The Constitution was drafted Sept. 17, 1787, was ratified June 21, 1788, and went into effect March 4, 1789.
In May of 1787, 55 men representing 12 of the original colonies met in Philadelphia at a convention called by Congress in order to write a document that would make for a stronger, more efficient government than had existed under the Articles of Confederation.
Enacted just after the Revolutionary War in 1781, that document had given the individual states too much power and the Confederation too little (or so some of the delegates thought).
There was no President, and there Was lawlessness and discontent throughout the new nation. Among the representatives from Virginia were James Madison, George Washington and John Blair, signed into law Dy ay oi tne 4Z representatives still remaining at the convention.
We owe a debt of gratitude to these men who were farsighted and wise, who persevered until they presented our country with a document that “guarantees the blessings of liberty” for all citizens in this great land of ours. Upon these principles rest the very foundation of our government. Our Constitution has become a model for many other newer democracies. Indeed, it is the oldest written Constitution still in use in the world.
On Jan. 5, 1958, Senator William
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