United States Constitution: Interesting Facts You May not Know

United States of America is the first modern democracy in the world and history’s first nation explicitly founded as a democracy. As a democracy, the USA functions on the basis of the US Constitution. The US Constitution came into force in 1789 and is the supreme law of the land. Since its formation the Constitution has been amended 27 times. Let’s go through some very interesting facts about the Constitution of the United States.

1. The 18th Amendment (Prohibition) is the only amendment in the US Constitution to have been repealed.
2. Six men signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: George Read, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, and James Wilson.
3. The US Constitution is the oldest and shortest written constitution in the world. It comprises only 4,400 words in seven articles written on five pages. Norway‘s constitution is the second oldest (codified in 1814).
4. The first three words of the constitution are — We the People.
5. The oldest person to sign the US Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81 years). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26 years).
6. George Washington and James Madison were the only founding fathers who signed the Constitution and later became Presidents of the United States.

7. Gouverneur Morris I was the person who wrote the Preamble to the Constitution.
8. Jacob Shallus, the Pennsylvania General Assembly assistant clerk, actually penned the Constitution. He was paid $30 for his work.
9. The word democracy does not appear in the Constitution.
10. The US Constitution is riddled with spelling mistakes. The main reason behind these errors is that the American English was not standardized at that time. Wrong spellings include “Pensylvania” instead of Pennsylvania; “chuse” instead of choose;  “defence” instead of defense, “it’s” instead of its and “labour” instead of labor.
11. Apart from English, Latin has also been used in the Constitution. Three Latin phrases appear in the Constitution: pro tempore, ex post facto, and habeas corpus.
12. James Madison is considered as the “Father of the Constitution”.
13. Founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could not sign the Constitution as they were serving as diplomats in Europe at the time of the Constitutional Convention.
14. A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.