Constitution Day -- September 16, 2011  

Most Americans know that on July 4^th we celebrate America's "birthday".   Far fewer Americans know that September 17^th is the "birthday" of our government, the date in 1787 on which delegates to the Philadelphia Convention completed and signed the U.S. Constitution.

The ideas on which America was founded –

• commitments to the rule of law,
• limited government, and
• the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice 

are embodied in the Constitution, the oldest written constitution of any nation on Earth.  Constitution Day is intended to celebrate not only the birthday of our government, but the ideas that make us Americans. 

 --from the National Constitution Center

                                                                                     image from the Massachusetts Centinel, August 2, 1788

The Federal Pillars Series was published in The Massachusetts Centinel over several months in 1788-89.  The pillars represent the order that the states, moving from left to right in the illustration, ratified the Constitution. 

                                                                                                 -- from teachingamericanhistory.org