It turns out that we Americans have more to commemorate this weekend than we may have realized.

In addition to honoring on Memorial Day the heroes who have given their lives in defense of our nation over the past 250 years, let us also pay homage to those brave patriots who, on May 25, 1787, sat down in the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to begin composing the document that would govern the greatest republic ever created by man: the Constitution of the United States.

Those 55 delegates — representing seven of the then existing 13 states that had, since 1781, been only loosely joined by the Articles of Confederation — included George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin.

Over the next three months, those men devised a system of checks and balances to prevent the usurpation of power by any future would-be tyrant. They struggled over the question of state representation, with larger states voting for proportional representation and smaller states wanting an equal say; the solution was the creation of the bicameral legislature we still have today: the Senate having two elected members from each state, and the House of Representatives comprised of proportional representation.

By September 17th, the greatest governing document since the Magna Carta had been signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present. But it would not, by its own provision in Article VII, become binding until it was ratified by at least nine of the 13 states. Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut were the first to do so.

But some states — most strenuously, Massachusetts — refused to ratify the document as presented, because it lacked certain basic political rights, including freedom of speech, religion, and the press. Finally, in February 1788, those states agreed to ratify under condition that amendments would immediately be proposed to cover those most fundamental and vital issues.

And by June 21, 1788, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina and New Hampshire joined the ranks, and it was decided that the U.S. Constitution would become the governing instrument of the United States of America as of March 4, 1789.

[“This Day in History,” History.com, May 25, 2025.]

The first 12 amendments to the Constitution — known as the Bill of Rights — were adopted by Congress on September 25, 1789, and sent to the states for ratification.

It was a long, tedious, seriously-undertaken process, conceived and developed by the best minds and the greatest patriots of the time . . . not the result of a deluge of hastily-scribbled executive orders dreamt up by a single, autocratic, would-be emperor of the very sort foreseen and intended to be precluded by the framers of the Constitution.

Today — and every day — it is our privilege and our duty as American citizens to honor and defend that Constitution, and to continue fighting the sort of tyranny that our founding fathers gave their all to prevent. So please forgive me if I repeat, once again, this reminder:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/25/25