CONSTITUTION

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was not considered ratified until June 21, 1788. On that date, New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify it. Remember, there were just 13 states at the time. Rhode Island didn't ratify the Constitution until 1790. They didn't have computers and things happened a little more slowly back then.

The articles of the Constitution describe how the Federal Government is organized, the authority and power of each of the three branches, its relationship to the individual states and the relative authority and power of each, and it describes the method for amending itself.

Personally, I think we give too much power to the president these days, relative to the legislative branch and the judicial branch. I also think we've gone way overboard on the power and scope of the federal government in relationship to the individual states.