Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

Even before peace was formalized between the United States and the United Kingdom the new nation was governed by a constitution titled Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. For numerous reasons this arrangement proved to be impractical and ineffective leading to its replacement by the United States Constitution which was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787

Although Independence Day had been celebrated almost continuously since 1776, there was no real national celebration to a day that, over 200 years later, Senator Robert Byrd would describe as “… more important to our everyday lives than Columbus Day, more important to our everyday lives than Thanksgiving, more important to our everyday lives than the Fourth of July.” Although a national day of celebration did not exist, attorney Walter Evans Hampton noted in 1919, “it is said to be the practice of certain patriotic societies to celebrate the seventeenth of September as Constitution Day.” His Suggestion that this practice should be universal was accepted by governors of 20 states, a national Constitution Day was on its way to becoming reality.

As the conflict that soon would be called the Second World War intensified, Congress in 1940 passed Public Resolution 67 which designated the third Sunday in May as Citizenship Day and directed that it would be known as “I am An American Day.” In 1952, Congress repealed Resolution 67, establishing in its place September 17 as “Citizenship Day.” In 2004 Congress changed the designation of September 17 to “Constitutional Day and Citizenship Day” and added the requirement that Federal agencies provide their employees with education materials and also requiring that education institution receiving federal funds to the same for their students.

The importance of Civics education of which the Constitution and citizenship are integral has long been realized as essential to the well being to the nation. As George Washington noted in his 1790 Presidential message, “… teaching the people themselves to know and to value their own rights; to discern and provide against invasion of them; to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority… with an inviolable respect to the laws.”

Jon Taylor, Patriotic Instructor