Busted: 5 Myths About The Constitution.
In terms of historical documents, there are few that are as valuable as the
Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution laid the groundwork for the laws of the new country when it was drafted
in 1787 and ratified the following summer.
All these years later and the Constitution the supreme law throughout the nation.
While most people have read at least part of the Constitution, not many
have gotten through the entire thing.
Because of this, there are a lot of popular beliefs that are actually myths
when it comes to the Constitution.
Let’s take a look at one of America’s most valued documents and dispel some of the
myths that are often believed to be true.
5.
There Is No ‘God’.
Many people believe that the Constitution makes direct reference
to God for a couple of reasons.
The first is that the Declaration of Independence does use the word in the form
of “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.
Also, many of the state’s individual mention the word “God” in their texts.
The Constitution of the United however, makes no mention of God.
The Constitution was written up to be as religiously neutral as possible for
its time and allow Freedom of Religion.
In ratifications, “The Year of Our Lord” is mentioned, but the original Constitution
doesn’t mention God specifically.
The phrase was slipped in at a later following the original draft’s approval.
4.
The Hemp Hoax.
Hemp paper was one of the more popular formats to be used back in
the early days of the United States.
For that reason, there are a lot of people who assume that the
Constitution was written on hemp paper.
Many that started this myth have used it as a point of emphasis on hypocrisy as hemp and
marijuana had become illegal in the country.
It turns out, though, that the was never written on hemp paper.
The document was written on parchment, which is a paper that’s used from the
skin of animals like sheep and goats.
It’s also been found that the Declaration of and Bill of Rights were also on parchment.
3.
The President Can Start A War.
When there’s a President that gets elected into the White House that
we don’t like, we often breathe a sigh of relief thinking that they can’t go
to war without Congressional approval.
However, the President only needs Congress’s sign-off to declare war, but can engage
in military movements if they see fit.
After all, the Constitution gives the President the title of Commander in Chief
and can send troops to wherever he pleases.
Think of the Iraq War that lasted 2003 to 2011 as an example of this.
George W. Bush sent troops to Iraq, and many recognized it as a war, but
Congress never declared it as one.
2.
Some Founding Fathers Are Missing.
Thinking about the founding fathers of the United States, there are
some instrumental names that include John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
Their names are on the Declaration of Independence, and many assume that
they’re also on the Constitution.
That’s not the case, though, as both were out of the country at the time.
Jefferson was in Paris Adams was in London.
Several other men were not at the final signing, even though there were 55 delegates
as part of the Constitutional Convention.
However, only 39 of them made the final sign-off including Benjamin Franklin,
who was 81 years old at the time.
1.
The First Amendment Was The Third.
People really value the First Amendment of the Constitution, which allows
for freedom of religion, press, assembly, and the right to petition.
However, that was not actually the first when the Constitution was written up.
Instead, the original said that there should be one US Representative
for every 30,000 people.
There was a minimum of 100 Representatives and a maximum of 200, which could
be revisited as the country grew.
However, the amendment wasn’t ratified and the one that we know as the
first today was bumped up to second.
Then, the original second amendment regarding Congressional pay wasn’t
ratified and revisited many years later, meaning that the third
amendment became our first amendment.