Constitution Week spotlight

There can be a tendency to race from the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed to the world in July 1776, and arrive at the end with a new nation with its own Constitution in 1787.

There was a governing document, the Articles of Confederation, that linked the colonies as sovereign states and carried them through the war to the point where, afterward, a choice needed to be made.

The result of that choice is the document we celebrate annually in September and that has held this nation together for 236 years — the United States Constitution.

Twelve of the 13 states gathered to amend the Articles of Confederation in 1787 at what became known as the Constitutional Convention.

Know your Constitution. See if you can answer these three questions:

1) Which is the only state that did not send a delegation to the Constitutional Convention?

a. Rhode Island

b. New York

c. Connecticut

2) A delegation from what confederacy was invited to the Constitutional Convention?

a. the British Confederacy

b. the Canadian Confederacy

c. the Iroquois Confederacy

3) Who was the first president of the United States under the Articles of Confederation?

a. John Hanson

b. Benjamin Franklin

c. George Washington

This Constitution Week Spotlight was provided by Lieutenant George Farragut Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. For more information about DAR, please visit the chapter’s website at lgfdar.com.

Answers: 1) a. Rhode Island; 2) c. The Iroquois Confederacy; 3) a. John Hanson