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Click on menu items in the left hand column or across the top of the page Fascinating Facts About the U. S. Constitution The U. S. Constitution has 4,440 words.  It is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any major government of the world. Because of poor health, Benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution.  As he did so, tears streamed down his face. A proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789.  The reason for the holiday was to give "thanks" for the new Constitution. George Washington and James Madison were the only presidents who signed the Constitution. John Adams referred to the Constitution as "the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen" and George Washington wrote to the Marquis de Lafayette tat "It (the Constitution) appears to me, then, little short of a miracle." __________________________________________________ “Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuming that his own shall be safe from violence when built.”  -Abraham Lincoln __________________________________________________   Inscribed on a plaque at Rockefeller Center, New York City:   “I believe in the supreme with of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, an obligation; every possession a duty. I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master. I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that he world owes no man a living but it owes every man an opportunity to make a living. I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime request of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs. I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character-not wealth or power or position- is of supreme worth. I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross (waste matter) of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free. I believe in all-wise-and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will. I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”                      -John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  ____________________________