[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22201]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CONSTITUTION DAY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, on September 17, 1787, 216 years ago today, 
the final draft of the Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.
  The day after a woman asked Benjamin Franklin what sort of government 
we have, he answered, ``A republic, if you can keep it.''
  Beginning on December 7 of this year, five States, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut, ratified it in 
quick succession; but other States opposed the document saying it 
failed to provide basic protections like freedom of religion, speech 
and the press.
  In February of 1788 a compromise was reached under which 
Massachusetts and the other States would agree to ratify the document 
with the assurance that the amendments would be immediately proposed: 
The Bill of Rights.
  Nearly a year later the Constitution was ratified by the required 9 
out of 13 States.
  Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate the rule of law and the success of a 
great experiment, representative democracy, the core principles upon 
which this Nation was built, laid out in a single document: The 
Constitution, the oldest enduring written national Constitution in the 
world, the granddaddy of them all.

                          ____________________