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The Constitution of the United States is the highest law in the land: it's a written statement of the core principles of the American government. It might not have a map on the back that directs us to the national treasure, but we can't have everything.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak The constitution We're going to party

00:09

like it's seventeen seventy six As much as we may

00:15

hate them rules come in handy once in a while

00:21

Help us regulate our behavior our safety and even the

00:25

stuff we do for fun that's illegal you're out So

00:29

it's really no shocker that our founding fathers would want

00:32

to come up with a set of rules for america

00:34

Should they get two hundred dollars when they pascoe What

00:38

is surprising is how well the constitution has hung in

00:40

there for over two hundred twenty years I don't look

00:43

a day over two hundred so let's take a good

00:46

look at this resilient blueprint for democracy constitution of the

00:51

united states of america After america won its independence from

00:57

britain it's leaders had to put together a central government

01:01

Toronto what do we do now The first attempt at

01:06

a constitution the articles of confederation was a nice try

01:11

but inadequate How dare you So the constitutional convention was

01:17

convened to reform it in philadelphia in may of seventeen

01:20

eighty seven Thank you The convention was attended by fifty

01:25

five leaders from twelve states Needless to say when you

01:32

get that many people in the same room disagreements are

01:34

bound to happen Okay but the delegates plowed ahead In

01:42

the end they created a federal government that was more

01:45

structured and more powerful but still respectful of the rights

01:48

and freedoms of individuals Oh yeah James madison often called

01:56

the father of our constitution was a key player in

02:00

keeping the rest of the delegates on task He knew

02:03

that they would never agree on everything And we're going

02:06

to make money but needed to agree on the important

02:09

stuff The country would be a federal system of government

02:15

with three distinct branches Legislative executive and judicial It would

02:24

have a serious of checks and balances to keep everyone

02:26

honest And states and individuals were to retain some exclusive

02:31

powers a year You probably think it was all downhill

02:36

from there yet But there was a lot of dispute

02:41

about whether or not there should be a single president

02:45

and how long he should stay in the office as

02:48

long as i want it would be quite a while

02:52

before this guy would come along to resolve the issue

02:54

of slaves right Yeah Or before this gal came along

03:00

to fight for the rights of women Bring it on

03:05

But the new constitution did cover a lot of ground

03:09

It established two bodies of legislation in the house and

03:12

the senate a supreme court and the ability to add

03:18

amendments in the future It also made it pretty clear

03:23

who was in charge Oh yeah brother Since most colonists

03:28

were fed up with the monarchy our founding fathers insured

03:32

from the first words that this was a popular sovereignty

03:35

whose power came on lee through the consent of the

03:38

people being governed Yeah After four months of debates and

03:44

compromise the delegates were more than ready to head for

03:48

home I know i am But there was one thing

03:53

missing from this first constitution Am i missing something A

03:57

bill of rights at it His amendments one through ten

04:01

The bill of rights was ratified in seventeen ninety one

04:04

Restricting government's ability to infringe upon individual rights and guaranteeing

04:10

personal freedoms were twice in a row Since its ratification

04:16

and seventeen eighty nine the u s constitution has been

04:19

amended twenty seven times with twenty six still standing His

04:22

law Yeah it's been an inspiration for countless other countries

04:28

and is the oldest written constitution in the world Oh

04:31

what's your secret Not bad for a bunch of old

04:35

guys stuck in a room without the internet huh What 00:04:38.562 --> [endTime] is that Oh yeah Stop twisting jim

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