LOOKING AT PRIMARY SOURCES Primary sources are artifacts documents or other sources of information that were created at the time under study Some examples of primary sources are documents such as newspapers letters and journals photographs objects and even buildings The study of primary sources gives us a clear view into history The United States Constitution is on display in the National Archives in Washington D C 4
The United States Constitution is a primary source The main text of the Constitution is made up of an introduction called the preamble and seven articles Twenty-seven amendments or changes have been added to the Constitution since it was created in 1789 The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights The Constitution describes the branches of the government and their separate powers The powers work together to form a strong united nation that promotes growth and prosperity These are the front doors to the Supreme Court building in Washington D C A constitution is a set of basic laws by which a country or state is governed Vocabulary 5
A FIRST OF ITS KIND The United States is younger than many other countries However it has the oldest written constitution among the major nations of the world The United States Constitution was the first in history to specifically limit the powers that the government would be able to have over its citizens It is the most basic set of laws of the United States The Constitution was a replacement for an even older set of rules called the Articles of This is the title page of the Articles of Confederation 6
Confederation The Articles were written in 1776 77 when the United States first became a country But there were problems By 1785 many citizens saw the Articles of Confederation as a failure George Washington Alexander Hamilton John Jay James Madison and other leaders repeatedly said that the government should be strengthened In 1787 representatives from twelve of the thirteen states met in Philadelphia Pennsylvania They wrote a completely new document the Constitution This painting shows several of the writers of the U S Constitution The Constitution is the founding document of the laws of the United States Why is the Constitution necessary Think About It 7
