Constitutional FAQ Answer #142
<<Previous Question |
Question Index |
Subject Index |
Constitutional Index |
Next Question>>
Q142. “What was the first constitution of the
United States?”
A. Some teachers, thinking they can be tricky with their students, will ask
this question. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good one, but you have to be careful
how you answer.
If the question says “What was the first Constitution of the United States?”
(note the capital C), then the answer is that there has been one and only one
Constitution of the United States, and it is the same one currently in
effect.
If, however, the question is posed as above, with “constitution” spelled with
a lowercase C, then the answer is more tricky. The Articles of Confederation would qualify as the first
constitution of the United States, where a constitution is defined as the most
basic document of the law. But the trick is that the Articles were never called
a constitution, at least not in the document itself, so you have to know enough
about the Constitution to know that it replaced something, and that that
“something” could be considered a constitution.
Finally, if the question is “What was the first constitution in the United
States?” (note the word “in” instead of “of”), then the answer has to be New
Hampshire’s first constitution, which was written by a congress that opened in
December 1775, and which completed its work on January 5, 1776.
|Home|
|Constitution|
|FAQ|
|Topics|
|Forums|
|Documents|
|Timeline|
|Kids|
|Vermont|
|Map|
|Citation|
|Survey|
|Support|
Last Modified: 16 Aug 2010