The U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words it is the oldest and shortest written constitution of any major government in the world. One of the many flaws in the first article was that the Constitution does not set forth requirements for the right to vote. As a result, at the onset of the Union, only male property owners could vote. African Americans were not considered citizens, and women were excluded. NativeAmericans were not given the right to vote until 1924.
Article one had to be changed, or amended many times over the years to grant true freedom to all Americans. Amendments #13 abolished slavery, #14 provided civil rights, #15 Black Suffrage (right to vote), # 17 provided for the direct elections of Senators, #19 women suffrage, #23 Suffrage of the District of Columbia, #24 the elimination of poll taxes, and finally #26 suffrage of 18 yr. old citizens.
I bring this up because during the last Republican debate Mitt Romney cited these words, from the Constitution, as evidence that the founding fathers founded a great nation on Christian principles and ideas. The only problem with this was the fact the words he used “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” were from the second paragraph of the declaration of independence.
I find it hard to fathom how a candidate for the Presidency of this country could not have read our Constitution enough to become familiar with its provisions. What is even more disturbing to me was that there was no one to correct him, not a reporter, not another candidate, no one. Sad.
Mitt, this is for you benefit. The Declaration of Independence was a letter written to King George for the purpose of declaring our freedom as a new nation.
One would think that a politician would take the time to read and study a document as small as the Constitution. I did.
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