The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists were, to say the very least, in notable disagreement. The debates over ratification, for example, were often rancorous, and scorn was poured on many of the constitutional provisions devised by the Federal Convention in 1787. The scrutiny has not always been friendly. Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fall there will be anarchy throughout the world.ĭuring its nearly two hundred years, the Constitution, which Gladstone pronounced “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man,”' has been reflected upon and argued about from many perspectives by great men and lesser ones. Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands-what has happened once in 6,000 years may never happen again.

It is a thought especially worth remembering as we approach the bicentennial anniversary of our Constitution: In concluding, the President repeated a warning given by Daniel Webster more than a century ago. not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a. They understood that, in the words of James Madison, if “the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. They saw that no one in office could remain above it, if freedom were to survive through the ages. Hamilton, Jefferson and all the Founding Fathers recognized that the Constitution is the supreme and ultimate expression of the will of the American people. After both men had taken their oaths to support the Constitution, President Reagan reflected on what he called the “‘inspired wisdom”’ of our Constitution: As you know, recently, in the East Room of the White House, a new Chief Justice and a new Justice of the Supreme Court were sworn in-William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, respectively.

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