The First Draft

Heading into an 11-day recess in late July, the delegates assigned the job of transcribing the first draft of the Constitution to a group known as the Committee of Detail, consisting of Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, and Chairman John Rutledge of South Carolina. The committee largely worked off the Virginia Plan, while also considering a separate draft previously completed by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, as well as portions of the Articles of Confederation and various state constitutions.

With Randolph providing an initial outline before Wilson delivered a polished revision, the five-person committee tackled the difficult task of balancing state and federal powers, even as they took the bold step of introducing provisions that hadn't been formally discussed at the convention. Randolph's outline, for example, enumerated 18 specific powers accorded to Congress, while Wilson's version ensured that state constitutions could not supersede federal law.

While the other delegates accepted most of the 23 articles delivered by the Committee of Detail, a few ideas spurred additional rounds of heated rhetoric. Among them was a provision that attempted to encode indefinite protection of the slave trade; while this never came to fruition, it exposed the divide between the convention’s plantation owners and abolitionists, and rekindled the argument over how the Southern population of enslaved people affected representation in Congress.

The Man Who Wrote Most of the Final Language

After each of the 23 articles had finally been reviewed, a new five-person Committee of Style was tasked with incorporating the various resolutions that came out of the conventions into something close to a final product.

Along with Chairman William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut and Rufus King of Massachusetts, the committee was marked by the notable presences of Madison, whose extensive work on creating and promoting this document earned him the moniker "Father of the Constitution," and New York's Alexander Hamilton, who missed much of the convention but was nonetheless admired for his formidable intellect.

Yet it was Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania who wound up with the job of putting pen to paper, a weighty responsibility awarded on the basis of his writing talents, his ability to work quickly, and a willingness to accept the decisions of his colleagues even if they differed from his own impassioned views.

Proving up to the task on all fronts, Morris streamlined the Committee of Detail's 23 articles into a concise list of seven over the course of about four days. He also wrote the celebrated preamble to the Constitution ("We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..."), while largely avoiding the temptation of adding new material at this late stage of the game, save for one clause that prevented states from interfering with private contracts.

The First Signatures

Presented to the rest of the delegates on September 12, 1787, Morris' draft underwent further discussion but minimal changes over the next few days. The final fix came courtesy of the Constitutional Convention’s normally quiet president, George Washington, who sought one final tweak to the never-ending issue of congressional representation. Once the final draft was done, the official job of physically writing out the Constitution was undertaken by Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who carefully engrossed nearly 4,500 words across four sheets of parchment.

On September 17, 38 delegates scribbled their signatures on the freshly printed Constitution (with George Read signing for fellow Delawarian John Dickinson, who could not attend the signing ceremony due to illness). Although the launch of the new-and-improved federal government was not yet complete — nine states still needed to ratify the Constitution, with the Madison-authored Bill of Rights soon to follow — the tangible document stood as proof of the cooler heads that somehow shepherded four months of wildly divergent and oft-incongruent ideas into the law of the land.

A State Legislator Was Convinced To Ratify the 19th Amendment by His Mother

The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, but its ratification was far from simple; it required support from three-fourths of the states, which at the time meant 36 of 48. After 35 states had approved the amendment and several others had rejected it, the ultimate deciding factor came down to the Tennessee House of Representatives, which was set to vote in August 1920. 

After two consecutive deadlocked votes in the Tennessee Legislature (48 for, 48 against), 24-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn helped reshape the course of history. Burn changed his vote to the affirmative after receiving a convincing note from his mother in support of women’s suffrage, finally confirming the amendment’s passage. 

The 20th Amendment Changed Inauguration Day

The gap between Election Day and Inauguration Day was longer prior to the 20th amendment than it is today, which created a “lame duck” period for many outgoing Presidents. 

The 20th Amendment moved up the start of a presidential term from March 4 to January 20 to lessen that gap and expedite the start of the President-elect’s term. The amendment was ratified on January 23, 1933, and went into effect on February 6, a mere 17 days later.

The 21st Amendment Is the Only Amendment To Repeal Another

The 21st Amendment — ratified on December 5, 1933 — repealed the Prohibition laws established by the 18th Amendment back in 1919, thus legalizing alcohol once again. This made the 21st Amendment the first — and so far only — U.S. constitutional amendment to repeal another. 

While Prohibition had enjoyed a certain degree of popularity at first, public opinion shifted throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. This was due in large part to an increase in illegal alcohol production, which padded the pockets of crime syndicates such as the mob. Congress acted accordingly to stymie further growth in this unseemly direction. 

Harry Truman Called the 22nd Amendment “Stupid”

The 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1947, during President Harry S. Truman’s time in office. This amendment established presidential term limits and was a direct response to FDR’s extensive time in office (four consecutive terms). President Truman vehemently opposed the very idea of the amendment, describing it as “bad,” “stupid,” and “one of the worst that has been put into the Constitution, except for the Prohibition amendment.”

D.C. Residents Couldn’t Vote for President Before the 23rd Amendment

Prior to the 23rd Amendment’s 1961 ratification, residents of Washington, D.C., were forbidden from voting in national presidential elections. Thanks to this amendment, they were finally able to exercise that right for the first time in 1964 — though on the flip side, the amendment prohibits D.C. from having any congressional representation.

Mississippi Was the Only State To Formally Reject the 24h Amendment

The 24rth Amendment outlawed poll taxes with regards to elections and was easily passed amid the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1960s. These poll taxes had formerly targeted poor Americans — a majority of whom were Black — by forcing prospective voters to pay in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote. While there had been concerns of Southern states roundly rejecting the amendment and preventing its passage, in the end, Mississippi was the only state to say “nay.”

The 25th Amendment Eliminated Vice Presidential Vacancies

Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, the office of the Vice President could be left vacant if the previous VP died or ascended to the presidency, which, by that point, had happened 16 times since the office was established. This amendment changed that, ruling that the President must appoint a Vice President to fill the vacancy rather than leave it empty until the end of a term.

The 26th Amendment Initially Applied Only to Federal Elections

The 26th Amendment — which lowered the national voting age from 21 to 18 — underwent a transformation shortly after its passage. One year prior to the amendment’s 1971 ratification, the Supreme Court case Oregon v. Mitchell ruled that Congress could lower the voting age only for national presidential elections, not for state and local elections. However, in 1975, Dunn v. Blumstein extended the amendment to cover all state and local elections as well.

The 27th Amendment Was Originally Proposed in 1789

While the 27th Amendment was ultimately ratified in 1992, it was first proposed a whopping 202 years and seven months prior by James Madison in 1789. This long-delayed amendment requires all congressional pay raises to take effect during the following congressional term in lieu of abrupt salary increases in the middle of a term.

Essentially, members of Congress now have to run again and win in order to receive the higher salary they voted upon. At the time of this amendment’s initial proposal, detractors claimed that the law was unnecessary and that Congress could be trusted to grant themselves fair salaries. 

After seven states initially ratified the amendment, it was 80 years before an additional state (Ohio) added its seal of approval in 1873, on the heels of an unpopular congressional pay raise. In the end, the amendment passed after public dissatisfaction with a series of congressional pay increases.

The Second Amendment Was Agreed Upon as a Compromise

The right to bear arms as defined by the Second Amendment has been a controversial topic for ages, even dating back to when it was first agreed upon. Like much of the Bill of Rights, the final text was a compromise between pro-government Federalists and rival Anti-Federalists, who argued over whether an adequately armed population could deter potential government oppression. Anti-Federalists fought for a Second Amendment that preserved the right of the people to fight back against government oppression, while Federalists maintained that those fears were overblown.

The Third Amendment Has Never Been Argued in Front of the Supreme Court

While many constitutional amendments have been the subject of heated judicial debate, the Third Amendment has never been the focus of a U.S. Supreme Court case. The amendment forbids the government from forcing citizens to house soldiers in their private homes without their consent during peacetime. It is one of the more universally agreed-upon elements of the Constitution.

An Exemption to the Fourth Amendment Was Created for Cars

The Fourth Amendment was ratified in 1791, establishing rules against warrantless searches by law enforcement. Given that the amendment was ratified long before cars existed, it wasn’t until the 1925 case Carroll v. United States that vehicle searches were first debated on a judicial level. The case ultimately established an exemption to the Fourth Amendment that permits warrantless vehicle searches, provided there is probable cause to suspect there is contraband inside.

“Due Process” Was Added to the Fifth Amendment at New York’s Request

The “due process” clause — which guarantees fair treatment under the law — is an integral component of the Fifth Amendment, which protects those accused of criminal activity against self-incrimination and prohibits “double jeopardy” (being prosecuted twice for the same offense twice), among other protections. In essence, the concept of due process ensures that every American will be treated fairly in court, but it may never have existed if not for a request made by delegates from the state of New York, which had a similar concept included in its own Bill of Rights Statute. The request led James Madison to draft due process into the Fifth Amendment.

The Sixth Amendment Didn’t Include State Court Cases for 172 Years

The Sixth Amendment protects the rights of those facing criminal charges, such as the right to a fair and speedy trial by an impartial jury, as well as legal representation. It has provided the right to a free defense counsel on a federal level since its ratification in 1791, but it wasn’t until 1963 that the amendment was expanded to include felony cases facing state prosecution. The expansion was a result of the landmark decision in the case Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the court ruled that states must provide attorneys to any criminal defendant unable to afford their own counsel.

The Seventh Amendment Still Applies to Cases That Exceed a Value of Just $20

The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a trial by jury in federal civil cases, but only regarding issues where the value exceeds $20 — a stipulation that’s still in place today. The amendment was ratified in 1791, so in modern terms, that $20 would be roughly equal to around $650. However, the text of the amendment still reads “twenty dollars.”

The Eighth Amendment Was Taken Nearly Verbatim From the English Bill of Rights

The Eighth Amendment — which reads, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” — was taken nearly verbatim from the English Bill of Rights of 1689. While many other amendments from the Bill of Rights were influenced by the British Constitution, the Eighth Amendment is notable for its highly similar wording.

The Ninth Amendment Doesn’t List Any Specific Rights

While the first eight amendments clearly define the rights they’re meant to protect, the Ninth Amendment is significantly more abstract in nature. It was put in place to reaffirm that rights shouldn’t be denied solely because they aren’t explicitly stated in the Constitution. The entirety of the amendment reads, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” 

The 10th Amendment Has Never Been Invoked to Protect Individual Citizens

The 10th Amendment essentially establishes the concept of states rights, and underscores the limits of the federal government as restricted to the powers enumerated in the Constitution. The text reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Though the 10th Amendment has been invoked many times with regard to protecting state’s rights, it’s never been invoked by an individual citizen in a case against the federal government. 

1872: Ulysses S. Grant vs. Horace Greeley

Incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant’s Republican Party was beginning to fracture leading into the June 1872 National Convention. A reform wing calling itself Liberal Republicans had held its own convention the previous month, nominating New York Tribune founder and editor Horace Greeley as its candidate. Overestimating the power of this new faction, the Democratic Party refrained from nominating its own candidate and instead threw its support behind Greeley, despite Greeley’s history of pointed criticism of the Democratic Party. 

Almost immediately, Greeley was lambasted in the press. The New York Times called the Democratic Convention that nominated him “the ghastliest of political shows.” Political cartoons were especially harsh, depicting him as mousey or infantile. Greeley soldiered on, making campaign stops in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana between September 19 and 29, and giving nearly 200 speeches in that short span. Unfortunately for the candidate, his running mate Benjamin Gratz Brown completely undermined that effort by giving an incoherent drunken speech at Yale, and then fainting during an event in New York City.

The Greeley campaign never really mounted a serious threat to Grant. “I have been assailed so bitterly that I hardly knew whether I was running for the presidency or the penitentiary,” Greeley lamented. Grant won reelection easily with 55.6% of the popular vote. In a bizarre and tragic twist, Greeley died on November 29, before the Electoral College could cast its ballots. Because of this, the 63 votes he would have earned were dispersed among other candidates. It remains the only time in U.S. history that a candidate has died in the interim between the popular vote and the Electoral College vote.

The 1872 election was also notable for another reason: Though not a legal candidate (she was under 35 years old), Victoria Woodhull also ran in the 1872 election, making her the first woman to campaign for President of the United States.

1964: Lyndon B. Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater vs. a Fabricated “Jewish Mother”

The 1964 presidential election took place less than a year after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; the Vietnam occupation was approaching its midpoint, and segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace was running a primary campaign in the northern U.S. on a platform of outright racism. Into this fraught atmosphere stepped a wisecracking independent write-in candidate named Yetta Bronstein, with slogans such as “We need a Jewish mother in the White House,” A mink coat in every closet,” and “If you want simple solutions, then you gotta be simple.” Calling herself a “Jewish housewife” running for a political party called the “Best Party,” Bronstein managed to attract media attention and invitations for radio interviews, wherein she advocated for increasingly kooky things such as adding “truth serum” to the Senate drinking fountains, and putting a nude photo of Jane Fonda on postage stamps.

Yetta Bronstein was a complete fabrication, though. A character invented by husband-and-wife hoaxers Alan and Jeanne Abel (and played by Jeanne in radio interviews), Yetta was conceived as a way to poke fun at credulous media. In the real world, Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater were engaging in some of the most grueling mudslinging yet, culminating in the legendary Johnson “Daisy” campaign ad (officially titled “Peace, Little Girl”), in which a young girl counts petals as a nuclear countdown cuts to a mushroom cloud. Ultimately, Johnson trounced Goldwater by more than 15 million votes in the popular election, and 486 Electoral College votes to Goldwater’s 52. Yetta Bronstein didn’t get a single vote.

1988: George H.W. Bush and “the Seven Dwarfs”

The 1988 presidential election was an open field, with Ronald Reagan finishing out his last term as President. The primary season on the Democratic side included a slate of relative upstart contenders referred to in overtly derisive political commentary as “the Seven Dwarfs”: Bruce Babbitt, Joe Biden, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, and Paul Simon. On the Republican side, Vice President George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, and televangelist Reverend Pat Robertson were the contenders, escaping a derisive nickname of their own for reasons that are lost to history.

Almost immediately, the Democratic side was beset with paparazzi-style scandals: Early, pre-Seven Dwarfs contender Gary Hart was caught having an affair with a woman who accompanied him on a luxury yacht called, all too on-the-nose, Monkey Business. Another scandal followed when a tape surfaced with footage of Joe Biden speaking at the Iowa State Fair and quoting British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock without attribution. The resulting furor, and Biden’s subsequent mishandling of it, prompted him to drop out of the race. When TIME magazine reported that the tape came from the Dukakis campaign, the campaign initially denied the report, before eventually coming clean. Dukakis aides John Sasso and Paul Tully also stepped down. 

Meanwhile, George H.W. Bush was emerging as the Republican nominee, despite receiving frequent criticism for not communicating the priorities of a Bush presidency (“the vision thing,” as Bush himself rather flippantly put it). Once Dukakis became the Democratic nominee, Bush fully dismissed “the vision thing” in favor of Lee Atwater-aided negative campaigning, successfully painting Dukakis as soft on crime with the viciousness of a Thomas Jefferson-John Adams-era series of invectives. 

Another enduringly famous attack ad was one that the Dukakis campaign itself unintentionally provided the imagery for. The ad featured an unfortunately goofy Dukakis video op with the candidate perched upon an M1 Abrams tank and wearing a too-large helmet that looked more Great Gazoo than commander in chief. Bush won the election with 53.4% of the popular vote and a whopping 426 electoral votes.