Congress Counts: History of the U.S. Census

Today’s post comes from Samantha Payne, intern in the Center for Legislative Archives in Washington, DC.  The Constitution requires that Congress conduct a census every 10 years to determine the representation of each state in the  House of Representatives. When the authors of the Constitution allocated seats in the House for the First Congress, they had no … Continue reading Congress Counts: History of the U.S. Census

Constitution 225: And the winner is….

In honor of the 225th anniversary of the Constitution, we challenged citizens on Twitter to take the Preamble of the Constitution and distill its meaning into a twitter-sized bite. The Archivist of the United States chose the winner on the Constitution Day. Congratulations to Jean Huets, who will receive a pocket-sized Constitution from the Foundation … Continue reading Constitution 225: And the winner is….

Constitution 225: It takes a committee to write a Preamble

Today’s post was written by National Archives volunteer Paul Richter. It is part of a series tracing the development of the Constitution in honor of the 225th anniversary of this document on September 17, 2012. By the second week of September, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had hammered out nearly all of the details … Continue reading Constitution 225: It takes a committee to write a Preamble

Constitution 225: The President

  Today’s post was written by National Archives volunteer Paul Richter. It is part of a series tracing the development of the Constitution in honor of the 225th anniversary of this document on September 17, 2012. The President of the United States is one of the most famous positions in the world. But the first … Continue reading Constitution 225: The President