This past weekend I went to the LBJ Library & Museum on the University of Texas campus to view one of 25 copies of the “Broadside” Declaration of Independence. Because it was on a journey to only six cities, I was excited that Austin was one of them. According to the information provided by the Library, on July 4, 1776, the official printer of Congress, John Dunlap, printed 200 copies of the Declaration to be distributed throughout the colonies.
In doing a little research into repositories of copies of the Declaration and Constitution, I discovered a blog post by Zach Lowe on the Am Law Daily. A hand-written copy of a draft of the Constitution was recently uncovered by Lorianne Updike Toler who is one of the founders of the Constitutional Sources Project. This organization’s purpose is to make the documents relating to our country’s origin available online.
Toler came across this draft while perusing some of the 21 million documents in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s collection of documents. This version, previously unacknowledged, was handwritten by James Wilson, one of the drafters of the Constitution. (He was also a signer of the Declaration). It was found on several pieces of paper which had become separated entitled “The Continuation of a Scheme.”
All of these documents are so important to understanding, not just U.S. history, but how momentous in the world’s history this series of event was. It angers me when people say we can only fix our government by fixing the Constitution. There is nothing wrong with the Constitution. We don’t need to fix it; we need to enforce it.
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2010/02/constitution.html
In the eyes of the law 
Leave a Reply