Constitution Day and Surmounting Difficulties

Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-08), chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Constitution Subcommittee, released the following statement in recognition of Constitution Day:“On this Constitution Day, our nation finds itself consumed with a discussion of how we will confront an enemy that stands in stark contrast to every principle we hold dear.  May the debate serve as a reminder of why the United States Constitution has, for 226 years, endured as such a unique and shining beacon to the rest of the world.“The very process of drafting the Constitution was spectacular evidence of the truths the document itself would come to enshrine.  Far from being a monolithic, single-minded entity – the Founding Fathers nonetheless managing to find common ground in the name of this unprecedented experiment in human liberty. James Madison would later remark, ‘The real wonder is that so many difficulties should have been surmounted, and surmounted with a unanimity almost as unprecedented as it must have been unexpected. It is impossible for any man of candor to reflect on this circumstance without partaking of the astonishment. It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.’“Based on the fundamental recognition that rights came not from the hand of some transient tyrant, but from the hand of God, the Constitution shook the foundations of human history and continues to do so today. Today, may those of us who have ‘solemnly sworn to support and defend the Constitution’ reflect on what a high and weighty calling that truly is. For ‘miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again.’”