advantages of written constitution over an unwritten constitution?
491154
A written constitution is not as open to imterpretation by time and circumstance as an unwritten one. A favorite argument from the UK is that the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. is a relic of a time gone by, when in reality it remains the will of the majority of the American people today. When we want a change, we affect that change, like the 13th and 19th Amendments.
29608
James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights which was ratified by the First United States Congress.  Madison based his draft on George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights.
58970
With all due respect, your stated desire doesn’t make any sense.  The ten articles of the United States Bill of Rights are written in clear language with most economical use of the language.  There are only 462 words of content in all ten amendments.\n\nIt would be interesting to know what is your intended use.  In my seminars I find that rather than summarize them I have to expand from both a origin perspective as well as from a case law perspective.  To do less is to cloud them in misunderstandings.     \n\nIf this is a class project, have your instructor contact me and I'll explain why this is not possible, something the instructor should already know.
755059
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States
345036
Declaration of Independence and The US Constitution, respectively.
315103
curt06lfc is correct. Great Britain has no written constitution, but they operate within a constitutional framework created through legal precedent.
379266
The Constitution was “penned” by Jacob Shallus, a Pennsylvania General Assembly clerk, for a fee of $30 \n\nJames Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” was the first to arrive in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. He arrived in February, three months before the convention began, bearing the blueprint for the new Constitution.\n\nGouverneur Morris was largely responsible for the “wording” of the Constitution, although there was a Committee of Style formed in September 1787.\n\nBenjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his face.\n\nJohn Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend. \n\nFrom 1785–1789, Jefferson served as minister to France. He did not attend the Constitutional Convention.
360803
The United States Constitution was written in Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention from May to September 1787.  It took the representatives from each state that many months to decide what should be in the Constitution.\n\nThe National Archives Website answers your question:\nWho actually wrote the Constitution?\nA. In none of the relatively meager records of the Constitutional Convention is the literary authorship of any part of the Constitution definitely established. The deputies debated proposed plans until, on July 24, 1787, substantial agreement having been reached, a Committee of Detail was appointed, consisting of John Rutledge, of South Carolina; Edmund Randolph, of Virginia; Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts; Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut; and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, who on August 6 reported a draft which included a Preamble and twenty-three articles, embodying fifty-seven sections. Debate continued until September 8, when a new Committee of Style was named to revise the draft. This committee included William Samuel Johnson, of Connecticut; Alexander Hamilton, of New York; Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania; James Madison, of Virginia; and Rufus King, of Massachusetts, and they reported the draft in approximately its final shape on September 12. The actual literary form is believed to be largely that of Morris, and the chief testimony for this is in the letters and papers of Madison, and Morris's claim. However, the document in reality was built slowly and laboriously, with not a piece of material included until it has been shaped and approved. The preamble was written by the Committee of Style.
632039
try this site\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution
298637
read the Jefferson papers. He wrote the Articals of confederation before he wrote the Constitution. He also was a avaid sponser of the secant amendent. He was a active member of the first contintal congress. and amny other things. He was one of the greatest men in the begining of our nation.
116784
An informal amendment is a change made in teh constitution not by actuall written amendment, but by the experience of government under the constitution. \n\nSo in other words it's the prosses by which many changes have been made to the constitution that have not led to changes in the document's written words.
322571
Fascinating Facts about the U.S. Constitution\nThe U.S. Constitution has 4,440 words. It is the oldest and the shortest written constitution of any government in the world. \n\n\n\nOf the typographical errors in the Constitution, the misspelling of the word “Pensylvania” above the signers’ names is probably the most glaring. \n\n\n\nThomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution. He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister. John Adams was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention and did not attend either.\n\n\n\nThe Constitution was “penned” by Jacob Shallus, a Pennsylvania General Assembly clerk, for a fee of $30 ($280.72 today). It was stored in various cities until 1952, when it was placed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. During the daytime, pages one and four of the document are displayed in a bullet-proof case. The case contains helium and water vapor to preserve the paper’s quality. At night, the pages are lowered into a vault, behind five-ton doors that are designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. The entire Constitution is displayed only one day a year—September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. \n\n\n\nThe Constitution does not set forth requirements for the right to vote. As a result, at the outset of the Union, only male property-owners could vote. African Americans were not considered citizens, and women were excluded from the electoral process. Native Americans were not given the right to vote until 1924.\n\n\n\nJames Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” was the first to arrive in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. He arrived in February, three months before the convention began, bearing the blueprint for the new Constitution.\n\n\n\nOf the forty-two delegates who attended most of the meetings, thirty-nine actually signed the Constitution. Edmund Randolph and George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign due in part to the lack of a bill of rights.\n\n\n\nWhen it came time for the states to ratify the Constitution, the lack of any bill of rights was the primary sticking point.\n\n\n\nThe Great Compromise saved the Constitutional Convention, and, probably, the Union. Authored by Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman, it called for proportional representation in the House, and one representative per state in the Senate (this was later changed to two.) The compromise passed 5-to-4, with one state, Massachusetts, “divided.”\n\n\n\nPatrick Henry was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but declined, because he “smelt a rat.”\n\n\n\nBecause of his poor health, Benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his face.\n\n\n\nGouverneur Morris was largely responsible for the “wording” of the Constitution, although there was a Committee of Style formed in September 1787.\n\n\n\nThe oldest person to sign the Constitution was Benjamin Franklin (81). The youngest was Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey (26).\n\n\n\nWhen the Constitution was signed, the United States’ population was 4 million. It is now more than 300 million. Philadelphia was the nation’s largest city, with 40,000 inhabitants.\n\n\n\nA proclamation by President George Washington and a congressional resolution established the first national Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 1789. The reason for the holiday was to give “thanks” for the new Constitution.\n\n\n\nThe first time the formal term “The United States of America” was used was in the Declaration of Independence.\n\n\n\nIt took one hundred days to actually “frame” the Constitution.\n\n\n\nThere was initially a question as to how to address the President. The Senate proposed that he be addressed as “His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties.” Both the House of Representatives and the
157511
We have the greatest document ever written as our constitution and the greatest form of goverment on earth.  We might do better with a cross section of the population as our elected Federal Officials, rather than nothing but the rich running everyhing for us.  But our constitution stands the sands of time pretty well.
1069740
I think from inception to present day there have been thousands of examples where the Constitution has been used in ways both agreeing and disagreeing with what the framers intended. The framework, however, has maintained the same position. Positives include the emergence of the Judicial branch (Judicial review ala Marberry v. Madison) as a protector of the rights of the people (in theory anyway, several recent decisions  have made you scratch your head). Negatives include the emergence of the bureaucracy and the welfare state. \n\nThe bill of rights has changed from time to time often based on the whims of society (prohibition anyone?). They are the protection of the people against the tyranny of government. The bill of rights is designed exclusively as a LIMITATION of government, not to protect the government from the people. Remember, a well intentioned government can round you up and put you in camps just as quickly as one with bad intent. At that point, whether it is behind a smile or the point of a gun makes no difference, right?\n\nThe declaration of independence is a reminder to the people that government can be changed when it loses the consent of the governed.
90274
Most of the state constitutions were written over a century ago. Things change. For instance, the constitution of the state of Alabama had to be changed to remove racist elements.
31103
The founding fathers, writers of the constitution.
929135
Power corrupts, and absolute power leads to abuse.\n\nGovernments have power, and when combine with the military, that gives them near absolute power. That's why the Constitution was written. To prevent the government from abusing its power.\n\nSadly, in recently years, a combination of fear and complacency in the population has resulted in the govt claiming more and more power, to the point of ignoring the Constitution, just because it can.