Constitution Week 2021, Day One

To honor Constitution Week 2021, the City of Vilonia has partnered with the Vilonia Area Chamber of Commerce for a coloring contest! Please see our contest page for information and a downloadable contest packet.

The National Archives Museum Online will be live streaming The People's Constitution: 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union today at noon.

The Constitution of the United States established America’s national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens. 
It was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Under America’s first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries. At the 1787 convention, delegates devised a plan for a stronger federal government with three branches—executive, legislative and judicial—along with a system of checks and balances to ensure no single branch would have too much power. 
-History.com 

The Constitution of the United States is only seven articles long, although is has grown to include a host of amendments. Each day of Constitution Week, we will cover one article. Today is Article 1, which "assigns the responsibility for making laws to the Legislative Branch (Congress). Congress is divided into two parts, or “Houses,” the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bicameral Congress was a compromise between the large states, which wanted representation based on population, and the small ones, which wanted the states to have equal representation." -archives.org Click here to see the full transcript of Article 1.

The United States Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Learn more about the powers of the Legislative Branch of the federal government of the United States at Our Government: The Legislative Branch on whitehouse.gov