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Company Name: infoplease

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So begins the Constitution of the United States, written in 1787 to replace the nation's first guiding document, the 1777 Articles of Confederation. The Federalists had been clamoring for a stronger central government, and the Constitution was designed to provide this while balancing it with the rights of individual states—both large and small—and individual citizens. To meet all these requirements, it set up a bicameral legislature and independent judicial and executive branches. Much of this had been proposed by James Madison in his Virginia Plan earlier that year. The Constitution was signed on September 17—now known as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day—and was submitted to the states for ratification. Over the course of the following three years, it was ratified by all thirteen states then existing. The first ten amendments—the Bill of Rights—were added by the first Congress and ratified in 1791, to more explicitly safeguard individual rights.

About Company

Information Please has been providing authoritative answers to all kinds of factual questions since 1938—first as a popular radio quiz show, then starting in 1947 as an annual almanac, and since 1998 on the Internet at www.infoplease.com. Many things have changed since 1938, but not our dedication to providing reliable information, in a way that engages and entertains.