Welcome to the American Story.

Mostly true stories about what it is that makes America, in Lincoln's words,

the last best hope of Earth.

Constitution Day, September 17th, is coming around again,

and is always a good occasion to reflect on what it means for Americans to be a constitutional people and a free people.

This year, the occasion also marks the first anniversary of the American Story Podcast.

Whether you've been tuning in all year or are joining us for the first time, thanks for listening.

This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

Wishing you and yours a very happy Constitution Day.

I call this one, apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Constitution Day, September 17th, is making its annual return.

It is a good occasion to reflect again on what it means for Americans to be a constitutional people.

Such a people was a great novelty in the history of the world.

As James Madison, the father of the Constitution, explained, the important distinction

so well understood in America between a constitution

established by the people and unalterable by the government, and a law established by the government

and alterable by the government, seems to have been

little understood and less observed by any other country.

Being a constitutional people is inseparable from being a free people, which is why

Constitution Day is forever joined with Independence Day.

The Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July, 1776, and the Revolutionary War that followed,

made possible and pointed the way toward the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America

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