In 1982, Gregory Watson was an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.

And I was enrolled in an American government course and the assignment was given to us

to write a paper about a governmental process. I was in the library downtown here in Austin

and I was in the stacks looking at books about the U.S. Constitution. He pulled a book off the

shelf, thumbed through its pages, and came across a chapter on unratified amendments. That is,

amendments that Congress had proposed to the states for ratification. But that not enough

states ever approved to become part of the Constitution. And the one that really jumped off the

page at me had been passed by Congress in 1789. It read, no law varying the compensation

for the services of the senators and representatives shall take effect until any election

of representatives shall have intervened. Translation, Congress can't just give itself an immediate

pay raise. And I thought, well, my goodness, this makes perfect sense. Watson decided to write his

paper about how this proposed amendment was not just important. It also wasn't really dead.

It could still be ratified if enough states got behind it.

So I wrote the paper and I put a lot of tender loving care into it and I turned it in and I got

it back a few days later with a sea on it. And that made me very angry. So he went to his professor

and appealed the grade. And a few days after that, she returned to the classroom and kind of physically

tossed it at me and said no change and walked away. And I decided, well, I'm going to get that thing

ratified. I'm Lillian Cunningham with the Washington Post and this is constitutional.

We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union established justice

ensured domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare.

I'll secure the blessings of the city. To ourselves, my past glory. Do ordain and establish this

constitution for the United States of America.

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