By Donald S. Conkey – Tomorrow, September 17, 2010, is the 223rd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America on September 17, 1787. That document was made up of only the Preamble and the seven Articles and did not contain what we know today as America’s Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments. They would not become a part of the Constitution until December 15, 1791 – over four years later.

After that document was signed by 39 of the 55 men who had crafted it during that hot summer of 1787 – thirteen has left for home earlier and three refused to sign it – it was sent out to the thirteen states to be ratified. Following horrific, often nasty and hostile, debates it was ratified by the ninth state, New Hampshire on June 21, 1788, nearly nine months later with a vote of 57 to 46.

The principle of thirds was in effect back then just as it is in effect today, 223 years later. A third favored the newly drafted Constitution, a third opposed it, and a third was undecided, much like our nation divides today over political principles. In 1787 and 1788 it required strong arguments by strong men to persuade the undecided third to support the new Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were foremost among those supporting the adoption of this new very unique document and wrote the Federalist Papers to help persuade the undecided to support the new Constitution.

Only Delaware, New Jersey and Georgia voted unanimously for that document. Virginia, the largest state, did not ratify it until June 26, 1788 and then only with a vote of 87 to 79. New York, the next largest state, ratified it a month later with a vote of 30 to 27. And North Carolina was so undecided they had to hold two conventions before they ratified it. Rhode Island did not ratify it until May 29, 1790, three years later, with a vote of 34 to 32. Note how one vote could have changed history. And that one vote it still important today as ModernDay Patriots work to preserve America’s Constitution signed 223 years ago tomorrow.

America’s tree of liberty was planted on July 4, 1776 when 56 very brave men signed a document that declared the 13 colonies were “dissolving the political bands” which had connected them to Great Britain in order to “assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle[d] them …” Those 56 brave men had created a new nation, the United States of America. But after a disastrous eleven years of living under the inadequate Articles of Confederation 55 other brave men rejected that document and crafted a new document, a written Constitution, that became a protective fence, predictable laws if you will, around the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” Jefferson had enumerated in the Declaration.

That Constitution provided ‘predictable laws’ for America to self-govern itself with – allowing individuals, businesses, and religions to grow and flourish under the protective hand of the God who influenced America’s creation. And America did grow and prosper, providing its citizens with the greatest prosperity any nation has ever enjoyed. Yet Obama apologizes today for America’s prosperity. Instead, he should be sharing America’s secret of success so other nations could enjoy the same forms of prosperity.

But like other great nations who let greed and pride destroy them from within, America either has reached or is close to its tipping point, a point where the principle that have allowed it to become great have been or are in the process of being destroyed by a government that today is totally unpredictable, especially in the last two years under the ‘fundamental changes’ instituted by the Obama administration.

The inability of the economy to restore itself can be attributed directly to Obama’s ‘unpredictable’ changes’ instituted by his Czars during the past 20 months. And unless the coming election rejects those in power with their ‘fundamental changes,’ and their ‘unpredictable’ form of governing America could well go the way of those other governments where governing by the ‘elite’ caused the “people to mourn.” History is replete with their stories. Even Cuba’s Castro said this week that Communism did not work in Cuba. And Cuban like communism is what many Americans feel Obama’s end goal is. It’s time to restore those ‘predictable guidelines’ that has made America great.