Charters of Freedom Magnet Set
- 3 X 3 inches
- Set of 3
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A classic set of magnets for the home or office, each commemorates the Charters of Freedom documents, in the colors that were in popular use at the time of their drafting. The Declaration of Independence , the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights are all on permanent exhibit in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.
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Drafted by 33 year old Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty. It was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and announced that the 13 American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead, they formed a union that would become a new nation: the United States of America.
The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution originally consisted of seven Articles. The first three Articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, whereby the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislature, consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. Ten of the 12 were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. The ratified Articles constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, or the U.S. Bill of Rights. In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed, Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 was never ratified.