Two hundred twenty-six years ago on Tuesday, Sept. 17, the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

Somehow this document of 1787 endured in a nation that has changed almost out of recognition from the one that ushered it into being.

It endured and survived during its greatest threat, a civil war that was fought 150 years ago.

It has endured as the nation expanded its borders several times over.

It has endured the shift from a rural agricultural economy to an urban manufacturing economy to the present universal, electronically-driven economy.

The Constitution has endured through amendments great and small. The great, such as the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech, assembly, press and religion. The small, to prohibit alcohol sales, later repealed by another amendment. The amendments that reflected changes in American society, such as giving women the right to vote and lowering the voting age to 18. And 23 more changes and additions to the first basic law.

Almost everyth...