Ed Vebell (American, 1921 - 2018) "Constitution Ratified" Original Acrylic painting on Masonite. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood Commemorative Cover for Epic Events in American History series issued in 1985. The breakdown of government under the Articles of Confederation in the mid-1780s persuaded the Continental Congress to call for a convention to amend the Articles so that they would prove "adequate to the exigencies of Union." That convention assembled in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787, and after a little more than three months of debate, completed and signed the Constitution of the United States on September 17th. Within a year it was ratified by the States and went into effect on the 16th of April, 1789 when President Washington made his Inaugural Address to the First Congress. "That Constitution," William Gladstone was to say a century later, "is the most remarkable work in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect at a single stroke." There is no need to modify that conclusion today. It was the first constitution to derive its authority from the people, and the first to be ratified by the people. For the first time, too, it provided for the effective separation of executive, legislative and judicial power. It created the first effective federal system, and in so doing, placed civil over military authority. It contained within itself provisions for expansion -- not by adding "colonies" but by providing for the admission of new territories as states. It contained the first Bill of Rights to provide substantive as well as procedural guarantees to the liberty of the people. No wonder then that it alone among written constitutions, has survived for over two hundred years. Image Size: 20 x 21.25 in. Overall Size: 23.75 x 26.5 in. Unframed. (B05379)