WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Americans across the country honor and celebrate the 225th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution by our Founding Fathers on September 17, 1787. Sen. Paul issued the following statement to mark the occasion:

"Today we celebrate Constitution Day. We celebrate the creation of the most brilliant blueprint for a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" ever written. George Washington declared: "The Constitution is the guide which I never will abandon." Patrick Henry stated prophetically that "the Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

"With the creation of the Constitution, our Founding Fathers clearly set forth the jurisdiction of the United States Congress in Article 1, Section 8. It is there that you can read the enumerated powers that spell out Congress's specific powers in relation to the states and to the people. The Founders intended that the powers of the federal government be limited to these specific powers with all other powers reserved to the states or to the people.

"I consider the abandonment of the founding principles of enumerated powers, limited government, and separation of powers to be the fundamental cause of the vast ills facing our nation today. The expansion of the federal government beyond its constitutionally granted powers has had many unintended and detrimental consequences. A careful reading of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers demonstrates just how far we have departed from the original intent of our Constitution.

"Another of our Founding Fathers, Samuel Adams, declared that "the liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them . . . . We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood . . . ."

"Let us pause and reflect on the great blessings of liberty and freedom that our Founding Fathers enshrined in our Constitution, and the ways in which we all can work to help restore and uphold our freedom."

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