WASHINGTON — Sunday is Constitution Day, the anniversary of the day that the United States became the United States. But what is it we’re actually celebrating?

On Sept. 17, 1787, the document that acts as the supreme law of the United States was adopted and signed after a contentious series of negotiations that created the framework of not only the United States government, but the way we argue about it 230 years later.

Adam Rothman, a professor of American history at Georgetown University, said that on Sunday we essentially celebrate two things: “A framework of government that was established by this extraordinary group of founders in 1787 and 1788” and “the living endurance of that Constitution over time. It’s adaptable but it’s also durable.”

Learn what he has to say about the arguments that were resolved in Philadelphia all those years ago.

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