That is a super post and TY for putting it up on several different boards. We got the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787 and I think one can make a pretty good argument that the Constitution was saved exactly 75 years later when Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was thwarted in Maryland on Sept. 17, 1862 at the Battle of Antietam. With the South's defeat in that battle, Lincoln was able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation which effectively kept any European power from intervening on the side of the Confederacy. With one stroke of Lincoln's pen, France, Russia, and most importantly England and her 600+ ship navy would only be of help to the South in the dreams of a few politicians.