On September 17, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution, beginning the process of state-by-state ratification. On September 17, 2026, in partnership with
North Shore Village Network and the Evanston Public Library, the League of Women Voters of Evanston sponsored an event titled
Mending the Constitution to Include the Declaration. Community members gathered at the library to learn about how the Declaration of Independence inspired amendments to the Constitution and about important roles that women played.
The speaker, Michele Honora Thorne, is a Chicago-area attorney, human rights advocate, legal historian, and adviser to the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. She is also a member of the League of Women Voters of Wilmette. In fact, she said, her interest in the evening’s topic grew out of volunteering to help with that League’s efforts to promote ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois, which then led to her becoming a leader in that movement.
The Declaration of Independence, said the speaker, was an
announcement of independence. It was inspirational and foundational, but not a legal document. Not until later did the 13 sovereign states that had declared independence from Great Britain come together to establish the legal structure of a shared nation through the writing of the Constitution.
The Constitution could have incorporated sentiments expressed in the Preamble to the Declaration, e.g, “all men are created equal” and “unalienable rights.” In fact, some state constitutions explicitly did so— but not the United States Constitution. However, Article V, which Thorne called the “Amendment Provision” and “the most important part of the Constitution,” allowed these to be added later.
From the beginning, women have been key advocates for such additions. Thorne provided many examples, including the following:
- Mercy Otis Warren, a prominent writer and activist, argued, even before the Constitution was signed, that the rights of individuals should be the primary object of the government.
- Approximately 3 million women signed antislavery petitions sent to the U.S. Congress from the 1830s into the 1860s.
- The Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 was closely modeled on the Declaration of Independence, but modified to explicitly include women. A quote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal.”
- The same was true of the Declaration of the Rights of the Women of the United States read by Susan B. Anthony at a celebration of the country’s 100th birthday (despite being denied permission to present the address!).
Amendments making up the Bill of Rights, those added following the Civil War, and the 19th Amendment stating that women have the right to vote can all be traced in part to such advocacy by women. Thorne also observed that many men speaking about human rights, including Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr., have used wording closely aligned with the Declaration.
The presentation then moved to a discussion of the ERA, which Thorne said is currently in limbo. She and many others think the amendment has been fully ratified and should be added as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but that has not happened. She acknowledged current challenges in the country but ended by expressing her “hope that we can together make a more perfect union.”