The Constitution of the United States, With Amendments, Signed by John F. Kennedy, Perhaps the Only of Its Kind

The U.S. Constitution meant a great deal to John F. Kennedy, and he spoke of it often

During the 1960 presidential election campaign, Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy articulated his long-held feelings about the U.S. Constitution. In July, he said “You have, at the same time, placed your confidence in me, and in my ability to render a free, fair judgment – to uphold the Constitution and my oath of office.”

In September, he wrote of the principle on which the Constitution was founded: “The greatness of our Constitution comes not so much from the words that it contains. It is great because of the people who have lived and worked under it to add to its framework of words and ideas the work and sacrifice and passionate devotion of many generations of Americans. Men and women came here from every corner of the world, from every nation and every race to live together as parts of one great, unified nation. Our Constitution is founded on the principle that all men are equal as citizens, and entitled to the same rights, whether they achieved citizenship by birth, or after coming here as immigrants, seeking to find in America new freedom and new opportunities.”

On October 12, in New York, he spoke at the National Conference on Constitutional Rights and American Freedoms, and said, “Freedom is indivisible, too, in all its aspects. To provide equal rights for all requires that we respect the liberties of speech and belief and assembly, guaranteed by the Constitution, and these liberties in turn are hollow mockeries unless they are maintained also by a decent economic life. That is why Franklin Roosevelt linked freedom from want and freedom from fear with freedom to believe and freedom to speak. Those who are too poor, uninformed, too uneducated to enjoy their constitutional freedoms of choice, do not really possess those freedoms. That is why we fight so hard for minimum wage legislation, for better housing, for social security protection in illness in old age. In order to participate in the other great freedoms we have to have a standard of living for our people so that they can enjoy them.”

After he became president, in 1962, he told Congress “Members of the Congress, the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, custodians of the American heritage. It is my task to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all.”

Also in 1962, he stated, “For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law. If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors.”

“The Constitution”, containing the original Constitution plus the Amendments to that date, inscribed and signed “To David Healy & Theresa, with very best wishes, Congressman John Kennedy.” Obtained at a speaking engagement in Columbia Park in South Boston by a college student in the early 1950s, and obtained by us from his descendants. It has never been offered for sale.

The only copy of the U.S. Constitution signed by JFK that we have ever seen. This series of pages was originally a stand-alone, opening section of a book on “Readings in American History”.