- Ellensburg, the county seat of Kittitas County, is located three miles from the confluence of the Yakima River and Wilson Creek near the geographic center of Washington. The site was a gathering place for the Kittitas band of the Yakama Indians and other Columbia plateau tribes. In 1871 John Shoudy and Mary Ellen Stewart Shoudy founded the town and in 1875 they platted the first streets. Ellensburg was incorporated in 1884. The Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1886, and the town prospered, becoming a center for banking and commerce and a social hub for farming and ranching families in the Kittitas Valley…
- Constitution of the United States (Wikipedia)
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitution delineates the national frame and constrains the powers of the federal government. The Constitution’s first three articles embody the doctrine of the separation of powers, in which the federal government is divided into three branches: the legislative, consisting of the bicameral Congress (Article I); the executive, consisting of the president and subordinate officers (Article II); and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts (Article III). Article IV, Article V, and Article VI embody concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments, the states in relationship to the federal government, and the shared process of constitutional amendment. Article VII establishes the procedure subsequently used by the 13 states to ratify it. The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.