More than two thousand years after the Romans formed their republic, a group of colonists in America rebelled against the English king and formed the United States of America. The founders of the new American nation wrote a Constitution that looked to ancient Rome for as model for their new government. Like the Roman model, the American government is bicameral. Each of the fifty states elects two Senators to represent them in Congress. The United States Constitution allots seats in the House of Representatives based the population of each state. Each state has at least one of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.The framers of the American Constitution borrowed the Roman idea of sharing power among many groups. The president can veto a law made by Congress, but under the American system, a vote of two-thirds of each house of Congress can override the president’s veto. Every elected official must follow the law. Even the president can be removed from office by Congress for what the Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
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Click the audio file to hear Margaret Woodrow Wilson (daughter of President Woodrow Wilson) sing "The Star Spangled Banner"
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By Margaret Woodrow Wilson (Internet Archive) [Public domain], http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMargaretWoodrowWilson-TheStarSpangledBanner.ogg">via Wikimedia Commons</a>