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There are 5 parts to the Declaration of Independence:
1) Introduction: The document would ‘declare’ the ‘causes’ that have made it necessary and unavoidable for the American colonies - early 'states' to be free from the British control
2) Preamble: As ‘self-evident’, closing with ‘a long train of abuses and usurpations . . . evinces a design to reduce [a people] under absolute power & control, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security’ from Britain
3) The body, 1st part: States the facts of the ‘long train of abuses and usurpations’ put on the colonists in British North America by King George III
4) The body, 2nd part: States that the colonists had appealed in vain to their ‘British brethren’ for a hearing of their differences
5) Conclusion: ‘these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved’

June 7th: A resolution was introduced which called for the Continental Congress to declare the United States free from British rule
June 28th: Thomas Jefferson wrote the 1st draft with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson making some corrections and presented it to Congress
July 2nd: Congress revised some of it and voted the WHOLE document in by 12 of the 13 colonies

July 4th: Officially adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia thus ‘Independence Day’

July 8th: The Declaration of Independence was publicly read in Philadelphia
August 2nd: Getting the document signed got started and became more solid in form
The final included 1,458 words and signatures!

In 1787, James Madison wrote a ' CONSTITUTION ' draft which included a Preamble and twenty-three articles with fifty-seven sections. With much debate in the Legislature (1st Branch) , it was final on March 4 1789 and the new government of the United States of America began legally to function on April 6. George Washington was inaugurated as President on April 30 and the Executive Branch (2nd) of the government under the Constitution became operative. But it was not until February 2, 1790, that the Supreme Court (Judicial / 3rd Branch) was organized and, held its first session. That's when our government under the Constitution actually became fully working. The final included 4,543 words and signatures!

During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the NEW BIG GOVERNMENT!
As going through the British violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution, members of the Congress demanded a "bill of rights" that would define the place of individual citizens from the central government. On September 25, 1789, the First Congress proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. The first two proposed amendments were not ratified (1 - the number of voting people for each Representative 2 - the pay of Congressmen). Articles 3 to 12 were put into law and were the first 10 amendments of the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.