Articles by James Caldwell

U.S. Constitution

U.S. Constitution – Article 1 Section 8 Article 1 – The Legislative Branch Section 8 – Powers of Congress The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises , to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all...

Virginia Joint Resolution 728 Advertisement In the 1850 census, Virginia listed 472,528 slaves within its borders, the most of any state in the United States. Slavery was the backbone of the state’s economy, as it was in most of the other Southern agrarian states, states that would eventually...

The Virginia Declaration of Rights Advertisement After the Committee of Style finished with the final draft of the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention, George Mason stood up and noted that the new Constitution contained no declaration of the rights of the people, a glaring error in his...

James Wilson’s 4th of July Address James Wilson came to America from Scotland in 1765 and quickly learned the law and began to practice in Pennsylvania. By the time of the Revolution, he was well-known and trusted, and was elected to represent Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress. After the...

U.S. Constitution

U.S. Constitution – Table of Contents Today’s special event: On July 25, 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was appointed General of the Army , the first person to hold that rank. On July 25, 1868, Wyoming officially became a U.S. territory. Commemorate the day by reading your Constitution . The...

U.S. Constitution

U.S. Constitution – Article 1 Section 1 Article 1 – The Legislative Branch Section 1 – The Legislature All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Notes for this section: Separation of...

The United States Constitution

The United States Constitution Today’s special event: March 16, 1751, is President James Madison ‘s birthday. Advertisement The Constitution is presented in several ways on this site. This page presents the Constitution on one large HTML-enhanced page. Other pages present the Constitution as a...

Issue Guide for “The Court” Advertisement Note: As of the third episode, The Court has been placed on hiatus. The Issue Guide will be updated if any further episodes air. The Court is a television show that airs on the ABC television network. It began airing in March, 2002. This page is not an...

Letter of Transmittal The Convention , upon completing its work on the Constitution, wrote a letter to the Congress. The letter, known as The Letter of Transmittal , laid out for Congress that which the Convention felt should happen next: that the Constitution should be presented to the states and...

Treaty Between the United States and Tripoli It is not often that an obscure treaty from the late 18th century becomes a touch point in a 21st century philosophical debate, but such is the case with the 1796 treaty between the United States and Tripoli. At issue is not the treaty itself — it...

Vermont’s Ratification Advertisement Vermont was admitted to the United States on March 4, 1791. On February 9, 1791, the Congress received the state’s transmission to Congress its intent to hold a convention for the purposes of ratifying the United States Constitution and the results of that...

Ratification Dates and Votes Advertisement Each of the original thirteen states in the United States was invited to ratify the Constitution created in Philadelphia in 1787 . The Constitution specified that nine ratifications would be sufficient to consider the Constitution accepted. Some states...

Savoy’s 20 Questions with Steve Mount Advertisement [Editor’s note: this interview with the Webmaster of this site appeared in the online magazine Savoy in its December, 1998 edition. Savoy is now defunct. This page is a reproduction of that interview. The original is no longer avaliable on the...

The Declaration of Sentiments In 1840, Lucretia Mott attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. Mott, a Quaker minister, was a strong abolitionist. She and the Hicksite Quakers refused to use materials produced with slave labor, including cotton and cane sugar. She worked as a...

The Declaration of Rights (Stamp Act) Advertisement In 1764, the British Parliament passed the Sugar Act, which placed tariffs on sugar, coffee, and other goods imported into the New World. These taxes increased the burden on ordinary citizens at a time of recession in America. It was thought that...

State Ratification Grid This page presents a table showing each state on the vertical axis and each constitutional amendment on the horizontal axis. This chart will allow you to quickly see if your state ratified any one amendment or group of amendments. For ratification dates, see the Ratification...

North Carolina’s Ratification Advertisement Ratification of the Constitution by the State of North Carolina, November 21, 1789. North Carolina was the twelfth state to do so. North Carolina held a ratification convention in 1788, convening on July 21 and adjourning on August 4. At that...

New Hampshire’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Hampshire, June 21, 1788. New Hampshire was the ninth state to do so, and with its ratification, the Constitution was officially in effect. New Hampshire’s ratification message included several suggested changes...

New Jersey’s Ratification Advertisement Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Jersey, December 18, 1787. New Jersey was the third state to do so. New Jersey’s ratification message included several paragraphs describing the Constitutional Convention and several more of technical...

New York’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New York, July 26, 1788. New York was the eleventh state to do so. The assent of Virginia and of New York was seen as essential to the success of the Constitution, and though they were tenth and eleventh to ratify, it is...