The U.S. Constitution

The Quebec Act Following the British victory over France in the Seven Years’ War, the territories of France in northern North America, known as Canada, were granted to Britain in the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The British renamed the territory Quebec. The British Parliament passed the Quebec Act on...

Connecticut’s Ratification Advertisement Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Connecticut, January 9, 1788. Connecticut was the fifth state to do so. Connecticut’s ratification message was short and to the point. The following text is taken from the Library of Congress’s copy of...

Delaware’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Delaware, December 7, 1787. Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. Delaware’s ratification message was short and to the point. The following text is taken from the Library of Congress’s copy of...

Georgia’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Georgia, January 2, 1788. Georgia was the fourth state to do so. Georgia’s ratification message was short and to the point. The following text is taken from the Library of Congress’s copy of Elliot’s Debates. In...

Massachusetts’s Ratification Advertisement Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Massachusetts, February 6, 1788. Massachusetts was the sixth state to do so. Massachusetts’s ratification message was the first to include a list of desired changes to the Constitution, some of which...

Maryland’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Maryland, April 28, 1788. Maryland was the seventh state to do so. Maryland’s ratification message was very short and to the point. The following text is taken from the Library of Congress’s copy of Elliot’s Debates....

The Treaty of Paris The American Revolutionary War began in April of 1775, and though the outcome was never certain, the Americans had the force of will to carry them through the conflict. That, and the skill and good luck of the American military commanders. In 1781, the Continental Army, under...

Political Philosophers When I went to college, my major was Political Science. The field is very broad, and I focused on my own areas of interest, the American political system. I also dabbled in comparative political systems and international politics. In all that time, I seem to have been able to...

The British Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. The Convention began with the text of the Virginia Plan and Charles Pinckney’s notes . New Jersey...

The New Jersey Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. The Convention began with the text of the Virginia Plan and Charles Pinckney’s notes before them,...

Charles Pinckney’s Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. James Madison, largely regarded as the Father of the Constitution, came to the Convention...

The Virginia Plan Advertisement The Constitutional Convention was tasked with proposing amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would make it a more workable plan for national government. Though the final product of the Convention was a replacement for the Articles, the first proposal was...

The Pledge of Allegiance Advertisement The Pledge of Allegiance was first published for Columbus Day, on September 8, 1892, in the Boston magazine The Youth’s Companion . It was written by a member of the magazine’s staff, Francis Bellamy. The publication of the Pledge, and its wide...

Message Board Posting Tips Advertisement The USConstitution.net messaging system uses the YaBB system for posting messages and replies. The YaBB system is used throughout the Internet and may already be familiar to many users. This document will offer some tips for posting, both from a technical...

2007 News Archive This page is an archive of articles presented on the Current News page of the USConstitution.net site. On this page are articles that were posted in 2007. 12/13/07 Bush vetoes another children’s health insurance bill Calling it a virtual duplicate of a bill he vetoed just two...

1999 News Archive This page is an archive of articles presented on the Current News page of the USConstitution.net site. On this page are articles that were posted in 1999. 12/30/99 Judge denies restraining order against DVD copying software In what defendants are calling a blow for free speech and...

The New York Times CyberTimes [Editor’s note: this column appeared in the August 14, 1997 edition of the New York Times CyberTimes online news source. The original is still archived here . This local copy is maintained just in case the original ever disappears from the Web.] August 14, 1997 One...

Barack Obama’s Keynote Speech The 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston had one main purpose: to nominate Senator John Kerry to be the Democratic candidate for president. The party called on all speakers to tone down anti-George Bush rhetoric, hoping to prevent the party from being...

An Interview with John Stuart Mill Advertisement Thanks to KnowledgeNews for permission to republish this page. Of course, the copyright on John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty has long since run out, but the clever “interview style” used by KnowledgeNews to present Mill’s ideas is original. The...

Other Constitutions and Constitutional Resources Advertisement The Constitution is presented in several formats on this site: As one large, HTML-enhanced document As a series of pages , one for each section and amendment In plain-text In Palm DOC format In enhanced TealDoc Palm DOC format PalmPilot...