The U.S. Constitution

God in the State Constitutions Advertisement The subject of God in the Constitution arises from time to time, and this site deals with the topic specifically elsewhere. However, another question also arises: how is God referenced, if at all, in state constitutions? This list is not guaranteed to be...

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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...

Who is Steve Mount? Advertisement This site is increasingly being used as a source in research papers and by debate clubs and the like, and in simple Internet disagreements. As this site’s popularity grows, I have often been asked who writes the site, whose opinions are expressed, and what my...

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...

State Constitutions Each state in the United States has its own constitution. Of course, all state constitutions are inferior (in a legal sense) to the United States Constitution, and when reading state constitutions, this must be kept in mind — a state constitution, for example, cannot validly...

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...

Pennsylvania’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787. Pennsylvania was the second state to do so. Pennsylvania’s ratification message was short and to the point. The following text is taken from the Library of Congress’s copy of...

Rhode Island’s Ratification Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Rhode Island, May 29, 1790. Rhode Island was the thirteenth state to do so. Rhode Island’s ratification message is lengthy, with a list similar to that of New York’s, listing a bill of rights and listing several...