All Posts Tagged With: "U.S. Constitution"
Doc of the Day: Virginia Declaration of Rights
On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Convention formally adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. In May 1776, the convention had formed a committee to draft a declaration of rights. George Mason was put in charge of composing the document, which outlined the rights of Virginians. Drawing on the 1689 English Bill of Rights (which, in [...]
12Jun2009 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued
Top 5 Inaugural Addresses: No. 3
Editor’s note: This week we are counting down the top five inaugural addresses in U.S. history. At number three is George Washington’s first inaugural address. Below, the historian John P. Kaminski of the University of Wisconsin–Madison explains the importance of Washington’s address. Kaminski’s complete analysis of the document can be downloaded at MilestoneDocuments.com or Amazon.com.
Believing [...]
Doc of the Day: George Washington's First Annual Message to Congress
On January 8, 1790, President George Washington delivered his first annual message to Congress, as required by the recently adopted U.S. Constitution. In this address, Washington informed Congress, from his firsthand experience in touring the eastern states between October 15 and November 13, that great recovery had been made from the wartime destruction and dislocation. [...]
7Jan2009 | mdblogger | 1 comment | Continued
Barry Alfonso on the evolution of political oratory
With the inaugural address of the next president about to be delivered, I can’t help but reflect upon political oratory in general and the old fashioned kind in particular. I don’t mean the sort of folksy speeches Ronald Reagan used to give or even the reassuring talks Franklin D. Roosevelt soothed Depression-era America with. I [...]
29Dec2008 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued
Doc of the Day: Bill of Rights
On December 15, 1791, the ten amendments collectively known as the Bill of Rights were added to the U.S. Constitution when Virginia became the last of the necessary states to ratify the amendments. The amendments were initially introduced to Congress by James Madison. With the introduction and acceptance of the Bill of Rights, the government [...]
15Dec2008 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued
Michael W. Handis on the Articles of Confederation
I wrote the article on the Articles of Confederation for Milestone Documents in American History, and I can tell you that it changed my perspective on things.
Quick history lesson. We are told that the United States is a democracy, yet we live in a republic. The Greeks invented democracy, and the Romans the republic. Who [...]
Doc of the Day: U.S. Constitution
On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention signed the newly created Constitution of the United States and sent it to Congress for consideration. The U.S. Constitution was in fact the second national constitution; the Articles of Confederation, enacted in 1781 as the first national constitution, provided for a weak central government that was little more [...]
17Sep2008 | mdblogger | 1 comment | Continued
Doc of the Day: Nineteenth Amendment
On August 18, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment legalized women’s suffrage in the United States. Susan B. Anthony, the author of the amendment, did not live to see Congressional passage or ratification of her proposal. Her death in 1906 followed a long career as a suffragist and general [...]
18Aug2008 | mdblogger | 1 comment | Continued
Doc of the Day: July 13
On July 13, 1787, Congress approved the Northwest Ordinance. The Northwest Ordinance served as a bridge between the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation as well as between the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was the most significant legacy of the Confederation Congress. By providing a generous philosophical and practical structural [...]
13Jul2008 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued
Doc of the Day: July 9
On July 9, 1868, the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (Ratification was declared in a certificate by the secretary of state on July 28.) The Fourteenth Amendment extended citizenship and rights to the freed slaves and excluded many prominent former Confederates from government. It revised the formula for congressional reapportionment and [...]
9Jul2008 | mdblogger | 0 comments | Continued