United States Constitutional Convention

Examples of United States Constitutional Convention in the following topics:

• The Constitutional Convention

  • The Constitutional Convention was established in 1787 to replace the Articles of Confederation with a national constitution for all states.
  • The convention was held to address problems in governing the United States, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain.
  • The result of the convention was the United States Constitution, placing the convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States .
  • Slavery was widespread in the states at the time of the Convention.
  • "Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States," by Howard Chandler Christy (1940).

• The Annapolis Convention

  • Long dissatisfied with the weak Articles of Confederation, Alexander Hamilton of New York played a major leadership role in drafting a resolution for a constitutional convention, which was later to be called the Annapolis Convention.
  • The defects that the convention was to remedy were those barriers that limited trade or commerce between the largely independent states under the Articles of Confederation.
  • Because of the small representation, the Annapolis Convention did not deem "it advisable to proceed on the business of their mission. " After an exchange of views, the Annapolis delegates unanimously submitted a report to their respective States in which they suggested that a convention of representatives from all the States meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May, 1787.
  • At the resulting Philadelphia Convention of 1787, delegates produced the United States Constitution.
  • Constitution

• Drafting the Final Document

  • The report from the Committee on Detail at the Constitutional Convention constituted the first draft of the United States Constitution.
  • The Constitutional Convention took place in 1787, from May to September, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • It was convened to address problems in governing the United States of America following independence from Great Britain.
  • This report constituted the first draft of the United States Constitution.
  • Constitutional Convention of 1787, as published in Farrand's Records, Volume 1 (1911).

• From Annapolis to Philadelphia

  • Prior to the Annapolis Convention and the 1787 Philadelphia convention that saw the drafting of the United States Constitution, delegates from Virginia and Maryland met at George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, Virginia in March 1785.
  • Its success encouraged James Madison to advocate further discussion of constitutional issues facing the states.
  • In January 1786, Virginia invited all the states to attend a meeting on commercial issues that would be the ground-breaking Annapolis Convention, where twelve delegates from five states unanimously called for a constitutional convention.
  • The direct result of the report was the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, which produced the United States Constitution.
  • Examine how the Mount Vernon Conference pushed states further away from the Articles and closer to the Constitution

• Formal Methods of Amending the Constitution

  • These are the Congressional method and the Constitutional Convention methods.
  • After being officially proposed, a constitutional amendment must then be ratified either by the legislatures of at least three-fourths of the states, or by conventions in the same proportion of states.
  • Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution that have been ratified, Congress has specified the method of ratification through state conventions for only one: the 21st Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in 1933.
  • New Mexico state law provides that the members of its legislature be the delegates at such a state ratification convention.
  • It is unclear whether this New Mexico state law violates the United States Constitution.

• The 21st Amendment

  • The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol on January 17, 1920.
  • The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
  • The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
  • This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
  • Joint Resolution Proposing the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• Article VII

  • Article Seven of the United States Constitution provides how many state ratifications were necessary in order for the Constitution to take effect and how a state could ratify it.
  • The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

• Article V

  • Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered; altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification.
  • The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

• Hosting Conventions

  • Political parties in the United States that will be fielding nominees in an upcoming U.S. presidential election are responsible for hosting presidential nominating conventions.
  • Nominating conventions also carry significance beyond their formal purposes.
  • The Democratic National Committee administers the Democratic National Convention while the Republican National Committee administers the Republican National Convention.
  • Examples of such minor parties include the Green Party, Socialist Party USA, Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, and Reform Party USA.
  • Presidential nominating conventions, like the Democratic National Convention, host influential speakers to increase party unity.

• National Convention

  • A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States.
  • The selection of individual delegates and their alternates is also governed by the bylaws of each state party, or in some cases by state law.
  • A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
  • Some minor parties also select their nominees by convention, including the Green Party, Socialist Party USA, Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, and Reform Party USA.
  • The speakers at the 2004 Democratic convention included Ted Kennedy, a forty-year veteran of the United States Senate, and Jimmy Carter, a former Democratic President, while at the Republican convention speakers included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Governor George Pataki of New York, two of the largest states in the nation.