amendment

Examples of amendment in the following topics:

• The Bill of Rights

  • The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution.
  • The amendments have the purpose of protecting the natural rights of liberty and property.
  • While Congress passed 12 amendments, only 10 had originally been passed by the states.
  • He carefully considered the state amendment recommendations as well.
  • On November 20, 1789, New Jersey became the first state to ratify these amendments.

• The Reconstruction Amendments

  • The amendments were directed at ending slavery and providing full citizenship to freedmen.
  • The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865.
  • The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment added this amendment to the Constitution for two reasons.
  • After rejecting more sweeping versions of a suffrage amendment, Congress proposed a compromise amendment banning franchise restrictions on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude on February 26, 1869.
  • The amendment survived a difficult ratification fight and was adopted on March 30, 1870.

• The Final Document

  • Maryland's Luther Martin argued that the federal convention had exceeded its authority; he still called for amending the Articles.
  • They began to take exception to the Constitution as it was, seeking amendments.
  • Several conventions saw supporters for "amendments before" shift to a position of "amendments after" for the sake of staying in the Union.
  • New York Anti's "circular letter" was sent to each state legislature proposing a second constitutional convention for "amendments before".
  • Ultimately only North Carolina and Rhode Island would wait for amendments from Congress before ratifying.

• The Bill of Rights

  • The Bill of Rights refers to the first ten amendments of the Constitution that outlines the basic freedoms held by American citizens.
  • The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.
  • While originally the amendments applied only to the federal government, most of their provisions have since been held to apply to the states by way of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • The amendments were introduced by James Madison to the 1st United States Congress as a series of legislative articles .
  • While twelve amendments were passed by Congress, only ten were originally passed by the states.

• Legally Free, Socially Bound

  • Two years later, the 13th amendment of the U.S.
  • In 1868 the 14th amendment granted full U.S. citizenship to African-Americans, and the 15th amendment, ratified in 1870, extended the right to vote to black males.
  • Together these amendments were known as the Reconstruction Amendments.

• The Anti-Federalists

  • Their efforts to amend the Articles led to the development of the Constitution of the United States.
  • As the Federalists moved forward with their efforts to amend the Articles, they applied the term "Anti-Federalist" to this type of opposition.
  • Massachusetts would ratify the Constitution with recommended provisions in the ratifying instrument that the Constitution be amended with a bill of rights.
  • As a result, once the Constitution became operative in 1789, Congress sent a set of 12 amendments to the states.
  • Ten of these amendments were immediately ratified and became known as the Bill of Rights, with one of the other two becoming the Twenty-seventh Amendment almost 200 years later.

• The Anti-Federalists

  • As the Federalists moved to amend the Articles, eventually leading to the Philadelphia Convention and drafting of a new Constitution, they dubbed their opposition Anti-Federalists.
  • However, the Federalists prevailed and Anti-Federalist remained the term of choice for all opposed to amending the Articles of Confederation.
  • Ultimately, after long debate, what was known as the Massachusetts Compromise was reached; by which Massachusetts would ratify the Constitution with recommended provisions that the Constitution be amended with a bill of rights.
  • As a result, when the Constitution went into effect in 1789, Congress sent a set of 12 amendments to the states.
  • Ten of the amendments were immediately ratified and became known as the Bill of Rights, with one of the other two becoming the 27th Amendment almost 200 years later.

• Democracy

  • U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League, voters in Oregon overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum processes for citizens to directly introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution, making Oregon the first state to adopt such a system.
  • The vote may be on a proposed statute, constitutional amendment, charter amendment or local ordinance, or to simply oblige the executive or legislature to consider the subject by submitting it to the order of the day.
  • U'Ren also helped in the passage of an amendment in 1908 that gave voters power to recall elected officials.
  • Reformers worked toward a constitutional amendment, which was strongly supported in the House of Representatives but initially opposed by the Senate.
  • By 1910, 31 state legislatures had passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment allowing direct election, and in the same year ten Republican senators who were opposed to reform were forced out of their seats, acting as a "wake-up call to the Senate."

• Progressive Government: City and State

  • Referenda are common today for such issues as approval for bond issues, amendments to state constitutions, etc.
  • Blue: Has both initiatives and referendums Yellow: Initiative constitutional amendments only Green: Referendums only Red: Has neither initiatives nor referendums.

• Johnson's Battle with Congress

  • The Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, were adopted between 1865 and 1870.
  • However, the amendment did not declare the vote an unconditional right; it only prohibited these examples of discrimination.
  • Full federal enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments did not occur until the passage of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) necessitated the amendments' legislation.
  • Texas was accepted since it had already ratified the 13th amendment and had been readmitted.