The state of Maryland has had four constitutions with the first one being adopted in November of 1776 by the Ninth Provincial Convention. The state of Texas has had eight constitutions including the Mexican constitutions. The first constitution of Texas was adopted in 1827 when Texas was still part of Mexico. On February 15, 1876, the last constitution took effect, which is the current constitution of Texas. The second constitution of Maryland was adopted in June 1851. The third constitution was written during the Civil War in 1864. The last constitution replaced the third one written in 1864. It was drafted by a convention meeting at the state capital, Annapolis, and submitted for ratification. On September 18, 1867, the people of the state ratified it. The most recent ratification was done on November 4, 2014 on Article 17, Section 2. The first Maryland constitution of 1776 was initially about 8,800 words long. But now, the current Constitution of the State of Maryland has approximately 47,000 words. The Constitution of Texas has approximately 80,000 words. It is one of the longest constitutions in the United States. These two states’ constitutions are both longer than the average length …show more content…
The amendments can be ratified by a simple majority of the people. Every 20 years, the people of the state are asked if a constitutional convention needs to be called to amend the constitution. A convention is called if majority of the people vote on having a convention. The Texas Constitution can be amended if two-thirds of members in both houses of the state legislature propose it, and the majority of the people vote on it in an election. Just like the Constitution of Maryland, the Texas amendments can be ratified by a simple majority of the people. Unlike Maryland, Texas is one of the six states that do not hold constitutional conventions
Although the U. S. S. Constitution was originally built as a defense against pirates during the Barbary War, it is most famous for the three major battles that it won during the War of 1812. The first of these battles, which was fought against the British H. M. S. Guerriere, was where the Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides.” The second battle was against the H. M. S. Java, a merchant ship bound for India. In the third battle, the Constitution contended with both the H. M. S. Cyane and the H. M. S Levant. All of these victories are owed, at least in part, to the ingenious manner in which Old Ironsides was built. The building style of the U. S. S. Constitution gave it significant advantages over the English frigates during the War of 1812 that enabled it to emerge victorious from decisive naval battles against such ships as the H. M. S. Guerriere and H. M. S. Java.
Kristina Schweitzer Schweitzer 2 The Constitution of the United States was written in 1787, yet there was a struggle to ratify it that went on until 1790. This Constitution was created in order to replace the Articles of
The Constitution of 1836 is notably the most important Texan Constitution. This Constitution was written to list out and define the functions of the government of the Republic of Texas. The reason why Texas declared its independence to Mexico was due to escalating tensions between Texas and Mexico. Texas declared its independence in 1836, and established itself as the Republic of Texas, and created a new constitution. The Texas Constitution of 1836 borrowed many ideas from the U.S. Constitution. The new charter was brief, and was composed of less than 6,500 words. Its features included, separation of powers into three branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—with a system of checks and balances. It created a bicameral legislature, with
As time passes by, changes are required to settle down thing and to improve what we have before, that is the main reason why Texas constitution is amended 467 times. "The amendments are the newest in a long line of legislative proposals to update the state Constitution. Since the Constitution was ratified in 1876, Texas voters have considered 646 proposed amendments and approved 467, according to the Legislative reference library. Texas is not alone in its prodigious accumulation of constitutional amendments, however. Alabama leads that contest. Its voters, According to the Texas politics, have amended their constitution almost 800 times since its creation in 1901".
Every state but Rhode Island elected a ratifying convention in 1787-1788, and only North Carolina's adjourned (August 2, 1788, by a vote of 185-84) without voting on the Constitution. (Rhode Island submitted the Constitution to its town meetings; on March 24, 1788, in a vote boycotted by most Federalists, the voters rejected it, 2,708-237.) The first five ratifications took
The state of Texas has had six constitutions. The constitution that took effect on February 15, 1876 is the current one still used today. The Texas Constitution is the second longest constitution in the United States, and one of the oldest still in effect. Since the constitution has been adopted it has been
Ever since the United States was born into existence, it has been indirectly ran under two significant documents, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. On March 1st, 1781, the Articles of Confederation were put into full effect after being ratified by Maryland. Unfortunately, it only remained in effect until June 21st, 1788, when New Hampshire upheld the Articles of Confederation and it was formally replaced with the Constitution of the United States. While they were both federal documents in which held the formal name of their nation as The United States of America, they were also quite unique to their own. Unlike the Unicameral legislature of the Articles of Confederation, the legislature of the Constitution was Bicameral in
On September 17, 1787, the U.S. constitution was signed. The U.S. constitution is a document that has a set of rules, guidelines, and principles that governs our nation. This constitution is the oldest written national document and has had 27 amendments. The current Texas constitution is the seventh document written for Texas. The previous six were all when Texas was still apart of Mexico. The current constitution hasn’t been revised since 1876, which makes it the longest state constitution in the United States.
“We the People of the United States…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” (U.S. Const., Pmbl). In 1787, the United States Constitution was ratified. It was looked over by fifty-five representatives from the thirteen colonies. It was strongly influenced by the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence, from the failure of the Articles of Confederation, and by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
The effort in the years of 1971-1974 were the most distinct out of all the attempts due to the closeness the convention came to reforming. Many of these attempts worked towards to reduce its size by taking out parts that were irrelevant or just creating a new state constitution. The 1974 attempt to reform did not prevail for the legislature was the constitutional convention. If the convention had been made up of citizen delegates, the final result might have been different. The decision rules used in the convention especially the two-thirds rule, rare rule in the history of constitutional conventions. Members of the constitutional convention who opposed change to the original constitution and revisionists, together these two groups were large enough to prevent the adoption of a final resolution. As stated by www.laits.utexas.edu, “distractions, like the May 1974 state primary elections, also slowed the convention's progress. By the time it closed on July 30, the convention had failed by only three votes to support submitting a document to voters for ratification.” This experience led to the conclusion that Texans would rather the document they are more familiar
The U.S. constitution is the foundation of our national government. On September 17, 1787 it was signed by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia ("The U.S. Constitution"). By signing this, the Constitution replaced the first governing document called the Articles of Confederation. Before it could be passed, it had to be ratified by nine of the thirteen states. Soon after the Constitution was finally ratified, in 1791 the government decided to add the Bill of Rights to the Constitution (Bill of Rights of the United States of America (1791)). After the Constitution was written, many of the great delegates or "framers" called it a miracle.
The Constitution of 1876 is the constitution by which Texas lives by. Even after its 467 amendments, the Texas Constitution is still similar to the original document from 1876. The purpose of the constitution was because Texas wanted to have protection for various private interests. The people of Texas were motivated to limit the powers of state government and wanted to be sure they would avoid the abuse of government powers they once witnessed during the Reconstruction phase. The constitution has had some influences. Going back to when Texas was governed by Spain and then by Mexico, we still have sections in the constitution that deals with land titles and land law, debtor relief, judicial procedures, marital relations and adoptions, and water and mineral rights. Back in 1827, the constitution of the state of Coahuila y Tejas had provided a unicameral legislature but didn’t have a bill of rights. Texas at the time did not adopt the required Catholicism into their constitution, although they added to recognize slavery. In 1836 when Texas became independent it adopted the Republic Constitution of 1836. Texas then established a unitary form of government, freedom of religion, property rights protection, and legal recognition of slavery. When Texas became a state it reflected on traditionalistic southern culture. It
The Constitutional Convention of 1875 was the result of the determination of the Democrats of Texas to eliminate the radical Constitution of 1869. A strong movement to have the changes in that document made by a legislative joint committee and then submitted to the voters failed in the House of Representatives because of a belief that the electorate would resent such a centralized method of providing a new organic law. The legislature then called an election in August 1875, in which voters approved a convention to prepare a new constitution and elected three delegates from each of the state's thirty senatorial districts. The time before the constitutional convention was marked by a number of Democratic measures designed to undo many Republican
Texas has been through a lot of changes and constitutions. After constants debates of what the constitution should be, the current Texas constitution was established in 1876 and is the 7th constitution Texas has had. It created 3 branches of government: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The current constitution has great qualities, but it also contains a lot of weaknesses that shouldn’t be ignored for the sake of pride.
On September 17, 1787 framers in Philadelphia signed “The Constitution of the United States in which it was approved on June 21, 1788 by the ninth state. Once confirmed, along with the addition to the Bill of Rights it developed a mutual standard by which Americans determined the responsibilities and limits of their government. Looking to the Constitution to decide political discrepancies has helped to substitute and preserve a general agreement among people that are otherwise diverse. The Constitution, although two centuries of complications and trials of the American experiment in self-government, is a testament to the cleverness and anticipation of its framers.