The collection of States and Territory's
Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in
1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of
America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and
20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the
nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a
number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences
in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great
Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II
and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's
most powerful nation state. The economy is marked by steady growth,
low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in
technology.[4]
Constitution
The Constitution defines the fundamental law of the
U.S. federal government, setting forth the three principal branches
of the federal government and outlining their jurisdictions. It has
become the landmark legal document of the Western world, and is the
oldest written national constitution currently in effect. The
Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992,
although there have been over 11,000 amendments proposed since
1789.[1]
The Federal Convention convened in the State House (Independence
Hall) in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, to revise the Articles of
Confederation. Because the delegations from only two states were at
first present, the members adjourned from day to day until a quorum
of seven states was obtained on May 25. Through discussion and
debate it became clear by mid-June that, rather than amend the
existing Articles, the Convention would draft an entirely new frame
of government. All through the summer, in closed sessions, the
delegates debated, and redrafted the articles of the new
Constitution. Among the chief points at issue were how much power
to allow the central government, how many representatives in
Congress to allow each state, and how these representatives should
be elected--directly by the people or by the state legislators. The
work of many minds, the Constitution stands as a model of
cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise[2]
Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of
America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their
former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to
a candid world.
- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
- He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
- He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to
them and formidable to tyrants only.
- He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures.
- He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing
with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
- He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to
cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for
their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
- He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of
Lands.
- He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing
his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
- He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure
of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
- He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither
swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their
substance.
- He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.
- He has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.
- He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving
his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
- For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
- For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States:
- For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
- For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by
Jury:
- For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences
- For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these Colonies:
- For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable
Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
- For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.
- He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his
Protection and waging War against us.
- He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people.
- He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
Head of a civilized nation.
- He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the
high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves
by their Hands.
- He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the
merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been
answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the
ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We
have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies
in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of
America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the
Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and
of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are
Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain,
is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and
Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other
Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.[3]
Incompetency
[5] Undefined rss id 8[6]
Resources
- http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Constitution_vrd.htm
- http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html
- http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html#Intro
- http://www.citizensforethics.org/feeds/all
- http://www.pogo.org/rss/pogo.xml
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