Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 15:20:53 -0500 From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Dates; was Colonial History Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> > leeandalexis at hotmail.com 04/05/02 03:08PM >>>> >Mike, what were the dates on those? In years. > Articles of Confederation: Agreed to by Congress 15 November 1777 In force after ratification by Maryland, 1 March 1781. "The Federal Convention convened in the State House (Independence Hall) in = Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation . . = .On September 17, 1787, the document was signed and sent to Congress, = which soon forwarded printed copies to the state legislatures. . . .By = June 21, 1788, conventions in nine states later approved it. " (http://www.nara.gov/= exhall/charters/constitution/conmain.html) mjw > >----Original Message Follows---- >From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> >Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> >To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> >Subject: [WSFA] Colonial History >Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:16:59 -0500 > > > sgs at aginc.net 04/05/02 03:25AM >>> > > > >>Samuel Lubell wrote: > > > >> Nowhere in the Constitution does it give states the right to leave > > > >Article X. > >The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor > >prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,= > >or to the people. > >Here's how to enter the Union: > >"Article IV, Section. 3. >New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new = = >State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other = >State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or = = >Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States = = >concerned as well as of the Congress." > >I've searched the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the various = >Amendments and find no reference to a mechanism to leave the Union. At = = >best, one could make a case for a State to leave the Union only with "the = = >Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the = >Congress." > >There is this interesting piece in the earlier Articles of Confederation:= = > >"VI. >No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation or = >alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States = = >in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the = = >same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue." > >And this: >"XI. >Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of = = >the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the = >advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the = = >same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. " > >But more telling: >"XIII. >"Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in = >Congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are = >submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be = >inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor = = >shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless = = >such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be = = >afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State." > >Note the phrase: "and the Union shall be perpetual". But since this = >phrase did not make it into the subsequent Federal documents, what should = = >one make of it? Was it an assumption that the framers felt wasn't = needed? = > One source of information is the work of the First Federal Congress = >Project (based at GW), so far they've produced 16 volumes of documentary = = >history (see: http://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/publications.html). > >mjw > > > > >-- > >Steve Smith sgs at aginc.net > >Agincourt Computing http://www.aginc.net > >"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense." > > > >______________________________________________________________ >___ >