This page has been accessed 224 times.
- Occasionally, there has been disagreement as to when to put “United States of America” after a states name. Wikitree recognizes the birth of the United States and the date to put USA for the original 13 states as 4 July 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence. The point of this page is explain why this correct.
- The notion or problem is that many people seem to believe that USA should be put after a state’s name using the date that each state ratified the United States Constitution. In fact, you can find many web sites stating the same thing. This is incorrect as the United States existed as a nation well before these dates, and the original 13 states were already part of the new nation. While the dates that each state voted on ratifying the Constitution are historically significant and interesting, they did suddenly join the USA on these dates.
- Basically, the USA existed as a separate nation from the day they declared their independence from England. The thirteen original colonies, were of course part of this new nation. The "United States of America" was not a simple turn of phrase, but it was a functioning nation with three distinct forms of government in its early founding - the Continental Congress from 4 July 1776 to 1 March 1781, the Confederation Congress (created by the Articles of Confederation) from 1 March 1781 to 4 March 1789, and the Congress of the United States (created by the Constitution of the United States) from 4 March 1789 until present.
- The reasoning as to why 4 July 1776 is correct, and the ratification dates are wrong goes like this:
- Birth date of the USA: The birth date of the United States of America is held to be 4 July 1776 – the date on the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson used the phrase United States of America in the Declaration of Independence. In 1976, we celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of our country with tremendous fanfare – we did nothing in 1989. Certainly, we did not have the same form of Constitutional democracy which we have today before 1789, but that does mean Constitution Day is the birth of the United States of America. I doubt most Americans have any idea that there is such a thing as Constitution Day. The USA came into existence in 1776, and all 13 of the original states need to use this date for when to start adding USA after the state name.
- Formation of a National Government: From the moment the Continental Congress declared its independence from England, it was empowered and began acting as a national government. The Continental Congress had the power to raise a national army, to declare war, to regulate commerce between states, to negotiate with foreign governments, to enter into treaties with foreign governments, to raise funds, etc. The source of these powers was unclear, and really came from a common consent of the states and the people. The Continental Congress immediately began drafting a constitution where the powers of the national government would be enumerated by the Articles of Confederation. Still, a national government had begun functioning on 4 July 1776 with all 13 states part of the new nation.
- Official adoption of the name 1: There were times in the first couple months of the new nation where the term United States was used, and there were times where the term United Colonies was used. To make this clear, the Continental Congress declared on 9 September 1776 that the official name of the country was to be the United States and “That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the ‘United States.’”
- Recognition by Foreign Governments: A key tenet of national sovereignty is the recognition of other countries. In 1777, Morocco became the first foreign country to recognize the USA as a separate nation, and most importantly France also did so later that year. In 1778, a treaty of alliance was signed between France and “The United States of America”. The USA existed as a sovereign nation long before any votes on ratification of the Constitution.
- Articles of Confederation: Even before declaring independence, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a constitution for the new nation. This constitution was presented in the form of the Articles of Confederation and adopted by Congress on 15 November 1777. Even in its unratified state from 1777-1781 the Articles of Confederation allowed the Continental Congress to conduct war versus Great Britain, conduct diplomacy with European powers as a single nation, deal with issues of borders, land expansion, Native American relations, etc. The articles were not completely ratified until 1781, but they certainly formed a formal system of national government for The United States of America, before it was later replaced by the Constitution of the United States in 1789.
- Official adoption of the name 2: Article 1 of the Articles of Confederation states directly that the name of the country shall be The United States of America. There is no way that it can be argued that the original 13 states were not part of the USA from 1776 to 1789.
- Treaty of Paris: The American Revolutionary War officially ended with the Treaty of Paris on 3 September 1783. In the treaty, Great Britain formally recognized the “United States of America” as an independent nation. Who was part of this nation which signed the treaty if not all 13 original states?
- Constitution of the United States: Recognizing that the national government formed by the Articles of Confederation were too weak, the Confederation Congress in 1787 proposed writing a new Constitution of the United States. It was decided that this new Constitution would become the law of the land if 9 of the 13 states ratified it. This happened when Hew Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it on 21 June 1788. On 4 March 1789, the Congress of the United States (created by the Constitution of the United States) officially took over from the Confederation Congress (created by the Articles of Confederation). No new nation was created with the adoption of the Constitution, just a new form of government became the law of the land for the USA.
- Why 25 June 1788 is wrong: (Using Virginia as an example) This is the date that Virginia voted to ratify the Constitution of the United States. It is not the date that Virginia voted to join the Union – they were already a part of it. It is not the date that the Constitution was officially ratified – that happened with the New Hampshire vote. In fact, if Virginia had voted NO on 25 June 1788, it still would have been a state of the Union bound by the laws established by the Constitution. It is not the date the Constitution went into effect – that didn’t happen until 4 March 1789. Virginia was actually the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on 16 December 1777. Why not use this date? The 25 June 1788 date really has absolutely no relevance as to when it is correct to start using "Virginia, USA."
- Summary: The United States came into existence on July 4, 1776. There were disagreements regarding the powers of the federal government vs the powers of states, and the rights to be granted under the Constitution. The states were not independent countries or territories agreeing to join the Union by ratifying the Constitution, they were agreeing that this would be the form of government of the Union which they were already a part of. This is certainly shown by the fact that only 9 of 13 states were needed to ratify the Constitution for it to become the law of the land. From the perspective of the United States, we became a separate and sovereign nation on 4 July 1776. All thirteen original states were of course part of this. Great Britain might disagree and say they did not give up governmental control of their colonies until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris formally acknowledged the United States to be a free and sovereign nation; but then again, they lost. There is nothing special about the ratification voting dates to suggest that they be used for any naming convention on wikitree.
- There is absolutely no reason to choose any date other than July 4, 1776 for the birth of the United States.
- Birth of the USA, and Virginia, USA Apr 26, 2017.
Collaboration
- Login to request to the join the Trusted List so that you can edit and add images.
- Private Messages: Send a private message to the Profile Manager. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)
- Public Q&A: These will appear above and in the Genealogist-to-Genealogist (G2G) Forum. (Best for anything directed to the wider genealogy community.)
Comments
Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.