There is a claim that we have prepared constitutions to be put in place at the convention. This stems from the fact that one of our board members participated in this Constitution Drafting Exercise done by the National Constitution Center

Responding to Opposition

Support for COS

Instructions to the Delegates for the Philadelphia Federal Conventions (EVERY STATES ORIGINAL TEXT)

Steve Davies's (previous State Director) Responses to Opposition

Supporting but different interpretations of Article V

John Cogswell - Article V Applications

COS 2022 Summer Speaker Series

Endorsements

PA Hearings

Podcast

08/16/22 - Jared Bill on The Kings Report

05/31/23 - Jared Bill on COS Live

Legislator Handouts

Convention Mechanics

Convention Simulation

Additional Information

Convention Rules (Legacy)

How the Courts have Clarified the Constitution’s Amendment Process

Constitution

Analysis and Interpretation (Big Constitution Book)

THE CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Purchase Hardback Here

Appendix

Colonial America Timeline

List of conventions (early conventions were used to meet with the Native Americans 1677-1768).

1584 - Second English Voyage

English (2nd) voyage to new found land - scout potential locations along the eastern seaboard for future settlement

1585 - Creation and destruction of first English Settlement - Roanoke Island

April 9, 1585 - 600 English soldiers and sailors in seven ships sailed from Plymouth, England in an attempt to establish the first English colony in North America.
June 23rd - Arrival off coast of cape Fear - Creation and destruction of first English Settlement - Roanoke Island

1607 - Jamestown Colony, established

Jamestown Colony, established. It was a commercial undertaking (The Virginia Company), set up by merchants seeking riches and nobles promoting royal ambition

The company that founded the colony restructured itself repeatedly, trying to find an organization that fit the geography and the people who lived there. Ultimately the colony was held together by tobacco.

A comprehensive illustrated guide to Colonial America

1609 - The Starving Time

The Company abolished the royal council in England and placed the colony in the hands of a governor with absolute authority. (The king had removed himself from the company’s affairs, in part so he could disavow the operation if it overly antagonized Spain

1614 - First shipment of Nicotiana tabaccum

The first shipment of Nicotiana tabaccum (Rolfe - West Indian Tobacco) reached england to big success, kicking of “company” plantations

1618 - The first plantation was Martin’s Hundred

Leadership of the company changed. The new treasurer, Edwin Sandys (1561–1629), began making land grants for “private plantations,” each of which was to include a town. The first plantation was Martin’s Hundred, owned by a corporation in England

1619 - First documented arrival of African slaves to Virginia

First documented arrival of Africans to Virginia was in 1619, when an English warship, White Lion, arrived at Point Comfort in present-day Hampton

1622 - Powhatan Wars

Powhatan Wars

1626 - Tobacco Boom

Tobacco Boom - the colonists sent 260,000 pounds of tobacco to England. The output would multiply over the following decades

1629 - Charter of Massachusetts Bay

1629 Charter of Massachusetts Bay - ORIGINAL TEXT

1630 - The Great Migration

Between about 1630 and 1640, as many as 20,000 men, women and children left England for New England

1636 - Pequot War

1640 - The Beaver Wars, and Iroquois Confederacy

American Revolutonary Timeline

1691 - Massachusetts’ 1691 charter

November 3 - Massachusetts’ 1691 charter

1774 - Intolerable Acts & First Continental Congress

March 31 - Intolerable Acts - Boston Port Act
October 14 - First Continental Congress - Declaration and Resolves

Recommendation to meet again at the same time next year

1775 - Battle of Lexington and Concord - Start of Revolutionary War

April 19th - Before they met again, the Battle of Lexington and Concord occurred and the Revolutionary war began

1776 - Declaration of Independence is SIgned

July 4th - Declaration of Independence is SIgned

1783 - Rev War ends, Washington retires…again

Washington retires…again, cementing him as an American legend. He will not remain, in retirement, however.

1785 - Mount Vernon Convention

Mount Vernon Compact

Virginia and Maryland agree to share the Potomac river and make it available for US citizens
Agreed to invite other states to future conventions

1786 - Annapolis Convention

Sheas Rebellion this article also has some info about other uprisings
Virginia Legislature, building on the mount Vernon compact, calls a national convention
Nine (out of 13) states appointed commissioners

4 were tardy
The 5 present drafted The Report of the Annapolis Conference and adjourned

1787 - Federal/Philadelphia Convention

Instructions to the Convention Delegates (EVERY STATES ORIGINAL TEXT)
Constitution - Delegate Vote Breakdown (11 out of 13 passed)

Arguments that the delegates acted within power when forming the constitution

Audio Reading (listen & watch)

Federalist 78

Audio Reading (listen & watch)

Pieces of some of the articles carried over to the new constitution

Article IV
Article VI
Article IX

Some of the delegates sent to the convention also served in the Continental Congress (Delegates at 1787 convention / 1787 Continental Congress)

* Connecticut - William S. Johnson
* Georgia - Abraham Baldwin
* Georgia - William Pierce
* Massachusetts - Nathaniel Gorham
* Massachusetts - Rufus King
* New Hampshire - Nicholas Gilman
* New Hampshire - John Langdon
* New Jersey - Abraham Clark (not present)

* New Jersey - Jonathan Dayton
* North Carolina - William Blount
* North Carolina - Hugh Williamson
* Pennsylvania - James Wilson
* South Carolina - Pierce Butler
* South Carolina - Charles Pinckney
* Virginia - Richard Henery Lee
* Virginia - James Madison

Continental Congress 1787

Plans presented at the convention

The Pinckney Plan (1787) - Early source of the idea for article 5

“If Two Thirds of the Legislatures of the States apply for the same The Legislature of the United States shall call a Convention for the purpose of amending the Constitution — Or should Congress with the Consent of Two thirds of each house propose to the States amendments to the same — the agreement of Two Thirds of the Legislatures of the States shall be sufficient to make the said amendments Parts of the Constitution The Ratifications of the Conventions of NA States shall be sufficient for organizing this Constitution”

Paper printing wars

Opposition of ratification

1788 - New Hampshire ratifies and becomes the ninth

June 21 - New Hampshire ratifies and becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution transforming the Continential Congress into the Confederated Congress.
Nov 20 - Virginia, having just ratified the constitution, and prior to it being formally ratified by all, makes the first ever call for a convention of states to propose amendments

1794 - Whiskey Rebellion

Whiskey Rebellion - The First Step Toward Ultimate Power?

1798 - George Washington Inauguration

April 30 - First President Sworn in - George Washington Inauguration timeline

1799 - Washington dies

December 16 - Washington dies of an inflamed and swollen throat

Post-Revolutionary Timeline

1803 - Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase

States Added: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma along with most of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota

1831 - Nat Turner Rebellion

August 31 - Nat Turner Rebellion

1833 - Britain Ends Slavery

28th August 1833 - Britain Ends Slavery - The Slavery Abolition Law would finally be enacted, after years of campaigning, suffering and injustice. This act was a crucial step in a much wider and ongoing process designed to bring an end to the slave trade.

1850 - Compromise of 1850

Compromise of 1850

1854-1859 - Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

1860 - Civil War in 59 minutes

Lincoln Elected

1862 - Emancipation Proclamation

September 22, 1862 - President Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that enslaved people in those states or parts of states still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be declared free. One hundred days later, with the rebellion unabated, President issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious areas “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

1863 - Battle of Gettysburg

July 1st - Battle of Gettysburg

1865 - Lincoln Assassinated & 13th amendment to the constitution was passed banning slavery

April 14 - Lincoln Assassinated
Dec 6 - 13th amendment to the constitution was passed and ratified, abolishing slavery across the nation