public:cb_mirror:the_amendment_library_txt_pages_28211
To view this on the COS website, click here the-amendment-library
The Amendment Library
Enter the library and explore forgotten, strange, and fascinating history.
| The United States Constitution, the world’s oldest surviving government charter, has only been amended 27 times in its 236-year history. For better or worse, these amendments have fulfilled the Founders’ vision for a Constitution that would evolve as the nation grew. However, we must distinguish between amending the Constitution and allowing federal officials or judicial activists to “reinterpret” the text’s plain meaning. As President Calvin Coolidge once opined, “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.” Considering we have been the recipients of this extraordinary blessing, we ought always to defend the Founders’ original intent and seek to follow the Constitution as closely as possible. It’s the Supreme Law of the land, after all! The only proper way to alter the Constitution is by constitutional amendment. Article V outlines two methods for proposing amendments: either Congress can propose amendments, or two-thirds of the states can agree to call an amendments convention. In either case, three-fourths of the states must approve any proposed amendments before they take effect. To date, only the first process has been utilized, although support for the second has grown in recent years. In this series, we will explore the fascinating, often forgotten history behind each of the 27 amendments to commemorate the anniversary of their passage. Refresh this page for future updates! 24th Amendment (passed by Congress August 27, 1962) - Elimination of Poll Taxes  The 24th Amendment: A shocking history Imagine having to pay to vote. 19th Amendment (August 18, 1920) - Suffrage for women  Ringing the bell of liberty: The Nineteenth Amendment The story of the nationwide grassroots movement that needed persistence and patience to yield the extension of the vote to American women. 14th Amendment (July 9, 1868) - Equal protection under the law and citizenship rights  A Second James Madison and the 14th Amendment It was January 22, 1861, and Representative John Bingham of Ohio could see the writing on the wall: civil war was brewing. 26th Amendment (July 1, 1971) - Lowering the voting age to 18  **Old enough to fight, old enough to vote: The Twenty-sixth Amendment** Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to endorse the idea that if 18-year old Americans could be sent to war, they should be able to vote. It took nearly 20 years for his call to be answered – and not everyone was happy about it. 12th Amendment (June 15, 1804) - Revision of presidential election procedures  The wild presidential election of 1800 Charles Pinckney’s name may have been lost to history, and he may not have realized it at the time, but the South Carolina statesman and Founding Father was standing at the center of one the most consequential — and contentious — presidential elections in history. Read More. 27th Amendment (May 7, 1992) - Congressional pay changes  **Making a Dent in the world: The Twenty-seventh Amendment** One individual can make a difference. Read how an undergraduate paper in a government class that earned a middling “C” grade became the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Read More. 17th Amendment (April 8, 1913) - Direct election of U.S. Senators  **The Seventeenth Amendment: Ambassadors to free agents** As originally established in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, United States senators were to have been, in the words of Fisher Ames, “ambassadors of the states” and the Senate itself the chamber giving the states a seat at the federal table. The Seventeenth Amendment changed all of that. Read more. 23rd Amendment (March 29, 1961) - Presidential Vote for D.C.  The Twenty-Third Amendment and a backwater town Touring America’s backwater capital in the 1840s, author Charles Dickens famously described Washington, DC, as the “City of Magnificent Intentions.” In other words, he was less than impressed. Read more. 22nd Amendment (February 27, 1951) - Presidential term limits  **Fear not the endless presidency: The Twenty-second Amendment** Franklin D. Roosevelt obliterated the two-term precedent set by George Washington. The 80th Congress addressed this by proposing and passing the amendment that codified Washington's example, but don't expect any modern-day Congress to do the same for themselves. That's where we come in. Read More. 25th Amendment (February 10, 1967) - Presidential succession and disability  Dead and disabled presidents: The 25th Amendment The Founding Fathers knew the new nation’s governing charter was imperfect. They fully intended for future generations to use Article V to rectify their mistakes. But when the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, succumbed to pneumonia after a month in office, one of those oversights became painfully obvious. Read more. 11th Amendment (February 7, 1795) - Lawsuits against the states  Chisholm v. Georgia on my mind: The Eleventh Amendment Here at Convention of States Action, it's usually all about Article V. But the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution – which was ratified on February 7, 1795 – addresses and attempts to clarify Article III, and came about following a notable Supreme Court case known as Chisholm v. Georgia. **Read more.** 16th Amendment (February 3, 1913) - Federal income tax  The Wizard of Oz and a Cross of Gold: The Strange History Behind the Sixteenth Amendment On July 9, 1896, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate (he ran in 1896, 1900, and 1908), Scopes Trial prosecutor, and likely inspiration for Frank Baum’s 1900 “The Wizard of Oz,” addressed the candidate-less Democratic National Convention. The “silverites” knew they wanted “free silver” as a dominant party tenet; but who best to lead the charge against the “gold bugs”? By the end of the night, the Democrats and Populists had found their man. **Read more.** 15th Amendment (February 3, 1870) - Right to vote regardless of race "No permanent disenfranchised peasantry" Succinct, straightforward, and to the point, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. The last of what are known as the Reconstruction Amendments, the Fifteenth Amendment would prove to have its limitations in truly giving black Americans full suffrage, yet remains a significant pillar of American political rights. Read more. 20th Amendment (January 23, 1933) - Dates for congressional and presidential terms Beginnings and endings No matter which partisan side wins the White House every four years or Congress every two, the wait between Election Day and January of the next year can seem interminable. But can you imagine waiting another two months for the lame ducks to stop quacking? **Read more.** 18th Amendment (January 16, 1919) - Prohibition  Alcohol and Article V: The Eighteenth Amendment The Eighteenth Amendment may seem irrelevant today as it was overturned by the Twenty-first Amendment. However, it offers a valuable lesson about the only proper way to correct or change the Constitution. Read more. |
| Page Metadata | |
| Login Required to view? | No |
| Created: | 2025-02-11 01:12 GMT |
| Updated: | 2025-08-28 00:02 GMT |
| Published: | 2025-02-11 01:40 GMT |
| Converted: | 2025-11-11 12:42 GMT |
| Change Author: | Jakob Fay |
| Credit Author: | |
public/cb_mirror/the_amendment_library_txt_pages_28211.txt · Last modified: 2025/11/11 12:42 by 127.0.0.1