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From: Darrell Martin <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Place Style questions
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 12:20:35 -0600 (GMT-06:00)


-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael J Dietz <>
>Sent: Nov 1, 2006 8:59 AM
>
>I have a rather nitpicking and a serious question about setting up place styles.

[snip]

>And the nitpicking one. Maryland declared its independence as a colony in 1776. It did not ratify the Constitution until 1788 at which time it became a state. What was it in the period 1776 to 1788?
>
>Thank you
>Mike

Hi, Mike:

It is a common misunderstanding that the United States of America came into existence with the Constitution. The U.S.A. was created by the Articles of Confederation. From Wikipedia:

"The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, was the first governing document of the United States of America. -- The Articles, which united the Thirteen Colonies of the American Revolutionary War into a loose confederation, were adopted by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, after months of debate. The Articles were ratified four years later on March 1, 1781. -- The Articles were replaced (due to concerns over a weak central government, a lack of union among the colonies, and Shays's Rebellion) by the United States Constitution on June 21, 1788, when the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution."

The date of the Articles doesn't even start the use of "United States". For example, 23 June 1777 a number of men of Rockingham, Vermont took an oath of allegiance to the State of Vermont, its Constitution, and to "the United States of America". This in spite of the fact that Vermont's existence as a state independent of both New York and New Hampshire was not accepted until 1791.

I think it is a misguided pursuit to try to keep *too* closely to a formal definition of place names. The waters are just too muddy. For example, it might well be argued that the British naming conventions ought to be maintained up until the date when His Majesty's Government recognized the independence of the confederated American colonies. This would fly in the face of the usage actually common in the U.S.A. from 1777 on. This is not a pedantic argument; the question is, what is going to appear on the documents you are lucky enough to find which were created during the period of theoretical *and* practical uncertainty?

Darrell


Darrell A. Martin
a native Vermonter in exile in Illinois


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