Question ... has america had only one constitution ... since i've now learned that alabama has had 6?
The United States has had only one Constitution, but some would say that the character of that constitution has changed beginning with the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution and most certainly with the 14th.
If you look at the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, 1 through 8 essentially says what that government can't or must do. Amendments 9 and 10 are a reservation of rights to the States and ultimately to "the People".
Amendment 11 was added after the State of Georgia got its can kicked in the Supreme Court case Chisholm v. Georgia (1794) (one of my favorite cases). Congress essentially granted the States a form of immunity from suit in federal court without their permission. This has since been modified by the Supreme Court a bit.
Amendment 12 alters the procedure for election of the President and Vice-President.
The character of the Amendments change radically from the 13th onward.
If you look at Amendments 1 - 12 in addition to the 7 Articles of the Constitution, it deals almost exclusively with the
internal business of government of the United States.
Persons had their own political communities via the States.
The States sent representatives to the Philadelphia Convention to hash out business between the other political communities (States). The result of that convention was the abolition of the Confederacy and the birth of the Federation upon ratification by a majority of States.
Destee said:
If america has only had one ... how did they achieve that ... with amendments?
Parties to the US Constitution are States, not persons. This is one reason. States are political communities.
Parties to a State constitution will be persons.
Also, many people don't know this ... the federal government forced the States to change their Constitutions after the Civil War with particular emphasis on those States which seceded from the Union.
Destee said:
If amendments could do that ... why did alabama get new ones ?? ...
The people of a State can call/organize a constitutional convention to either amend a current constitution or abolish and create a new constitution. You could say that each new constitution represents a new political community.
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