The mind boggles...

[moragmacpherson]

So I realize that the majority of my f-list is, in fact, European, but I know at least one of you is in an American studies program at university, so I challenge you: how many levels does this sentence fail on?

"In 1763 Thomas Jefferson began the constitutional period by starting to write a new constitution which he called the declaration of independence."

Comments

[jedibuttercup]

I am an American, in fact went through American History AP courses at school, and cannot remember ever hearing about a "constitutional period" in my lessons. WTF?

Jefferson was twenty years old in 1763, barely a year out of college, when the French and Indian War ended. That year might be when they date the tensions and legal issues from that led to the Revolutionary War, but he didn't make the Virginia Bar until 1767, whereupon he set up as a lawyer. It wasn't until the mid-seventeenseventies that he became politically active; he'd been writing notable political papers for a couple of years already by the time the Declaration was published in 1776, but none of them were any kind of "constitutional" documents, more "resolutions" for action.

The Second Continental Congress (for which Jefferson did write the Declaration) was also responsible for the "Articles of Confederation", aka the pre-Constitution, which might explain the confusion. That particular document was sent for ratification in 1777 (though not fully ratified until 1781) and was in effect until 1789; that's when the "United States Constitution" (written in 1787 and sent around for ratification again to patch the holes in the government created by the Articles) went into effect.

Too much detail? =)

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No, but you've earned my eternal love and admiration.

I'm not sure where the student got constitutional period from either - when she came to my review session, I did mention dividing the comprehensive question up into four time periods in order to organize the essay: 1607-1763, 1763-1800, 1800-1850, and 1850-1865. The phrase I used to describe the second period was, "This covers the build-up to the Revolution, the Revolutionary War, the development of the Constitution, and the first few presidential administrations under the Constitution." Somehow this student's brain translated that into 'constitutional period'. That's the best I can come up with.