The Articles of Confederation included the text, "The Stile of this Confederation shall be the 'United States of America'"
The Constitution omits any declaration of the correct name and style, and in fact uses both styles, even in the Preamble. as Daniel Koć observes. There are conspiracy theorists who assert that the two are different entities - they spout bizarre nonsense like http://supremelaw.org/letters/us-v-usa.htm and http://usavsus.info/ . (Ordinarily, these are the 'sovereign citizens' who believe that they can get out of paying their taxes if they come up with the correct magic words to invalidate the whole body of Federal law. They do not enjoy very much success in court, but that doesn't keep them from putting reams of material up on the Web.) Their usual contention is that the 'United States' is some sort of cabal or corporation that established the Constitution for the separate entity of the 'United States of America.' In practice, it's simply brief writing. The phrase, 'of America,' is omitted when it is clear from the context, but it is never incorrect to add it. More complex is whether the term is singular or plural. It was reasonably consistent in the early days of the republic that one would write, 'the United States ARE'. After the time of Reconstruction, there was a much stronger identity as a nation, and it became conventional to write, 'the United States IS.' There is a difference there: the first refers to a collection of separate States, while the second refers to a singular unified nation. Those who draft the laws have followed the common speech, giving the conspiracy theorists more ammunition in the claim that the 'United States' and 'the United States of America' are separate entities. Let's try not to throw any more fuel on that particular fire. On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 2:33 PM Daniel Koć <daniel@koć.pl> wrote: > > W dniu 16.08.2018 o 19:43, Volker Schmidt pisze: > > Looks somewhat strange to me in view of the preamble of the US Constitution: > " We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, > establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common > defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to > ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for > the United States of America. " > > > Could you tell in your words what is strange for you, so we could discuss > things in more specific way? > > -- > "My method is uncertain/ It's a mess but it's working" [F. Apple] > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > Talk-us@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
