Just a couple more points on the Kentucky case:

The Act Admitting Kentucky into the Union (approved 4 February 1791) notes that the Kentucky district "within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth of Virginia" is to be separated from it and formed into a new state and received into the Union with the name "The State of Kentucky." The first state constitution of Kentucky (1792) includes a number of references to both "the State of Kentucky" and "the commonwealth of Kentucky." The same is true of the next state constitution of Kentucky (1799), though in that document, the institutions of government are explicitly called the "general assembly of the commonwealth of Kentucky," and the "governor of the commonwealth of Kentucky." In addition, "the style of all [judicial) process shall be 'The commonwealth of Kentucky.'" The next Kentucky constitution after that (1850) still refers in its preamble to "We, the representatives of the State of Kentucky." The preamble of the 1890 Kentucky constitution, finally,  refers in its preamble to "We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky." The last section of this same document refers to "We, the representatives of the people of Kentucky" who ordain this new constitution "of the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
(All of these citations come from volume 3 of Francis Newton Thorpe's Federal and State Constitutions [1909].)

A commonwealth, in this case, was quite content to refer to itself as a state as well for at least a few decades after its admission into the Union. If we confine ourselves to the Revolutionary era, we see the term  "commonwealth" used  boldly and proudly by some, while others seem to use it as a term of opprobrium for a government deemed too liberal or radical.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY Oswego
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tarter, Brent (LVA)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, May 23, 2008 7:54 am
Subject: Re: What makes VA a commonwealth?
To: [log in to unmask]

> In 1776 the word "commonwealth" harkened back to the period when
> Cromwell was in charge in England and there was no Crown and no 
> House of
> Lords. I think that in Virginia, Massachusetts, and 
> Pennsylvania, the
> authors of their constitutions selected that name deliberately because
> they created new governments with no royalty and no titled aristocracy
> as part of the government. The other colonies called themselves 
> states,but it is curious that none called itself a republic or a 
> country, all
> of which would have been more or less equally legitimate and correct.
> The first Kentucky constitution was very largely influenced by 
> the first
> Virginia constitution, which is why Kentucky is the fourth 
> commonwealth.The different names denote no difference among the 
> states.
> On the question about when the laws of the state began, I 
> perceive from
> the headings "Interregnum" and "first year of the commonwealth" that
> this question derives from viewing the collection of the laws of
> Virginia that William Waller Hening compiled and published early 
> in the
> 19th century. "Interregnum" is a term that he imposed on the period
> during which the five revolutionary conventions met between 
> August 1774
> and July 1776 and in effect took over running Virginia from the royal
> government. The ordinances that those conventions passed appear under
> the heading "Interregnum." It is another distinction without a
> difference.
> 
> Brent Tarter
> The Library of Virginia
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at
> http://www.lva.virginia.gov
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 12:09 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VA-HIST] What makes VA a commonwealth?
> 
> I've often wondered about this -- why are VA, PA, MA, and KY
> commonwealths and the rest of the states of the union are states?
> I'm assuming KY inherited its commonwealth-ness from VA.
> 
> I was looking at the early laws of Virginia -- the titles go 
> from "In
> the 12th year of King George III" to "Interregnum" -- in 1775 -- well
> before the actual death of George III -- but surely after the 
> battles of
> Lexington and Concord -- to "In the first year of the 
> commonwealth."  So
> the laws of Virginia actually predate statehood.  
> 
> Maybe Maryland's laws predate statehood, but there is no such 
> title at
> the top of each page...http://www.aomol.net/html/legislative.html
> 
> Neither is there a title at the top of each page of North Carolina's
> laws (see google books -- link is too long).
> 
> Joe McCollum
> Information Technology Specialist
> Forest Inventory and Analysis
> Knoxville, TN  37919
> 
> 
> 
> 
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