If I remember correctly from my Virginia History classes, a commonwealth 
indicated a weak executive and strong legislature.
HBG
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 12:08 AM
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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