Chamblee54

@EdDarrell “Hey, Georgia! Fly your flags on January 2, 2016 , to honor Georgia Statehood Day!” PG has lived in Georgia all his life, and never knew that this was statehood day. Today in Georgia History has this to say: “Georgia elected six delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Only four went. And only two—Abraham Baldwin and William Few—signed the final document. … Georgia called a special convention in Augusta to consider the proposed charter. The delegates voted unanimously to ratify the new U.S. Constitution, on January 2, 1788.”
The Constitutional Convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation. They wound up scrapping the old document, and creating the Constitution from scratch. The “Founding Fathers” created the system of Government that we use today, along with a way to amend the Constitution. (PG has served on bylaw revision committees. The one thing you must have is a way to amend the bylaws.) The new document would not take effect until nine of the thirteen colonies ratified it.
Delaware was the first state to approve the Constitution, on December 7, 1787. It’s neighbors Pennsylvania (December 12) and New Jersey (December 18) soon followed. Georgia was the fourth state, and the first southern state.
Slavery was still legal in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in 1787. One famous citizen of Pennsylvania, Ben Franklin, owned two slaves, named King and George. Franklin’s newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, routinely ran ads for sale or purchase of slaves.
The concept of flying the state flag has an ironic twist in Georgia. The design of the flag has changed twice in the last twenty two years. In 1956, the legislature voted to incorporate the St. Andrews cross, aka the Confederate flag, into the Georgia state flag. (If you want to debate their motive for doing so, please go somewhere else.) After much controversy, the flag was changed in 2001, and again in 2003. It probably will not be changed again.
Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, GSU library. This is a repost.