[37] Ames, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. This book gives a list of the amendments proposed during the first one hundred years of our history under the Constitution. During the fifteen years from 1889 to 1904, four hundred and thirty-five amendments were proposed. These figures are taken from a thesis submitted for the LL. B. degree at the University of Washington by Donald McDonald, A.B.
It is interesting to observe that this is one of the few important features of the Constitution not copied by the Confederate States at the outbreak of the Civil War. The constitution which they adopted provided an easier method of amendment. Any three states could suggest amendments and require Congress to summon a convention of all the states to consider them. To adopt a proposed amendment ratification by legislatures or conventions in two-thirds of the states was necessary.
[38] Political Science and Constitutional Law, Vol. I, p. 151.
[39] The American Commonwealth, Vol. I, Ch. III.
[40] Second Edition, Vol. I, Appendix, Note on Constitutional Conventions.
[41] Fiske, The Critical Period of American History, p. 328.
[42] McMaster, With the Fathers, p. 71.
[43] Elliot's Debates, Vol. I, p. 423.
[44] Woodrow Wilson, Division and Reunion, p. 12.
[45] The vote in Massachusetts was 187 to 168 in favor of ratification; in New York, 30 to 27; in Virginia, 89 to 79.