The Amendments
By: Chasen Sherman and Gavin Mack
Directions:
Find the stupid commas!
The 18th amendment, the only amendment ever to be
repealed, prohibited the manufacture ,sale and distribution
of alcohol.
The 21st amendment repealed the 18th, making alcohol legal
again in every manner.
The presidential succession, which is dealt with in the 25th
amendment, states that the Vice President succeeds the
President, then Speaker of the House and so on.
The 25th amendment also says, continuing with succession ,
that is the president is unable to perform his duties that the
Vice President shall take over.
Throughout our history there have been many needs to
adapt to our changing society, and by creating new laws
and adding new amendments, 27 to be exact , to our
constitution we have been able to meet our changing
needs.
The most recent amendment ,Congressional Pay, declares
that congressmen cannot give themselves instant pay
raises; they can only give pay raises to the next term.
The 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments all relate
to voting in some way.
Since it takes laws so long to become amendments ,the
last amendment to be ratified was over 16 years ago.
The 12th amendment ,ratified in 1804 , proclaimed that people
would vote for President and Vice President as candidates
together, instead of the Vice President being the runner-up.
On February 3 ,1913, the 16th amendment was passed, stating
that all working citizens were to pay a federal income tax.
The 20th amendment ,often nicknamed the Lame-Duck
amendment, says that the President takes office on January 20th.
Previous to 1951, only citizens who lived in a state could vote ,
but after the 23rd amendment came into affect people living
in Washington D.C. were allowed to vote as well.
Even though the 13th amendment stated that suffrage
cannot be denied by race ,it was not until August 18th, 1920 ,
when women were finally allowed to vote as a provision of
the 19th amendment.
After Roosevelt served for 12 years, our government
decided to put a limit on how many terms a president
may serve, creating the 22nd amendment.
As a result of the 26th amendment the ,voting age
was lowered to 18 ,allowing millions more people to
vote every year who are under 21.
The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments all came about as a
direct result of the Civil War to protect the rights of all
Americans ,regardless of race or religion.
In 1961 the poll tax was removed ,meaning that you no
longer had to pay to vote ,which caused a huge increase in
the number of voters because of the lower class voters.
The amendments tell the tale of our history , and their
215 year history is long from over ,as more
amendments are sure to be passed in the future.