immarsen

Can someone please tell me why Kentucky is referred to as a commonwhealth instead of a State

schmerl

Research says this:
A search on "state difference commonwealth" turned up some useful results. At the About.com: Lawyers site, we learned that there are four commonwealths in the United States: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky.
The difference between these commonwealths and the other 46 states is in name alone -- they elected to call themselves commonwealths, a term drawn from political theory. The About.com lawyer assured us that, legally, there is no difference between a state and these four commonwealths.

There is, however, another form of commonwealth. The ever-helpful Dictionary.com offers this alternate definition: a "self-governing, autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with the United States, namely, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands." The degree of that dependency varies from place to place, but let's consider Puerto Rico as an example.

There are a few major differences between Puerto Rico and a typical American state:

The Internal Revenue Code does not apply to Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has no voting representation in Congress.
Puerto Rican citizens are not allowed to vote in presidential elections.
Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens; they pay social security, can receive federal welfare, and can serve in the armed forces. But they don't pay federal taxes, and they don't vote in presidential elections.
So far, they've voted to keep it that way. Consider it a limited partnership.

cd

schmerl
And St Thomas VI is? I've never understood the difference.

Intrepid1

The Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico are US Territories whether they call themselves by other entity names or not..here's the list os same:

Puerto Rico

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

American Samoa

Northern Mariana Islands

Midway Islands

Wake Island

Johnston Atoll

Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands

Kingman Reef

Navassa Island

Palmyra Atoll

ryer

I always thought commonwealth meant it was run by the people. Like here in PA each school district, borough, and township has it's own governing body and taxes. Unlike MD, where we are close to where government is set up by county and state, not city.

Neil_Oz

I think you need to look beyond America's shores to understand the background to the term "Commonwealth" -which by the way, is used by my country, the Commonwealth of Australia.

In 1649 King Charles II, having lost his war with Parliament, was executed and the Commonwealth of England established, abolished in 1653 in favour of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate and briefly revived a few years later. As can be seen by the relevant act of Parliament, the Commonwealth was conceived as an explicitly republican model, although not democratic as we now understand the word.

"An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth

"19 May 1649

"Be it declared and enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authoritie of the same That the People of England and of all the Dominions and Territoryes thereunto belonging are and shall be and are hereby constituted, made, established, and confirmed to be a Commonwealth and free State And shall from henceforth be Governed as a Commonwealth and Free State by the supreame Authoritie of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Parliam[ent] and by such as they shall appoint and constitute as Officers and Ministers under them for the good of the People and that without any King or House of Lords."

To borrow from Wikipedia, the term "dates originally from the fifteenth century and in different contexts indicates:
- a political unit founded in law by agreement of the people for the common good;
- a federated union of constituent states
- a republic..."

The official name of my own country is "the Commonwealth of Australia", the term being used in the first two of these senses but not the third.

As we all know, Cromwell fell victim to the "power corrupts" principle, and eventually the monarchy was restored. By this time Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania had been colonised. Kentucky gained its independence from Virginia in 1792. It's not surprising that the word was picked up in the somewhat more egalitarian American colonies.

mhbeverly

"Kentucky is one of four states to call itself a "commonwealth." In 1792 when Kentucky became the 15th state - and the first on the western frontier - both "commonwealth" and "state" were used. Commonwealth, meaning government based on the common consent of the people, dates to the time of Oliver Cromwell's England in the mid-1600s."

I think the only other states are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

-I took this from my h.s. Kentucky history book.