The difference
Reader Mary Simons is puzzled by a bit of terminology.
“I used to live in Pennsylvania,” she writes, “and now I live in Tennessee. Some of my ancestors are from Massachusetts and some from New York. Some of my husband’s ancestors are from Virginia, some from Kentucky and some from Georgia.”
And it’s those particular locations that raise the question: Tennessee and New York and Georgia are all states. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia and Kentucky are all commonwealths.
So, Mary asks, “what’s the difference between a state and a commonwealth?”
This is one of those questions that really has different answers depending on the context.
Now of course The Legal Genealogist hates to ever come across as a smart-aleck.1
But the legal and factual difference between the word “state” as it describes Georgia, New York and Tennessee and the word “commonwealth” as it describes Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia is…
(Drum roll, please…)
• Seven letters. (The word “state” has only five letters; the word “commonwealth” has 12.)
• And two syllables. (Even in areas with pronounced drawls or twangs, “state” has only one syllable, and “commonwealth” has three.)
That’s it.
Really.
Oh, there are some practical consequences, to be sure. Two that I can think of off-hand:
• Criminal cases in the first group would usually be titled State v. Defendant2 and criminal cases in the second group would be titled Commonwealth v. Defendant.3
• And it’d be a lot harder to fit Commonwealth on a t-shirt.
Give me a few decades and I might be able to come up with a few more practical considerations but…
The fact is, those four jurisdictions — and only those four — chose to call themselves commonwealths when they began. All four named themselves as commonwealths in their earliest post-colonial constitutions: Virginia in June 17764; Pennsylvania in September 17765; Massachusetts in 17806; and Kentucky in 1792. Kentucky was a tad schizophrenic about it: the preamble of the 1792 Constitution references “the people of the State of Kentucky” but it refers in the body of the document to “this Commonwealth.”7
The theory is that the word was chosen by the first three as they broke away from England to emphasize that their government was for the common good — the common weal — and not for the Crown8 and that Kentucky used it simply because it was used to it when it was part of Virginia.
While they’re officially commonwealths, that doesn’t change a single thing in their relations with the United States or other states.9 The designation means so little in a real sense that each of the four uses the word “State” in the official name of its major law enforcement agency: the Kentucky State Police; Massachusetts State Police; Pennsylvania State Police; and Virginia State Police.
So why the wimpy “it depends on the context” answer above? Because there really are some American commonwealths where it does make a difference — where they are part of the United States but not states at all. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,10 for example, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.11
Now just so you’ll feel better, we’re not the only ones with this kind of an issue. In Australia, the question that gets asked is what the difference is between a state and a territory.12 And in Canada, the question is what the difference is between a province and a territory.13
At least in those cases, there really is a difference… But we’ll leave that for another day.
SOURCES
- And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. Or maybe some oceanfront property. In Nevada. ↩
- For example, State v. Keaton (Baker Sup. Ct., 1849), on appeal Keaton v. State, 7 Ga. 189, 190 (1849). Except in New York, which titles its cases as People v. Defendant. E.g., People v. Melvin, 1 Yates Sel. Cas. 112 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1809). ↩
- For example, Commonwealth v. Hunt, 45 Mass. 111 (1842). ↩
- “The Constitution of Virginia,” 29 June 1776, National Humanities Institute (http://www.nhinet.org : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- “Constitution of Pennsylvania,” 28 Sep 1776, National Humanities Institute (http://www.nhinet.org : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- “Constitution of Massachusetts,” 1780, National Humanities Institute (http://www.nhinet.org : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- See Bennett Henderson Young and William Grigsby Bullitt, History and Texts of the Three Constitutions of Kentucky (Louisville : Courier-Journal, 1890), 2: 16; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- See Tom Kelleher, “The Difference Between “State” and “Commonwealth” in the United States,” Old Sturbridge Village (http://www.osv.org : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Commonwealth,” rev. 1 Oct 2012. ↩
- See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), Puerto Rico,” rev. 8 Oct 2012. ↩
- See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Northern Mariana Islands,” rev. 18 Sep 2012. ↩
- See “What is the difference between a state and a territory?,” Government in Australia faqs, Australia.gov.au (http://australia.gov.au : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
- “Difference between Canadian Provinces and Territories,” Privy Council Office, Government of Canada (http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/index.asp?lang=eng : accessed 9 Oct 2012). ↩
Penn State, Kentucky State, and Virginia State all solve the college t-shirt issue by not using ‘Commonwealth’ in their names. (I don’t believe there is a Mass. State, just a Univ. of Mass.)
But there is a Virginia Commonwealth University, John! Of course, everybody calls it VCU…
Great post! I have often wondered that myself. I just had to laugh and immediately scroll down to checkout your first source for the post. Only you!
Thanks for the kind words… and for noticing that footnote, Bret!!
As a new follower to your blog (ProGen Study Group recommendation) and new to living in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I thank you for this brief explanation. It will help me in the future in and out of genealogy.
Always, Debbie F
Thanks for the kind words, Debbie, and welcome aboard as a reader!
Too funny on footnote number 1. Thanks to Bret for making me go back and look!
I just believe in Truth in Advertising, Debi…
Your footnotes are a scrumptious part of your posts, Judy. Always tasty, a bit sharp now and then, but always interesting! As if you’d be staid. Really! Thanks for the oh-so-clear definition – as a Canadian I’ve always been puzzled. And then I frown over Massachusetts Bay, Massachusetts Bay Colony, or British America added (or not) to those very early colonies. Confuzzling indeed.
Thanks so much for those kind words, Celia. And yeah… it sure can be confusing at times!
Thank you from the Commonwealth of Virginia 🙂
Always glad to help, Diana!
Thanks for this info. I live in VA now, but from NJ originally. My maternal grandparents came here in the first wave of immigrants from Puerto Rico, grandfather in 1916, his future wife in 1917.
Now I’ll get to be a smart-aleck at our next family get-together. My opening line will be, “Sooo, Does anyone here know the difference between a State and a Commonwealth?” :o)
Go for it, Joe! But don’t blame me when they do call you a smart-aleck!
Thanks for this. I just moved to the Commonwealth of Kentucky from a “real” state and wondered if there actually was any difference. Sounds like I’m OK as long as I can spell Commonwealth.
🙂 Yep, as long as you can spell it, Sharon, you should be just fine!