It was last week, 250 years ago, that our nation got its name.
On September 9, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that where “‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered . . . to the ‘United States.’” The term had already come into use over two months earlier, when the Congress had adopted “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America” and declared that “these Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States.” The name wasn’t brand new, nor was the colonies-to-states transition, but the Congress now made it of. cial.
The Founders apparently took the name “United States” for granted, and so do we today. But looking back from our Semiquincentennial perspective, we might pause to wonder about other possible names and, equally important, other possible political outcomes.
