If you want detailed information, simply keep your eyes open for the links (which show up like this in your browser) and click on them to get to the footnotes and references.
In most cases in the Constitution, a footnote simply says which later part of the Constitution supercedes or modifies the earlier, footnoted part -- not in itself much help. But simply click on the Amemdment number in the footnote, and look at that Amendment. Use the "back" button to return to your starting point.
Each Amendment to the Constitution has a section dealing with how and when it was first porposed and ratified. Rather than mess up the smooth flow of text, the first character of each Amendment is a link to that information.
Finally, there is an editorial note having to do with ratification dates in general. In the print version you'd probably notice it if you were interested, here you wouldn't see it if no effort were made to bring it to your attention.
Question: Hypertext is great when you're highlighting specific points, but how do you bring attention to more generalized, but still parenthetical, comments? I would appreciate any constructive ideas.
Some Canadians object to the use of the word "American" to mean "a citizen of the United States of America." After all, Canadians are honourable citizens of North America, too.
I am sorry if my use of the word "American" that way offends you, but I simply don't know of any good word to use instead.
If I say "Canadian" everyone knows precisely what I mean. There doesn't seem to be any analogous word meaning "Citizen of the United States of America," "Citizen of the United States of America" is too much of a mouthful, and I most assuredly am not going to use the word "Yankee!"
So, with apologies to my friends in the (far) north, I will continue to use the term "American" the way most people around the globe, including Americans and Canadians, use it today.