Americans faced the task of creating new forms of government long before the
U.S. Constitution was written. Almost as soon as the Revolution broke out,
legislative assemblies in the former colonies began writing new constitutions.
By the end of 1776, 10 states had completed the process. By 1780, every state
had a written constitution.
These first state constitutions reflected Americans’ revolutionary thinking.
They helped create the context in which the U.S. Constitution was written.
What were the new ideas in these documents? Here are some of the most important
ones:
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A constitution needs to be written down. Unlike
the British constitution, early state constitutions were written documents.
Americans believed that putting constitutions in writing would make it harder
for state governments to violate basic principles.
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Power comes from the people. The first state
constitutions reflected republican ideals. A key ideal was that power comes
from the people, not from the king or any other authority. For this reason,
early state constitutions gave the most power to elected legislatures. In fact,
they generally created very weak executives (such as a governor). This
reflected Americans’ fear and resentment of the strong executives they had
known under British rule.
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Separation of powers. State constitutions separated
executive, legislative, and judicial powers. They forbade the governor, or any
other executive officer, from serving in the legislature. They also tried to
protect the courts from executive control.
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“All men are created equal.” This republican ideal was,
of course, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. State constitutions
echoed this idea. For example, Pennsylvania declared, “All men are born equally
free and independent.” In reality, however, the new states did not favor
absolute equality. All states established property requirements for voting.
Most state legislatures had an upper house that was made up mostly of the
well-to-do. In some states, governors had to be quite wealthy. And only New
Jersey allowed women to vote. (Women in this state lost the right to vote in
1807.) Still, the ideal of equality would be a powerful influence in the years
to come.
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Basic rights should be constitutionally protected. Americans
agreed early on that basic rights needed protection in the written
constitution. Vermont and Massachusetts, for example, devoted part of their
constitutions to “A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants” of their
states. Such efforts planted the seed of the Bill of Rights in the U.S.
Constitution. |
A few states even applied the ideas of equality and rights to slavery. The
Vermont and New Hampshire constitutions abolished slavery. In Massachusetts, a
court declared in 1783 that slavery could not be permitted under the state’s
bill of rights. Delaware’s constitution forbade any new importation of slaves.
Over time, other northern states passed antislavery laws.
These early constitutions were only a first attempt at self-government. In
response to various events, states revised their fundamental laws. In the
1780s, for instance, Americans decided that they had gone too far in weakening
the power of the executive branch. States changed their constitutions to make
the executive stronger. They also moved toward having constitutional
conventions instead of letting the legislatures write their constitutions.
Still, the first state constitutions did establish principles that would
continue to guide the American experiment in self-government.
Enrichment Activity
Write short answers to these questions:
| 1. |
What were state constitutions? |
| 2. |
What were some of the key ideas in state constitutions? |
| 3. |
How did these key ideas affect the U.S. Constitution? |
| 4. |
Some New England states abolished slavery in their state
constitutions. Why do you think states in the South did not do so? Why do you
think the original U.S. Constitution did not abolish slavery? |
| 5. |
In one sentence, why were state constitutions significant? |
