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development of the states can best be traced decade by decade in the many amendments and revisions made so as to satisfy popular demands for reforms in existing systems. Thus from state constitutions far better than from the national constitution can be traced the really important stages in the march of American democracy since 1776, seeing that the states are the agencies through which the ordinary daily life of the citizens is regulated and hence they are much more closely in touch with popular demands. Through the varying decisions of the national supreme court one may study the movements of national unity, expansion, centralization, imperialism, and foreign policy; but in the state constitutions can best be studied the class struggle between the intrenched conservatism of propertied interests and the advancing radicalism of direct democracy, between the grip of the "interests" in boss-ridden states and the enthusiastic and perhaps somewhat visionary idealism of the newer democracy. One might almost say that the romance, the poetry and even the drama of American politics are deeply embedded in the many state constitutions promulgated since the publication of Paine's Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, and the Virginia Bill of Rights. For in them are recorded the growth in the notion of rights, irrespective of race, sex or economic status; the rise of manhood suffrage, its extension to women and modern reactions against the principle of unrestricted voting; and the developing emphasis on morals in provisions about dueling, lotteries, divorce, polygamy and the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquor. One may cynically note the earlier belief that legislators were men of "wisdom and virtue," followed by a conviction expressed in most constitutions that they are likely to be corrupt and incompetent and regularly prone

to bribery. In the southern constitutions of the sixties can be seen the joyous assertion of states' rights and a willingness to appeal to arms, and then the disgrace of recantation. at the point of the bayonet, the humiliation of disfranchisement, the bitterness of political subordination to enfranchised slaves and "scalawags," followed in the seventies by a return of the whites to power, as shown by the elimination of obnoxious provisions from the reconstruction constitutions. Such and similar changes may be traced in the state constitutions, which unquestionably will in later years be considered as exponents of the conditions and demands of their times, and as among our most valued records of social, political, and constitutional history.

CHAPTER II

ADMISSION OF STATES INTO THE UNION

As is well known, the legal birthday of the United States of America is July fourth, 1776, since on that date delegates of the colonies in the continental congress voted a Declaration of Independence. Yet the colonies had previously by their actions virtually asserted their independence from England, and some had even taken formal action; the state of Rhode Island, for instance, celebrates May fourth as its day of independence. When the colonies asserted their freedom from English control, they became for all domestic purposes free and independent states; although, as the mother country did not admit their right to freedom, the revolutionary war had to be fought and a treaty of peace made before their independence was fully acknowledged internationally.

As new and independent states, each had the right to readjust its form of government as it might deem best, so that the states one by one reorganized the framework of their governments and with later experience made other readjustments so as to meet newer emergencies and changing conditions. This period of self-government and adaptation may loosely be considered as ending with the eighteenth century, by which time the inefficient confederacy of the earlier years had yielded place to a vigorous and effective federation. Under the federation the states were no longer sovereign and independent, though this

disputed point was not finally settled until the civil war. Yet, subject to the provisions of the new national constitution, each state had the right to formulate its own local constitution, and to make such modifications in it as from time to time might seem necessary. Changes of some sort became inevitable with the passing of years, so that the methods of procedure developed, and the extent of changes made, naturally form a constitutional study of real importance. Such changes, if few or comparatively insignificant, came to be effected by the process of amendment; if numerous and fundamental, they were made by the process of revision. Amendments as a rule are at present effected by legislatures, revisions by constitutional conventions, ratified in each case with rare exceptions by a popular vote on referendum. Occasionally, legislatures have assumed the right to make or revise constitutions, but this is not in accord with present custom, and should be justified, if at all, on the score of urgent necessity. In a study of state constitutions, therefore, one should keep in mind that constitutions are made, de novo, amended and revised; and that legislatures, conventions and electorates are the agencies through which such lawmaking is performed. In Chapter XI attention will be called to commissions as agencies occasionally used for the formulation of amendments or revisions.

If the United States consisted merely of the original thirteen states of the confederation, the study of American state constitutions would be simple and brief. There are at present, however, forty-eight states and, as all know, the newer thirty-five states far exceed the original thirteen in area, wealth, population and importance. Under such conditions it may be well to explain the process whereby so many additions have been made to the list of states in the Union.

STATES ADDED TO THE UNION

At the time of the formation of the national government in 1788 eleven states only composed the United States of America. Within two years the two remaining states1 of the old confederation ratified the new constitution and were admitted into the Union by formal vote. The thirty-five additions made since that time may be divided loosely into two classes: (1) those made by the partition of existing states, including one by annexation; 2 and (2) the thirty states carved out of the national domain. For completeness' sake, the process whereby these acquired their first constitutions and became states will now briefly be explained.

I. (1) Vermont, the first state admitted outside of the original thirteen, was claimed as part of their territory by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and especially New York. These claims were denied by the settlers of that region who, when the Revolution began, sent delegates to a convention, which January, 1777, declared Vermont to be a free and independent state. The convention after appointing a committee to draft a constitution, then summoned a second convention to pass upon the draft prepared by this committee. This second convention met July second, 1777, and later adopted and put into effect the constitution, without referendum, although there was an adjournment of the convention for five months (July-December) so as to allow the citizens an opportunity to express opinions on the proposed constitution. Under this constitution Vermont fought for its independence, came to terms with its covetous neighbors, ratified the federal constitution

1 North Carolina, Nov. 21, 1789; Rhode Island, May 29, 1790.
2 Kentucky, Vermont, Maine, Texas, West Virginia.

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