The Real Story of the American Revolution 

Governance during the Revolution

Latest Changes: 07Nov07 - links to full version of MA Constitution, lecture on the Articles / 08Jan08 - new symbols for a new nation, dates for state constitutions / 08Apr06 - move constitution material here from declaring.htm /

Constitutions of the Revolutionary States (1776) The group of delegates who in 1775 found themselves responsible for organizing a coherent and effective defense against British power and in 1776 elected to commit their fellow citizens to Revolution were very wary of creating any centralized authority and thus adopted as a governance structure a confederation of sovereign states. The rebelling colonies viewed the "united states" as a loose confederation, leaving the real power, judicial, and administrative structures to the states. From this perspective the specification of their own state's governance structure was more important to the leading colonials (most of whom were not delegates to the Continental Congress) than specification of the confederation's structure. Even though it was a weak structure, conflicts of interest between the states delayed formal adoption of the Articles of Confederation until 1781, and the umbrella document that most closely paralleled the state constitutions -- the U.S. Constitution -- was not written until 1787. The key questions facing the legislators who debated, wrote, and passed the new state constitutions were In whom should the authority of governance be vested? How should these leaders be selected? How should laws be proposed, developed, and enacted? Should some areas of the law be reserved for subsidiary units (states, counties, towns) rather than being set for the whole nation by the national authority? Who should judge the validity of accusations made against individuals or groups about violations of the laws? What should be the penalties for convicted violators, who should establish them, who should assign them in specific cases, and who should carry them out? To what extent should individual (and sub-group) liberty be protected from the tyranny of the majority? How can the foundation principles of this new structure be protected from the greedy conspiracies of powerful individuals and the inflamed and uninformed passions of the masses? The dozen state constitutions provided many opportunities to propose, discuss, implement, and test alternative approaches to governance and civic order before these approaches were considered for inclusion in the U.S. Constitution in 1787.

Initial State Constitutions: (those written after independence was declared)

Year	State	Web Link
1776 Jan 05	New Hampshire1	Yale: Avalon
1776 Mar 25	South Carolina	Yale: Avalon
1776 Jun 29	Virginia	Yale: Avalon
1776 Jul 02	New Jersey	Yale: Avalon
1776 Sep 28	Delaware	Yale: Avalon
1776 Sep 28	Pennsylvania	Yale: Avalon
1776 Nov 11	Maryland	Yale: Avalon
1776 Dec 18	North Carolina	Yale: Avalon
1777 Feb 05	Georgia	Univ GA: Vinson
1777 Apr 20	New York	Yale: Avalon
1777 Jul	Vermont2	Yale: Avalon
1780 Jun 15	Massachusetts3	[TeachingAmericanHistory.org]
---	Connecticut4	---
---	Rhode Island4	----

Note 1: The first New Hampshire document was only the outline of a constitution. Note 2: Vermont had declared itself an independent republic in 1777. Although Vermont military units fought on the side of the U.S in several battles in or near the state during the American Revolution, Vermont did not participate in the Continental Congress and and did not become part of the United States until 1790 Mar 04. Note 3: John Adams made a thorough study of the governance of the major nations back to Biblical times. In 1776 he wrote Thoughts on Government, which discussed how a government should be structured to avoid the abuses of power caused by human passions and follies. In 1780 he used this understanding to write the Massachusetts Constitution, which -- unlike the other constitutions -- contains an explanation of why the various provisions were included. Ref: Massachusetts, Colony to Commonwealth: Documents on the Formation of the Constitution, 1775-1780, by Robert J. Taylor (Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC, 1961) 166 pgs. This summarizes the discussions that led to the formation of a provisional government in MA in 1776, the debate over the need for a constitution, the discussion of changes to the original MA constitution, and the development of a new MA constitution by John Adams in 1780. Note 4: Connecticut and Rhode Island simply deleted all references to the monarchy from their 1662 and 1663 royal charters and did not write fresh state constitutions until 1818 and 1843 respectively. Ref.: Constitutions of the Several States [TheGreenPapers.com]

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What Did the Continental Congress Do? The (Second) Continental Congress met from 1774 to 1781. The National Archives has collected and microfilmed the transcripts of the original correspondence, journals, committee reports, and records of this Congress [as NARA M247]. These are online available through Footnote.com. See Suggestions for using Footnote.com. Creating National Symbols to Represent New Principles of Governance Rather than incorporating the old armorial symbols of the leading families, the Continental Congress appointed several committees over several years to develop currency, seals, flags, etc. These required suitable colors, symbolic images, and phrases that would remind people of the virtues and duties of this new political structure. See GreatSeal.com for more on these.

The Articles of Confederation (1781) The concept of having Articles of Confederation to define the relationship between the proposed independent states (former colonies) was proposed by Richard Henry Lee on 1776 Jun 06 when he proposed that the Congress draft a resolution declaring independence. A draft document was presented ot the Congress on July 12 by a committee chaired by John Dickinson (originally a delegate of Delaware, later of Pennsylvania). It established a cooperative assembly of thirteen sovereign states. A sovereign nation (or "sovereign state") is one that can make internal laws and external treaties without any restriction imposed from another nation (or "state"). After a year of debate and consultation with the state governments (often interrupted by the pressing needs of the war) it was adopted by the delegates on 1777 Nov 15 and sent to the states for ratification. Text of the Articles of Confederation Roster: Signers of the Articles [PDf file] Governments Instituted Among Men: Confederation and State Constitutions by Prof. Gordon Lloyd has links to an audo file of his 89 minute lecture -- What were the leading features of the "first" American constitution, the Articles of Confederation? How republican and how federal were the Articles of Confederation? Twelve states ratified the document relatively quickly. However, Maryland refused to ratify the Articles until all states ceded their western land claims to the whole confederation (United States). What was this all about? The Articles provided that states pay their share of government expenses based on their relative land area. Several states claimed land all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and several claims overlapped. The seven states with western land claims gradually agreed to give them up and Maryland finally ratified the Articles on 1781 Feb 27. The new organization was called the Congress of the Confederation, and the Articles of Confederation became the basis for U.S. governance until 1790, at which time the U.S. Constitution had been ratified and new leaders selected and sworn into office under that document. Public Service Audio Who presided over the Congress of the Confederation (1781-1789)? Roster and History: Presidents under the Articles of Confederation Who Presided Over or Governed the States during 1776-1790? From 1776 to1790 the governors (sometimes called "presidents") of the newly-formed independent states were the political leaders with the most power, since they led the political structures that controlled the release of troops for duty outside the state set and collected the taxes decided what money and goods would be sent to the Continental Congress in support of their state's obligation to the war effort instructed the state's Congressional delegation on what to argue and vote for Roster: State Presidents / Governors 1776-1790

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