After it passed the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress requested that each of the former colonies write a new state constitution reflecting the break from Great Britain and royal control. The characteristics of and the provisions in these state constitutions tell a great deal about the political ideas that prevailed in the United States in the mid-to-late 1770s. That Congress asked the states to write constitutional documents seems unsurprising to us today, perhaps, but written constitutions, specifying and limiting the powers of government, and adopted by a vote of the people, were not in widespread use at the end of the 18^th century. For example, the English constitution was, and remains today, an unwritten one, based on parliamentary enactments and judicial decisions. The belief that only written constitutions can embody the compact reached among free people to protect their rights took concrete form in the Mayflower Compact by the Massachusetts Bay colonists in 1620, and was broadly popular by 1776.

• Most of the state constitutions, following Virginia's lead in June, 1776, included bills of rights, listing those rights that could not be violated by government.
• The new state constitutions included restrictions on the power of the executive, given the widespread belief that all rulers are tempted by the attractions of power and are prone to tyranny. Executives were to execute the law, not make it independently, and even the executive function needed close monitoring. The states took various steps to put this sentiment into action: election of governors by legislatures; term limits (in nine states, this amounted to one year); limitations on the appointment power of governors; restrictions on governors' budget powers; and more.
• The new state constitutions were established on the basis of legislative supremacy; legislatures were given very broad powers and protected against intrusions by governors. Even traditional executive responsibilities-such as granting pardons and entering into treaties-were placed in the hands of state legislatures.
• To guard against tyranny in the legislative branch, most of the new state constitutions required annual elections and short legislative sessions.
• Though the new constitutions were more democratic than any other written or unwritten constitution in the world at that time, they were considerably less democratic than we expect today, primarily because of severe restrictions on who could vote and hold public office. Most of the states, for example, had minimum property-ownership qualifications (which could be by-passed in some states by payment of a poll tax) and denied citizenship rights to African Americans (even "free" or non-slave blacks); all denied women the right to vote and hold office; some had religious tests.

  Some of these ideas, practices, and institutions would find expression in the Articles of Confederation, our first constitution, written in the years immediately following the Declaration of Independence. Some, reflecting the Framers' experiences with state constitutions and life under the Articles of Confederation, would be altered in the Constitution of 1787.
  
  
  
  
  

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