Over again in the discussions around the formation of state constitutions and in the earliest bills of rights, so, you know, i think we need to think about how emotion and sentiment are part of the goals of the revolution of really creating a government thats going to contribute to individual fulfillment as well as the common good and that both of those goals were intertwined the fulfillment and happiness of the individual that we could all be our best selves but also the good of the whole are the twin goals of this period of about creation of the republic now what were not going to talk about today is the confederation because that was a sideshow. That was the National Government was not of interest to these contemporaries. They put a very little you know philosophy Political Science and consideration into its construction in many ways. They just took the existing congress they had and and you know gave it some some rights and powers, but all the kind of philosophical ideas all the hopes and dreams all of the plans for the future. All the experiments were conducted at the state level. So today im going to talk about three state constitutions that were very influential in the period they either trade a templates that other states borrowed templates that influenced our own Us Constitution of 1787 and 1788. Or they engage in a radical democratic experiments that some other states followed and some other states thought were a bridge too far. That went too far or they represented. A what we might call our counter revolutionary movement a pushback against what some americans viewed as excessive democracy in the period around 1776 and a desire to figure out how to maintain the order of the british constitution that they had rejected without creating aristocracy monarchy etc. So trying to figure out how to create an Orderly Society was important to some americans while pursuit of the greatest degree of democracy was important to others democracy was not a shared value in 1776. Many feared it. And particularly in the runup to 1776 and the declaration of independence. Remember many people were not ready to separate from england. This includes people within the Continental Congress and and within the state conventions these sort of these assemblies that had emerged in the in the collapse of british governments. You know many people at who are state of colonial officials at the state level. Were not ready to declare independence. So so in some ways we talked about the ways in which malicious service or military service derival of war people to choose. To two sides where theyre going to come out as loyalists where theyre going to come out as supporters of the patriot cause that these were these were kind of moments of crisis for individuals and 1775 1776 and even thereafter. This call for the creation of state governments was was a galvant was a way to galvanize. So it was pushed by the more radical groups within the Continental Congress and within within the colonies within the state conventions the state conventions these local these irregular bodies, right the former legislatures that were now these ballooned bodies that included committees and extra people had been pushing for for creating more formal frames of government a really moving the revolution forward politically. You know, but at the top there have been sort of resistance and in some colonies there was resistance because people werent ready to declare independence. Pennsylvania the place where the Continental Congress was meeting. Its legislature was dragging its feet. It was one of the holdouts in terms of approving independence. So in the period between when common sense was written in america and england are war in this period and the war has started. Right, so in the period between when common sense was written and the declaration of independence, so theres just a lot of maneuvering around these issues. Now within individual colonies now states moving into statehood. You know, some groups were like we just have to do something in the short term. Lets just use our charter so connecticut, which had a Royal Charter dating back to the 17th century. They just used that as a framework of government some people in massachusetts. Wanted to do the same. But others in massachusetts really wanted to use this take this opportunity to do something new the Virginia Convention. They pass laws, but they didnt know what to do without a royal governor to enact them as lord dummers lund dunmore had fled the area. Hes on ship, you know, their antagonistic with them. Theres a sort of a concern or a question about well, how do we make laws legal . How do we make them binding . You know, how do we make people listen to us . How do we how do we run these governments from our new position of these conventions . So, you know, we need we need to figure out we need to figure out what makes us legitimate how to make this government function replace what we had before make it better. So this is the this is the energy and this is the push and John Adams Sam adams. Jefferson other figures who are in this proindependence faction within congress. You know felt that once people created governments had recreated their governments not were not just using some leftover british model. That would be a true revolution that there would be no going back. This is literally the words that jefferson used there would be no going back once people had created these new governments at the state level. So in between may 10th and may 15th Congress Worked on this resolution for the states and it called upon them to adopt such government as shall in the opinion of the representatives of the people best conduced to the happiness safety of their constituents. In particular in america in general so, you know, this is a job for the states, but theyre still a notion of the collective of america that the declaration of independence would in some ways invention create, you know a month later. So think about this is coming before the declaration of independence. So in fact, it actually gets in the way of some of the business of congress because everybody is so excited about this and what this represents that people want to go back to their their home colonies and work on these constitutions. So Thomas Jefferson is one of those people and so its sort of an accident that he was even in philadelphia to be part of the writing of the declaration of independence. He was subbing for his cousin Peyton Randolph and jefferson writes about how hes like trying to finish finish finish. Lets get these drafts. Im going back and then come back, you know wrap up the draft so decorations. I want to go back so jefferson wrote three drafts three drafts of the virginia constitution that he tried to, you know, get people interested in and get people behind and was very active and involved in the constitution that virginias did create. So the thing is its easy in opposition to be united. So the callous had some notions of what they didnt want right . They dont want they didnt want standing armies. They didnt want royal governors who could shut down their colonial legislatures. They didnt want to be beholden to to the English Parliament and didnt accept its sovereignty over all matters pertaining to local government. They thought their local government should have they know a role in this what you know, what you know, what did they hold up in opposition to english rule was there their local legislatures, right . So thats going to be the locus of a lot of the interests and a lot of the excitement so they know what they dont want but the specifics of what they want. Thats where the work. Had to occur and that process was what really revealed a lot of differences. Amongst americans who had, you know were sort of even those who are united in desiring independence. Were not necessarily united on what they wanted to see in terms of government. So one thing that people agreed about was that these government should be republics. In fact, that is what the may 15th resolution actually called for the creation of republican governments with a small r. But this is where the Current Republican Party is taking its name from this concept. So the word republic is actually comes from the latin like so many other things to do with government and early america and it literally race pubica literally means the public thing. In other words the Public Interest so the main goal of a republic had to be the achievement of the Public Interest the achievement of the common good. But there was a role for individual happiness and individual wellbeing as well in the goals of this republic. So republics were the most basic level representative governments. So americans agreed at this point that although they were very interested in the greek citystates and the pure democracy they had engaged in that that you know, they would be impossible to achieve or mimic in even within something as small as a colony. That that you know to have a pure democracy you really needed Something Like the towns of new england where people still met animals to to discuss and debate and vote on local affairs, but anything bigger than a little town is just simply logistically impossible. So so this government was going to have to operate by people choosing representatives and having those representatives act in their interests. Right and what kind of representation you think . There are people theyre thinking about you can you can answer. So what kind of represents presentation dont they want what kind of representation do they want . They dont want the wealthy and the kind of ruling class. Some people might still want that to happen. So so thats actually a great point some of them want that some of them are maybe going to want some changes. Theyre gonna theyre looking at themselves. Hey, ive been on this committee. Ive now become kind of politically active. I may be the person that i could do this. I want to be i want to i want to be that representative. I also im thinking of this concept of actual representation right that represents that representatives will will actually represent the interests of their constituents will live among them. So i do want residents requirements. You know, what how are you going to how are you going to enforce these sorts of things got to start thinking about all this . So, you know who should serve should it be the elites that have generally dominated Political Office even in these relatively even in societies were up to 80 of the white men adult white men had the vote like the new england, you know, theres still so picking elite people for office. Is that going to change and should it change john adams feels that thats actually its a good system James Madison and others, you know think thats a good system. These people in pennsylvania coming out of that Militia Committee are thinking something different. They are thinking like connie said what about me . You know, what about i could do this and how do we how do we create opportunities for for these people have been serving these committees in malicious in the war two enter into Political Service to get elected. How do we how do we help make that happen for them if they dont have that reputation and that money and that power that gets people into Political Office who should vote . You know big question. So the other thing that people had in mind when they thought about republics was also how actually demanding they were they demanded a lot of people they demanded a lot of citizens. So you have to you know within the british system. Did you have to work all that hard to be a citizen . You know within this system youre gonna have to work and in the work is laid out in these constitutions, what will be demanded of the citizens is going to be a much greater level, you know to be politically aware. You have to participate in all sorts of, you know, direct and indirect ways you have to pay taxes, you know, youre gonna have to probably serve in the you can have to serve in the militia you have to serve in content army, you know, so you can have to operate military service youre going to have to offer up taxes to support the war and all the efforts involved and you know a level of engagement. Its just going to be required to you active system ring. So the term the colonists used a lot was virtue. And virtue is an old word. Also a latin word and its a word that actually went through some transformations in the 15th and 16th century machiavelli and the prince. And his advice to the ruler of florence wrote a lot about virtue and the college were aware of that of those discussions as well. So they knew about classical ideas about virtue and they knew about these these more early modern ideas about about you know about how a roller should rule. And we know today we think of virtue as something thats private. We often associated with women sexual purity. You know, its a private. Its a private quality for these people. It was a public quality and it was actually generally a male quality. So one of the things a revolution has changing is opening up the achievement of virtue the quality of virtue to a broader range of people, you know, across gender and across ethnicity then it had been employed before the revolution, but it still did you know have this association of you know, a military service of willingness to sacrifice oneself for the good of the country, but there were lots of other ways that americans could engage in selfsacrifice so citizenship in this in these republics it was going to demand, you know selfsacrifice of people they used the term disinterestedness, but that they did not mean boredom. They didnt mean withdrawal. They just meant altruism the ability to put the good of the whole above the good of the self the Public Service itself required, you know, a little bit of that sublimation of of the self, you know, you had to put your own interest aside and think about other peoples interests and work in those interests and maybe lose money in your home farm or maybe you know have to support a program thats going to hurt you that you know, that was absolutely the requirement for engaging in and get citizenship. So very demanding and many people in the revolutionary generation thought in order to have that degree of to have to sacrifice you had to have something to sacrifice you had to be invested in society in some ways. So generally they assume that people there had to be some sort of property requirement for the vote. That you had to have skin in the game you had to be invested in society in some in some way that that you had property at risk you had things at risk that you know, you either run it to support or you want to you were willing to to give up to exercise those qualities of citizenship of selflessness and service. So this was going to be a big discussion. Now remember tom payne and even the declaration of independence also talk about equality. And so so for some of the revolutionary generation the quality is not a forefront goal, but for others it was so so another thing that these constitution writers thought about was how to achieve equality. What was you know . Short of taking peoples property away what could you do . To achieve it and and should government have the power to take peoples property away if concentrations of wealth were too great or in the name of the greater good. Is that something thats on the table for these governments to to suggest . So another kind of question another problem challenge for this constitution rate generation was also the the question of what would really hold society so, you know the British ImperialAuthority Held society together that that sort of hierarchical chain held society together and preserved order. What would hold people together after when that was taken away . You know, what would what would generate these feelings of of public spiritedness and selflessness and the willing to willingness to sacrifice, you know, what would prevent anarchy, you know, some people are really worried about anarchy and the folks that dont want to create these state governments is because theyre worried that that transition period is this going to anarchys going to break loose. You are going to youll have a state of nature that Thomas Hobbes talked about in the 17th century that youre a property. Are we stolen your personal be . Endangered security will be gone. So, you know, some people didnt really have faith that they could make this transition. So theres a lot of discussion about what would hold society together and what many of the framers of these constitutions hoped that the kind that the governments themselves would generate morality, they would generate and train people in good citizenship that they were that these in some ways. Theyre trying to instill ethics. By through government. I know its you know today the idea that politics would be the school of ethics is you know, is that necessarily where the way people are thinking this is this is what John John Adams called it the divine science of politics. That that maybe through the creation creation of these wonderful republican governments. That that you could actually almost sort of achieve moral goals make people more moral and and well see as we talk about the specific constitutions that they actually you know, put things in the constitution to to create the kind of society they want and encourage people to engage in where moral behavior there was also a hope, you know, we talked earlier in the class about the the influence of english enlightenment figures like john locke but by the 18th century the enlightenment had gone through a couple of different phases and changes in the 18th century. It became much more of a kind of continentwide event in europe and also other areas within the uk became engaged in writing enlightenment text and these texts of 18th century were from france. Theyre from scotland often and they were just as exciting to Many Americans as the lock had been a century earlier. So one of these thinkers was montesquieu, he was a french nobleman and he wrote a book called the spirit of the laws and 1748 and one of the things that matsis you talked a