Creation of the Republican Institutions, 1776 – 1787
The revolutionaries of the American Revolution did not tire of insisting that their cause was not limited to just attaining independence from Great Britain. Their expectation was the inauguration of a new order for the ages, by demonstrating that a stable and permanent form of government would be that in which people were sovereign and governed themselves without the benefit of the lords of king. Therefore, after the Declaration of independence, the issue of political power arose. This issue had many perspectives which included where power would reside (national government or states), who would be in control of the new republican institutions (the average citizens or the traditional elites), political and legal rights of women and the status of slaves in this new republic. Some of the optimistic commitments to equality that the revolutionary republicans announced are captured in the Statute of Religious Freedom and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
The State Constitutions
In the month of May the year 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress persuaded Americans to shun royal authority and instead establish republican governments. Several states complied quickly and within 6 months, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had already ratified new constitutions. Rhode Island and Connecticut had revised their colonial charters and ant references to the king were deleted. According to Henretta et al (2004), Republicanism stood for more than merely ousting the king. The principle of popular sovereignty was stated in the Declaration of Independence, that governments derived their powers from the consent of those governed. In the state of North Carolina for example, the farmers of Mecklenburg County gave instructions to their delegates to the constitution convention of the state to oppose anything that leaned towards power in the hands of the rich or aristocracy. In Virginia, the people elected a new assembly. According to the remark of an eyewitness, this assembly comprised of men not so politely educated, not so well dressed and not so highly-born as those of legislatures in the colonial era.
This impulse of democracy happened in Pennsylvania with Philadelphia artisans, the coalition of Scots-Irish farmers and Enlightenment-influenced intellectuals ousting every officeholder of the proprietary government in the year 1776. They also championed the abolition of property ownership as a test of citizenship and granted all taxpaying men the right to vote and hold office. Thus, the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution also created a unicameral legislature that had complete power, and had other provisions that protected the people from imprisonment from debt. However, leading patriots were alarmed by this constitution with John Adams denouncing the unicameral legislature. Adams as well as other conservative patriots wanted to restrict the holding of office to the learned and aristocrats and strongly opposed majority rule. He is quoted, “if you give ordinary citizens the command or preponderance in the legislature, they will vote all property out of the hands of you aristocrats”. John Adams published the Thoughts on Government in 1776 to counter the Pennsylvania constitution, and this treatise adapted the British Whig theory of mixed government to a republican society whereby power was shared among the monarch, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
In dispersing authority and preserving liberty, Adams assigned administering, judging and lawmaking to different institutions. The legislature was responsible for making laws, the executive was responsible for administering these laws, and the judiciary had the responsibility of enforcing these laws. According to Thorpe (1909), Section 5 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights stated that the executive and legislative powers should be distinct and separate from the judiciary. John Adams also suggested a two-house (bicameral) legislature that had an upper house and a lower house. Essentially, the upper house was composed of substantial property owners who offset the popular minorities in the lower house. Other proposals made by Adams included an elected governor with power to veto, and an appointed judiciary. Adam’s proposals for a bicameral legislature, appointed judges and property qualifications for voting were endorsed by conservative Patriots. In the New York constitution of 1777, the property clauses excluded 20% of white men from voting, and excluded 60% from casting ballots for the upper house and the governor. Elite planters in South Carolina used property rules to deny office holding about 90% of white men. The constitution of 1778 made it a requirement that candidates running for governor had to have a debt-free estate valued at £10,000, senators to be worth £2000 and members of the assembly to own property with the value of £1000.
Thus, the American’s Revolution political legacy was complex. It is only in Vermont and Pennsylvania that radical Patriots succeeded in creating truly democratic institutions. In many other states, representative legislatures acquired more power, with the politics of interest-group bargaining and electioneering becoming more responsive to average citizens. There were other factors that contributed to the creation of republican institutions. Women sought public voice with Abigail Adams being a strong advocate for women’s suffrage by demanding equal legal rights for married women. However, women’s pleas would go unheard until the mid 1800s. Also, Taylor (2007) observes that the departure of about 100,000 monarchists facilitated the success of republican institutions. The Articles of Federation were ratified in 1781, and in 1787, the Northwest Ordinance created territories that eventually became the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Bibliography
Henretta, James A, Brody, David, and Dumenil Lynn. America’s History. New York: Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2004.
Thorpe, Francis N. The Federal and State Constitutions of the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909.
Taylor, Alan. “The Late Loyalists: Northern Reflections of the Early American Republic”. Journal of the Early Republic, 2007; 27(1): 1-37.
