on the 6th of the following May, and on the 29th of June promulgated the first constitution of the commonwealth. This convention, like that of South Carolina of 1778, was a Revolutionary gathering, chosen to supplant the ancient House of Burgesses, and to establish a government that would organize all the forces of the State in opposition to Great Britain. It was not specifically empowered to make a constitution. The frame of government it adopted was destined, however, to continue in force until 1830. This constitution is famed for its bill of rights, drawn up by George Mason.

When Congress gave the general advice to the colonies to organize State governments, New Jersey was already under the control of political committees and a Provincial Congress. On the fourth Monday of May, 1776, representatives were chosen throughout the State, to the number of sixtyfive, equally distributed among its thirteen counties. They assembled at Burlington on the 10th of June. They acted as a General Assembly rather

Page, in 1813. The majority of the members were conspicuous in the government of Virginia as legislators, judges, and county officials.

* See its Journal, Trenton, 1831. Witherspoon, Hart, and Clark were among the signers; and Witherspoon signed the Articles of Confederation. Paterson signed the Constitution of the United States. He was nine times Governor of the State; Washington appointed him an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Eleven were delegates to the old Congress, and twelve to the national. Paterson, Dickenson, and Frelinghuysen became United States Senators (1789-1799). Two became Presidential Electors-Dickenson, in 1793, and James Mott, in 1809.

Constitutions Determined by Contingencies

than a convention to frame a new plan of government, but the functions of both were probably in the mind of the electors when they were chosen. They exercised both functions, and, on the 2d of July, promulgated the first constitution of the State. Their work, like that of similar bodies in New Hampshire and South Carolina, was declared to be temporary and provisional. If a reconciliation should take place, this charter-for so the Burlington convention styled its work-should be null and void. Otherwise it should be "firm and inviolable."

The course of the people of Delaware in securing a constitution conformed with the suggestion of Congress, and with normal requirements. The Delaware House of Assembly in July, 1776, passed a resolution in accord with the Declaration of Independence; and, further, provided for a special election, on the 19th of August, of a constitutional convention, to consist of thirty persons, ten from each county in the State. These were to assemble at Newcastle on the 27th of the month, "and immediately proceed to form a government on the authority of the people of this State." During a session of twenty-eight days they adopted the first constitution of Delaware. This was the first constitution in the country made by the representatives of the people chosen for the express purpose, and the first convention that was normal in all respects. *

* The Delaware Convention consisted of thirty members.

The Pennsylvania Assembly was superseded in July, 1776, by a provincial convention composed of representatives chosen from the counties of the province through the instrumentality of the county committees. The resolution of Congress of the 10th of May led to the meeting at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the 18th of the following June, which was attended by the leaders of the Revolutionary cause in the city and the adjoining counties. At this meeting it was decided that a provincial convention should be called "for the express purpose of forming a new government for this province on the authority of the people only." But the meeting proceeded to fix the requirements of those entitled to vote at the coming election of delegates, prescribing the qualifications which were incorporated in the first constitution of the State. A new apportionment of representation was agreed upon, and the election was fixed for the 8th of July. A convention assembled a week later at Philadelphia, and adjourned on the 28th of September, having promulgated the first constitution of the commonwealth.* It assumed the functions of a legisla

George Read, one of the signers both of the Declaration of Independence and of the national Constitution, was president. Read, Van Dyke, McKean, and Evans, were members of the old Congress; Van Dyke, McKean, and Dickinson signed the Articles of Confederation, Five became members of the national Congress— Read and Richard Bassett as Senators; Bassett also signed the national Constitution. McKean became Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; Sykes, a Presidential Elector in 1793.

* The Proceedings of this Convention, and that of 1790, Harrisburg, 1825. It had ninety-six members. Franklin was presi

A Commission Supersedes the Government

tive body, choosing delegates to Congress and appointing a council of safety with executive powers, thus combining double functions, as did the conventions of New Hampshire and South Carolina. Thus it was not a constitutional convention of the normal type.

In North Carolina, as in South Carolina and Virginia, the movement to reorganize the colonial government originated in a provincial convention which had taken the place of the General Assembly. This decision was made at Halifax early in April, 1776, and the work of preparing a constitution was given to a committee, but the committee, owing to the shifting state of affairs in the colony and of its own opinions, accomplished nothing, and the government of the colony was placed for a while in a commission consisting of leading patriots. These took the initiative in reorganizing the government by calling an election of delegates to a congress to assemble at Halifax on the 12th of November, with power both to legislate and to frame a constitution. Thus elected and

dent. Five of the members were signers-Franklin, Clymer, Smith, Wilson, and Ross. Four signed the national Constitution-Franklin, Mifflin, Clymer, and Wilson. Four others, also, were members of the old Congress-Matlock, M'Clean, Samuel and Thomas Smith. Ten became members of Congress. Franklin and Mifflin became Governors of the State. Wilson was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by Washington, and was a Presidential Elector in 1789. His decision in Chisholm vs. Georgia (2 Dallas, 419) ranks among the great decisions. It is only within recent years that Wilson's greatness has been discovered, although Washington declared him to be the ablest constitutional lawyer in the Federal Convention.

chosen for a particular purpose, it prepared a declaration of rights and promulgated a form of government, having first ratified it, "in open Congress," on the 18th of December, 1776. Thus this body, like the New Hampshire and New Jersey conventions, performed a double function. The constitution which it framed continued in force until 1835 without amendment; as amended then, and again in 1854, it continued in force until 1863.

As early as January, 1775, the Provincial Congress of Georgia organized; and, in conformity with the recommendation of the Continental Congress, it adopted a temporary form of government on the 15th of April, 1776, similar to that first formed in New Hampshire. It continued until the promulgation of the constitution of 1777. The convention which made this instrument consisted of delegates elected in the parishes and districts of the State, from the 1st to the 10th of September, 1776. The election had been called by the Presi

* The Journal of this Convention in Colonial Records of North Carolina, Vol. x., pp. 913–1013. It consisted of 172 delegates— Richard Caswell, president; William Harper and Joseph Hewes were among the signers; Cornelius Harnett signed the Articles of Confederation. Ten of the members became delegates to the old Congress, and sixteen to the national; Samuel Ashe became Governor of the State. The constitution is said to be the work of Thomas Jones, Thomas Burke, and Richard Caswell. Charles Robeson, John Carter, and John Haile, were from Watauga (Tennessee). Six members had signed the Mecklenburg Resolutions (Wheeler, Vol. i., p. 85). Memucan Hunt signed the treaty with Texas, April 25, 1838. Samuel Ashe was a Presidential Elector in 1805 and 1809.