Conventions for Ratification

dent of the commonwealth by proclamation. The chief purpose of the proclamation was to put the colony in a more perfect state of military defence. Thus the body which framed this constitution assumed the functions of a Legislature as well as of a constitutional convention. Eleven years' experience demonstrated its defects, and when the ratification of the national Constitution was in progress in the State, the opportunity was taken to amend it. A convention, consisting of three delegates from each county, assembled at Augusta on the 24th of November, 1788, and undertook to amend the State constitution and to consider the Constitution of the United States, which had just gone forth from Philadelphia. The State constitution made by this convention was itself submitted to a second convention for ratification, which met at Augusta on the 4th of January of the following year, and suggested changes in the constitution which it was called to consider; a third was summoned and met on the 4th of May, 1789, and two days later ratified that known as the constitution of 1789. This instrument continued in force nine years, when another convention assembled at Louisville on the 8th of May, and on the 30th promulgated the third constitution of the State. It took effect on the first Monday of October of that year, and, several times amended, continued in force until 1865.

In New York, as in New Jersey, there was a strong anti-revolutionary party, which for a time delayed the formation of a State government.

Delay was due to the better organization of the opposition rather than to public sentiment. On the 31st of May, 1776, the Congress of the colony, the successor of several congresses unfriendly to a change of government, provided for the election of another, which should be empowered to institute a new government. On the 9th of July the convention met at White Plains.* It formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, and attempted to make a constitution. On the 10th the body changed its title from "Provincial Congress of the Colony" to "The Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York," and agreed that the subject of a new form of government should be taken up on the 16th. When this day arrived the British had entered New York, and legislative business was so pressing that the consideration of a constitution was postponed until the 1st of August. All magistrates and civil

* Some account of the convention is given in the appendix to the Proceedings and Debates of the New York Convention of 1821. Albany, 1821. The ninety-six delegates did not all attend at one time. Philip Livingston and Lewis Morris were among the signers; James Duane and William Duer signed the articles; Gouverneur Morris also signed the articles, and, as a delegate from Pennsylvania, the Constitution of the United States. The constitution was adopted (substantially as John Jay wrote it)" on the evening of Sunday, the 20th of April." Sixteen of the members became delegates to the old Congress; and to the national Congress, John Sloss Hobart, and Gouverneur Morris, of the Senate. Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States and afterwards Governor of New York; Taylor also became Governor; Duane and Hobart became United States District Judges; Yates and Veeder were Presidential Electors in 1793; Lewis Morris and Ten Broeck, in 1797.

Disturbed Condition of Public Business

officers well affected towards the cause of independence were urged meanwhile, by resolve of the convention, to continue the exercise of their duties until they should receive further orders. The only change made was in the style of judicial business. Processes henceforth should issue in the name of the State of New York. When the 1st of August came, a committee of thirteen was appointed to prepare and report a constitution. To this committee several eminent men belonged, among them John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, R. R. Livingston, and Robert Yates. The report of the committee was delayed from time to time by the condition of public affairs. Not only was the committee unable to perform its duty, but the convention itself was frequently interrupted and compelled to change its place of meeting. Thus at one time it assembled at Harlem; at another at Kings Bridge; at another at Odell, in Philip's Manor; and later at Fishkill, at White Plains, and at Kingston. At one of these meetings only three members were able to attend. The convention, therefore, was a committee of safety exercising legislative and administrative functions. On the 6th of March, 1777, at Kingston, the committee formally appointed to prepare a constitutional form of government was directed to report six days later, and on that day the draft of a constitution, written by John Jay, was read. It was discussed until the 20th of April, when the convention, still being in session at Kingston, adopted it unanimously. But the

form of government adopted, though not submitted to the people for ratification, met with general approval. It was amended in 1801, and continued in force forty-four years.

No State was more peculiarly situated during the Revolution than Vermont. Its territory was claimed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. Territorial disputes engendered by these hostile claims raged through the period of the Revolution. The State, meanwhile, effectually maintained its autonomy and independence. It was among the first to respond to the recommendation of Congress, and its patriot leaders assumed the responsibility of initiating a new form of government by issuing letters, which served as writs of election, to the different towns, urging them to choose delegates to assemble at Dorset on the 24th of July, 1776.* The questions of independence and of a new government were before this convention, and were postponed until January of the following year, when the convention assembled at Westminster and declared

* See Vermont Historical Society Collection, Vol. i., and Slade's State Papers, passim. This convention had fifty members including Ira Allen, the historian of the State; H. Allen, later member of the national Congress; Thomas Chittenden, later Governor of the State; also, Matthew Lyon, whose vote made Jefferson President. He was convicted, fined $1060.90, and imprisoned, under the sedition law; but on July 4, 1840, twenty years after his death, Congress ordered the fine to be repaid to his heirs, with interest from February, 1790. This convention reassembled at Dorset, September 25th, with fifty-eight membersamong whom were H. Allen, Ira Allen, Thomas Chittenden, and Moses Robinson; the latter became Governor of the State in 1789.

Pennsylvania and the Vermont Constitution

Vermont a free and independent State.* On the 2d of July of that year it reassembled at Windsort and continued in session six days, during which time it formulated the first constitution. This was not submitted to the people for ratification, but, as promulgated, was approved by the Legislature in 1779 and again in 1782, by which act it became the law of the State. As is well known, it closely followed the lines of the first constitution of Pennsylvania, chiefly through the efforts of Thomas Young, a citizen of Philadelphia, who, on the 11th of April, 1777, had published an address in which he urged the independence of the State and the election of a convention to form a constitution. The constitution of Pennsylvania had just been adopted, and was suggested as a suitable model for Vermont.‡ This convention assumed both legislative and constitutional functions. In 1786, as provided in the constitution, a slight revision was made by the council of censors, an interval of seven years having elapsed, and the revised instrument was again adopted by the Legislature and declared to be

* Westminster, October 30, 1776; seventeen members; the session, beginning January 15, 1777, had twenty-one members, among them Thomas Chittenden, H. Allen, and Ira Allen.

+ Windsor, June 4th; seventy-two members, including Thomas Chittenden, Ira Allen, H. Allen, G. Olin, and Israel Smith-the two latter members of Congress under the Constitution. It reassembled at Windsor, July 2d, with twenty-four members, among them Thomas Chittenden.

The Pennsylvania sources of the Vermont Constitution are shown in The Constitution of the State of Vermont, etc. Brattleborough, C. H. Davenport & Co., 1891. pp. 40-44.