The First State Constitutions, 1776–1783
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If Parliament was supreme, and free to revise the Constitution at will,
how were American rights to be protected? Incredibly, only one member
of Parliament ventured a solution during this great upheaval. ‘‘It was for
liberty they fought, for liberty they died,’’ said James Luttrell, a member
of the House of Commons, in 1777. ‘‘An American Magna Charta is what
they wisely contend for; not a Magna Charta to be taxed by strangers, a
thousand leagues distant . . . but if constitutional freedom was secured to
America every victory might then gain over some worthy friends to our
cause.’’ But Luttrell’s proposal went unnoticed and was never debated.
Perhaps it would not have resolved the problem anyway. Assuming that
Parliament passed an American Magna Charta, what would have prevented a future Parliament from repealing it? Only fundamental law
could guarantee the security of American rights; but a fundamental law
is little more than an ordinary statute where a constitution is subject to
parliamentary supremacy. As one constitutional historian put it, ‘‘American whigs began their resistance in 1765 in the belief that Parliament
was acting unconstitutionally. They went to war in 1775 in the belief
that they were fighting to defend the British Constitution, not rebelling
against it; they were in fact doing both. They were defending the Constitution of limited government and of property in rights that had been
the English Constitution. They were rebelling against the Constitution
of arbitrary power that the British Constitution was about to become.’’
In sum, the colonies had no choice but to declare independence and establish their own constitutions if they wished to secure the rights they
had enjoyed under the old constitution they loved and cherished.
The First State Constitutions, 1776–1783
The year 1776 marks the birth of the American nation. It also signals the
birth of constitutional government in the United States and in the world
at large. For this was the first time in the world’s history that a large group
of communities—now thirteen independent and sovereign States—had
begun the formation of their own governments under written constitutions. This was also the year in which the Articles of Confederation, our
first national constitution of sorts, was written. Many of the colonial leaders who participated in the creation of these first constitutions—James