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State Constitutions on the Road to the Constitution
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Welcome back to the museum! Before there was a U.S. Constitution, there were state constitutions, and two of the earliest reveal ideas that would later shape our national government. This video looks at New Jersey's 1776 Constitution and the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, and the surprising ways each one experimented with rights and power.
As part of our Constitution Day Live programming, celebrating "Road to the Constitution," this video dives into how state constitutions like New Jersey's and Massachusetts's weren't just local documents. They were the first step toward shaping the nation, laying groundwork the framers would build on seven years later.
0:00 Welcome back to the museum. Today we’re taking a look at two state constitutions from very early in our nation’s history. State constitutions explained how governments would work in the state. How power was divided and what rights citizens had. They also include influential ideas
0:21 that later informed the United States Constitution. In 1776, new Jersey created a constitution granting voting rights in a surprising way. For the time, it allowed not only property owning men, but also some women and free black individuals to vote.
0:41 From this text, from the 1776 new Jersey Constitution, we can see that anyone old enough who owned property with a certain amount and owned it for at least a year could vote in elections for representatives. Notice that the text does not include restrictions on race or gender.
1:02 Although these rights were later restricted, New Jersey’s example expanded opportunities for participation and helped inspire later movements for voting rights. Now let’s look at the Massachusetts Constitution from 1780. It was a model of representative government and separation of powers and different branches of government.
1:24 It strengthened the idea of separating powers among three branches legislative, executive, and judicial. This helped prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful. It also established a stronger system of checks and balances, ensuring each branch could limit the others. This created a system where the governor executive could not become too powerful,
1:49 but neither could the legislative or judicial branches. Balancing power and preserving liberty. This separation of power and system of checks and balances became major influences on the US Constitution. That would be framed seven years later. State constitutions weren’t just local documents.
2:09 They were the first step towards shaping the nation.
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