Conceived in Liberty (250 page)

Approval and endorsement of the convenant by westsiders was almost unanimous; on the eastside a majority of the citizens had approved. Hence, another meeting of the Vermont Convention in mid-January 1777 proclaimed the Grant lands “a new and separate state” named New Connecticut. The convention drew up a declaration of independence modeled after that of the United States—except that New York State, rather than King George, was the major target. It also proclaimed the vital principle that unorganized territories be permitted to form their own governments.

Protests against independence emerged from the leaders of the longtime pro-New York towns in the southeast corner of New Connecticut. But even Brattleboro, the center of the protest, found that its pro–New York committee of safety could not muster a quorum and was falling into disuse, and that proindependence insurgents had seized the town jail and forced the New York-appointed sheriff to resign. New York further alienated Vermonters by reconfirming all royal land grants in its new state constitution.

At this point, Dr. Thomas Young, one of the authors of the Pennsylvania constitution, began to bombard the grateful New Connecticut leaders with letters and suggestions for a constitution. In particular, he sent them as a model a copy of the Pennsylvania constitution. He even persuaded them to change the name of the new state to Vermont, in commemoration of the Green Mountains. In the summer of 1777, undaunted by Congress’ refusal to recognize its independence, Vermont adopted a constitution modeled after that of Pennsylvania. As might be expected from this highly democratic and individualistic state lacking the incubus of a landed or financial oligarchy, the constitution was far more radical than even its model. It included two great milestones. In its bill of rights was contained the outright abolition of slavery—the first such state action —as well as the abolition of all adult bondage, including indentured service. The other breakthrough was the establishment of universal manhood
suffrage, another first. On the other hand, the most illiberal feature of the Vermont constitution was its insistence on a Protestant test oath for holding public office.

Boldly but precariously, Vermont, not recognized or admitted by Congress, was now an independent republic. Menaced by Burgoyne’s army and by New York covetousness, little Vermont soon was rent from within. The turbulent eastside towns were split into five brawling factions: the Vermont group, loyal to the new state; the York party of the extreme southeast, agitating for acquisition by New York; the New Hampshire party, encouraged by New Hampshire President Meshech Weare; a pro-Massachusetts group, headed by Charles Phelps of Marlboro; and the imaginative College Party, which owed ideological allegiance to Dartmouth College radicals John Wheelock and Bezaleel Woodward. The Dartmouth group urged a split of eastern Vermont and western New Hampshire from their respective states, and their union into a new state centering on the upper Connecticut River. Actually, this was quite a sensible plan, as eastside Vermont had geographically more in common with western New Hampshire than it had with westside Vermont.

Soon, the New Hampshire and College parties formed an alliance—a coalition precipitated by a petition from sixteen western New Hampshire towns rebelling against taxes and conscription directed from Portsmouth and the eastern towns. They asked to be included in Vermont, and the eastside towns greeted their request with enthusiasm, threatening to secede from Vermont and form the new “College” state if Vermont refused admission to these western New Hampshire towns. The westside leaders, fearing a loss of their power and the enmity of New Hampshire, managed to stall the Vermont assembly’s acceptance. By June 1778, however, the several Vermont towns voted overwhelmingly to admit the New Hampshire petitioners, and to the plaudits of a jubilant eastside, the sixteen river towns were admitted to Vermont. At the same time, a convention at Brattleboro of southeastern Vermont towns compounded the new republic’s problems by proclaiming their refusal to obey Vermont law and their adherence to New York.

New Hampshire now threatened war, and immediately petitioned Congress to take action against Vermont and her own seceding towns. Justice was certainly on the side of allowing the western New Hampshire river towns to join Vermont, but the big battalions were on the side of the New Hampshire State. Colonel Ethan Allen, newly released from an English prison, was quickly sent to Congress and persuaded it to delay judgment. The great confrontation on this issue came at the October 1778 meeting of the Vermont General Assembly. A furious struggle ensued between the westside leadership, which warned that the entire United States would crush Vermont unless the New Hampshire towns were relinquished, and
the eastsiders and the towns themselves, which bravely clung to the union of both banks of the Connecticut River. The westsiders won at the last minute, ejecting the river towns from Vermont, at which the great bulk of the eastsiders walked out and threatened secession to form the “College” state.

Radicalism was also triumphant in Georgia, where it was led by artisans and others in the Liberty Society of Savannah, by back country farmers, and by such wealthy planters as Button Gwinnett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The temporary constitution of April 1776 was succeeded by a similar permanent constitution the following year. The legislature was unicameral, and any hint of executive or oligarchic judicial rule was systematically checked in advance. A governor and council were chosen by the legislature for brief terms and had no veto power and negligible executive power. The judges were to be chosen by the legislature and were removable at any time. Court fees were strictly limited. An important libertarian and democratic feature of the Georgia constitution was the elevation of the power of juries: special jurors were to be judges of law as well as of fact, and were to exercise judicial review on interpreting the constitution. In this way, judicial oligarchies would be kept strictly subordinate to the cross section of the people embodied in the juries. Entail and primogeniture—those hallmarks of feudalism—were abolished, and nearly all local officials were to be elected by the local communities themselves.

Here was a radical constitution to rank with Pennsylvania and Vermont. A conservative element was the restoration of a property qualification for voting amounting to a valuation of ten pounds, with higher qualifications for representatives. With respect to religion, voting was limited to Protestants, the Anglican church was disestablished, and clergymen were barred from being members of the legislature. Voting was established by secret ballot and legislative representation was to be by population; no longer would Savannah and the coast be allowed to dominate the back country.

During the winter of 1776–77, the conservative South Carolina legislature, apparently eager to scotch Georgian radicalism, proposed merger between the two states, but the Georgians angrily refused.

South Carolina came under an ultraconservative constitution of March 1776 under the aegis of the large planter aristocracy. The conservative Rutledges and Henry Laurens were the effective rulers of the new state. The radicals, led by Christopher Gadsden and William Henry Drayton, led a drive for reform and a new constitution culminating in March 1778, when a new charter was accepted by the assembly. This new constitution was considerably more liberal: the president lost his veto power, the upper
house was now elective, and suffrage was extended to those owning property equivalent in value to 50 acres of land. However, property qualifications for officeholding remained enormous, and apportionment still weighed heavily in favor of the low-country planters. In an important liberal step, the Anglican church was disestablished, and all sects declared equal before the law; but, on the other hand, Protestantism in general was declared the official religion of the state and churches were subject to state control.

The ultraconservative President John Rutledge tried to veto the new constitution, but he was forced to retire from his post. The radicals were unexpectedly deprived of political victory when Gadsden abandoned the radical camp in exchange for the vice presidency, and later the lieutenant governorship, of the state, allowing Rutledge to return in late 1778 to be the first governor under the new constitution. Gadsden’s split with his mass base became apparent when he extended the deadline for taking the mass test oath of loyalty to the American cause. The radical mechanics of Charleston had zealously been imposing the oath and causing the departure of many Tories into English territory. The radical mechanics rioted against him in early June 1778, and from then on, the spokesmen for radicalism were the leaders of the June riot: Dr. John Budd, the lawyer Henry Peronneau, and the lawyer and merchant Joshua Ward.

In North Carolina, a furious struggle in April 1776 between radicals and conservatives over a constitution had resulted in deadlock. The elections of October were fought furiously and riots abounded in the back country. The best known leaders of the state, such as Gabriel Johnston and William Hooper, were firmly in the conservative camp. John Adams’ ultraconservative
Thoughts on Government
was widely circulated in the state, and became the handbook of the conservative cause. Hooper attacked democracy and called for the “near perfection” of the British constitution, under which the “selected few” could rule. Hooper was livid about the Pennsylvania constitution and the danger of a similar document emerging in North Carolina.

Typical expressions of radical sentiment were the instructions to the convention delegates by Mecklenburg and Orange counties, widely separated back-country districts. The Mecklenburg instructions were written by John M. Alexander and Waightstill Avery, drafters of the seminal Mecklenburg resolves of 1775; the Orange instructions were drafted by Thomas Burke. These instructions made clear that supreme power belongs to the people, and that any representatives have only strictly subordinate and inferior power. Mecklenburg asked its representatives to be as democratic and antiaristocratic as possible.

The radical program favored separation of powers, but not the Adamsian “separation” of creating agencies unaccountable to the electorate. The radical means were such devices as the abolition of plural officeholding, frequent elections, unicameralism or popular election of any upper house, local election of county officials, etc. In short, the checks and separations were to be exercised by the people themselves, not by a newly created autarchic organ of government.

Other prominent radical leaders were Thomas Person, a wealthy landowner and former Regulator leader of Granville County in the interior, John Penn, also of Granville County, and Willie Jones of Halifax County, one of the wealthiest men in the state. On the other hand, Willie’s brother Allen, also a wealthy landowner, was one of the leaders of the right wing.

The newly elected Provincial Congress of North Carolina finally passed a constitution on December 18, 1776, that embodied a compromise between right and left forces. The legislature was to be bicameral, but both houses and the governor were to be elected by the people. The executive, furthermore, had little power. County court judges were to be elected by the people of the counties themselves. All taxpayers could vote for the Assembly (and all householders paid poll taxes); qualifications for the Senate were a bit more restrictive (fifty-acre freeholders) but not substantially so. Plural officeholding was abolished, insuring a democratic separation of power, and entails and imprisonment for debt were abolished. And even though only Protestants could hold public office, the Anglican Church was disestablished and no other put in its place.

On the other hand, property qualifications for becoming representatives or senators were substantial, and quite large for the office of governor. Representation continued to discriminate against populous towns and counties, i.e., largely against the Piedmont in favor of the Tidewater areas. Justices of the peace—the keystone of despotic local oligarchies in the South—continued to be appointed by the governor and were exempt from the laws against plural officeholding; also appointed by the state were local sheriffs, coroners, and constables, so the local courthouse rings continued in business.

The radicals, headed by Willie Jones and Person, soon proved able, for the most part, to control the new North Carolina legislature, and Thomas Person continually urged lower taxes and a lower salary for the governor.

The tightly knit Maryland oligarchy passed a highly conservative state constitution in November 1776, but with some concessions to the radicals in the western part of the state. The high property qualifications were made very slightly lower than before. Property requirements for the top officeholders were, of course, much higher than that. The Anglican church was disestablished, although room was left for a general tax
for support of all Protestant sects. Other liberal provisions were strong prohibitions against plural officeholding by members of the legislature, election of sheriffs by the people of the counties themselves, rotation in office, and an end to poll taxes. A new and extremely conservative way of selecting the Senate, however, was instigated by Charles Carroll of Carrollton: the members were to be chosen for five-year terms by an elected electoral college, who would choose fifteen senators from among themselves; interim vacancies would be filled by the Senate itself! Thus, the Senate was to be virtually unchecked by popular control. This reactionary measure drew the later praise of such presumably moderate conservatives as Jefferson and Madison, as well as from such ultraconservatives as Alexander Hamilton. It influenced the U.S. Constitution in the indirect election of senators and perhaps in the presidential electoral college as well.

Agitation from the western counties and from Anne Arundel County near Baltimore for liberalized suffrage (the latter for votes to all native-born freemen) was beaten back, insuring unshaken control of the state by the oligarchy. Moves for local election of militia officers by their men, and for local elections of justices of the peace and county clerks, were also defeated.