1. Philadelphia, home to the Continental Congresses & host to the Constitutional Convention, also lived under the most radically democratic constitution of the era. Pennsylvania is No. 6 on our tour of state supreme laws of their lands. #50weeks50Consitutions
2. The first PA Constitutional Convention, which Ben Franklin presided over, created a constitution seeking to create a government for the ordinary people & to prevent the more aristocratic elements of society from interfering with the will of the “common man.” 
3. As part of this, it adopted a Declaration of Rights recognizing all men are born free & have inalienable rights not just to enjoy life, but defend it & not just to acquire property, but protect it. This was taken from George Mason’s recent work in VA.
4. FYI, the amazing story of these words, and how they were adopted from Mason’s *1st* draft in VA of its Declaration of Rights, is told in Steven Calabresi’s “On Liberty and the Fourteenth Amendment.”
texaslawreview.org/wp-content/upl…
texaslawreview.org/wp-content/upl…
5. It also recognized the “indubitable, unalienable & indefeasible right” of the community “to reform, alter, or abolish government” in whatever way judged best. This is likely the most expansive “right to revolt” found in early state constitutions. Cf:
6. It also eliminated any property requirement for voting & allowed any white man who paid taxes to vote in elections, which was a radical departure from the norm of restricting voting rights to only men who owned property.
7. The constitution, adopted in September 1776, established a unicameral legislature with “all powers necessary to operate a free state,” a plural executive with a president chosen annually by the unicameral assembly & a “Council of Censors.”
8. The “Council of Censors” convened every 7 years to ensure all legislation was constitutional. Further, it was this council, and not the assembly, that was given the power to convene a convention to amend the constitution.
We'll see these councils elsewhere in our series . . .
We'll see these councils elsewhere in our series . . .
9. This 1st constitution was quite controversial & there were many calls for it to be significantly amended to establish a governmental structure like other colonies. The Council considered recommending a new convention but the radical supporters of the 1st constitution won out.
10. The ’76 constitution was so radical that John Adams exclaimed “Good God! The people of Pennsylvania in seven years will be glad to petition the Crown of Britain for reconciliation in order to be delivered from the tyranny of their new Constitution.”
11 Well, that didn’t happen. But, by 1789 a majority in the General Assembly called for a new convention. While some questioned the authority of the Assembly to make such a call, it was heeded, and a convention was convened.
12 From this convention came the Constitution of 1790 which provided for a bicameral legislature, a single executive with a three-year term and veto power, and a judiciary with lifetime tenure. The radicals were no longer at the gates.
13 This convention also added the first “Baby Tenth Amendment,” which declared “that everything in [the Declaration of Rights] is excepted out of the general powers of government and shall forever remain inviolate.” This was later imitated in several other states.
14 A convention adopted a new constitution in 1838. It curtailed the power of the governor to appoint local officials and judges and the legislature was prohibited from granting the power of eminent domain to corporations.
15 The “Reform Constitution” of 1874 made sweeping changes to the legislature to stem corruption. The number of legislators were increased to make it harder for corruption to impact legislation and procedural rules were enacted for the creation and adoption of legislation.
16 Additionally, the Reform Constitution gave the governor the power to issue a line item veto and the number of votes needed to overcome any veto was increased to 2/3 of the voting members.
17 This “Reform Constitution” lasted almost 100 years until 1968. Voters rejected calls to hold a convention to amend the constitution six separate times.
18 The 1968 Constitution created a unified judicial system & an intermediate appellate court. The Supreme Court was granted supervisory and administrative power over all lower courts as well as rule-making power. And the governor was finally allowed to run for a second term.
19 Pennsylvania was home to Continental Congresses and the Constitutional Convention. However, one of the most underappreciated roles of PA may have been showing the Constitutional Convention the dangers of a unicameral legislature w/ limited checks and balances.
