1. Vermont wasn’t one of the “13 original colonies,” but that’s ok. Its story is just as interesting. A nebulous republic that seceded from Great Britain AND New York, the 11th “state” to adopt a constitution & our destination today. #50Weeks50Constitutions
2. What is now Vermont was once the “New Hampshire Grants” or just “Grants.” The colonies of NH and New York laid claim to the land, but in 1764 the Privy Council in London stated the boundary of the 2 was the Connecticut River, meaning the Grants were in NY territory. 
3. But residents of the grants, most of whom were from elsewhere in New England, didn't like this very much, partly because they didn’t like “Yorker” land speculators. This resulted in basically open revolt against NY colonial authorities & de facto independence for the Grants.
4. This continued until the outbreak of the American Revolution, when VT founding father Ethan Allen threw in the towel on trying to have the Grants recognized as a colony & found new religion in independence. But there was a problem. NY still claimed the Grants as its own.
5. BTW, Ethan Allen is my vote for most badass Founding Father. A swashbuckler & stand-up philosopher. He & his mentor Thomas Young wrote “Reason: The One & Only Oracle of Man,” a deist screed Allen later published in 1785. His crazy tale is told here.
amazon.com/dp/B00FQUDU60/…
amazon.com/dp/B00FQUDU60/…
6. Residents of the Grants asked the Continental Congress to recognize it as a state, but that would anger NY, which actually was recognized. Then, in 1777 NY adopted a constitution, continuing to claim the Grants as part of NY. This pushed Grants folks to write 1 of their own.
7. They did on July 8, 1777. Like other states they had a declaration of rights & a structure of government. But read the preamble. It’s filled w/ anti-NY vitriol. This was a stand against tyranny that any non-Yankee American League fan can relate to.
sec.state.vt.us/archives-recor…
sec.state.vt.us/archives-recor…
8. It had other important stuff too. Like the first state to abolish slavery (well, for adults at least), altho it still allowed voluntary indentured servitude. The Dec of Rights included freedom of religion, but only Protestants could hold office. Cf:
9. One provision that might have given some of my dear followers pause is this: “Laws for the encouragement of virtue, and prevention of vice and immorality, shall be made and constantly kept in force.” But don’t worry, this is absent from the present state constitution.
10. I sometimes see arguments that early state bills of rights were merely hortatory. How do you square that with Sec. XLIII? “The declaration of rights is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of this State; and ought never to be violated on any pretence whatsoever.”
11. It also had a “Council of Censors” “whose duty it shall be to enquire whether the legislative and executive branches of government have performed their duty as guardians of the people.” It sat every 7 years & could propose amendments. It eventually was abolished in 1870.
12. And it largely followed the “radical” Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, but with a twist. Most importantly, it made executive officers directly elected, in contrast to the legislative supremacy in PA. This made the government more stable over time.
13. And, it had a unicameral legislature. This went on until 1836 when the state senate was created and the Governor’s Council was abolished. Also, there was no formal separation of powers. Members of the legislature even sat on the state supreme court!
14. Upon the Council of Censor’s request, Vermont drafted a new constitution in 1786. There changes were largely small, with some backtracking from the original “Pennsylvanian” design. It also took out the “Protestants uber alles” language.
15. Vermont still wanted into the “United States” (whatever that was), & this only increased with the US Constitution’s adoption. Finally, New York (with prompting from Alexander Hamilton) relented & agreed Vermont’s de facto independence could be recognized.
16. Thus, Vermont was admitted as the 14th state in 1791, although you can argue it was a state all along. It then adopted a new constitution in 1793 which finally took out the anti-NY language.
17. Sadly, it took out this too: “all people have a natural & inherent right … to form a new State in vacant countries, or in such countries as they can purchase, whenever they think that thereby they can promote their own happiness.”
Cf:
sealandgov.org
Cf:
sealandgov.org
18. The constitution has been revised many times since then, but the current version is still known as the 1793 Constitution. It proudly stands as the shortest state constitution, which probably comes down to it being exceedingly difficult to amend.
