Follow @IJSanders

12,399 views

Anthony Sanders

Follow @IJSanders

, 16 tweets, 6 min read

My Authors

1. Ohio isn’t just a greeting surrounded by O’s. Or an attempt to expropriate English’s definite article. It’s also home to the 8th oldest state constitution, child of the greatest legislation from the pre-Constitution United States, & our stop today in #50Weeks50Constitutions.

2. Ohio is the 1st state in this series carved out of the old Northwest Territory, an area governed by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (that date isn’t a typo; it was first passed under the Articles of Confederation).

3. You might say (in fact “many people” do) that the Ordinance was Ohio’s (& the other subsequent NW states) 1st constitution. It regulated how new states would be created in the Territory—between 3 & 5 (eventually there were 5)—and how they should be governed.

4. The Ordinance required its states to, among other things, forbid slavery, and guarantee religious freedom, trial by jury, and due process.

5. It didn’t take long until the Ordinance’s promises were executed. W/ a largely Jeffersonian/Republican electorate, the new Jefferson administration & Republican majority in Congress could taste Ohio’s senators & electoral votes on their lips. In 1802 they hatched their plan.

6. Congress passed Ohio’s enabling act in November 1802. A state constitutional convention followed soon thereafter. It was not boring.

7. Early on, the Territory’s Federalist governor gave an impassioned speech denouncing the enabling act, stating the Ohio's people were “no more bound by an act of Congress than we would be bound by edict of the first counsul of France.” President Jefferson fired him soon after.

8. The resulting document was influenced by several existing state constitutions, Tennessee’s the most. But it went beyond them in its democratic mandates. Annual elections for state reps, & only 2 year terms for state senators & the governor. And no veto power for him.

9. Also, it indicates how “walking around money” may have worked then: “Any elector who shall receive any gift or reward for his vote in meat, drink, money, or otherwise, shall suffer such punishment as the law shall direct.” Were you offered a pork chop for your vote? You sure?

10. Its Declaration of Rights had many familiar from earlier state cons & the US version. It also had this curious one: “To guard against the transgressions of the high powers, which we have delegated, we declare, that all powers, not hereby delegated, remain with the people.”

11. Hang on, that one looks a lot like the 10th Amendment (I’ve called it a “Baby 10th” in my writings). How would that work in a state, whose legislature is usually assumed to have unenumerated police powers? It’s a mystery I try & explore a bit here.

libraries.mercer.edu/ursa/handle/10…

12. Giving the legislature strong powers had strong results. Like lots of debt to fund canals and other internal improvements with less-than-upstanding contractors. Then the Crisis of 1837 hit. Ohio needed a new constitution to save itself from democracy.

13. In the resulting convention, the delegates took away the legislature’s power to appoint judges & other officials. Instead, judges were elected. Also, more officers were added to the executive branch, all elected.

14. The new 1851 Constitution also required residents’ consent if a new county was formed. Consequently, Ohio hasn’t had a new county since 1851. And, in Jeffersonian fashion, it put the question of whether to hold a new convention to the voters every 20 years.

15. There was then a failed convention in 1873-74, & one in 1912 that merely proposed amendments. It’s also been amended well over 150 times since then.