XXVII. State Constitutions
The Grant And Limitations Of Power Expressed By The People In The Constitutions Of The States
Every human organization had a beginning. This is a large city in which we now live, but there was a time within the memory of men still living, when there was nothing here but an unbroken prairie. A log cabin was the first building where the city now stands. Then came the cultivated fields. A flour mill was erected down on the river bank, then a blacksmith shop, a store, a livery stable, some modest dwellings, then a school house, and a church. Thus came the little village which through the years has slowly grown into the present city.
Thus came all the cities, and thus came the States. There was a time not so long ago when there were no white people within what is now the borders of our State. There was the “first white settler”, the first cultivated patch of ground, the first log house, the little settlements, the lonely log cabins in between, and then the State.
Thus were the thirteen colonies founded, and thus were founded the thirty-five States which have been admitted to the Union since the adoption of the Constitution.
Every human organization with any degree of permanence has something in the nature of a constitution. It may be in writing, it may be oral, or it may rest in a mutual understanding expressed only by acts and conduct. It may be manifest from customs which have been observed by all the members of the group.
The proud boast of America is that it was the first Nation in the world which adopted a complete written Constitution [pg 189] binding upon the Nation and upon the people, a Constitution which provides for courts with the power of restraining the Nation and the individual from acts or conduct which violate its provisions, designed to guard human rights.
Until the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the colonies in their joint efforts for liberty and justice, were called the “United Colonies”; but after independence was proclaimed, this title gave place to that of “The United States”. Thereupon eleven of the thirteen States adopted Constitutions. In two States—Connecticut and Rhode Island by an act of the legislature, the existing charters were continued in force so far as consistent with independence. These Constitutions all came into being before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. Of course they were far from perfect, and all have been amended from time to time, so that now the Constitution of each State provides a truly American system of government.[102]
Nothing in the Constitution of the United States requires that each State shall have a written Constitution, but the wonderful achievement of the people in creating the Constitution of the United States has been a guide and inspiration to the people of the States, and each State has adopted a written State Constitution, following the method and spirit of the colonists in the long ago, drafting the Constitution in a convention of delegates and ratifying it by another special convention or by the vote of all the people.
Then as each new State was admitted to the Union, a Constitution was adopted.[103] By the Constitution of the United States, Congress has the power to admit new States, thus by implication controlling the subject matter of the original Constitution of each State admitted.