Constitution of Vermont (1777)

Vermont’s government was a bastion of democracy. Vermont’s struggle for independence from Great Britain, New York, and New Hampshire drove its republican ideology. Republicanism became the law of the land in Vermont, as exemplified in the actions of Ethan Allen, the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Chittenden. Vermont put the bulk of its governing power in the hands of the General Assembly, directly accountable to the people. It likewise granted the people power over the courts’ economic influence. It similarly established a Council of Censors to suggest changes to government and preserve its Constitution. Vermont’s government likewise became the first place in the Atlantic world to abolish slavery, and it established voting rights regardless of land ownership. All of these actions were remarkably democratic for their time.

The Green Mountain Boys and Ethan Allen emerged as key figures in Vermont’s struggle for independence.   Ethan Allen “provided settlers with the language, logic, and methodology of resistance and state building.”^[1] Allen negotiated on behalf of the Green Mountain Boys, Vermont’s militia; “Allen persuaded New York and the Continental Congress that their advantage lay in accepting the Green Mountain Boys on an equal footing with troops from other states.”^[1] The Green Mountain Boys’ influence grew as Vermont’s political situation changed. “Many scholars argue that the Revolution created a power vacuum in the Green Mountains, with the Green Mountain Boys stepping into this void to create the independent state of Vermont.”^[1] Allen utilized his political skills when he drafted Vermont’s preamble to its Constitution along with Thomas Chittenden; “Allen and Chittenden found their only legitimation in the ‘authority of the people.’”^[1] Allen and Chittenden further “assert[ed] the people’s right to establish their own form government”^[1] in the Vermont Constitution. Despite Allen’s involvement with the Green Mountain Boys, Allen argued that “a revolution [...] is not a series of battles but an extended political movement. Politics, which Allen found primarily the art of theater, determines a revolution's outcome.”^[1]

Vermont’s democratic nature was codified into its governing systems.  It reflected “the highest ideals of republicanism [,] [...] creating the most democratic structure of its time.” ^[1] “It clearly established and protected certain basic rights: freedom of speech, print, and public assembly, a modified freedom of religion, the right to fair and open trial before jury, and the people’s right to form new governments as they see fit.”^[1] In addition, the “State’s voters controlled every branch of government.” True “political power resided in the General Assembly.  The Governor and Council of Vermont could not veto legislation,”^[1] clearly reflecting republican ideology. Early Vermont was incredibly transparent for its time; it “required public legislative sessions and forbade the passage of any bill into law the same year it was proposed, mandating its printing for the public’s information.”^[1] Vermonters similarly had significant control over their financial systems.  They “feared the power of the state to imprison those who fell onto the wrong side of the credit system.  The constitution [...] spelled out several key limitations on the economic power of the courts, allowing no writ against the property or person of a debtor except in extreme circumstances, while guaranteeing a jury trial even in civil cases and allowing local control of fee schedules.”^[1] Further adding to Vermont’s democratic nature, it represented each township’s needs in a unique manner.  Under

the Vermont Constitution, “Sovereignty lay in the distinct townships, which held the ‘unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish government, in such manner as shall be, by that community, judged, most conducive to public weal’ [...] Vermont [...] nourished each town as an autonomous unit deserving its own voice in the legislature.”^[1] Each community with “more than eighty freemen received two representatives, all others one.”^[1] This gave Vermonters significant bargaining power; “The people interacted with their state government through their community, not as isolated individuals.”^[1] Vermont established a “septennial”^[1] Council of Censors, responsible for “review[ing] all legislative and executive acts”^[1] and ensuring the Constitution’s role in state affairs, preserving its democracy.^[2] The Council of Censors was responsible for ensuring taxes were collected and appropriated fairly.   It could also “amend the constitution by calling a popularly elected convention, allowing ‘posterity the same privileges of choosing how they would be ‘governed’ without resort to ‘revolution or bloodshed.’”^[1]

At the time, Vermont’s democratic Constitution faced fierce criticism; “Timothy Dwight, fumed that ‘a Legislature by a single house is of course no other than an organized mobs.  Its deliberations are necessarily tumultuous, violent & indecent.’ The radicals of [...] Vermont rejected this logic as aristocratic, insisting instead on the existence of a 'homogenous community of interest’, which superseded class distinctions.”^[1][3]

Regardless, Vermont benefitted from its democracy in many ways, particularly in regards to public education.  Vermont implemented a mandate for public education across the state, requiring “the legislature to establish a school in each town” and to provide for a university in the state.^[4] Vermonters provided for large steps in public education under the belief that it was a “moral duty that the State owes her youth.”^[4]

The abolition of slavery in the Green Mountains exhibited Vermont’s radically democratic nature.   Vermont was not only “the first [former colony] to outlaw slavery,”^[1]  it “was the first in the Atlantic world to abolish the practice.”^[3]   “In two sentences [of the Vermont Declaration of Independence] [...] [its] founders [...] carried the logic of the [United States’] Declaration of Independence to its obvious conclusion, stating: ‘That all men are born equally free and independent… Therefore, no male person, born in this country or brought form over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one, not female, in like, manner after she arrives at the age of eighteen.’”^[1]   This is significantly different from Vermont’s neighbors; “Pennsylvania constitution stopped at the first sentence.”^[1]  Likewise, “In contrast with New York, which allowed slavery, Vermont supported freedom [...] the legislature declared free any slaves brought into Vermont.”^[1]  James Madison noted that if “slavery prevails in a State, the Government, however democratic in name, must be aristocratic in fact”;^[5] if this is applied within the context of the Revolution, Vermont — unlike its neighbors— more fully embraced democratic ideals through its prohibition on slavery.  

Although the Vermont Constitution was largely modeled after Pennsylvania’s Constitution, “there are several significant and revealing differences.”^[1] “It dropped the qualification that a voter had to be a taxpayer.”^[6] Vermonters could vote regardless of their property status; “The constitution [likewise] granted every male over the age of twenty-one ‘all privileges of a freeman of this State.’”  This is revolutionary in its context; “while as few as 10 percent of the adult males could vote just over the border in Dutchess and Albany counties, Vermont placed no property restrictions on the franchise.  No state in the Union made such an effort to include so many of its inhabitants in its decision making.  No other state succeeded in divorcing property from liberty.”   In addition to this, Vermont’s Constitution put a clear emphasis on public affairs over the rights of private property, effectively establishing eminent domain.  “[The Vermont Constitution argued that] Private property ought to be subservient to public uses, when necessity requires it.”

The first draft of the Constitution of Vermont was published in July 1777, almost five months after Vermont declared itself an independent country, now frequently called the Vermont Republic. It was in effect until its extensive revision in 1786. The second Constitution of Vermont went into effect in 1786 and lasted until 1793, two years after Vermont was admitted to the Union as the fourteenth state. In 1791 Vermont became the fourteenth US state and in 1793 it adopted its current constitution.

The constitution was adopted on July 8, 1777, at the tavern in Windsor now known as the Old Constitution House and administered as a state historic site. Each township in Vermont was advised to send representatives to Windsor for the assembly; Bennington notably objected to the Constitution because the Vermont people did not ratify it, according to Ira Allen.^[7] The constitution consisted of three main parts. The first was a preamble reminiscent of the United States Declaration of Independence:

It is absolutely necessary, for the welfare and safety of the inhabitants of this State, that it should be, henceforth, a free and independent State; and that a just, permanent, and proper form of government, should exist in it, derived from, and founded on, the authority of the people only, agreeable to the direction of the honorable American Congress.

(Here the term "American Congress" refers to the Continental Congress.)

Jonas Fay was a delegate to the convention; he was named chairman of the committee appointed to draft the declaration announcing the creation of the Vermont Republic, and received credit as the document's primary author.^[8]

The Vermont Constitution provided protections of several key liberties in the first chapter including freedom of the press and religion along with the right to vote, own property, bear arms, emigrate, assemble, petition, and be protected under the due process of law.  It also allowed for eminent domain and established that civil service employees and representatives served on behalf of their constituents.  It also ensured that crimes in Vermont were always prosecuted within the state.   In the second chapter, the Constitution outlines the structure of government and roles of each branch, notably creating a Council of Censors to preserve democratic processes.

The second part of the 1777 constitution was Chapter 1, a "Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the State of Vermont." This chapter was composed of 19 articles guaranteeing various civil and political rights in Vermont:

• The first article declared that "all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain natural, inherent and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety," echoing the famous phrases in the Declaration of Independence that declared that "all men are created equal" and possess "inalienable rights," including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The article went on to declare that because of these principles, "no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person, as a servant, slave or apprentice, after he arrives to the age of twenty-one Years, nor female, in like manner, after she arrives to the age of eighteen years, unless they are bound by their own consent." This was the first such ban on slavery in the New World.^[9] See also History of slavery in Vermont.
• The second article declared that "private property ought to be subservient to public uses, when necessity requires it; nevertheless, whenever any particular man's property is taken for the use of the public, the owner ought to receive an equivalent in money." This established the basic principles of eminent domain in Vermont.
• The third article established freedom of religion. Vermont followed the precedent of several other states (including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina) in abolishing “the privileged status of the Anglican church with their first constitution.”^[10] It did not mention how to tax religious institutions, leaving the issue to the Assembly.  It likewise promoted the “encouragement of virtue and prevention of vice and immorality."^[11]Vermont’s protection of freedom of religion only extended “to those who ‘profess[...] the protestant religion.’”^[12]  This is significantly different from the Pennsylvania Constitution it is based on, which protected  "any man who acknowledges being of a God."^[12]
• The fourth through seventh articles subordinated the government to the interests of the people.
• The eighth article gave all freemen the right to vote (even if they owned no property).
• The ninth article said that since everyone has a right to be protected in his life, liberty, and property, that he ought to contribute his share to the expense of that protection.
• The tenth through thirteenth articles concerned due process of law.
• The fourteenth and fifteenth articles concerned freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, and the subordination of the military to the civil power. Vermont’s protection of free speech applied primarily to government proceedings, highlighting their Framers’s belief in the press’s role in civil discourse.   However, Vermont’s protections of free speech were not as strong as Virginia’s Bill of Rights, which stated, the freedom of the press “can never be restrained.”^[13]
• The seventeenth article recognizes a right to emigrate.
• The eighteenth article recognizes rights of assembly and petition.
• The nineteenth article says no one should be liable to be transported from Vermont to any other place to be tried for offenses committed in Vermont.

Chapter 2 of the Constitution is called A Plan or Frame of Government.

• Sections I through IV of Chapter 2 provide that "THE COMMONWEALTH or STATE of VERMONT, shall be governed, hereafter, by a Governor, Deputy Governor, Council, and an Assembly of the Representatives of the Freemen of the same". It vests executive power in the governor and council, and legislative power in the House of Representatives, and requires a court of justice to be established in every county.
• Section V prescribes universal military training.
• Section VI says every man at least 21 years old (even those not owning property) may vote if they take an oath promising to vote consistently with the interests of the state of Vermont. (The Vermont voter's oath is still required today for first-time voters when they register. None of the other states require an oath of voters.)
• Sections VII through IX and XI through XVI provide for annual election of legislators and annual legislative sessions.
• Section X says the legislature is to elect delegates to the Continental Congress. (However, the Continental Congress refused to recognize the independence of Vermont and to allow it representation.)
• Sections XVII and XVIII deal with the powers of the governor and council, in particular making the governor the commander-in-chief of the military.
• Sections XXI through XXVI deal with courts of law, in particular the supreme court and the courts of common pleas.
• Section XLIV established the Council of Censors, which was elected every seven years to suggest improvements and preserve the Constitution’s role in Vermont government.^[14] The Council of Censors had “venerable predecessors in Greek and Roman history.”^[15]

Chapter 2 continues through 44 Sections.

In the broader context of the Revolution, Vermont’s Constitution is understood as one of the more democratic of the state constitutions.   Vermonters’ belief in their democracy and government was strong; the 1786 and later 1793 Constitutional Convention had the potential to create serious democratic backsliding.  Instead, Vermont delegates — reflecting their constituents’s beliefs— supported small changes to the Constitution but overwhelmingly upheld their commitment to republicanism.  Even the similarly democratic Pennsylvania Constitution (which the Vermont Constitution was based on),  abandoned “Many of the most inspiring ideas still in use in Vermont today [...], making the Vermont Constitution more special than promised in 1777.”^[10]  The absence of similar democratic measures in other states best exemplifies the limits of the Revolution.   “[The American Revolution] is best understood not as a watershed event that radically changed American society, but rather as one episode in a much longer continuum of change.”^[3]

The 1786 Constitution of Vermont established a greater separation of powers than what had prevailed under the 1777 Constitution. In particular, it forbade anyone to simultaneously hold more than one of certain offices: governor, lieutenant-governor, judge of the supreme court, treasurer of the state, member of the governor's council, member of the legislature, surveyor-general, or sheriff.^[16] It also provided that the legislature could no longer function as a court of appeals nor otherwise intervene in cases before the courts, as it had often done.

The 1786 Constitution continued in effect when, in 1791, Vermont made the transition from independence to the status of one of the states of the Union. In particular, the governor, the members of the governor's council, and other officers of the state, including judges in all courts, simply continued their terms of office that were already underway.

The 1793 Constitution was adopted two years after Vermont's admission to the Union and continues in effect, with various later amendments, to this day. It eliminated all mention of grievances against King George III and against the State of New York. In 1790, New York's legislature finally renounced its claims that Vermont was a part of New York, the cessation of those claims being effective if and when Congress decided to admit Vermont.

• History of Vermont
• History of slavery in Vermont

• The Vermont State Archives text of the Vermont Republic constitution
• The Vermont State Archives text of the 1786 constitution
• The Vermont State Archives text of the 1793 constitution
• The birthplace of Vermont and its constitution
• The original constitution manuscript
• The 1777 Constitution of Vermont on the web site of the Avalon Project at Yale University