On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, all eyes are on the 56 people who signed their names to one of our most famous founding documents. But while those men crafted the language that formed the nation’s principles, many of them also helped write another foundational document: the newly independent states’ first constitutions.
Long before delegates met in Philadelphia to write the United States Constitution in 1787, states were experimenting with constitutional democracy, separation of powers, and written guarantees of individual rights. These state constitutions became the United States’ first constitutional laboratory, with the same political leaders who believed the colonies should govern themselves determining how their self-government would function.
Virginia provides perhaps the clearest example of the relationship between the Declaration’s governing principles and the first state constitution. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence while working in Philadelphia. At about the same time, Virginia delegates meeting in Williamsburg were drafting a new constitution for the Union. Although Jefferson was unable to attend, he sent a draft constitution and preamble to Virginia. Many of the principles expressed in the Declaration reflected ideas he had already developed for Virginia’s new government, and also drew on the writings of the English philosopher John Locke. The Declaration and Virginia’s constitutional debates did not exist in isolation but developed in parallel to each other.
Other Founding Fathers were also closely involved in designing their states’ governing documents. John Adams was the principal author of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, the world’s oldest written constitution still in use. Benjamin Franklin presided over the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention and then urged his fellow delegates to sign the Constitution at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. John Jay helped draft New York’s first constitution and later became the state’s first chief justice and later the nation’s first chief justice.
Many lesser-known founders also played essential roles in creating the constitutional government of the country and its states. For example, the story of Delaware-born jurist Thomas McKean illustrates how national independence and the creation of state constitutions are intertwined.
McKean, a delegate and outspoken advocate of independence, was absent when most delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776, because he had joined General George Washington in the defense of New York City. He is traditionally considered the last signer of the Declaration, with some historians claiming that he signed it several years later. At the same time, McKean was organizing a new government for Delaware. After being chosen to draft the state’s first constitution, he reportedly drove from Philadelphia to Dover in one day in 1776 and helped write it that night. He later served as chief justice of Pennsylvania and governor of both Pennsylvania and Delaware, governing the constitutional governments he helped establish.
The Declaration of Independence announced that Americans had the right to govern themselves, but the first state constitutions established different approaches to governance within a larger federalist framework. Some countries created strong legislative bodies, while others strengthened the powers of the executive branch. Some included comprehensive declarations of rights, while others relied on long-established legal traditions. But together they represented America’s first sustained experiment in constitutional autonomy.
Many of the concepts later incorporated into the federal constitution were first tested at the state level. In his 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, Adams provided one of the clearest early models for the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers, a framework that was later embodied in the first three articles of the U.S. Constitution. Article 17 of the New York State Constitution created one of the nation’s most powerful executives and provided an important reference point for delegates as they debated the scope of presidential power. In contrast, the Pennsylvania Constitution concentrated power in a single legislative chamber, an experiment that helped demonstrate the challenges of concentrating legislative power and contributed to support for the bicameral legislature later implemented in the U.S. Constitution.
Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence announced the birth of a new nation, it is worth remembering that independence alone did not create a constitutional republic. This task was assigned to many people who declared the liberation of the colonies. Their signatures are listed below the Declaration, but their legacy can also be found in the state constitutions that transformed Revolutionary principles into functioning government and laid the foundation for the American constitutional tradition.
Zoe Merriman is the Production Coordinator for State Court Reports.
Recommended citation: Zoe Merriman Founding Fathers and Early State ConstitutionsSᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (July 27, 2026),
