Constitution of Vermont (1777)

The first Constitution of Vermont was drafted 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 1777 constitution was the first in what is now the territory of the United States to prohibit adult slavery, grant suffrage to non-landowning males, and establish free public education.

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. The constitution consisted of three main parts. The first was a preamble reminiscent of the United States Declaration of Independence:

(Here the term "American Congress" refers to the Continental Congress, not the later United States Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, which had not yet been established.)

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:

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

Chapter 2 continues through 44 Sections.

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. 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.

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