The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 (ratified September 28, 1776) was the state's first constitution following its declaration of independence and has been described as the most democratic in America. It was drafted by Robert Whitehill,[1] Timothy Matlack, Dr. Thomas Young, George Bryan, James Cannon, and Benjamin Franklin. Many of the men who took part in its creation were not members of Pennsylvania’s government at the time, but rather an elected court composed of many non-landowners.[2] Pennsylvania's innovative and highly democratic government structure, featuring a unicameral legislature and collective executive,[3] may have influenced the later French Republic's formation under the French Constitution of 1793. The constitution also included a declaration of rights that coincided with the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776.[4] It was replaced in 1790 by a new constitution.
- ^ ""a drafter of the 1776 state constitution"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-01-07. Retrieved 2009-10-31.
- ^ Williams, Robert F. (1988). "The Influences of Pennsylvania's 1776 Constitution on American Constitutionalism during the Founding Decade". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 112 (1): 25–48. ISSN 0031-4587.
- ^ The colonial "constitution" had also provided for a unicameral Assembly and a Provincial Council which, from time to time throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, acted as a collective executive when Deputy Governors were unavailable.
- ^ Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights. Retrieved from http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/organic/1776-pdr.htm.
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