The Theory of Consent in the Early State Constitutions<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1"><sup>*</sup></xref>

Abstract

Between 1776 and 1798 the first fourteen states wrote and approved a total of twenty-five constitutions.' These documents embodied and summarized almost two hundred years of political experience on American shores, and they established the principles and institutions around which state constitutions are built to this very day. They were also the focus of a bitter political controversy during that era which eventually led to the national Constitution. Despite their importance for American political theory, these early constitutions occupy a peculiarly ambiguous position. They have rarely been studied as a group, are generally ignored by those writing in American political theory, have gone almost unstudied in recent years even by historians, and are almost always viewed as historical documents rather than as