Great question!
Please send ideas of antecedents to all.

Roger Mellen


On 10/18/12 9:46 AM, Jon Kukla wrote:
> Is anyone aware of scholarship that explores the antecedents of the 1776
> innovation of placing a declaration of rights at the beginning of a
> constitution?
>
>
>
>     We have long recognized the placement of a declaration of rights at the
> beginning of a state constitution as an innovation dating from the Virginia
> constitution of 1776, copied soon thereafter by Pennsylvania, Maryland,
> Delaware, and North Carolina and then by Vermont in 1777, Massachusetts in
> 1780, and New Hampshire in 1781 (e.g., Wood, Creation, 271).
>
>
>
>     Looking closely at the Virginia convention, the idea of placing a
> statement of rights at the beginning of a written constitution seems to
> originate with Meriwether Lewis’s draft resolution for independence (ca. 14
> May 1776) – one of three resolutions (the others presented by Bartholomew
> Dandridge and Patrick Henry) that the presiding officer, Edmund Pendleton,
> consolidated into the final text calling for independence adopted on 15 May
> 1776 and transmitted to Congress, etc.
>
>
>
>     - Lewis’s language urged that “a Committee ought to prepare a
>     Declaration of Rights, and such a plan of *g*overnment as shall be
>     judged most proper to maintain Peace & Order in this Colony & secure
>     substantial and equal Liberty to the People.” (Van Schreeven, Scribner,
>     Tarter, eds. Revolutionary Virginia: 7: 145n8)
>
>
>
>     - Pendleton’s revision directed that “a Committee be appointed to
>     prepare a Declaration of Rights, and such a plan of government as will be
>     most likely to maintain peace and order in this colony and secure
>     substantial and equal liberty to the people.” (Ibid., 143)
>
>
>
> In that context, I would be grateful for any citations to scholarship
> exploring any advocacy prior to May 1776 of the placement of a declaration
> of rights at the beginning of a constitution?
>
>
>
> Thank you.
>
> Jon Kukla
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> www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
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