- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1929 : July]
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-
- Date
- July 1929
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
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North Carolina historical review [1929 : July]
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The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume VI July, 1929
Number 3
THE SOURCES OF THE NORTH CAROLINA
CONSTITUTION OF 1776
By Earle H. Ketcham
There is a continuity in the constitutional history of a people, as
well as in their social or economic development. It is impossible
to say of any one time, “Here a change was made, without any
reference to the past.’' In the past there was the germ of the “idea,”
and in the past there was the experience which led to the action,1
and so it was with the “revolutionary” constitution of North Caro¬
lina. Revolutionary the constitution was, indeed, for it was evi¬
dence of the overthrow of a formerly established government and
the establishment of a new. But it was evolutionary too, because
it was based on the past experiences of the people, it incorporated
the teachings of former times, and it grew out of what was then
their present need.
Roughly we may say, at the present time, that the history of
North Carolina may be divided into two somewhat equal parts, the
line of division being the War of Independence. The more than
one hundred years of experience as a proprietary and as a crown
colony had resulted in some very definite conclusions as to the best
form of government.2 Did not their experience teach them that
governors were usually tyrants and should be curbed at every pos¬
sible point? Had they not seen that the legislatures, representative
of the people, were the bulwarks of liberty?
1 Professor
С.
E. Mcrriam in his American Political Theories, p. 94 makes a distinction be¬
tween the origination and the application of these ideas. He says, “To attribute the origination of
these ideas [of the Revolutionary periodl to the men of 1776, is. . . Simply to ignore the his¬
torical development of political theory. But in respect to the practical application of these doctrines
what has just been said docs not apply; for a set of principles like those involved in the construc-
tl0n**°A statc constitutions had never before received suen public recognition.”
* As to the character of the first charters we have the interesting statement of Dr. John S. Bassett
m his Constitutional Beginnings ol North Carolina (16G3-I729) that the reationary features of the
Fundamental Constitutions were “hardly worse than their generation, and their liberal features were
much better than the time.” Johns Hopkins, Studies in Historical and Political Science. Twelfth
senes, 137.
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