Revolutionary Ideology in New Jersey:
The Constitution of 1776
Central issue, problem, or question:
What ideals animated the men who authored the state of New Jersey's 1776
constitution? What sort of government did they create?
Significance:
This lesson examines the revolutionary and conservative aspects of New
Jersey's first constitution and explores the relationship between suffrage and
citizenship.
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies:
Standard 6.4 (United States and New Jersey History). Middle School: E-1
(Discuss the background and major issues of the American Revolution); E-4
(Explain New Jersey’s critical role in the American Revolution). High School:
E-1 (Discuss the social, political, and religious aspects of the American
Revolution); E-5 (Analyze New Jersey’s role in the American Revolution).
Objectives: After reading and analyzing primary source documents, students will
be able to:
• Describe the government created by New Jersey's1776 constitution.
• Identify the document's most revolutionary and most conservative
provisions.
• Analyze the importance of suffrage as a right of citizenship.
Abstract: This lesson requires students to analyze the ideals motivating the
republican revolution in New Jersey (and other states) and to describe the form
of government created by the state's 1776 constitution. Middle school students
will read the constitution and outline its main features. They will then engage in a
role playing exercise based on the constitution's liberal suffrage provisions and
the 1807 electoral reform law that restricted suffrage to white male citizens. The
high school lesson asks students to identify the revolutionary and conservative
aspects of the 1776 constitution. As a follow up, students will analyze primary
source documents relating to the constitution's suffrage provisions and the 1807
electoral reform law.
Duration: Three 45-minute class periods
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Sources
Secondary Sources
Maxine N. Lurie online lecture: “Republicanism and New Jersey’s 1776
Constitution” (July 2003); available on the New Jersey History Partnership
Project website, http://nj-history.org, in the “1776 Constitution” section.
Maxine N. Lurie, “Envisioning a Republic: New Jersey’s 1776 Constitution
and Oath of Office,” New Jersey History 119 (Fall/Winter 2001): 2-21.
Richard J. Connors, The Constitution of 1776, New Jersey's Revolutionary
Experience 15 (Trenton, 1975).
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
secondarySources/Constitution.pdf
“The Republican Rebellion,” program 4, New Jersey Legacy television
series, co-produced by the New Jersey Historical Commission and New
Jersey Network, 1997, videocassette.
Women’s Project of New Jersey, New Jersey Women’s History website,
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory
Judith Apter Klinghoffer and Lois Elkis, "'The Petticoat Electors': Women's
Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776-1807," Journal of the Early Republic 12
(Summer 1992): 159-93.
Edward Countryman, The American Revolution, rev. ed. (New York,
2003), 98-131.
Primary Sources
New Jersey State Constitution, 2 July 1776.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc1.pdf
New Jersey State Oath of Office, August 1776.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc2.pdf
Letter to the True American, 18 October 1802.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc3.pdf
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An Act to Regulate the Election of Members of the Legislative Council and
General Assembly, Sheriffs and Coroners in this State, 1807.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc4.pdf
Lewis Condict’s Speech, True American, 23 November 1807.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc5.pdf
Materials: Teachers will require copies of primary source documents and might
wish to make dictionaries available to students as they read the documents.
Background: Students should already have studied the colonial conflicts that led
to the Continental Congress's decision to declare independence from Great
Britain in 1776. Like other colonists, New Jersey's inhabitants protested taxation
by Parliament, established committees of correspondence, and signed nonimportation and non-consumption agreements. New Jersey was, however, a
divided a colony during the Revolutionary War; many of the state's inhabitants
were reluctant revolutionaries or active loyalists. Yet in the summer of 1776, New
Jersey was in the forefront of the revolution when its Provincial Congress (an
extralegal governing body composed of New Jersey's most prominent whigs)
drafted the state's first constitution. One of the new nation's earliest state
constitutions, the document was a declaration of independence from Great
Britain; it established a new government that derived its legitimacy from the
people of New Jersey rather than from the British Crown.
The men who authored the constitution were ardent republicans who wished to
guard against the corruption they believed responsible for oppressive British
colonial policies. To this end, the constitution protected citizens' basic
rights—like the rights to trial by jury and to freedom of conscience—and
established limits on the power of government. The new government consisted
of two legislative bodies (the Legislative Council and the General Assembly) and
a governor. Elections were to be held annually. Thus, state officials had to win
their constituents' votes year after year; they could not afford to ignore voters'
wishes or to pass unjust revenue acts. Unlike the colony's royal governors, the
state governor was selected by the legislature and lacked the power to veto
legislation or to dismiss the legislature.
To ensure that only the best qualified men wielded political power, the
constitution established hefty property qualifications for office holders, restricting
eligibility to "men of substance." On the topic of voting qualifications, however,
the authors of New Jersey's constitution responded to pressure from less
prosperous men by extending the right of suffrage to any inhabitant who owned a
modest £50 worth of property. What was revolutionary about this provision was
that the property need not be land.
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Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of New Jersey's 1776 constitution was the
enfranchisement of some women and African Americans; most, however, were
ineligible to vote. A 1790 election law restricted suffrage to free inhabitants, thus
excluding the majority of New Jersey's African Americans. Married women were
disfranchised by the British commonlaw principle of coverture, under which a
man gained control of his wife's property upon marriage; legally, they became
one person, rather than two individuals. Thus, only widows and spinsters were
potential voters.
This short-lived, and possibly unintended, extension of the suffrage was unique;
no other state enfranchised women until Wyoming in 1869. Some New
Jerseyans celebrated women's enfranchisement as the logical extension of
revolutionary ideals, and politicians courted women's and African Americans'
votes in contested elections. But due to partisan strife between the Federalist
and Democratic-Republican parties, female and black voters became
scapegoats. Blamed (with little evidence) for the election fraud that was already
rampant in nineteenth-century New Jersey, women and African Americans were
disfranchised by the state legislature in 1807.
Key Words:
Republic
Suffrage
Enfranchise/Disfranchise
Property Qualifications
Coverture
Middle School Procedures
The teacher should begin by asking students: Who do you think could vote in
New Jersey in 1776? Students might be surprised to learn who could and could
not vote. This is an opportunity for the teacher to explain the reasoning behind
property qualifications and other restrictions of suffrage, including the fact that
married women lacked political, legal, and economic rights independent of their
husbands. Afterwards, the teacher should give a short lecture on the origins and
ideals of New Jersey's 1776 constitution (based on Maxine Lurie's online
lecture). Dr. Lurie’s lecture is available on the New Jersey History Partnership
Project website, http://nj-history.org, in the “1776 Constitution” section.
Afterwards the teacher should play a video segment from from “The Republican
Rebellion” in the New Jersey Legacy Television Series. This video clip is
available on the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org, in the “1776 Constitution” section.
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Then the teacher should hand out a copy of Lewis Condict's speech on the 1807
election law which disfranchised black and female voters in the name of
combating fraud.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc5.pdf
Students should read the document aloud and discuss it as a class. This is an
important document, because Condict chaired the committee that drafted the
1807 law and, according to observers, his speech before the legislature ensured
that the law would be passed, despite some objections that it violated the
intention of the constitution's authors. Some questions the teacher might pose:
• What, according to Condict, did the authors of the 1776 constitution mean
when they enfranchised "all inhabitants" worth £50?
• How does he support his contention that the authors of the constitution did
not intend to enfranchise women, African Americans, and aliens? What is
his evidence?
• What reasons does Condict give to justify excluding women, African
Americans, and aliens from the right of suffrage?
• How well does Condict argue his case? (Remember, his colleagues found
his arguments convincing.)
If time permits, teachers might opt to incorporate a role playing exercise into this
lesson, allowing students to dramatize different perspectives using a popular
form of entertainment—for example, Judge Judy, Jerry Springer, or a soap
opera. In a court room scenario, students should have a judge who guides the
skit with relevant questions. The defendant might be Lewis Condict. The plaintiff
might be a disfranchised voter. This type of activity encourages creativity and
allows students to explore arguments for and against enfranchising women and
African Americans. An alternate assignment might require students to write a
persuasive letter to Lewis Condict from the perspective of a white or black
woman or a black man, explaining why she or he deserves the right to vote.
Finally, students should be asked to write individual essays explaining why the
1807 law restricting suffrage to white male citizens was or was not consistent
with the principles that animated the American Revolution. The teacher should
remind students that although some other states enfranchised free blacks, no
other state enfranchised women. African American men in New Jersey only
regained their right to vote after ratification in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment
to the nation's Constitution. New Jersey women regained the right to vote in
1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth (or Susan B. Anthony) Amendment.
High School Procedures
Before beginning this lesson, the teacher should remind students of colonial
protests over British taxation and review the whig critique of British colonial rule.
The lesson should begin with a short lecture based on Maxine Lurie's online
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lecture on the origins and ideals of New Jersey's 1776 constitution. Dr. Lurie’s
lecture is available on the New Jersey History Partnership Project website,
http://nj-history.org, in the “1776 Constitution” section.
Instead of lecturing, the teacher might prefer to play portions of Dr. Lurie's talk to
the class. After the lecture, the teacher should split students into cooperative
groups to read and analyze:
• New Jersey's 1776 constitution
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc1.pdf
• Oath of Office.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc2.pdf
Each group will be responsible for outlining the government established by the
constitution and identifying the rights it protected. Alternately, the teacher could
have students fill out the attached worksheet as homework,
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
lesson/constitutionWS.pdf
When reading the oath of office, students should focus on the questions:
• Which sections of the constitution did New Jersey's Provincial Congress
deem most important?
• Why do you think they gave priority to these provisions?
After the groups have finished studying the constitution and oath of office, the
teacher should ask each group to decide which of the constitution's provisions
were the most revolutionary. In other words, which provisions represented the
greatest break with the past? Which provisions were designed to guard against
the perceived danger of entrenched power? Which provisions were intended to
protect individuals from tyranny? Student answers should include:
• The right to trial by jury.
• The declaration of independence from Great Britain.
• The prohibition of established religion.
• Freedom of religion. (Because of the state's religious diversity, New
Jersey inhabitants had enjoyed this right since 1665 and wished to
preserve it.)
• Frequent elections.
• Term limits for public officials.
• The liberalized franchise.
• The weak governor and powerful legislature.
The teacher should write each group's answers on the chalkboard.
Students will also identify the most conservative aspects of the state's new
constitution. They will answer the question: Which provisions of the constitution
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were holdovers from the British parliamentary system of government? Students'
answers should include:
• The retention of British common law and statutes.
• Property qualifications for voters.
• Higher property qualifications for elected officials.
• Guaranteed civil and political rights to Protestants. (Catholics and Jews,
for example, might be denied the right to serve as elected officials of the
state.)
• Indirect election of state officials, including the governor.
• The null and void clause at the end of the constitution.
Again, the teacher should write each group's answers on the chalkboard.
The teacher should ask students to compare the two lists and to classify and
group some of the provisions in each list. Students should recognize that
although the framers of New Jersey's constitution wished to guard against the
creation of an entrenched political aristocracy, they nevertheless sought to
restrict the power of the masses through property qualifications and indirect
elections. At the end of class, the teacher will tell students to be prepared to
write an in-class essay based on this discussion and their analysis of the two
primary source documents.
The third day of class should be devoted to an in-class essay on the question: In
what ways was the New Jersey Constitution of 1776 a revolutionary document?
In what ways was it conservative? Was it more revolutionary or conservative?
Cite specific examples to support your argument.
For homework that night, the students should read three additional documents:
• Letter to the True American.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc3.pdf
• An Act to Regulate the Election of Members of the Legislative Council and
General Assembly, Sheriffs and Coroners in this State.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc4.pdf
• Lewis Condict's speech, True American.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc5.pdf
The final day of class should focus on the topic of the constitution's suffrage
provisions. The teacher should remind students that while some other states
enfranchised African American men (usually with special property qualifications),
New Jersey was the first and only state until 1869 to enfranchise female
propertyholders. Historians have argued over whether this inclusion was
intentional, but they agree that some propertied women, African Americans, and
aliens exercised this right until they were disfranchised in 1807.
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The teacher should begin the class by playing the voting qualifications segment
of Maxine Lurie's online lecture. Lurie’s lecture is available on the New Jersey
History Partnership Project website, http://nj-history.org, in the “1776
Constitution” section.
Afterwards, the teacher should ask students to analyze how politicians justified
the disfranchisement of women, African Americans, and aliens. The teacher
might begin this discussion by asking students to analyze the letter to the True
American.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc3.pdf
The discussion should focus on the following questions:
• Why, according to the writer, were women voters "rarely, if ever
unbiased"?
• Why was woman's suffrage consistent with the "principle of justice"?
• How, according to the writer, did women become the "passive tools" of the
political parties?
• Does the writer advocate disfranchising women?
• How does he try to convince women that they should refrain from voting?
The teacher should then ask students to analyze New Jersey's 1807 Act to
Regulate the Election of Members of the Legislative Council and General
Assembly, Sheriffs and Coroners in this State.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc4.pdf
The discussion should focus on the following questions:
• On what grounds did New Jersey legislators justify disfranchising aliens,
women, and African Americans?
• Do you think disfranchising aliens, women, and African Americans is
consistent with "the true sense and meaning" of New Jersey's 1776
constitution?
Then the teacher should ask students to analyze the True American's report of
Lewis Condict's speech.
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
documents/constitutionDoc5.pdf
Lewis Condict chaired the committee that authored the 1807 electoral reform law.
His speech before the Assembly was widely credited with ensuring that suffrage
would be restricted to white male citizens. The discussion should focus on the
following questions:
• What, according to Condict, did the authors of the 1776 constitution mean
when they enfranchised "all inhabitants" worth £50?
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•
•
•
How does he support his contention that the authors of the constitution did
not intend to enfranchise women, African Americans, and aliens? What is
his evidence?
What reasons does Condict give to justify excluding women, African
Americans, and aliens from the right of suffrage?
How well does Condict argue his case? (Remember, his colleagues found
his arguments convincing.)
Alternately, the teacher might assign the questions on the above documents as
homework, using the attached worksheet,
http://nj-history.org/americanRevolution/constitution1776/
lesson/constitutionWS2.pdf
The teacher should conclude this lesson by asking students to consider the
relationship between suffrage and citizenship. Today, most Americans assume
that citizens are entitled to vote, but in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
America, this was not always the case. The belief that suffrage was an inherent
right of citizenship helped animate both the woman's suffrage and civil rights
movements.
Comments and Suggestions: High school teachers who wish to reduce the
amount of class time devoted to this lesson might ask students to read the
constitution and oath of office individually and to fill out the attached
worksheet for homework. Likewise, the in-class essay might become a
homework assignment. Middle school teachers might omit the role playing
exercise.
Connections: Teachers might enhance this lesson by comparing New
Jersey's constitution to other early constitutions (e.g., Pennsylvania, New
York, Massachusetts, Virginia). This lesson could also serve as an
introduction to a discussion of the 1781 Articles of Confederation, which until
superseded by the U.S. Constitution, created a weak central government for
the newly independent states. Alternately, teachers might use this lesson to
highlight women's fight for equal suffrage in the nineteenth- and twentiethcenturies. Suffrage leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton deplored how New
Jersey's "attempt at a genuine republic was nipped in the bud."
Instructional Technology: Teachers might require students to search online
for additional materials (e.g., the later New Jersey state constitutions),
especially on the New Jersey State Library's website
(http://www.njstatelib.org/).
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