2 



and drew their pouers directly from the people* The assemblies 



which during the Revolutionary period framed the first state 

 constitutions were for the most part the same bodies which carried 

 on the ordinary legislative business; the concept of the constitu- 

 tional convention as it has since developed was then in its infancy. 

 In some cases these constituent assemblies acted with the express 

 or implied approval of the people they represented in framing and 

 adopting constitutions; in other cases they acted mthout such 

 approval. The constitutions so framed were generally not submit- 

 ted to tlie people for approval, but became effective upon the 

 authority of the assemblies which wrote them,-' But always the 

 constitution-makers acted in the name of, and as delegates of, 

 the sovereign people, "[W]e the Representatives of the Freemen 

 of North Carolina" read the preamble to the North Carolina Con- 

 stitution of 1776, 



"chosen and Assembled in Congress for the Express pur- 

 pose of framing a Constitution under the Authority of 

 the people, most Conducive to their Happiness and Pros- 

 perity do declare that a Government for this State shall 

 be established in manner and form following , , , ,"^ 

 The convention of the people is recognized as a distinctly 

 American contribution to the science of government. It vxas born 

 of the necessity for some extraordinary political instrumentality 

 whereby the people of each state might exercise their sovereign 

 power to establish and modify the fundamental law and form of 



Salter F. Dodd, The Revision and Amendment of State Consti - 

 tutions 20-21 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1910). 



^. at 2U-25. 



^Constitution of North Carolina, 1776, Preamble, 



