Maine Memory Network

The Maine State Constitution took effect on March 15, 1820. Consisting of ten articles, the framers based it on the constitutions of several states.

The first three articles address individual rights, voter eligibility, and limitations on government, while four, five, and six deal with the three branches of government. Six through nine cover topics such as the state militia, education, and terms of the office. Article 10 incorporates into the constitution most of the 1819 Act Relating to the Separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts and provides a timeline for starting the new government.

While the constitution provided strong protections for religious freedom, extended voting rights to Black men, and had no property requirement to vote, it disenfranchised women, the poor, and "Indians not taxed," recognizing Tribal sovereignty but also tying representation to taxation.

Todd and Smith, Printers to the State, printed this copy. Located in Portland, the state capitol in 1825, Seba Smith and Thomas Todd also published the Eastern Argus newspaper during the period. Smith was also a humorist and later responsible for creating the fictional character Major Jack Downing.

Not amended until 1835, this 1825 version contains all of the constitution’s original text. The Maine Constitution prohibits altering the Articles of Separation without the consent of Massachusetts. For this reason, and to avoid changing the Maine Constitution, Maine legislators instead suggested redacting sections of the document. Since 1876, Sections 1, 2, and 5 of Article X of the Maine Constitution ceased to be printed, but retain their legal validity. The redacted sections include Maine's obligation to uphold and defend treaties made between Massachusetts and the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations.

The selectmen from the town of Baldwin, Josiah Pierce, and Lot Davis requested the constable William Fitch to notify the qualified Baldwin voters to meet at Richard Fitch’s house on 16 September 1819.

The voters were deciding who would represent Baldwin at the Maine constitutional convention in Portland on October 14, 1819.

Fifty-four votes were cast, Lot Davis received forty-seven votes and was chosen to represent Baldwin.

William Pitt Preble (1783-1857) was born in York, where he started a law practice in 1809 after graduating from Harvard. He was appointed County Attorney for York in 1811, and the United States Attorney for Maine from 1814-1820. Preble was also a delegate at the Maine Constitutional Convention. In 1820, he became a justice of the Maine Supreme Court. William King (1768-1852) was a strong supporter of Maine’s independence and became Maine’s first governor from 1820-1821. In this letter to King, Preble made a case for using the Massachusetts Constitution as a basis for Maine’s constitution.

Thomas Jefferson wrote this letter to William King, who became Maine's first governor in 1820, responding to the copy of the Maine State Constitution, dated November 17, 1819.

Jefferson commended King, but also reminded him about the importance of political representation and democracy, noting that under Maine’s constitution, the rights of individuals were usurped by corporate towns, saying,
"Equal representation is so fundamental a principle in a true republic that no prejudices can justify its violation because the prejudice themselves cannot be justified. The claims of the corporate towns in this case, like those of the barons in England have forced the body of the nation to accept a government by capitulation, these equal rights of the people at large are forced to yield to the privileges of a few."