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Lepore: Massachusetts constitution helped invent amendment practice that shaped the U.S. Constitution
Summary
At the Concord Museum forum, Jill Lepore traced the origins of amendment-minded constitutionalism to early state constitutions—especially Massachusetts—and used the orrery/machine metaphor to show how 18th-century framers thought constitution-making and repair worked.
Jill Lepore told the audience that the practice of writing constitutions and embedding amendment mechanisms began at the state level, citing the January 1776 New Hampshire constitution and the Massachusetts process that led to its 1780 constitution. She said Massachusetts required specially elected delegates and an amendment provision because towns demanded a mechanism to update the document as circumstances changed.
Lepore illustrated the framers' mechanical thinking with the image of an orrery, a clocklike model of the solar system that taught people how different parts of government "fit" and required repair. "They talked all that like, when we think when you talk about checks and balances, say, they really meant that, right? Like, like in a Watchworks," Lepore said.
Context: Lepore argued that these early, pragmatic experiments with written constitutions and amendment procedures set a pattern that influenced the federal framers' acceptance of an amendment process.
