The Constitution of Indiana is the highest body of state law in the U.S. state of Indiana. It establishes the structure and function of the state and is based on the principles of federalism and Jacksonian democracy. Indiana's constitution is subordinate only to the U.S. Constitution and federal law. Prior to the enactment of Indiana's first state constitution and achievement of statehood in 1816, the Indiana Territory was governed by territorial law. The state's first constitution was created in 1816, after the U.S. Congress had agreed to grant statehood to the former Indiana Territory. The present-day document, which went into effect on November 1, 1851, is the state's second constitution. It supersedes Indiana's 1816 constitution and has had numerous amendments since its initial adoption.
Indiana's constitution is composed of a preamble, articles, and amendments. Among other provisions, it specifies a republican form of government (pursuant to Article IV, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution) consisting of three branches: executive (including administration), legislative, and judicial. The state constitution also includes a bill of rights, grants suffrage and regulates elections, provides for a state militia, state educational institutions, and sets limits on government indebtedness. The Indiana General Assembly may amend the constitution, subject to ratification by vote of the people, as specified in Article 16 of Indiana's 1851 constitution.
Constitution of 1816 Authorization In 1811 the Indiana Territory's House of Representatives adopted a memorial to the U.S. Congress asking permission for its citizens "to form a government and constitution and be admitted to the Union", but the War of 1812 delayed the process until 1815. Some members of the territory's general assembly, as well as Thomas Posey, governor of the Indiana Territory, objected to statehood at that time. They believed that the territory's limited size and scattered population would make a state government too costly to operate. However, after a census authorized in 1814 proved that its population had reached 63,897, exceeding the minimum population requirement of 60,000 as outlined in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, efforts to pass a request to consider statehood for Indiana were renewed.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 413–14.
On December 11, 1815, the territory's House of Representatives voted seven to five in favor of the memorial to Congress stating its qualification to become a state. The request was presented in the U.S. House of Representatives on December 28, 1815, and introduced in the U.S. Senate on January 2, 1816. A House committee chaired by Jonathan Jennings, Indiana's territorial representative, reported out a bill for an Enabling Act, which provided for the election of delegates to a convention to consider statehood for Indiana. The bill passed in the U.S. House on March 30, 1816, and in the U.S. Senate on April 13. President James Madison signed the Enabling Act into law on April 19, 1816. If a majority of the delegates to Indiana's constitutional convention agreed, the delegates would proceed to create a state constitution."Beginning the Road to Statehood" in Madison, p. 50.
As outlined in the Enabling Act, election of delegates to Indiana's first constitutional convention took place on May 13, 1816. The convention at Corydon, the territorial capital in Harrison County, began on Monday, June 10, 1816."The Setting for the Convention," The Indiana Historian, p. 6. The convention's elected delegation of forty-three men were apportioned among the thirteen counties that were "in existence prior the 1815 General Assembly" and based on each county's population.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 441–42.The thirteen counties that elected delegates to the constitutional convention of 1816 were Clark (five delegates), Dearborn (three delegates), Franklin (five delegates), Gibson (four delegates), Harrison (five delegates), Jefferson (three delegates), Knox (five delegates), Perry (one delegate), Posey (one delegate), Switzerland (one delegate), Warrick (one delegate), Washington (five delegates), and Wayne (four delegates). See Barnhart and Riker, pp. 442–43.Orange and Jackson counties did not elect delegates to the convention. See
Political climate/issues In the early nineteenth century some of the Indiana Territory's citizens opposed statehood. The major concerns were the loss of financial support from the federal government if it became a state and the fear of a tax increase to pay for the new state government. The minority group preferred to wait until later, when the population was even larger and the state's economy and political structure was more firmly established. The majority of the territory's citizens viewed statehood as an opportunity for more self-government and wanted to proceed. The territory's pro-statehood faction preferred to elect their own state officials instead of having the federal government appoint individuals on their behalf, formulate state laws, discontinue the appointed territorial governor's absolute veto power, and allow its citizens to have greater participation in national politics, including voting powers in Congress.Barnhart and Riker, p. 439.
At the time the delegates were gathering at Corydon in June 1816, slavery had become a major and divisive issue in the territory. The indenture law of 1805 had been repealed, but slavery continued to exist within Indiana.Madison, Hoosiers, p. 48. Two major factions emerged. An anti-slavery/pro-democracy group was led by Jonathan Jennings and his supporters. Former territorial governor and future U.S. president William Henry Harrison's allies led the pro-slavery/less democratic group. Supporters of Indiana statehood (the pro-Jennings faction) favored democracy, election of state officials, and voting representation in Congress.Madison, pp. 49–50. Harrison's allies supported slavery within the territory and maintaining Indiana's territorial status with a federally appointed governor."Why Statehood?" The Indiana Historian, p. 3. The anti-slavery faction preparing for statehood hoped to institute a constitutional ban on slavery.
Constitutional Convention
On June 10, 1816, the first day of the convention, forty-two delegates convened at Corydon to discuss statehood for Indiana. The convention's forty-third delegate, Benjamin Parke, did not arrive until June 14."The Convention Does Its Work" and "Members of Indiana's 1816 Constitutional Convention," The Indiana Historian, pp. 9, 14.Barnhart and Riker, p. 448. Thirty-four of the elected delegates agreed on the issue of statehood. On June 11, the delegation passed a resolution (34 to 8) to proceed with task of writing the state's first constitution and forming a state government."The Convention Does Its Work," The Indiana Historian, pp. 8–9.The eight delegates who opposed the resolution were John Johnson and William Polke of Knox County; David Robb and Frederick Rapp of Gibson County; John Boone of Harrison County; and Nathaniel Hunt, David H. Maxwell, and Samuel Smock, who constituted the entire delegation from Jefferson County. See Barnhart and Riker, pp. 442–43, 448.
Jonathan Jennings, who presided over the convention and was later elected the first governor of Indiana, appointed the delegates to various committees; William Hendricks, although he was not an elected delegate, served as the convention's secretary and was later elected as the new state's first representative to Congress.Barnhart and Riker, p. 443. In addition to Jennings, notable members of the delegation included Franklin County delegates James Noble (who became the first U.S. Senator from Indiana after it achieved statehood) and Robert Hanna (who became Indiana's second U.S. Senator after statehood); Harrison County delegates Dennis Pennington and Davis Floyd; and among others, William Henry Harrison's friends and political allies: Benjamin Parke, John Johnson, John Badollet, and William Polke (delegates from Knox County), David Robb of Gibson County, and James Dill of Dearborn County.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 442–47, 451, 461.
Most convention delegates had ties to the South; all but nine had lived below the Mason–Dixon line before their arrival in the Indiana Territory. The youngest delegate (Joseph Holman of Wayne County) was twenty-eight; the oldest was fifty-eight. Eleven delegates had served in the territorial legislature and more than half of the delegates had previous legal training.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 443, 447. Daniel Grass, the sole delegate from Warrick County, was excused on June 19 for the remainder of the convention due to ill health.
The delegation's basic tasks included selection of presiding officers, adoption of a set of convention rules, meetings in committees and as a whole group to discuss proposed articles for the new constitution, and adoption of a final version of the document. Although the members of the delegation did not all agree, a majority group, mostly associated with the anti-territorial governor and anti-slavery faction, emerged in favor of statehood. The opposing consisted mostly of Harrison's friends and supporters of the territorial legislature who opposed statehood.Barnhart and Riker, p. 445.
The summer heat often caused the delegation to move outdoors and work beneath the shade of a giant elm tree that would later be memorialized as the Constitution Elm. (A portion of the trunk is still preserved.) The delegates completed their work on the constitution in nineteen days, adjourning on June 29, 1816. The total cost of the convention was $3,076.21, which included compensating the delegates and their assistants for each day they attended the convention, as well as printing costs for the final version of the document and the acquisition of benches, tables, books, and stationery for the delegates.Barnhart and Riker, p. 460.
Adoption The delegates adopted the constitution with a simply majority vote (33 to 8). The new constitution became effective on June 29, 1816, the last day of the convention, when the delegates signed the document. It was not submitted to Indiana's voters for ratification.
Summary and features Indiana's 1816 constitution, considered the most important document in the state's history, represented the more democratic views of the pro-statehood/anti-slavery faction. The document emerged from the constitutional convention as a statement of the "values and beliefs" of Indiana's pioneer era.Madison, Hoosiers, p. 51.
The state's first constitution is similar to that of the other state constitutions written around the same time.It has been estimated that the original content the Indiana delegates drafted for the constitution accounts for less than ten percent of the total document. The majority was modeled after the constitutions of older states, especially those of Kentucky and Ohio. See McLachlan, p. 3. Because Ohio and Kentucky were the newest states closest to Indiana, the delegates to the Indiana constitutional convention referred to the constitutions of these two states, along with others such as Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Tennessee, for ideas and concepts as well as specific text.Article IX was partially based on the New Hampshire constitution. See Barnhart and Riker, pp. 450–56. Content from the other state constitutions was chosen based on the Indiana delegates' preferences for their new state. Occasionally, original text was composed for specific articles or sections when the appropriate wording in other state constitutions was not sufficient. The delegates' selections resulted in Indiana's legislative branch being dominant over the executive and judicial branches of state government."An Outline of the Content and Sources of the 1816 Constitution," The Indiana Historian, p. 13.Barnhart and Riker, pp. 450–52.