Maryland Constitution of 1776

The Maryland Constitution of 1776 was the first of four constitutions under which the U.S. state of Maryland has been governed. It was that state's basic law from its adoption in 1776 until the Maryland Constitution of 1851 took effect on July 4 of that year.

In the months before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, a group of powerful Marylanders formed an association which eventually took the form of a convention in Annapolis. This group made preparations to form a new government for Maryland and sent representatives to participate in the Continental Congress.

The eighth session decided that the continuation of an ad hoc government by the convention was not a good mechanism for governing the state and that a more permanent and structured government was needed. So, on July 3, 1776 they resolved that a new convention be elected that would be responsible for drawing up their first state constitution, one that did not refer to parliament or the king, but would be a government "...of the people only."

On August 1, all freemen with property elected delegates for the Maryland Constitutional Convention of 1776. They began meeting on August 14, drafted the constitution, and adjourned on November 11. The document was not submitted to the people for ratification. The Assembly of Freemen would not meet again, as it was replaced by the new state government established by the 1776 constitution. Thomas Johnson became the state's first elected governor.

The document included a Declaration of Rights. This, among other things, ended the position of the Church of England as the state-supported religion, and granted all Christians, including Roman Catholics, freedom of worship. Free blacks who met the property qualifications continued to be eligible to vote. The declaration was more than a bill of rights, which enunciates certain rights which are reserved to the people. The declaration stated that all power emanated from the people and that the governors were accountable to the people.

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