PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania House will hold an upcoming session at Philadelphia’s Congress Hall to mark the 250th anniversary of Pennsylvania’s first state Constitution.
The session will be held at Congress Hall on Sept. 9 at 5:45 p.m., after a unanimous vote on the House floor on Thursday.
The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 was adopted on Sept. 28 of that year. It was the state’s first governing document and formally established the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The National Constitution Center describes the document as “the most Democratic and radical” of state constitutions, created by “political newcomers” who “led with an inspiring Preamble and a robust Declaration of Rights.”
It created a single legislative body in an effort to create transparency in government, but with no checks and balances, it failed and was replaced in 1790.
Historians say that while it was revolutionary in its attempts at transparent democracy, it was so problematic that the model was used as an example of what not to do when the Founding Fathers drafted the U.S. Constitution the following year.
