Page 12 - 2015_Cabin Days curriculum booklet

George Pence and Nellie C. Armstrong, Indiana Boundaries (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical
Bureau, 1933; reprint, 1967), 147, 533.

The state's birthday is a wonderful occasion to think about Indiana's beginnings and about
those people who created Indiana, those we revere as pioneers. Going a step further, we
can think even about the connections between their lives and ours. Where are we in relation
to them as the twentieth century comes to an end? Can pioneers help us live hopefully
when there is so much pessimism around us? Can pioneers help us find optimism when so
much seems ambiguous and complex?

A good starting point for such thinking is the Constitution of 1816. This document is the
state's birth certificate. It is the founding statement in masterful form of the pioneer
generation's hope for their new-born state.

The original document itself has rightly become an icon, an object of secular religious
status, like the thigh bone of a saint. We can be grateful that the Indiana State Archives
exists to preserve the original copies of the Constitution, and we can hope that every
December 11, Hoosiers will have a chance to look at the original.

It's the content, however, not the paper object that makes the Constitution of 1816
important. In fact, it's my favorite document in all of Indiana history. I assign it in my
Indiana history class at Indiana University--all of it, and spend an entire class period
discussing it with students. It is not only that this is our founding document. More
important, we can read the Constitution as a window into what pioneers thought about
themselves and about their future. For those wanting to celebrate and honor pioneer
achievement, here is their greatest monument.

The Indiana Constitution of 1816 was written in a typically hot summer in the southern
Indiana town of Corydon, then the territorial capital and soon the first state capital. Forty-
three men labored over the writing. A few highlights will give a sense of their magnificent
vision.

The 1816 Constitution begins with a bill of rights, more optimistic and radical than the
federal bill of rights. For example:

• ". . . all men are born equally free and independent . . . ."

• ". . . all power is inherent in the people . . . ."