Then as each new State was admitted to the Union, a Constitution was adopted.(103) By the Constitution of the United States, Congress has the power to admit new States, thus by implication controlling the subject matter of the original Constitution of each State admitted.
It is not my intention to consider in detail the Constitutions of the various States. This is not essential to the purpose which I have in talking to you. I am very anxious that you shall realize that each State is a separate sovereignty; that when the people created the United States, and adopted the Constitution of the United States, they give to the United States limited power; that the plan of government contemplated that each State should have its own Constitution; and that in each State the people should enact their own laws governing the conduct of the people in their respective States.
An examination of the Constitutions of all the States will show how carefully the people of each State incorporated in their State Constitution the great principles of government, and the guaranties of liberty which were so carefully provided in the Constitution of the United States.
Different language is used in the different State Constitutions, but in each it will be found that the government of the State, as of the United States, is divided into three departments--the executive, the legislative, and the judicial; that the executive power in the States is vested in a Governor; that the legislative power rests in what is usually termed a "General Assembly" consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, modeled after the Congress of the United States; that the judicial power is to be exercised by courts--a Supreme Court and other courts designated as District Courts, Circuit Courts, and many other titles, varying in different States.
Public officers, servants of the people, are provided for, and usually their selection is by vote of the people at general elections for which provision is made.
The really important thing in the State Constitutions, as well as in the Constitution of the United States, is the Bill of Rights specifically guarding the natural rights and liberties of the people.
The guaranties in the State Constitutions are not all uniform, but as a general thing you will find that each State has incorporated in its Constitution those sacred guaranties which in the Constitution of the United States form the real foundation and protection of human liberty.