After being free from British colonies, different states, now independent, embarked on a journey of creating their republican governments. This acted as an opportunity for the American revolutionaries to define themselves clearly. In 1776, John Adams, the second president of United States of America urged all the thirteen states to make their constitution which addressed issues on; the structure of the government, office occupants, voters, selection of political leaders as well as the election or nomination of the key political leaders. In the formulation of the constitutions, different states took different approaches, with some governments taking more democratic procedures and others being more aristocratic. In examining this, evaluation of how democratic were the Pennsylvania and Maryland governments were during the period is necessary.
The new government of Pennsylvania put in place the type of government that demonstrated democratic approaches. For instance, while determining who to vote or not, the previous requirement that, for a person to vote, he should own a particular amount of property was eliminated. The new constitution did put into the provision that, if a man was 21 years of age, had paid all taxes and has lived at a particular location for a year, he was eligible to vote. However, on the shortcomings, the constitution favored the freeholders who were mainly the lavish, exceptional privileges “…Provided always that sons of freeholders of the age of twenty-one years shall be entitled to vote although they have not paid taxes.” All in all, the new government of Pennsylvania can be considered to be, to no small extent, to be democratic as it highlighted fair electoral procedures for all the government officials.
On the other hand, the structures put across by the government of Maryland diminished the democracy of the majority even more. Restriction, in terms of voting, for a man to vote, he had to have 50 acres of freehold land and be 21 years of age. Also, limitations were imposed on running the office where only the rich few could do so. To vie for the position of a senator, one had to have an estate worth £1,000. Besides, the conditions of contending for a governor position were “That no person, unless above twenty-five years of age, a resident in this State above five years next preceding the election- and having in the State real and personal property, above the value of five thousand pounds, current money, (one thousand pounds of which, at least, to be freehold estate) shall be eligible as governor.”