BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY
This essay is taken from Steinglass, Steven H. and Scarselli, Gino J. The Ohio State Constitution
: A Reference Guide . Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2004, KFO401.1851.A6 S74 2004, p. 377-381.
See Ohio Constitution Web Page Bibliography for details on how to obtain the publications
referenced in this essay.
Constitutional Texts and Convention Proceedings
The Ohio Constitution of 1802 and the Constitution of 1851, as originally adopted, is in
Swindler’s multi-volume Sources and Documents of United States Constitutions and in
Patterson’s The Constitutions of Ohio: Amendments and Proposed Amendments. Patterson’s
book, published in 1912, also includes the proposed constitution of 1874, which was rejected by
the voters. The 1802 Constitution is also in Ryan’s “From Charter to Constitution,” a
compilation of fundamental documents, including the Northwest Ordinance, the 1802 Enabling
Act, and the journal of first constitutional convention, published in the journal Ohio History and
in Swisher’s Ohio Constitution Handbook, which contains the original and all amended
provisions of the 1851 Constitution through 1990. Ryan’s “From Charter to Constitution” is
available on-line as are the original and current versions of the 1851 Constitution. The current
official version of the 1851 Constitution is available in print and downloadable pdf from the
Ohio Secretary of State’s office at no charge.
As noted, the journal of Ohio’s first constitutional convention is in Ryan’s “From Charter
to Constitution.” The proceedings and debates of the 1850-51 Convention, the 1873-74
Convention and the 1912 Convention are each published in two-volumes. Searchable versions of
the proceedings and debates of the 1850-51 Convention and of the 1873-74 Convention are also
available on-line.
General History
There are a number of excellent sources on Ohio history. Roseboom and Weisenberger’s
A History of Ohio covers the state’s history from the first Native Americans to modern times and
contains an exceptional bibliographic essay. Carl Wittke’s five-volume work, The History of the
State of Ohio, which includes volumes by Bond, Roseboom, and Utter, is the most detailed and
comprehensive treatment of Ohio history through the nineteenth century. For another general
history of Ohio, see Randall and Ryan’s five-volume A History of Ohio (volumes 2, 3 and 4 are
online on Google books). For works focusing on Ohio’s early history, see Chaddock’s Ohio
Before 1850, Downes’ Frontier Ohio, Hurt’s The Ohio Frontier, Crucible of the Old Northwest,
and Smith’s An Ohio Reader: 1750 to the Civil War. Downes’ Frontier Ohio is especially strong
on the people and events leading to Ohio’s admission into the union. Other important histories
are Salmon P. Chase’s introduction to Statutes of Ohio and the Northwestern Territory,
principally because of its author, and Caleb Atwater’s History of the State of Ohio, the first book
on Ohio history. Regarding Ohio’s admission into the union and the controversy over the date of
admission, see Pershing’s article “The Admission of Ohio to the Union.” Ohio’s early political
history is covered in Cayton’s The Frontier Republic and Ratcliffe’s “The Experience of
Revolution and the Beginning of Party Politics in Ohio.”
For biographies on important figures surrounding the movement for statehood, see Cole’s
“Thomas Worthington,” Julia Perkins Cutler’s Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler , Gilmore’s
Life of Edward Tiffin (Full text on Google books), David Mead Massie’s Nathaniel Massie,
West’s “Arthur St. Clair,” and Smith’s introduction in The St. Clair Papers. For an interesting
article on the dismissal of Arthur St. Clair as Territorial Governor, see Downes’ “Thomas
Jefferson and the Removal of Governor St. Clair in 1802.”
For histories of the Ohio canals and internal improvements, which had a great affect on
the calling of a second constitutional convention, see Bogart’s Internal Improvements and State
Debt in Ohio, Haggerty, et al.’s History of the Ohio Canals, and Scheiber’s Ohio Canal Era: A
Case Study. Ohio’s politics leading up to the second constitutional convention is extensively
covered in Holt’s three articles, which appeared in 1928 and 1929 in Ohio History. For a history
of the Progressive Movement in Ohio leading to the fourth constitutional convention, see Hoyt
Landon Warner’s Progressivism in Ohio 1897-1917.
Constitutional and Legal History and Analysis
Two of the most important sources of information on Ohio’s constitutions and
constitutional history are Swisher’s Ohio Constitution Handbook and the Ohio Constitutional
Revision Commission’s multi-volume review of the Ohio Constitution. Swisher’s work,
published in 1990 by Banks-Baldwin legal press, contains an excellent short history of the Ohio
Constitution, commentary on each section, amendments, and case law through March 1, 1990.
Current amendments, case law, and updated section comments are in volume one of Baldwin’s
Ohio Revised Code Annotated (including pocket supplements), originally published by BanksBaldwin and now by West Publishing Co. (see also Page’s Ohio Revised Code Annotated
published by Anderson Publishing Co.). The Constitutional Revision Commission, created in
1969 by the General Assembly to recommend changes to the Ohio Constitution, issued a series
of reports from 1970 to 1977. The Commission’s Final Report includes history and commentary
on most sections of the constitution along with the Commission’s proposed changes.
The best analysis of the 1802 and 1851 Constitutions and particularly the first two
conventions and the events leading to them is Howard McDonald’s 1916 dissertation, “A Study
in Constitution Making – Ohio: 1802-1874.” Unfortunately, McDonald’s dissertation is not
published in book form. Patterson’s introduction in The Constitutions of Ohio and Galbreath’s
Constitutional Conventions of Ohio are also worth mentioning. Both cover the constitutions and
conventions up to the fourth constitutional convention in 1912. Galbreath’s work, published in
1911, also includes a list of the delegates to all four Ohio constitutional conventions. For a
review of the Ohio Constitution at the half-way mark of the Twentieth Century, see Walker’s An
Analysis and Appraisal of the Ohio Constitution 1851-1951. For a brief overview of the various
articles of the current constitutions of Ohio and other states, see Maddex’s State Constitutions of
the United States.
For a history of Ohio’s first fundamental document, the Northwest Ordinance, see
Barrett’s Evolution of the Ordinance of 1787. For the political and social climate leading to the
adoption of the Northwest Ordinance and the importance of the Ordinance on the development of
the nation, see Onuf’s Statehood and Union and “For the Common Benefit.” An excellent history
of events leading to statehood and the early constitutions of the states in the Ohio valley is
Barnhart’s Valley of Democracy. Barnhart’s chapter on Ohio is especially good on the influences
of other state constitutions on the Constitution of 1802.
For works focusing specifically on the 1802 Constitution, see Downes’ “Ohio's First
Constitution,” Ryan’s speech, “The First Constitution: What Influenced Its Adoption and Its
Influence on Ohio,” delivered at Ohio’s centennial celebration and published in Ohio History,
and Tarr’s “The Ohio Constitution of 1802: An Introduction,” available on-line (see link from
Bibliography). Surprisingly, there has been very little work focusing specifically on the second
constitutional convention and the adoption of the 1851 Constitution. The best sources are the
general works by McDonald, Patterson and Galbreath cited above, but see also Downes’ “Ohio’s
Second Constitution.”
In contrast to the second constitutional convention, there are a number of works
specifically on the 1912 Convention. See, for example, Landon Warner’s article “Ohio’s
Constitutional Convention of 1912” and Sponholtz’s dissertation “Progressivism in Microcosm.”
Sponholtz’s dissertation includes a great amount of demographic data. The proceedings of the
1912 Convention are also covered in Hoyt Landon Warner’s Progressivism in Ohio, supra, pp.
312-53. Herbert Bigelow’s New Constitution for Ohio is a review of the proposed amendments
resulting from the 1912 Convention by the Progressive leader and president of the convention.
Votes on the proposed amendments by the electors in each county are given in Grave’s The
Constitution of the State of Ohio. For a discussion of Ohio and other state constitutional revision
in the Progressive Era, see Dinan’s article “Framing a People’s Government” in Rutgers Law
Journal.
There is a fairly extensive literature on the history of the Ohio judiciary. The most
valuable works to start are Aumann’s “The Development of the Judicial System of Ohio” and
volume one of Marshall’s A History of the Courts and Lawyers of Ohio. Marshall’s work,
published in 1934, includes a history of the judiciary article of the Ohio Constitution beginning
in 1802 and descriptions of important Ohio Supreme Court cases. Other works on the early
history of judiciary include Utter’s “Judicial Review in Early Ohio” and Downes’ “Judicial
Review Under the Ohio Constitution of 1802.” Pollack’s Ohio Unreported Judicial Decisions,
Prior to 1823 includes the publication of Rutherford v. M’Fadden (1807), the case that
established judicial review in Ohio and led to the impeachment of Judges Tod and Pease. For a
history of Ohio’s lower courts, see Skeel’s “Constitutional History of Ohio Appellate Courts”
and Winkler’s “The Probate Courts of Ohio.” Jonathan Entin’s article “Judicial Supermajorities
and the Validity of Statutes” concerns the requirement adopted in 1912 that prohibited the Ohio
Supreme Court from holding a law unconstitutional without the concurrence of all but one
supreme court justice. Milligan and Pohlman’s article on the Modern Courts Amendment covers
the adoption of the 1968 amendments that restructured the Ohio judiciary. For a history of the
judiciary, legislative and executive branches and their interaction, see Woodbridge’s “A History
of Separation of Powers in Ohio.”
There is also a fairly extensive literature on the constitutional history of race. The best
work on the subject of race (and gender) is the recent dissertation by Barbara Terzian, “Effusions
of Folly and Fanaticism: Race, Gender and Constitution-Making in Ohio, 1802-1923.” Terzian’s
dissertation also includes an extensive bibliography. On the subject of race and the status of
African Americans, Hickock’s The Negro in Ohio, 1802-1870, Quillin’s The Color Line in Ohio,
and Thurston’s “The 1802 Constitutional Convention and Status of the Negro” are also worth
mentioning. On women’s suffrage, see Shilling’s article published in Ohio History in 1916.
For a general discussion of state constitutions and their development, a good starting
point is Tarr’s Understanding State Constitutions. Another good starting point for topics dealing
with state constitutional law is Robert F. William’s State Constitutional Law: Cases and
Materials and his article “Interpreting State Constitutions as Unique Legal Documents”
published in 2002.
Specific Sections and Topics
Other works cited in the Selected Bibliography include the following on specific topics or
provisions of the Ohio Constitution.
On religious freedom and the difference between Ohio’s Free Exercise Clause (Art. 1, §
7) and that of the federal Constitution, see William’s article on the landmark Ohio Supreme
Court case, Humphrey v. Lane, 2000.
On a comparison of Ohio constitutional law on search and seizures (Art. I, § 14) and the
Fourth Amendment and a discussion of the Ohio Supreme Court case State v. Robinette, 1997,
see Lassiter’s “Eliminating Consent from the Lexicon of Traffic Stop Interrogations.”
On the constitution’s open courts provision (Art. I, § 16), see Harrison’s “How Open is
Open? The Development of the Public Access Doctrine.” On the tension between the provision
and sovereign immunity (Art. I, § 16), see Schnopp’s “Garrett v. Sandusky: Justice Pfeifer’s
Fight for Full & Fair Legal Redress.”
On constitutional restrictions on the General Assembly’s general lawmaking powers, and
specifically on the one-subject rule (Art. II, § 15(D)), see Kulewicz’s “The History of the OneSubject Rule of the Ohio Constitution” and Schuck’s “Returning the ‘One’ to Ohio’s ‘OneSubject’ Rule.” On general laws and the uniformity requirement (Art. II, § 26), see Magrish’s
““Ohio Constitutional Requirement that Laws of a General Nature Shall Have Uniform
Operation throughout the State” and Mallison’s “General Versus Special Statutes in Ohio.”
On the initiative and referendum (Art. II, §§ 1a-1g), see Chesley’s “The Current Use of
Initiative and Referendum in Ohio and Other States.”
On state and municipal debt and the prohibition against government aid to corporations
(Art. VIII), see Sterk and. Goldman’s. “Controlling Legislative Shortsightedness” and Gold’s
“Public Aid to Private Enterprises Under the Ohio Constitution.”
On the militia (Art. IX), see Kulewicz’s “The Relationship between Military and Civil
Power in Ohio.”
On taxation (Art. XI), see Coriell’s “Chaos, Contradiction and Confusion: Ohio’s Real
Property Tax Exemptions.”
On education and the DeRolph case (Art. VI), see Hawk’s “As Perfect As Can Be
Devised,” Haynes’ “Tension in the Judicial-Legislative Relationship,” O’Neil’s “Ohio’s School
Funding Dilemma,” and Owsiany’s “The General Assembly v. The Supreme Court.” On the
history of educational provisions in Ohio and other states constitutions, see Eastman’s “When
Did Education Become a Civil Right?” On tort reform, see Clayborn’s “Ohio’s ‘Employment
Intentional Tort,” and Werber’s “Ohio Tort Reform Versus the Ohio Constitution” and “Ohio
Tort Reform in 1998.”
On Municipal Home Rule (Article XVIII), see Vaubel’s Municipal Home Rule in Ohio
and “Municipal Home Rule In Ohio (1976-1995)” and Walker’s “Municipal Government in
Ohio Before 1912.” On County Home Rule (Article X, § 1), see Walker’s “County Home Rule
in Ohio” and Cianca’s “Home Rule in Ohio Counties.”