Norway in 1814 - Framing The Constitution

Framing The Constitution

On May 1, the first draft of the constitution was signed by the drafting committee. In addition to the principle of the Norwegian people's right to self-determination, the constitution's key precepts included the assurance of individual freedom, the right to property, and equality.

Following a contentious debate on May 4, the assembly decided that Norway would profess itself to the Lutheran-Evangelical faith, that its monarch must always have professed himself to this faith (thereby precluding the Catholic-born Bernadotte from being a king), and that Jews and Jesuits would be barred from entering the kingdom.

On May 5, the Independence party lost another battle when the assembly voted 98 to 11 to allow the kingdom's monarch to reign over another country with the assent of two thirds of the legislative assembly's vote.

On May 7, the assembly outlawed the creation of new nobility in Norway, allowing the disposition of existing hereditary rights to be decided by a future legislative body. On May 8, proposed laws concerning naturalization and suffrage were debated. On the next day, it was decided that foreign citizens would be eligible after ten years of residency, and that the right to vote would be extended to men who were either farmers possessing their own land, civil servants, or urban property owners. With this, about half of all Norwegian men earned the right to vote, a radical proposition at the time.

On May 8, the assembly decided on a bicameral legislative body to be known as the Storting, with the expectation that one would be an upper house and the other a lower house. They also vested the right to establish and collect taxes in the legislative body. The assembly also passed the so-called "farmer's paragraph" stipulating that two-thirds of the Storting had to be elected from rural districts, and one-third from urban areas. (This paragraph remained in force until 1952).

On May 11, the assembly overwhelmingly passed universal conscription, over the objections of the financial and administrative elite, who threatened mass emigration if their sons were forced into military service.

On May 13, after two days of debate, the assembly passed a law in which the assembly guaranteed the issue of a Norwegian currency. The Union party opposed this, claiming that there simply wasn't an economic basis for an independent currency. The Independence party, carrying the day, responded that an independent currency was necessary to ensure the existence of an independent state, regardless of the financial considerations. Nevertheless, on the next day, the assembly decided to postpone the establishment of a central bank until a legislative body was in session. Christian Frederik was dismayed by this decision.

Although the final edit of the constitution was signed on May 18, the unanimous election of Christian Frederik on May 17 is considered Constitution Day in Norway. The election was unanimous, but several of the delegates had asked that it be postponed until the political situation had stabilized.

After the election, Georg Sverdrup, then president of the assembly, held a short speech:

It is then raised once more inside the ancient boundaries of Norway, the throne which was used by Håkon Adelstensfostre and Sverre, from where they ruled old Norway with wisdom. It is according to the wish of the entire people, that the wisdom and power that were over them, the great kings of our ancient past, also will lie over that prince which we, the free men of Norway, have chosen in gratefulness and acknowledgement, a wish that every real son of Norway surely shares with me. God save old Norway. The last sentence was then repeated by all there present.

On May 20, the assembly adjourned, joining hands and proclaiming that they would remain "in agreement and faithful until Dovre falls!"