A major seat of American constitutional creation sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1844 and again in 1850, two distinct groups set out to write a constitution in Nauvoo, Illinois. In March 1844, Joseph Smith and a number of his followers discussed creating a new legal creed. Six years later, after Nauvoo had been “abandoned by the Mormons,” Étienne Cabet and a group of Icarians arrived there from France and ratified their own constitution.[1] Both groups created a new government after facing persecution and in response to a social and moral order that had failed them. But Read more