Massachusetts established the process of drafting a constitution in a special convention of delegates chosen by the people of the towns , and then submitting that constitution to the people for approval by popular vote (with a supermajority requirement).

Quick Scoop: The Key Idea

  • In 1778, the regular legislature (the General Court) tried to write a state constitution itself, and voters rejected it.
  • In response, Massachusetts created a separate constitutional convention , elected specifically for the purpose of framing a constitution.
  • That convention’s draft (largely written by John Adams) was then sent out to the towns and ultimately approved by the voters in 1780.

This model—

a specially elected convention drafts the constitution, and the people ratify it in a separate vote

was later echoed in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and the state ratifying conventions used to create and approve the U.S. Constitution.

So the answer in textbook form:

Massachusetts established the process of a popularly elected constitutional convention, separate from the ordinary legislature, whose proposed frame of government would take effect only after approval by the people in a ratifying vote.

TL;DR: Massachusetts pioneered the idea that constitutions should be made by a special convention elected by the people and then ratified by the people, not just written and enacted by a legislature—this same process was later used for the U.S. Constitution.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.