Why did the states place so much power in hands of the popularly elected legislatures?

They viewed powerful executives as enemies of liberty.

States viewed powerful executives as having the potential to become tyrannical. As a result, almost all of the state constitutions written in the late 1770s placed most of the power in the legislatures

the civil war was a fulfillment and completion of the constitution, not a revolution against it. changes in culture and society surely affected political life. lincoln hoped to bring the north and south together after the war by healing the nationand making people lose their resentment.

hope this you out just took thus test a min go and mad a 100