EXETER, N.H. — Twenty-nine people from 18 countries became naturalized US citizens during a ceremony Friday at Exeter High School, where a federal judge shared an inspiring message wrapped in a piece of lesser-known local history from the American Revolution.
Judge Landya B. McCafferty, who presided over the ceremony, noted that New Hampshire enacted the first state constitution in January 1776 to establish a new democratic form of government, with its capital in Exeter, six months before the nation’s Declaration of Independence.
The royal governor had fled New Hampshire in 1775 as tensions rose and civil government collapsed, so a group of revolutionaries met in Exeter and drafted a constitution that sought to protect “the honest people of this colony” from being subjected to “the machinations and evil designs of wicked men.”
This temporary document — which remained in effect for eight years — accomplished “two radical things,” McCafferty said. First, it asserted New Hampshire’s independence. Second, it laid out a vision of democratic governance.
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“Power in a monarchy flows downward, theoretically from God down to the king, down to the people,” McCafferty said. “This temporary constitution proposed a government that flowed up from the people to their representatives. And there was no king. The power came from the people.”
While many colonists who remained loyal to the monarchy regarded New Hampshire’s first constitution as treasonous at the time, McCafferty said, the document survived the Revolutionary War and came to inspire other state constitutions and the US Constitution that took effect in 1789.
“New Hampshire’s example of self-government persuaded other Americans that self-government, government by the people, could work,” she said.
With that history lesson in mind, McCafferty encouraged the 29 new citizens to commit themselves to productive civic engagement, by making informed decisions at the ballot box, serving as jurors with pride, and supporting their neighbors, whether by volunteering in the local community, raising children to be good citizens themselves, running for public office, or working in law enforcement or for the US military.
“We will be a better country because of you,” she said.
The milestone also delivered a sense of relief to those who began pursuing citizenship years ago, before the current Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
“I was a little bit worried in the beginning,” said Maria Caroline Bertocchi of Milford, N.H., a native of Brazil who embarked on the naturalization process in 2021. “But now I’m totally relaxed.”
Bertocchi, 28, attended the ceremony with her husband, two children, and an entourage of in-laws celebrating the occasion.
“I feel like, ‘Oh my God, finally this process is over, and I can stay here with them,’” she said. “For me it means a lot.”
Randerson Michel Caracas Soares, who is also from Brazil and living in Milford, attended the ceremony with his husband and said he is grateful to reach the conclusion of a journey they began about four years ago.
“I feel like I have more freedom right now,” he said. “I can find better jobs here, opportunities. … We picked the United States because it’s the best country in the world.”
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
