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A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts
A History of the Constitution of Massachusetts Author:Samuel Eliot Morison Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: counted as if cast for the original article. Hence it was made to appear that every article of the Constitution had well over a two-thirds majority, although a f... more »air tabulation would have shown only a bare majority for at least two.1 Doubtless the Convention felt justified in this rather questionable work by the imperious necessity of obtaining the adoption of the Constitution, for in some parts of the State the cry "No Constitution, No Law," was being raised to excuse men from paying taxes or doing military service. On June 15 the Convention voted that the people have accepted the Constitution "as it stands in the printed form." The next day it provided for the first election of Governor and General Court, and closed "with thanksgiving and prayer." On October 25, 1780, John Hancock was inaugurated the first Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COMMON- WEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1780-1915. 1. The Constitution Of 1780. John Adams was a conservative, in the best sense of the word. He believed in preserving old institutions (like annual elections) that had proved their worth, in discarding others (like a dependent judiciary) that had not, and creating new ones (like the constitutional convention) to meet new needs. His plan was largely that of the Essex Result, which in turn was doubtless influenced by his own writings on government. The materials he chose from the old colonial and provincial structures, from concrete experiences in self-government for a century and a half, and from the constitutions of sister States. The Preamble, a new feature in constitutions, is Locke and Rousseau epitomized. The Declaration of Rights is derived from the Bills of Rights of other constitutions, from the colonists' own experience with governmenta...« less