offered the following as a convenient form, viz.: "Done in Convention
by the unanimous consent of _the States_ present the seventeenth
of September, etc. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed
our names." This ambiguous form had been drawn up by Mr. Gouverneur
Morris, in order to gain the dissenting members, and put into the
hands of Doctor Franklin, that it might have the better chance of
success. [Considerable discussion followed, Randolph and Gerry stating
their reasons for refusing to sign the Constitution. Mr. Hamilton
expressed his anxiety that every member should sign. A few characters
of consequence, he said, by opposing or even refusing to sign the
Constitution, might do infinite mischief by kindling the latent sparks
that lurk under an enthusiasm in favour of the Convention which may
soon subside. No man's ideas were more remote from the plan than his
own were known to be; but is it possible to deliberate between anarchy
and convulsion on one side, and the chance of good to be expected from
the plan on the other? This discussion concluded, the Convention voted
that its journal and other papers should be retained by the President,
subject to the order of Congress.] The members then proceeded to sign
the Constitution as finally amended. The Constitution being signed by
all the members except Mr. Randolph, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Gerry, who
declined giving it the sanction of their names, the Convention
dissolved itself by an adjournment sine die.
Whilst the last members were signing, Doctor Franklin, looking towards
the President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to
be painted, observed to a few members near him that painters had found
it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun.
I have, said he, often and often, in the course of the session, and
the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that
behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising
or setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it
is a rising, and not a setting, sun.
APPENDIX C.
MAGNA CHARTA.[25]
[Footnote 25: I have, by permission, reproduced the _Old South
Leaflet_, with its notes, etc., in full.]
OR THE GREAT CHARTER OF KING JOHN, GRANTED JUNE 15, A.D. 1215.
JOHN, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Date of
Normandy, Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his Archbishops, Bishops,
Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters, Sheriffs, Governors,
Officers, and to all Bailiffs, and his faithful subjects, greeting.
Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, and for the salvation of
our soul, and the souls of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the
honour of God and the advancement of Holy Church, and amendment of
our Realm, by advice of our venerable Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop
of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Cardinal of the Holy Roman
Church: Henry, Archbishop of Dublin; William, of London; Peter, of
Winchester; Jocelin of Bath and Glastonbury; Hugh, of Lincoln; Walter,
of Worcester; William, of Coventry: Benedict, of Rochester--Bishops:
of Master Pandulph, Sub-Deacon and Familiar of our Lord the Pope;
Brother Aymeric, Master of the Knights-Templars in England; and of the
noble Persons, William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke; William, Earl of
Salisbury; William, Earl of Warren; William, Earl of Arundel; Alan de
Galloway, Constable of Scotland; Warin FitzGerald, Peter FitzHerbert,
and Hubert de Burgh, Seneschal of Poitou; Hugh de Neville, Matthew
FitzHerbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip of Albiney, Robert
de Roppell, John Mareschal, John FitzHugh, and others, our liegemen,
have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this our present
Charter confirmed, for us and our heirs for ever:--
1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her whole rights,
and her liberties inviolable; and we will have them so observed, that it
may appear thence that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned chief
and indispensable to the English Church, and which we granted and
confirmed by our Charter, and obtained the confirmation of the same from
our Lord the Pope Innocent III., before the discord between us and our
barons, was granted of mere free will; which Charter we shall observe,
and we do will it to be faithfully observed by our heirs for ever.
2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, for us and
for our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and
holden by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs for ever: If
any of our earls, or barons, or others, who hold of us in chief by
military service, shall die, and at the time of his death his heir
shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance
by the ancient relief--that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl,
for a whole earldom, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a
baron, for a whole barony, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a
knight, for a whole knight's fee, by a hundred shillings at most; and
whoever oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of
fees.
3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall be in
ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without
relief and without fine.
4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being under age, shall
take of the land of the heir none but reasonable issues, reasonable
customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction and
waste of his men and his goods; and if we commit the custody of any
such lands to the sheriff, or any other who is answerable to us for
the issues of the land, and he shall make destruction and waste of the
lands which he hath in custody, we will take of him amends, and the
land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee,
who shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we shall
assign them; and if we sell or give to any one the custody of any such
lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he shall lose the
same custody, which shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men
of that fee, who shall in like manner answer to us as aforesaid.
5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the custody of the land,
shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, and other
things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and
shall deliver to the heir, when he comes of full age, his whole land,
stocked with ploughs and carriages, according as the time of wainage
shall require, and the issues of the land can reasonably bear.
6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so that before
matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near in blood to the heir
shall have notice. 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall
forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance;
nor shall she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, or her
inheritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his death;
and she may remain in the mansion house of her husband forty days
after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned.
8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself, so long as she has a
mind to live without a husband; but yet she shall give security that
she will not marry without our assent, if she hold of us; or without
the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she hold of another.
9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any
debt so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to pay the
debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long
as the principal debtor has sufficient to pay the debt; and if the
principal debtor shall fail in the payment of the debt, not having
wherewithal to pay it, then the sureties shall answer the debt; and
if they will they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor, until
they shall be satisfied for the debt which they paid for him, unless
the principal debtor can show himself acquitted thereof against the
said sureties.
10. If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or less, and
die before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for
that debt, so long as the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may
hold; and if the debt falls into our hands, we will only take the
chattel mentioned in the deed.
11. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall
have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if the deceased left
children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for them,
according to the tenement of the deceased; and out of the residue the
debt shall be paid, saving, however, the service due to the lords, and
in like manner shall it be done touching debts due to others than the
Jews.
12. _No scutage or aid[26] shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless
by the general council of our kingdom_; except for ransoming our
person, making our eldest son a knight, and once for marrying our
eldest daughter; and for these there shall be paid no more than a
reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be concerning the aids of the
City of London.
[Footnote 26: In the time of the feudal system _scutage_ was a
direct tax in commutation for military service; _aids_ were
direct taxes paid by the tenant to his lord for ransoming his person
if taken captive, and for helping defray the expenses of knighting his
eldest son and marrying his eldest daughter.]
13. And the City of London shall have all its ancient liberties and
free customs, as well by land as by water: furthermore, we will and
grant that all other cities and boroughs, and towns and ports, shall
have all their liberties and free customs.
14. _And for holding the general council of the kingdom concerning
the assessment of aids, except in the three cases aforesaid, and
for the assessing of scutages, we shall cause to be summoned the
archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons of the realm,
singly by our letters. And furthermore, we shall cause to be summoned
generally, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us
in chief, for a certain day, that is to say, forty days before their
meeting at least, and to a certain place; and in all letters of such
summons we will declare the cause of such summons. And summons being
thus made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed, according
to the advice of such as shall be present, although all that were
summoned come not._
15. We will not for the future grant to any one that he may take aid
of his own free tenants, unless to ransom his body, and to make his
eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; and for
this there shall be only paid a reasonable aid.
16. No man shall be distrained to perform more service for a knight's
fee, or other free tenement, than is due from thence.
17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be holden in
some place certain.
18. Trials upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin,[27] and of Mort
d'ancestor,[28] and of Darrein Presentment,[29] shall not be taken but
in their proper counties, and after this manner: We, or if we should
be out of the realm, our chief justiciary, will send two justiciaries
through every county four times a year, who, with four knights of each
county, chosen by the county, shall hold the said assizes[30] in the
county, on the day, and at the place appointed.
[Footnote 27: Dispossession.]
[Footnote 28: Death of the ancestor; that is, in cases of disputed
succession to land.]
[Footnote 29: Last presentation to a benefice.]
[Footnote 30: The word Assize here means an assembly of knights or
other substantial persons, held at a certain time and place where
they sit with the Justice. 'Assisa' or 'Assize' is also taken
for the court, place, or time at which the writs of Assize are
taken.--_Thompson's Notes._]
19. And if any matters cannot be determined on the day appointed
for holding the assizes in each county, so many of the knights and
freeholders as have been at the assizes aforesaid shall stay to decide
them as is necessary, according as there is more or less business.
20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small offence, but only
according to the degree of the offence; and for a great crime
according to the heinousness of it, saving to him his contenement;[31]
and after the same manner a merchant, saving to him his merchandise.
And a villein shall be amerced after the same manner, saving to him
his wainage, if he falls under our mercy; and none of the aforesaid
amerciaments shall be assessed but by the oath of honest men in the
neighbourhood.
[Footnote 31: "That by which a person subsists and which is essential
to his rank in life."]
21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their peers, and
after the degree of the offence.
22. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced for his lay tenement,
but according to the proportion of the others aforesaid, and not
according to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.
23. Neither a town nor any tenant shall be distrained to make bridges
or embankments, unless that anciently and of right they are bound to
do it.
24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiffs, shall hold
"Pleas of the Crown." [32]
[Footnote 32: These are suits conducted in the name of the Crown
against criminal offenders.]
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings, shall stand at
the old rents, without any increase, except in our demesne manors.
26. If any one holding of us a lay fee die, and the sheriff, or our
bailiffs, show our letters patent of summons for debt which the dead
man did owe to us, it shall be lawful for the sheriff or our bailiff
to attach and register the chattels of the dead, found upon his lay
fee, to the amount of the debt, by the view of lawful men, so as
nothing be removed until our whole clear debt be paid; and the rest
shall be left to the executors to fulfil the testament of the dead;
and if there be nothing due from him to us, all the chattels shall
go to the use of the dead, saving to his wife and children their
reasonable shares.[33]
[Footnote 33: A person's goods were divided into three parts, of which
one went to his wife, another to his heirs, and a third he was at
liberty to dispose of. If he had no child, his widow had half; and if he
had children, but no wife, half was divided amongst them. These several
sums were called "reasonable shares." Through the testamentary
jurisdiction they gradually acquired, the clergy often contrived to get
into their own hands all the residue of the estate without paying the
debts of the estate.]
27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be
distributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends, by view
of the Church, saving to every one his debts which the deceased owed
to him.
28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other chattels
of any man unless he presently give him money for it, or hath respite
of payment by the goodwill of the seller.
29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money for
castle-guard, if he himself will do it in his person, or by another
able man, in case he cannot do it through any reasonable cause. And if
we have carried or sent him into the army, he shall be free from such
guard for the time he shall be in the army by our command.
30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take horses
or carts of any freeman for carriage, without the assent of the said
freeman.
31. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man's timber for our
castles or other uses, unless by the consent of the owner of the
timber.
32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of felony only one
year and a day, and then they shall be delivered to the lord of the
fee.[34]
[Footnote 34: All forfeiture for felony has been abolished by the 33
and 34 Vic., c. 23. It seems to have originated in the destruction
of the felon's property being part of the sentence, and this "waste"
being commuted for temporary possession by the Crown.]
33. All kydells[35] (wears) for the time to come shall be put down in
the rivers of Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except
upon the sea-coast.
[Footnote 35: The purport of this was to prevent inclosures of common
property, or committing a "Purpresture." These wears are now called
"kettles" or "kettle-nets" in Kent and Cornwall.]
34. The writ which is called _præcipe_, for the future, shall not be
made out to any one, of any tenement, whereby a freeman may lose his
court.
35. There shall be one measure of wine and one of ale through our
whole realm; and one measure of corn, that is to say, the London
quarter; and one breadth of dyed cloth, and russets, and haberjeets,
that is to say, two ells within the lists; and it shall be of weights
as it is of measures.
36. _Nothing from henceforth shall be given or taken for a writ of
inquisition of life or limb, but it shall be granted freely, and not
denied._[36]
[Footnote 36: This important writ, or "writ concerning hatred and
malice," may have been the prototype of the writ of _habeas
corpus_, and was granted for a similar purpose.]
37. If any do hold of us by fee-farm, or by socage, or by burgage, and
he hold also lands of any other by knight's service, we will not have
the custody of the heir or land, which is holden of another man's fee
by reason of that fee-farm, socage,[37] or burgage; neither will we
have the custody of the fee-farm, or socage, or burgage, unless
knight's service was due to us out of the same fee-farm. We will not
have the custody of an heir, nor of any land which he holds of another
by knight's service, by reason of any petty serjeanty[38] by which he
holds of us, by the service of paying a knife, an arrow, or the like.
[Footnote 37: "Socage" signifies lands held by tenure of performing
certain inferior offices in husbandry, probably from the old French
word _soc_, a plough-share.]
[Footnote 38: The tenure of giving the king some small weapon of war in
acknowledgment of lands held.]
38. No bailiff from henceforth shall pat any man to his law[39] upon
his own bare saying, without credible witnesses to prove it.
[Footnote 39: Equivalent to putting him to his oath. This alludes to
the Wager of Law, by which a defendant and his eleven supporters or
"compurgators" could swear to his non-liability, and this amounted to
a verdict in his favour.]
39. _No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised, or
outlawed, or banished, or any ways destroyed, nor will we pass upon
him, nor will we send upon him, unless by the lawful judgment of his
peers, or by the law of the land._
40. _We will sell to no man, we will not deny to any man, either
justice or right._
41. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct, to go out of,
and to come into England, and to stay there and to pass as well by
land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and allowed
customs, without any unjust tolls; except in time of war, or when they
are of any nation at war with us. And if there be found any such in
our land, in the beginning of the war, they shall be attached, without
damage to their bodies or goods, until it be known unto us, or our
chief justiciary, how our merchants be treated in the nation at war
with us; and if ours be safe there, the others shall be safe in our
dominions.
42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for any one to go out
of our kingdom, and return safely and securely by land or by water,
saving his allegiance to us; unless in time of war, by some short
space, for the common benefit of the realm, except prisoners and
outlaws, according to the law of the land, and people in war with us,
and merchants who shall be treated as is above mentioned.[40]
[Footnote 40: The Crown has still technically the power of confining
subjects within the kingdom by the writ "ne exeat regno," though the
use of the writ is rarely resorted to.]
43. If any man hold of any escheat,[41] as of the honour of
Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats
which be in our hands, and are baronies, and die, his heir shall give
no other relief, and perform no other service to us than he would to
the baron, if it were in the baron's hand; and we will hold it after
the same manner as the baron held it.
[Footnote 41: The word _escheat_ is derived from the French
_escheoir_, to return or happen, and signifies the return of
an estate to a lord, either on failure of tenant's issue or on his
committing felony. The abolition of feudal tenures by the Act of
Charles II. (12 Charles II. c. 24) rendered obsolete this part and
many other parts of the Charter.]
44. Those men who dwell without the forest from henceforth shall not
come before our justiciaries of the forest, upon common, summons, but
such as are impleaded, or are sureties for any that are attached for
something concerning the forest.[42]
[Footnote 42: The laws for regulating the royal forests, and
administering justice in respect of offences committed in their
precincts, formed a large part of the law.]
45. We will not make any justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs,
but of such as know the law of the realm and mean duly to observe it.
46. All barons who have founded abbeys, which they hold by charter
from the kings of England, or by ancient tenure, shall have the
keeping of them, when vacant, as they ought to have.
47. All forests that have been made forests in our time shall
forthwith be disforested; and the same shall be done with the
water-banks that have been fenced in by us in our time.
48. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, foresters, and
warreners, sheriffs and their officers, water-banks and their keepers,
shall forthwith be inquired into in each county, by twelve sworn
knights of the same county, chosen by creditable persons of the same
county; and within forty days after the said inquest be utterly
abolished, so as never to be restored: so as we are first acquainted
therewith, or our justiciary, if we should not be in England.
49. We will immediately give up all hostages and charters delivered
unto us by our English subjects, as securities for their keeping the
peace, and yielding us faithful service.
50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the relations of
Gerard de Atheyes, so that for the future they shall have no bailiwick
in England; we will also remove Engelard de Cygony, Andrew, Peter, and
Gyon, from the Chancery; Gyon de Cygony, Geoffrey de Martyn, and his
brothers; Philip Mark, and his brothers, and his nephew, Geoffrey, and
their whole retinue.
51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send out of the kingdom all
foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and stipendiaries, who are come with
horses and arms to the molestation of our people.
52. If any one has been dispossessed or deprived by us, without the
lawful judgment of his peers, of his lands, castles, liberties, or
right, we will forthwith restore them to him; and if any dispute arise
upon this head, let the matter be decided by the five-and-twenty
barons hereafter mentioned, for the preservation of the peace. And for
all those things of which any person has, without the lawful judgment
of his peers, been dispossessed or deprived, either by our father King
Henry, or our brother King Richard, and which we have in our hands, or
are possessed by others, and we are bound to warrant and make good,
we shall have a respite till the term usually allowed the crusaders;
excepting those things about which there is a plea depending, or
whereof an inquest hath been made, by our order before we undertook
the crusade; but as soon as we return from our expedition, or if
perchance we tarry at home and do not make our expedition, we will
immediately cause full justice to be administered therein.
53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same manner, about
administering justice, disafforesting or letting continue the forests,
which Henry our father, and our brother Richard, have afforested; and
the same concerning the wardship of the lands which are in another's
fee, but the wardship of which we have hitherto had, by reason of a
fee held of us by knight's service; and for the abbeys founded in any
other fee than our own, in which the lord of the fee says he has a
right; and when we return from our expedition, or if we tarry at home,
and do not make our expedition, we will immediately do full justice to
all the complainants in this behalf.
54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal[43] of a woman,
for the death of any other than her husband.
[Footnote 43: An _Appeal_ here means an "accusation." The appeal
here mentioned was a suit for a penalty in which the plaintiff was a
relation who had suffered through a murder or manslaughter. One of the
incidents of this "Appeal of Death" was the Trial by Battle. These
Appeals and Trial by Battle were not abolished before the passing of
the Act 59 Geo. III., c. 46.]
55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and all amerciaments
imposed unjustly and contrary to the law of the land, shall
be entirely given up, or else be left to the decision of the
five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned for the preservation of
the peace, or of the major part of them, together with the aforesaid
Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and others
whom he shall think fit to invite; and if he cannot be present, the
business shall notwithstanding go on without him; but so that if one
or more of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be plaintiffs in
the same cause, they shall be set aside as to what concerns this
particular affair, and others be chosen in their room, out of the said
five-and-twenty, and sworn by the rest to decide the matter.
56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh of any lands,
liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers,
either in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to
them; and if any dispute arise upon this head, the matter shall be
determined in the Marches by the judgment of their peers; for tenements
in England according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales
according to the law of Wales, for tenements of the Marches according to
the law of the Marches: the same shall the Welsh do to us and our
subjects.
57. As for all those things of which a Welshman hath, without the lawful
judgment of his peers, been disseised or deprived of by King Henry our
father, or our brother King Richard, and which we either have in our
hands or others are possessed of, and we are obliged to warrant it, we
shall have a respite till the time generally allowed the crusaders;
excepting those things about which a suit is depending, or whereof an
inquest has been made by our order, before we undertook the crusade: but
when we return, or if we stay at home without performing our expedition,
we will immediately do them full justice, according to the laws of the
Welsh and of the parts before mentioned.
58. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llewellin, and all the
Welsh hostages, and release them from the engagements they have
entered into with us for the preservation of the peace.
59. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, concerning the
restoring his sisters and hostages, and his right and liberties, in
the same form and manner as we shall do to the rest of our barons
of England; unless by the charters which we have from his father,
William, late King of Scots, it ought to be otherwise; and this shall
be left to the determination of his peers in our court.
60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have granted to
be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to us, all people of
our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, shall observe, as far as they
are concerned, towards their dependents.
61. And whereas, for the honour of God and the amendment of our
kingdom, and for the better quieting the discord that has arisen
between us and our barons, we have granted all these things aforesaid;
willing to render them firm and lasting, we do give and grant our
subjects the underwritten security, namely that the barons may choose
five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whom they think convenient; who
shall take care, with all their might, to hold and observe, and cause
to be observed, the peace and liberties we have granted them, and by
this our present Charter confirmed in this manner; that is to say,
that if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our officers,
shall in any circumstance have failed in the performance of them
towards any person, or shall have broken through any of these articles
of peace and security, and the offence be notified to four barons
chosen out of the five-and-twenty before mentioned, the said four
barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are out of the
realm, and, laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it
redressed without delay: and if it be not redressed by us, or if we
should chance to be out of the realm, if it should not be redressed by
our justiciary within forty days, reckoning from the time it has been
notified to us, or to our justiciary (if we should be out of the
realm), the four barons aforesaid shall lay the cause before the rest
of the five-and-twenty barons; and the said five-and-twenty barons,
together with the community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and
distress us in all the ways in which they shall be able, by seizing
our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner they can,
till the grievance is redressed, according to their pleasure; saving
harmless our own person, and the persons of our Queen and children;
and when it is redressed, they shall behave to us as before. And any
person whatsoever in the kingdom may swear that he will obey the
orders of the five-and-twenty barons aforesaid in the execution of the
premises, and will distress us, jointly with them, to the utmost of
his power; and we give public and free liberty to any one that shall
please to swear to this, and never will hinder any person from taking
the same oath.
62. As for all those of our subjects who will not, of their own
accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty barons in distraining and
distressing us, we will issue orders to make them take the same oath
as aforesaid. And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons dies, or
goes out of the kingdom, or is hindered any other way from
carrying the things aforesaid into execution, the rest of the said
five-and-twenty barons may choose another in his room, at their
discretion, who shall be sworn in like manner as the rest. In all
things that are committed to the execution of these five-and-twenty
barons, if, when they are all assembled together, they should happen
to disagree about any matter, and some of them, when summoned, will
not or cannot come, whatever is agreed upon, or enjoined, by the major
part of those that are present shall be reputed as firm and valid as
if all the five-and-twenty had given their consent; and the aforesaid
five-and-twenty shall swear that all the premises they shall
faithfully observe, and cause with all their power to be observed. And
we will procure nothing from any one, by ourselves nor by another,
whereby any of these concessions and liberties may be revoked or
lessened; and if any such thing shall have been obtained, let it be
null and void; neither will we ever make use of it either by ourselves
or any other. And all the ill-will, indignations, and rancours that
have arisen between us and our subjects, of the clergy and laity, from
the first breaking out of the dissensions between us, we do fully
remit and forgive: moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said
dissensions, from Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign till the
restoration of peace and tranquillity, we hereby entirely remit to
all, both clergy and laity, and as far as in us lies do fully forgive.
We have, moreover, caused to be made for them the letters patent
testimonial of Stephen, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, Lord
Archbishop of Dublin, and the bishops aforesaid, as also of Master
Pandulph, for the security and concessions aforesaid.
63. Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin, that the Church of England be
free, and that all men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid
liberties, rights, and concessions, truly and peaceably, freely and
quietly, fully and wholly to themselves and their heirs, of us and our
heirs, in all things and places, forever, as is aforesaid. It is also
sworn, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all the
things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith, and without evil
subtilty. Given under our hand, in the presence of the witnesses above
named, and many others, in the meadow called Runingmede, between
Windsor and Staines, the 15th day of June, in the 17th year of our
reign.
* * * * *
The translation here given is that published in Sheldon Amos's work
on _The English Constitution_. The translation given by Sir E.
Creasy was chiefly followed in this, but it was collated with another
accurate translation by Mr. Richard Thompson, accompanying his
_Historical Essay on Magna Charta_, published in 1829, and also
with the Latin text. "The explanation of the whole Charter," observes
Mr. Amos, must be sought chiefly in detailed accounts of the Feudal
system in England, as explained in such works as those of Stubbs,
Hallam, and Blackstone. The scattered notes here introduced have
only for their purpose to elucidate the most unusual and perplexing
expressions. The Charter printed in the Statute Book is that issued
in the ninth year of Henry III., which is also the one specially
confirmed by the Charter of Edward I. The Charter of Henry III.
differs in some (generally) insignificant points from that of John.
The most important difference is the omission in the later Charter of
the 14th and 15th Articles of John's Charter, by which the King is
restricted from levying aids beyond the three ordinary ones, without
the assent of the 'Common Council of the Kingdom.' and provision is
made for summoning it. This passage is restored by Edward I. Magna
Charter has been solemnly confirmed upwards of thirty times. See the
chapter on the Great Charter, in Green's _History of the English
People_. See also Stubbs's _Documents Illustrative of English
History_. "The whole of the constitutional history of England,"
says Stubbs, "is a commentary on this Charter, the illustration of
which must be looked for in the documents that precede and follow."
* * * * *
"CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM" OF EDWARD I.
1297.
I. Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and
Duke Guyan, to all those that these present letters shall hear or see,
greeting. Know ye that we, to the honour of God and of holy Church,
and to the profit of our realm, have granted for us and our heirs,
that the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, which
were made by common assent of all the realm in the time of King Henry
our father, shall be kept in every point without breach. And we will
that the same Charters shall be sent under our seal as well to our
justices of the forest as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires,
and to all our other officers, and to all our cities throughout the
realm, together with our writs in the which it shall be contained that
they cause the foresaid Charters to be published, and to declare to
the people that we have confirmed them in all points; and that our
justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers, which under us have
the laws of our land to guide, shall allow the said Charters pleaded
before them in judgment in all their points; that is to wit, the Great
Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest according to
the assize of the Forest, for the wealth of our realm.
II. And we will that if any judgment be given from henceforth,
contrary to the points of the Charters aforesaid, by the justices or
by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the
points of the Charters, it shall be undone and holden for naught.
III. And we will that the same Charters shall be sent under our seal
to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall
be read before the people two times by the year. IV. And that all
archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of great
excommunication against all those that by word, deed, or counsel do
contrary to the foresaid Charters, or that in any point break or undo
them. And that the said curses be twice a year denounced and published
by the prelates aforesaid. And if the prelates or any of them be
remiss in the denunciation of the said sentences, the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel
and distrain them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid.
V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear that the
aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime towards our wars
and other business, of their own grant and goodwill, howsoever they
were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their heirs, because
they might be at another time found in the rolls, and so likewise the
prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers; we have granted
for us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor
prises into a custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, or
that may be found by roll or in any other manner.
VI. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church,
as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that
for no business from henceforth will we take such manner of aids,
tasks, nor prises but by the common consent of the realm, and for the
common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and
accustomed.
VII. And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the realm
find themselves sore grieved with the matelote of wools, that is to
wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made
petition to us to release the same; we, at their requests, have
clearly released it, and have granted for us and our heirs that we
shall not take such thing nor any other without their common assent
and goodwill; saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins,
and leather, granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In witness
of which things we have caused these our letters to be made patents.
Witness Edward our son, at London, the 10th day of October, the
five-and-twentieth of our reign.
And be it remembered that this same Charter, in the same terms, word
for word, was sealed in Flanders under the King's Great Seal, that is
to say, at Ghent, the 5th day of November, in the 52th year of the
reign of our aforesaid Lord the King, and sent into England.
* * * * *
The words of this important document, from Professor Stubbs's
translation, are given as the best explanation of the constitutional
position and importance of the Charters of John and Henry III. See
historical notice in Stubbs's _Documents Illustrative of English
History_, p. 477. This is far the most important of the numerous
ratifications of the Great Charter. Hallam calls it "that famous
statute, inadequately denominated the Confirmation of the Charters,
because it added another pillar to our constitution, not less important
than the Great Charter itself." It solemnly confirmed the two Charters,
the Charter of the Forest (issued by Henry II. in 1217--see text in
Stubbs, p. 338) being then considered as of equal importance with Magna
Charta itself, establishing them in all points as the law of the land;
but it did more. "Hitherto the king's prerogative of levying money by
name of _tallage_ or _prise_, from his towns and tenants in
demesne, had passed unquestioned. Some impositions, that especially on
the export of wool, affected all the king's subjects. It was now the
moment to enfranchise the people and give that security to private
property which Magna Charta had given to personal liberty." Edward's
statute binds the king never to take any of these "aids, tasks, and
prises" in future, save by the common assent of the realm. Hence, as
Bowen remarks, the Confirmation of the Charters, or an abstract of it
under the form of a supposed statute _de tallagio non concedendo_
(see Stubbs, p. 487), was more frequently cited than any other enactment
by the parliamentary leaders who resisted the encroachments of Charles I.
The original of the _Confirmatio Chartarum_, which is in Norman French,
is still in existence, though considerably shriveled by the fire which
damaged so many of the Cottonian manuscripts in 1731.
THE GRANT OF THE GREAT CHARTER.
An island in the Thames between Staines and Windsor had been chosen as
the place of conference: the King encamped on one bank, while the
barons--covered the marshy flat, still known by the name of Runnymede,
on the other. Their delegates met in the island between them, but the
negotiations were a mere cloak to cover John's purpose of unconditional
submission. The Great Charter was discussed, agreed to, and signed in a
single day. One copy of it still remains in the British Museum, injured
by age and fire, but with the royal seal still hanging from the brown,
shrivelled parchment. It is impossible to gaze without reverence on the
earliest monument of English freedom which we can see with our own eyes
and touch with our own hands, the great Charter to which from age to age
patriots have looked back as the basis of English liberty. But in itself
the Charter was no novelty, nor did it claim to establish any new
constitutional principles. The Charter of Henry the First formed the
basis of the whole, and the additions to it are for the most part formal
recognitions of the judicial and administrative changes introduced by
Henry the Second. But the vague expressions of the older charters were
now exchanged for precise and elaborate provisions. The bonds of
unwritten custom which the older grants did little more than recognize
had proved too weak to hold the Angevins; and the baronage now threw
them aside for the restraints of written law. It is in this way that the
Great Charter marks the transition from the age of traditional rights,
preserved in the nation's memory and officially declared by the Primate,
to the age of written legislation, of Parliaments and Statutes, which
was soon to come. The Church had shown its power of self-defence in the
struggle over the interdict, and the clause which recognized its rights
alone retained the older and general form. But all vagueness ceases when
the Charter passes on to deal with the rights of Englishmen at large,
their right to justice, to _security of person and property, to good
government_. 'No freeman,' ran the memorable article that lies at the
base of our whole judicial system, 'shall be seized or imprisoned, or
dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way brought to ruin; we will not go
against any man nor send against him, save by legal judgment of his
peers or by the law of the land.' 'To no man will we sell,' runs
another, 'or deny, or delay, right or justice.' The great reforms of the
past reigns were now formally recognized; judges of assize were to hold
their circuits four times in the year, and the Court of Common Pleas was
no longer to follow the King in his wanderings over the realm, but to
sit in a fixed place. But the denial of justice under John was a small
danger compared with the lawless exactions both of himself and his
predecessor. Richard had increased the amount of the scutage which Henry
II. had introduced, and applied it to raise funds for his ransom. He had
restored the Danegeld, or land tax, so often abolished, under the new
name of 'carucage,' had seized the wool of the Cistercians and the plate
of the churches, and rated movables as well as land. John had again
raised the rate of scutage, and imposed aids, fines, and ransoms at his
pleasure without counsel of the baronage. The Great Charter met this
abuse by the provision on which our constitutional system rests. With
the exception of the three customary feudal aids which still remained to
the crown, 'no scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm save by the
Common Council of the realm;' and to this Great Council it was provided
that prelates and the greater barons should be summoned by special writ,
and all tenants in chief through the sheriffs and bailiffs, at least
forty days before. But it was less easy to provide means for the control
of a King whom no man could trust, and a council of twenty-four barons
was chosen from the general body of their order to enforce on John the
observance of the Charter, with the right of declaring war on the King
should its provisions be infringed. Finally, the Charter was published
throughout the whole country, and sworn to at every hundred-mote and
town-mote by order from the King.--_Green's Short History of the English
People_, p. 123.
* * * * *
APPENDIX D.
A PART OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
AN ACT FOR DECLARING THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF THE SUBJECT, AND
SETTLING THE SUCCESSION OF THE CROWN. 1689.
Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at
Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing all the estates of
the people of this realm, did upon the thirteenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-eight [o.s.],[44]
present unto their Majesties, then called and known by the names and
style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, being present
in their proper persons, a certain Declaration in writing, made by the
said Lords and Commons, in the words following, viz.:
[Footnote 44: In New Style Feb. 23, 1689.]
Whereas the late King James II., by the assistance of divers evil
counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did endeavour
to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and the laws and
liberties of this kingdom:
1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and
suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of
Parliament.
2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates for humbly
petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power.
3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under the Great
Seal for erecting a court, called the Court of Commissioners for
Ecclesiastical Causes.
4. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of
prerogative, for other time and in other manner than the same was
granted by Parliament.
5. By raising and keeping a
standing army within this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of
Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law.
6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be
disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and employed
contrary to law.
7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in
Parliament.
8. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for matters and causes
cognizable only in Parliament, and by divers other arbitrary and
illegal causes.
9. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, and unqualified
persons have been returned, and served on juries in trials, and
particularly divers jurors in trials for high treason, which were not
freeholders.
10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons committed in
criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the liberty
of the subjects.
11. And excessive fines have been imposed; and illegal and cruel
punishments inflicted.
12. And several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures
before any conviction or judgment against the persons upon whom the
same were to be levied.
All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and
statutes, and freedom of this realm.
And whereas the said late King James II. having abdicated the
government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his Highness the Prince
of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious
instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power)
did (by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers
principal persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written to the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters to
the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque ports,
for the choosing of such persons to represent them as were of right to
be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westminster upon the
two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year one thousand six hundred
eighty and eight,[45] in order to such an establishment, as that their
religion, laws, and liberties might not again be in danger of being
subverted; upon which letters elections have been accordingly made.
[Footnote 45: In New Style Feb. 1, 1689.]
And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons,
pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being now
assembled in a full and free representation of this nation, taking
into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the
ends aforesaid, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case
have usually done) for the vindicating and asserting their ancient
rights and liberties, declare:
1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of
laws by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution
of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of
late, is illegal.
3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners
for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of
like nature, are illegal and pernicious.
4. _That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence
and prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time or in
other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal._[46]
5. _That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King,
and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are
illegal._[47]
6. _That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom
in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against
law._[48]
7. _That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their
defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law._[49]
8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free.
9. _That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in
Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or
place out of Parliament._[50]
10. _That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive
fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted._[51]
11. _That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and
jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be
freeholders._[52]
[Footnote 46: Compare this clause 4 with clauses 12 and 14 of Magna
Charta, and with Art. I. Section vii. clause 1 of the Constitution of
the United States.]
[Footnote 47: Compare clause 5 with Amendment I.]
[Footnote 48: Compare clause 6 with Amendment III.]
[Footnote 49: Compare clause 7 with Amendment II.]
[Footnote 50: Compare clause 9 with Constitution, Art. I. Section vi.
clause 1.]
[Footnote 51: Compare clause 10 with Amendment VIII.]
[Footnote 52: Compare clause 11 with Amendments VI. and VII.]
12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of
particular persons before conviction are illegal and void.
13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending,
strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought to be held
frequently.
And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the
premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties; and that no
declarations, judgments, doings or proceedings, to the prejudice of
the people in any of the said premises, ought in any wise to be drawn
hereafter into consequence or example.
To which demand of their rights they are particularly encouraged by
the declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange, as being the
only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein.
Having therefore an entire confidence that his said Highness the
Prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him,
and will still preserve them from the violation of their rights,
which they have here asserted, and from all other attempts upon their
religion, rights, and liberties:
II. The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at
Westminster, do resolve, that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of
Orange, be, and be declared, King and Queen of England, France, and
Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the crown and
royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to them the said Prince
and Princess during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them;
and that the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in, and
executed by, the said Prince of Orange, in the names of the said Prince
and Princess, during their joint lives; and after their deceases, the
said crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to be to
the heirs of the body of the said Princess; and for default of such
issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body; and
for default of such issue to the heirs of the body of the said Prince of
Orange. And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do pray the
said Prince and Princess to accept the same accordingly.
The act goes on to declare that, their Majesties having accepted the
crown upon these terms, the rights and liberties asserted and claimed
in the said declaration are the true, ancient, and indubitable rights
and liberties of the people of this kingdom, and so shall be esteemed,
allowed, adjudged, deemed, and taken to be, and that all and every
the particulars aforesaid shall be firmly and strictly holden and
observed, as they are expressed in the said declaration; and all
officers and ministers whatsoever shall serve their Majesties and
their successors according to the same in all times to come.
The act then declares that William and Mary are and of right ought
to be King and Queen of England, etc.; and it goes on to regulate the
succession after their deaths.
The passing of the Bill of Rights in 1689 restored to the monarchy
the character which it had lost under the Tudors and the Stuarts. The
right of the people through its representatives to depose the King,
to change the order of succession, and to set on the throne whom they
would, was now established. All claim of divine right, or hereditary
right independent of the law, was formally put an end to by the
election of William and Mary. Since their day no English sovereign has
been able to advance any claim to the crown save a claim which rested
on a particular clause in a particular Act of Parliament. William,
Mary, and Anne were sovereigns simply by virtue of the Bill of Rights.
George the First and his successors have been sovereigns solely by
virtue of the Act of Settlement. An English monarch is now as much the
creature of an Act of Parliament as the pettiest tax-gatherer in his
realm.--_Green's Short History_, p. 673.
* * * * *
APPENDIX E.
THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT.
1638(9).
_The first written constitution that created a government._
Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition
of his diuyne pruidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the
Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are
now cohabiting and dwelling in and vppon the River of Conectecotte and
the Lands thereunto adioyneing; And well knowing where a people are
gathered togather the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace
and vnion of such a people there should be an orderly and decent
Gouerment established according to God, to order and dispose of the
affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall require; doe
therefore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as one Publike State
or Comonwelth; and doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as
shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter into Combination
and Confederation togather, to mayntayne and p'rsearue the liberty and
purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus w'ch we now p'rfesse, as also
the disciplyne of the Churches, w'ch according to the truth of the
said gospell is now practised amongst vs; As also in o'r Ciuell
Affaires to be guided and gouerned according to such Lawes,
Rules, Orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered & decreed, as
followeth:--
1. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that there shall be yerely two
generall Assemblies or Courts, the one the second thursday in Aprill,
the other the second thursday in September, following; the first shall
be called the Courte of Election, wherein shall be yerely Chosen from
tyme to tyme soe many Magestrats and other publike Officers as shall be
found requisitte: Whereof one to be chosen Gouernour for the yeare
ensueing and vntill another be chosen, and noe other Magestrate to be
chosen for more than one yeare; p'ruided allwayes there be sixe chosen
besids the Gouernour; w'ch being chosen and sworne according to an Oath
recorded for that purpose shall haue power to administer iustice
according to the Lawes here established, and for want thereof according
to the rule of the word of God; w'ch choise shall be made by all that
are admitted freemen and haue taken the Oath of Fidellity, and doe
cohabitte w'thin this Jurisdiction, (hauing beene admitted Inhabitants
by the maior p'rt of the Towne wherein they liue,) or the mayor p'rte of
such as shall be then p'rsent.
2. It is Ordered, sentensed and decreed, that the Election of the
aforesaid Magestrats shall be on this manner: euery p'rson p'rsent
and quallified for choyse shall bring in (to the p'rsons deputed to
receaue them) one single pap'r w'th the name of him written in
yet whom he desires to haue Gouernour, and he that hath the greatest
number of papers shall be Gouernor for that yeare. And the rest of
the Magestrats or publike Officers to be chosen in this manner: The
Secretary for the tyme being shall first read the names of all that
are to be put to choise and then shall seuerally nominate them
distinctly, and euery one that would hane the p'rson nominated to be
chosen shall bring in one single paper written vppon, and he that
would not haue him chosen shall bring in a blanke: and euery one that
hath more written papers then blanks shall be a Magistrat for that
yeare; w'ch papers shall be receaued and told by one or more that
shall be then chosen by the court and sworne to be faythfull therein;
but in case there should not be sixe chosen as aforesaid, besids the
Gouernor, out of those w'ch are nominated, then he or they w'ch haue
the most written pap'rs shall be a Magestrate or Magestrats for the
ensueing yeare, to make vp the foresaid number.
3. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Secretary shall not
nominate any p'rson, nor shall any p'rson be chosen newly into the
Magestracy w'ch was not p'rpownded in some Generall Courte before, to
be nominated the next Election; and to that end yt shall be lawfull
for ech of the Townes aforesaid by their deputyes to nominate any two
whom they conceaue fitte to be put to election; and the Courte may
ad so many more as they iudge requisitt.
4. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that noe p'rson be chosen
Gouernor aboue once in two yeares, and that the Gouernor be always
a member of some approved congregation, and formerly of the
Magestracy w'th this Jurisdiction; and all the Magestrats Freemen of
this Comonwelth: and that no Magestrate or other publike officer shall
execute any p'rte of his or their Office before they are seuerally
sworne, w'ch shall be done in the face of the Courte if they be
p'rsent, and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose.
5. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that to the aforesaid Conrte
of Election the seu'rall Townes shall send their deputyes, and when
the Elections are ended they may p'rceed in any publike searuice as at
other Courts. Also the other Generall Courte in September shall be for
makeing of lawes, and any other publike occation, w'ch conserns the
good of the Comonwelth.
6. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Gou'rnor shall,
ether by himselfe or by the secretary, send out sumons to the
Constables of eu'r Towne for the cauleing of these two standing
Courts, on month at lest before their seu'rall tymes: And also if the
Gou'rnor and the gretest p'rte of the Magestrats see cause vppon any
spetiall occation to call a generall Courte, they may giue order to
the secretary soe to doe w'thin fowerteene dayes warneing; and
if vrgent necessity so require, vppon a shorter notice, giueing
sufficient grownds for yt to the deputyes when they meete, or els
be questioned for the same; And if the Gou'rnor and Mayor p'rte of
Magestrats shall ether neglect or refuse to call the two Generall
standing Courts or ether of them, as also at other tymes when the
occations of the Comonwelth require, the Freemen thereof, or the Mayor
p'rte of them, shall petition to them soe to doe: if then yt be ether
denyed or neglected the said Freemen or the Mayor p'rte of them shall
haue power to giue order to the Constables of the seuerall Townes to
doe the same, and so may meete togather, and ehuse to themselues a
Moderator, and may p'rceed to do any Acte of power, w'ch any other
Generall Courte may.
7. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that after there are warrants
giuen out for any of the said Generall Courts, the Constable or
Constables of ech Towne shall forthw'th give notice distinctly to the
inhabitants of the same, in some Publike Assembly or by goeing or
sending from howse to howse, that at a place and tyme by him or
them lymited and sett, they meet and assemble the: selues togather
to elect and chuse certen deputyes to be att the Generall Courte then
following to agitate the afayres of the comonwelth; w'ch said Deputyes
shall be chosen by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the seu'rall
Townes and haue taken the oath of fidellity; p'ruided that non be
chosen a Deputy for any Generall Courte w'ch is not a Freeman of this
Comonwelth.
The foresaid deputyes shall be chosen in manner following: euery
p'rson that is p'rsent and quallified as before exp'rssed, shall bring
the names of such, written in seu'rrall papers, as they desire to haue
chosen for that Imployment. and these 3 or 4, more or lesse, being the
number agreed on to be chosen for that tyme, that haue greatest
number of papers written for the: shall be deputyes for that
Courte; whose names shall be endorsed on the backe side of the warrant
and returned into the Courte, w'th the Constable or Constables hand
vnto the same.
8. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that Wyndsor, Hartford and
Wethersfield shall haue power, ech Towne, to send fower of their freemen
as deputyes to euery Generall Courte; and whatsoeuer other Townes shall
be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall send so many
deputyes as the Courte shall judge meete, a resonable p'rportion to the
number of Freemen that are in the said Townes being to be attended
therein; w'ch deputyes shall have the power of the whole Towne to giue
their voats and alowance to all such lawes and orders as may be for the
publike good, and unto w'ch the said Townes are to be bownd.
9. It is ordered and decreed, that the deputyes thus chosen shall haue
power and liberty to appoynt a tyme and a place of meeting togather
before any Generall Courte to aduise and consult of all such things as
may concerne the good of the publike, as also to examine their owne
Elections, whether according to the order, and if they or the gretest
p'rte of them find any election to be illegall they may seclud such for
p'rsent from their meeting, and returne the same and their resons to the
Courte; and if yt proue true, the Courte may fyne the p'rty or p'rtyes
so intruding and the Towne, if they see cause, and giue out a warrant to
goe to a newe election in a legall way, either in p'rte or in whole.
Also the said deputyes shall haue power to fyne any that shall be
disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due tyme or place
according to appoyntment; and they may returne the said fynes into the
Courte if yt be refused to be paid, and the tresurer to take notice of
yt, and to estreete or levy the same as he doth other fynes.
10. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that euery Generall Courte,
except such as through neglecte of the Gou'rnor and the greatest p'rte
of Magestrats the Freemen themselves doe call, shall consist of the
Gouernor, or some one chosen to moderate the Court, and 4 other
Magestrats at lest, w'th the mayor p'rte of the deputyes of the geuerall
Townes legally chosen; and in case the Freemen or mayor p'rte of them,
through neglect or refusall of the Gouernor and mayor p'rte of the
magestrats, shall call a Courte, y't shall consist of the mayor p'rte of
Freemen that are p'rsent or their deputyes, w'th a Moderator chosen by
the: In w'ch said Generall Courts shall consist the supreme power of the
Comonwelth, and they only shall haue power to make laws or repeale the:,
to graunt leuyes, to admitt of Freemen, dispose of lands vndisposed of,
to seuerall Townes or p'rsons, and also shall haue power to call ether
Courte or Magestrate or any other p'rson whatsoeuer into question for
any misdemeanour, and may for just causes displace or deale otherwise
according to the nature of the offence; and also may deale in any other
matter that concerns the good of this comonwelth, excepte election of
Magestrats, w'ch shall be done by the whole boddy of Freemen.
In w'ch Courte the Gouernour or Moderator shall haue power to order the
Courte to giue liberty of spech, and silence vnceasonable and disorderly
speakeings, to put all things to voate, and in case the vote be equall
to haue the casting voice. But non of these Courts shall be adiorned or
dissolued w'thout the consent of the maior p'rte of the Court.
11. It is ordered, sentenced and decreed, that when any Generall Courte
vppon the occations of the Comonwelth haue agreed vppon any sume or
somes of mony to be leuyed vppon the seuerall Townes w'thin this
Jurisdiction, that a Comittee be chosen to sett out and appoynt w't
shall be the p'rportion of euery Towne to pay of the said letiy,
p'rvided the Comittees be made up of an equall number out of each Towne.
14'th January, 1638, the 11 Orders abouesaid are voted.
THE OATH OF THE GOU'RNOR, FOR THE [P'RSENT].
I ---- being now chosen to be Gou'rnor wthin this Jurisdiction, for
the yeare ensueing, and vntil a new be chosen, doe sweare by the
greate and dreadfull name of the everliueing God, to p'rmote the
publicke good and peace of the same, according to the best of my
skill; as also will mayntayne all lawfull priuiledges of this
Comonwealth; as also that all wholesome lawes that are or shall be
made by lawfull authority here established, be duly executed; and will
further the execution of Justice according to the rule of Gods word;
so helpe me God, in the name of the Lo: Jesus Christ.
THE OATH OF A MAGESTRATE, FOR THE P'RSENT.
I, ---- being chosen a Magestrate w'thin this Jurisdiction for the
yeare ensueing, doe sweare by the great and dreadfull name of the
euerliueing God, to p'rmote the publike good and peace of the same,
according to the best of my skill, and that I will mayntayne all the
lawfull priuiledges thereof according to my vnderstanding, as also
assist in the execution of all such wholsome lawes as are made or
shall be made by lawfull authority heare established, and will further
the execution of Justice for the tyme aforesaid according to the
righteous rule of Gods word; so helpe me God, etc.
[Until 1752, the legal year in England began March 25 (Lady Day), not
January 1. All the days between January 1 and March 25 of the year
which we now call 1639 were therefore then a part of the year 1638; so
that the date of the Constitution is given by its own terms as 1638,
instead of 1639.]
APPENDIX F.
THE STATES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO ORIGIN.
1. The thirteen original states.
2. States formed directly from other states.
Vermont from territory disputed between New York and
New Hampshire, Kentucky from Virginia, Maine
from Massachusetts, West Virginia from Virginia.
3. States from the Northwest Territory (see p. 253).
Ohio, Michigan,
Indiana, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Minnesota, in part.
4. States from other territory ceded by states.
Tennessee, ceded by North Carolina,
Alabama, ceded by South Carolina and Georgia,
Mississippi, ceded by South Carolina and Georgia.
5. States from the Louisiana purchase (see p. 253).
Louisiana, North Dakota,
Arkansas, South Dakota,
Missouri, Montana,
Kansas, Minnesota, in part,
Nebraska, Wyoming, in part,
Iowa, Colorado, in part.
6. States from Mexican cessions.
California, Wyoming, in part,
Nevada, Colorado, in part.
7. States from territory defined by treaty with Great Britain
(see p. 254).
Oregon, Washington, Idaho.
8. States from other sources.
Florida, from a Spanish cession,
Texas, by annexation (see p. 254).
APPENDIX G.
TABLE OF STATES AND TERRITORIES.
(_Ratio of representation based on census of_ 1890--173,901.)
Popula- Popula- Rep
tion to Area in tion, in Elect.
Dates. No. Names. sq.m. sq. m. 1890. Cong vote
1892. 1892.
Ratified the Constitution.
1787, Dec. 7 1 Delaware 82.1 2,050 168,493 1 3
Dec. 12 2 Pennsylvania 111.2 45,215 5,258,014 30 32
Dec. 18 3 New Jersey 179.7 7,815 1,444,933 8 10
1788, Jan. 2 4 Georgia 30.8 59,475 1,837,353 11 13
Jan. 9 5 Connecticut 149.5 4,990 746,258 4 6
Feb. 6 6 Massachusetts 269.2 8,315 2,238,943 13 15
April 28 7 Maryland 85.3 12,210 1,042,390 6 8
May 23 8 South Carolina 37.6 30,570 1,151,149 7 9
June 21 9 New Hampshire 40.4 9,305 376,530 2 4
June 25 10 Virginia 39. 42,450 1,655,980 10 12
July 26 11 New York 121.9 49,170 5,997,853 34 35
1789, Nov. 21 12 North Carolina 30.9 52,250 1,617,947 9 11
1790, May 29 13 Rhode Island 276.4 1,250 345,506 2 4
Admitted to the Union.
1791, March 4 14 Vermont 34.6 9,565 332,422 2 4
1792, June 1 15 Kentucky 46. 40,400 1,858,635 11 13
1796, June 1 16 Tennessee 42. 42,050 1,767,518 10 12
1803, Feb. 19 17 Ohio 89.4 41,060 3,672,316 21 23
1812, April 30 18 Louisiana 22.9 48,720 1,118,587 6 8
1816, Dec. 11 19 Indiana 60.3 36,350 2,192,404 13 15
1817, Dec. 10 20 Mississippi 42.7 46,810 1,289,600 7 9
1818, Dec. 3 21 Illinois 67.5 56,650 3,826,351 22 24
1819, Dec. 14 22 Alabama 28.9 52,250 1,513,017 9 11
1820, March 15 23 Maine 20. 33,040 661,086 4 6
1821, Aug. 10 24 Missouri 38.5 69,415 2,679,184 15 17
1836, June 15 25 Arkansas 20.9 53,850 1,128,179 6 8
1837, Jan. 25 26 Michigan 35.5 58,915 2,093,889 12 14
1845, March 3 27 Florida 6.6 58,680 391,422 2 4
1815, Dec. 29 28 Texas 8.4 265,780 2,235,523 13 15
1846, Dec. 28 29 Iowa 34.1 56,025 1,911,896 11 13
1848, May 29 30 Wisconsin 30. 56,040 1,686,880 10 12
1850, Sept. 9 31 California 7.6 158,360 1,208,130 7 9
1858, May 11 32 Minnesota 15.6 83,365 1,301,826 7 9
1859, Feb. 14 33 Oregon 3.2 96,030 313,767 2 4
1861, Jan. 29 34 Kansas 17.3 82,080 1,427,096 8 10
1863, June 19 35 West Virginia 30.7 24,780 762,794 4 6
1864, Oct. 31 36 Nevada 0.4 110,700 45,761 1 3
1867, March 1 37 Nebraska 13.6 77,510 1,058,910 6 8
1876, Aug. 1 38 Colorado 3.9 103,925 412,198 2 4
1889, Nov. 2 { 39 North Dakota } 2.5 70,795 182,719 1 3
{ 40 South Dakota } 4.2 77,650 328,808 2 4
1889, Nov. 8 41 Montana 0.9 146,080 132,159 1 3
1889, Nov. 11 42 Washington 5. 69,180 349,390 2 4
1890, July 3 43 Idaho 0.9 84,800 84,385 1 3
1890, July 10 44 Wyoming 0.6 97,890 60,705 1 3
Organised.
1850, Sept. 9 Utah 2.4 84,970 207,905
1850, Sept. 9 New Mexico 1.2 122,580 153,593
1863, Feb. 24 Arizona 0.5 113,020 59,620
1868, July 27 Alaska 577,390 no census
1834, June 30 Indian Territory 31,400 no census
1889, April 22 Oklahoma 1.5 39,030 61,834
1791, Mar 3 Dist. of C. 3,291.1 70 230,392
1892, total House of Representatives 356 + Senate 88 = electoral votes,
444.
APPENDIX H.
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1790-1890,
_Showing Percentages of Urban Population._
Date. | Pop. of U.S. | No. of | Pop. of Cities. | % of
| | Cities | |of Urban Pop.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1790 | 3,929,214 | 6 | 131,472 | 3.33
1800 | 5,308,483 | 6 | 210,873 | 3.9
1810 | 7,239,881 | 11 | 356,920 | 4.9
1820 | 9,633,822 | 13 | 474,135 | 4.9
1830 | 12,866,020 | 26 | 864,509 | 6.7
1840 | 17,069,453 | 44 | 1,453,994 | 8.5
1850 | 23,191,876 | 85 | 2,897,586 | 12.5
1860 | 31,443,321 | 141 | 5,072,256 | 16.1
1870 | 38,558,371 | 226 | 8,071,875 | 20.9
1880 | 50,155,783 | 286 | 11,318,597 | 22.5
1890 | 62,622,250 | 443 | 18,235,670 | 29.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX I.
AN EXAMINATION PAPER FOR CUSTOMS CLERKS.
Applicant's No..
APPLICANT'S DECLARATION.
DIRECTIONS.--1. The number above is _your examination number_.
Write it at the top of every sheet given you in this examination.
2. Fill promptly all the blanks in this sheet. Any omission may
lead to the rejection of your papers.
3. Write all answers and exercises in ink.
4. Write your name on no other sheet but this.
Place this sheet in the envelope. Write your number on the envelope
and seal the same.
DECLARATION.
I declare upon my honour as follows:
1. My true and full name is (if female, please say whether
Mrs. or Miss)
2. Since my application was made I have been living at (give
all the places)
3. My post-office address in full is
4. If examined within twelve months for the civil service--for
any post-office, custom-house, or Department at Washington--state
the time, place, and result.
5. If you have ever been in the civil service, state where and
in what position, and when you left it and the reasons therefor.
6. Are you now under enlistment in the army or navy?
7. If you have been in the military or naval service of the
United States, state which, and whether you were honourably
discharged, when, and for what cause.
8. Since my application no change has occurred in my health
or physical capacity except the following:
9. I was born at ----, on the ---- day of ----, 188.
10. My present business or employment is
11. I swore to my application for this examination as near as
I can remember at (town or city of) ----, on the ---- day
of ----, 188.
All the above statements are true, to the best of my knowledge
and belief.
(_Signature in usual form_.)------------
Dated at the city of ----, State of ----, this ---- day
of ----, 188_.
FIRST SUBJECT.
_Question 1._ One of the examiners will distinctly read (at a
rate reasonable for copying) fifteen lines from the Civil-Service Law
or Rules, and each applicant will copy the same below from the reading
as it proceeds.
_Question 2._ Write below at length the names of fifteen States
and fifteen cities of the Union.
_Question 3. Copy the following precisely_:
"And in my opinion, sir, this principle of claiming monopoly of office
by the right of conquest, unless the public shall effectually rebuke
and restrain it, will effectually change the character of our
Government. It elevates party above country; it forgets the common
weal in the pursuit of personal emolument; it tends to form, it does
form, we see that it has formed, a political combination, united by
no common principles or opinions among its members, either upon the
powers of the Government or the true policy of the country, but held
together simply as an association, under the charm of a popular
head, seeking to maintain possession of the Government by a vigorous
exercise of its patronage, and for this purpose agitating and alarming
and distressing social life by the exercise of a tyrannical party
proscription. Sir, if this course of things cannot be checked, good
men will grow tired of the exercise of political privileges. They will
see that such elections are but a mere selfish contest for office,
and they will abandon the Government to the scramble of the bold, the
daring, and the desperate."--_Daniel Webster on Civil Service, in
1832_.
_Question 4._ Correct any errors in spelling which you find in
the following sentences, writing your letters so plainly that no one
of them can be mistaken:
Unquestionebly every federil offeser should be able to spell corectly
the familier words of his own languege.
Lose her hankercheif and elivate her head immediatly or she will
spedily loose her life by strangelation.
SECOND SUBJECT.
_Question 1._ Multiply 2341705 by 23870 and divide the product by
6789.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 2._ Divide two hundred and five thousand two hundred
and five, and two hundred and five ten-thousandths, by one hundred
thousand one hundred, and one hundredth.
_Question 3._ Multiply 10-2/3 by 7-1/8 and divide the product by
9-1/2, reducing the same to the simplest form.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 4._ The annual cost of the public schools of a city
is $36,848. What school-tax must be assessed, the cost of collecting
being 2 per cent., and 6 per cent of the assessed tax being
uncollectible?
_Give operation in full._
_Question 5._ Add 7-3/4, 3/5 of 6-2/9, 8-11/12, 6-1/2 divided by
8-1/8, and reduce to lowest terms.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 6._ The Government sold 3000 old muskets at 22-1/2 per
cent, of their cost. The purchaser becoming insolvent paid only 13 per
cent. of the price he agreed to pay; that is, he paid $900. What did
each musket cost the Government?
_Give operation in full._
_Question 7._ What will it cost to carpet a room 36 feet wide by
72 feet long with 3/4 width carpet at $2.12 per yard, including cost
of carpet-lining at 11 cents a square yard and 12 cents a yard for
making and laying the carpet?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 8. A owned 7/8 of a ship and sold 4/5 of his share to
B, who sold 5/9 of what he bought to C, who sold 6/7 of what he bought
to D. What part of the whole vessel did D buy?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 9. A man bought a cargo of wool and sold seven
thousand and forty-five ten-thousandths of it. How much had he left?
_Give operation in full in decimal fractions_.
_Question_ 10. A merchant imported from Bremen 32 pieces of linen
of 32 yards each, on which he paid for the duties, at 24 per cent,
$122.38, and other charges to the amount of $40.96. What was the
invoice value per yard, and the cost per yard after duties and charges
were paid?
_Give operation, in full_.
THIRD SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. On a mortgage for $3,125, dated July 5, 1880
(interest at 3-1/2 per cent), a payment of $840 was made April 23,
1881. What amount was due January 17, 1882?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 2. The Government sold an old vessel for $160,000,
payable two fifths in eight months and the residue in seventeen months
from the sale. What was the present cash value of the vessel, the
current rate of interest on money being five per cent?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 3. Write a promissory note to be given by J. Brown
to J. Smith, for 60 days, without grace, for $500, at 5 per cent
interest, and state what amount will be due at maturity of the note.
_Question_ 4. James X. Young, a contractor, had the following
dealings with the Treasury Department: He furnished January 4, 1882,
14 tables at $16 each; June 6, 1882, 180 desks at $18.50 each;
December 7, 1882, 150 chairs at $2 each, and July 18, 1883, 14
book-cases at $90 each. He was paid cash as follows: January 31, 1882,
$224; June 30, $1,800; December 18, $300; and July 31, 1883, he was
allowed on settlement $75 for cartage and charged $25 for breakages.
State his account and show balance due.
FOURTH SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. State the meaning of tense and of mood, and explain
the difference between them in the English language or grammar.
_Question_ 2. Correct any errors you find in the following
sentences:
The boy done it, and he is as restless here as he will be if he was
with you.
He had did it and spoke of doing it before we come here.
_Question_ 3. Write a letter to Senator Jackson answering in full
his letter of September 7 to the Secretary of the Treasury in which
he asks: "How must my nephew proceed to obtain a clerkship in the
Treasury Department, under the Civil-Service Law, and what are the
requisite qualifications of a good clerk?"
FIFTH SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. Write without abbreviation the names of fifteen
seaports of the Union.
_Question_ 2. Name four of the principal tributaries of the
Mississippi River.
_Question_ 3. Bound the State in which you live.
_Question_ 4. Which States are peninsular, and upon what waters
are they situated?
_Question_ 5. Name six of the principal railroads in the United
States.
_Question_ 6. Name seven of the leading agricultural products of
the United States, and state in what section of the country each is
most extensively cultivated.
APPENDIX J.
THE NEW YORK CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT OF 1890.
CHAP. 94.--AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE FIVE OF THE PENAL CODE RELATING TO
CRIMES AGAINST THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
Approved by the Governor April 4, 1890. Passed, three fifths being
present.
_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:_
SECTION 1. Title five of the Penal Code, entitled "Of crimes against
the elective franchise," is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
Section 41. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or
indirectly, by himself or through any other person:
1. To pay, lend, or contribute, or offer or promise to pay, lend, or
contribute any money or other valuable consideration, to or for any
voter, or to or for any other person, to induce such voter to vote or
refrain from voting at any election, or to induce any voter to vote
or refrain from voting at such election for any particular person or
persons, or to induce such voter to come to the polls or remain away
from the polls at such election, or on account of such voter having
voted or refrained from voting or having voted or refrained from
voting for any particular person, or having come to the poll or
remained away from the polls at such election.
2. To give, offer, or promise any office, place, or employment, or
to promise to procure or endeavour to procure any office, place, or
employment to or for any voter, or to or for any other person, in
order to induce such voter to vote or refrain from voting at any
election, or to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting at
such election for any particular person or persons.
3. To make any gift, loan, promise, offer, procurement, or agreement,
as aforesaid, to, for, or with any person in order to induce such
person to procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person,
or the vote of any voter at any election.
4. To procure or engage, promise or endeavour to procure, in
consequence of any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or
agreement, the election of any person or the vote of any voter at such
election.
5. To advance or pay or cause to be paid any money or other valuable
thing to or for the use of any other person with the intent that the
same, or any part thereof, shall be used in bribery at any election,
or to knowingly pay, or cause to be paid, any money or other valuable
thing to any person in discharge or repayment of any money, wholly or
in part, expended in bribery at any election.
Section 41_a_. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or
indirectly, by himself or through any other person:
1. To receive, agree, or contract for, before or during an election,
any money, gift, loan, or other valuable consideration, office, place,
or employment for himself or any other person, for voting or agreeing
to vote, or for coming or agreeing to come to the polls, or for
remaining, away or agreeing to remain away from the polls, or for
refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting, or for voting or
agreeing to vote or refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting for
any particular person or persons at any election.
2. To receive any money or other valuable thing during or after an
election on account of himself or any other person having voted or
refrained from voting at such election, or on account of himself
or any other person having voted or refrained from voting for any
particular person at such election, or on account of himself or any
other person having come to the polls or remained away from the polls
at such election, or on account of having induced any other person to
vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for any
particular person or persons at such election.
41_b_. It shall be unlawful for any candidate for public office,
before or during an election, to make any bet or wager with a voter,
or take a share or interest in or in any manner become a party to any
such bet or wager, or provide or agree to provide any money to be used
by another in making such bet or wager, upon any event or contingency
whatever. Nor shall it be lawful for any person, directly or
indirectly, to make a bet or wager with a voter, depending upon
the result of any election, with the intent thereby to procure the
challenge of such voter, or to prevent him from voting at such
election.
Section 41_c_. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or
indirectly, by himself or any other person in his behalf, to make use
of, or threaten to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint, or
to inflict or threaten the infliction by himself, or through any other
person, of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, or in any manner to
practice intimidation upon or against any person, in order to induce
or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting at any election,
or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or
persons at any election, or on account of such person having voted or
refrained from voting at any election. And it shall be unlawful for
any person by abduction, duress, or any forcible or fraudulent device
or contrivance whatever to impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere
with, the free exercise of the elective franchise by any voter; or to
compel, induce, or prevail upon any voter either to give or refrain
from giving his vote at any election, or to give or refrain from
giving his vote for any particular person at any election. It shall
not be lawful for any employer in paying his employees the salary or
wages due them to inclose their pay in "pay envelopes" upon which
there is written or printed any political mottoes, devices, or
arguments containing threats, express or implied, intended or
calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of such
employees. Nor shall it be lawful for any employer, within ninety days
of general election to put up or otherwise exhibit in his factory,
work-shop, or other establishment or place where his employees may be
working, any hand-bill or placard containing any threat, notice, or
information that in case any particular ticket or candidate shall be
elected, work in his place or establishment will cease, in whole or in
part, or his establishment be closed up, or the wages of his workmen
be reduced, or other threats, express or implied, intended or
calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of his
employees. This section shall apply to corporations, as well as to
individuals, and any person or corporation violating the provisions
of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and any
corporation violating this section shall forfeit its charter.
Section 41_d_. Every candidate who is voted for at any public
election held within this state shall, within ten days after such
election, file as hereinafter provided an itemized statement, showing
in detail all the moneys contributed or expended by him, directly or
indirectly, by himself or through any other person, in aid of his
election. Such statement shall give the names of the various persons
who received such moneys, the specific nature of each item, and the
purpose for which it was expended or contributed. There shall be
attached to such statement an affidavit subscribed and sworn to by
such candidate, setting forth in substance that the statement thus
made is in all respects true, and that the same is a full and detailed
statement of all moneys so contributed or expended by him, directly
or indirectly, by himself or through any other person in aid of his
election. Candidates for offices to be filled by the electors of the
entire state, or any division or district thereof greater than a
county, shall file their statements in the office of the secretary of
state. The candidates for town, village, and city offices, excepting
the city of New York, shall file their statements in the office of the
town, village, or city clerk respectively, and in cities wherein there
is no city clerk, with the clerk of the common council wherein the
election occurs. Candidates for all other offices, including all
offices in the city and county of New York, shall file their
statements in the office of the clerk of the county wherein the
election occurs.
Section 41_e_. A person offending against any provision of
sections forty-one and forty-one-a of this act is a competent witness
against another person so offending, and may be compelled to attend
and testify upon any trial, hearing, proceeding, or investigation in
the same manner as any other person. But the testimony so given shall
not be used in any prosecution or proceeding, civil or criminal,
against the person so testifying. A person so testifying shall not
thereafter be liable to indictment, prosecution, or punishment for the
offense with reference to which his testimony was given and may plead
or prove the giving of testimony accordingly, in bar of such an
indictment or prosecution.
Section 41_f_. Whosoever shall violate any provision of this title, upon
conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail
for not less than three months nor more than one year. The offenses
described in section[53] forty-one and forty-one-a of this act are hereby
declared to be infamous crimes. When a person is convicted of any
offense mentioned in section forty-one of this act he shall in addition
to the punishment above prescribed, forfeit any office to which he may
have been elected at the election with reference to which such offense
was committed; and when a person is convicted of any offense mentioned
in section forty-one-a of this act he shall in addition to the
punishment above prescribed be excluded from the right of suffrage for a
period of five years after such conviction, and it shall be the duty of
the county clerk of the county in which any such conviction shall be
had, to transmit a certified copy of the record of conviction to the
clerk of each county of the state, within ten days thereafter, which
said certified copy shall be duly filed by the said county clerks in
their respective offices. Any candidate for office who refuses or
neglects to file a statement as prescribed in section forty-one-d of
this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, punishable as above
provided and shall also forfeit his office.
[Footnote 53: So in the original.]
Section 41_g_. Other crimes against the elective franchise are
defined, and the punishment thereof prescribed by special statutes.
Section 2. Section forty-one of the Penal Code, as it existed prior to
the passage of this act, is hereby repealed.
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately. APPENDIX K.
FORM OF AUSTRALIAN BALLOT ADOPTED IN MASSACHUSETTS,
1889.
OFFICIAL BALLOT
FOR
PRECINCT, WARD,
OF (CITY OR TOWN),
NOVEMBER__, 18__.
[Fac-Simile of Signature of Secretary.]
_Secretary of the Commonwealth_.
SAMPLE BALLOT,
With explanations and illustration.
Prepared by the Ballot Act League with the approval of the Secretary
of the Commonwealth.
* * * * *
Some representative districts elect one, some two, and a few three
representatives to the General Court. Worcester County elects four
commissioners of insolvency instead of three as in other counties.
No county commissioners or special commissioners will be voted for in
the cities of Boston and Chelsea or the county of Nantucket.
* * * * *
Forms for nominating candidates can be had at the department of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
* * * * *
Carefully observe the official specimen ballots to be posted and
published just before election day.
To vote for a Person, mark a Cross X
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE.
OLIVER AMES, of Easton Republican.
WILLIAM H EARLE, of Worcester Prohibition.
WILLIAM E. RUSSELL, of Cambridge Democratic.
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR Vote for ONE.
JOHN BASCOM, of Williamstown Prohibition.
JOHN Q.A. BRACKETT, of Arlington Republican.
JOHN W. CORCORAN, of Clinton Democratic.
SECRETARY Vote for ONE.
WILLIAM S. OSGOOD, of Boston Democratic.
HENRY R. PEIRCE, of Abington Republican.
HENRY C. SMITH, of Williamsburg Prohibition.
TREASURER Vote for ONE.
JOHN M. FISHER, of Attleborough Prohibition.
GEORGE A. MARDEN, of Lowell Republican.
HENRY O. THACHER, of Yarmouth Democratic.
AUDITOR Vote for ONE.
CHARLES R. LADD, of Springfield Republican.
EDMUND A. STOWE, of Hudson Prohibition.
WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS, of Worcester Democratic.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL Vote for ONE.
ALLEN COFFIN, of Nantucket Prohibition.
SAMUEL O. LAMB, of Greenfield Democratic.
ANDREW J. WATERMAN, of Pittsfield Republican.
COUNCILLOR, Third District Vote for ONE.
ROBERT O. FULLER, of Cambridge Republican.
WILLIAM E. PLUMMER, of Newton Democratic.
SYLVANUS C. SMALL, of Winchester Prohibition.
SENATOR, Third Middlesex District Vote for ONE.
FREEMAN HUNT, of Cambridge Democratic.
CHESTER W. KINGSLEY, of Cambridge /Republican.
\Prohibition.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, Northern District Vote for ONE.
CHARLES S. LINCOLN, of Somerville Democratic.
JOHN M. READ, of Lowell Prohibition.
WILLIAM B. STEVENS, of Stoneham Republican.
-------------------------------------------------------------
in the Square at the right of the name.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
REPRESENTATIVES IN GENERAL COURT
First Middlesex District. Vote for TWO.
WILLIAM H. MARBLE, of Cambridge Prohibition. __
ISAAC McLEAN, of Cambridge Democratic. __
GEORGE A. PERKINS, of Cambridge Democratic. __
JOHN READ, of Cambridge Republican. __
CHESTER V. SANGER, of Cambridge Republican. __
WILLIAM A. START, of Cambridge Prohibition. __
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------
SHERIFF Vote for ONE.
HENRY G. CUSHING, of Lowell Republican. __
HENRY G. HARKINS, of Lowell Prohibition. __
WILLIAM H. SHERMAN, of Ayer Democratic. __
____________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------
COMMISSIONERS OF INSOLVENCY Vote for THREE.
JOHN W. ALLARD, of Framingham Democratic. __
GEORGE J. BURNS, of Ayer Republican. __
WILLIAM P. CUTTER, of Cambridge Prohibition. __
FREDERIC T. GREENHALGE, of Lowell Republican. __
JAMES HICKS, of Cambridge. Prohibition. __
JOHN C. KENNEDY, of Newton Republican. __
RICHARD J. McKELLEGET, of Cambridge Democratic. __
EDWARD D. McVEY, of Lowell Democratic. __
ELMER A. STEVENS, of Somerville Prohibition. __
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------
COUNTY COMMISSIONER Vote for ONE.
WILLIAM S. FROST, of Marlborough Republican. __
JOSEPH W. BARBER, of Sherborn Prohibition. __
JAMES SKINNER, of Woburn Democratic. __
____________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------
SPECIAL COMMISSIONERS Vote for TWO.
HENRY BRADLEE, of Medford Democratic. __
LYMAN DYKE, of Stoneham Republican. __
JOHN J. DONOVAN, of Lowell Democratic. __
WILLIAM E. KNIGHT, of Shirley Prohibition. __
ORSON E. MALLORY, of Lowell Prohibition. __
EDWIN E. THOMPSON, of Woburn Republican. __
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
-------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: SKETCH OF POLLING PLACE.]
SUGGESTIONS TO VOTERS.
Give your name and residence to the ballot clerk, who, on finding your
name on the check list, will admit you within the rail and hand you a
ballot.
Go alone to one of the voting shelves and there unfold your ballot.
Mark a cross X in the square at the right of the name of each person
for whom you wish to vote. No other method of marking, such as erasing
names, will answer.
Thus, if you wished to vote for John Bowles for Governor, you would
mark your ballot in this way:--
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE
JOHN BOWLES, of Taunton Prohibition. X
THOMAS E. MEANS, of Boston Democratic.
ELIJAH SMITH, of Pittsfield Republican.
If you wish to vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot,
write, or insert by a sticker, the name in the blank line at the end
of the list of candidates for the office, and mark a cross X in the
square at the right of it. Thus, if you wished to vote for George T.
Morton, of Chelsea, for Governor, you would prepare your ballot in
this way:--
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE
JOHN BOWLES, of Taunton Prohibition.
THOMAS E. MEANS, of Boston Democratic.
ELIJAH SMITH, of Pittsfield Republican.
_George T. Morton, of Chelsea_ X
Notice, that for some offices you may vote for "two" or "three"
candidates, as stated in the ballot at the right of the name of the
office to be voted for, e.g.: "COMMISSIONERS OF INSOLVENCY. Vote for
THREE."
If you spoil a ballot, return it to the ballot clerk, who will give
you another. You cannot have more than two extra ballots, or three in
all. You cannot remain within the rail more than ten minutes, and in
case all the shelves are in use and other voters waiting, you are
allowed only five minutes at the voting shelf.
Before leaving the voting shelf, fold your ballot in the same way as
it was folded when you received it, and keep it so folded until you
place it in the ballot box.
Do not show any one how you have marked your ballot.
Go to the ballot box and give your name and residence to the officer
in charge.
Put your folded ballot in the box with the certificate of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth uppermost and in sight.
You are not allowed to carry away a ballot, whether spoiled or not.
A voter who declares to the presiding official (under oath, if
required) that he was a voter before May 1, 1857, and cannot read, or
that he is blind or physically unable to mark his ballot, can receive
the assistance of one or two of the election officers in the marking
of his ballot.