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A Manual for the Constitutional Convention, 1917

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A Manual for the Constitutional Convention, 1917 .- .-'A (iPotneU Hlnioeiraitg Sibracg 3tl)aca, Siein fnrb THE GIFT OF (l>Dr\\fe.viti*Ti. ' ^HE accompanying J>ublication is sent witk • tke I oom{>limcnts of tke Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts. Acknowledgment of its receij>t may he made to the State Liorarian, State Mouse, Boston. ,,.„^_ Cornell University Library JK3125 1917 .A4 19lV A manual for the Constitutional ConventI 3 1924 030 489 573 olin Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030489573 <^^7t -i^j/ztii^c^ iu^-^^'^ ^J^.rL^ , ^^.....^ /^ 1^9^ ^e.^ ^ : ^^ \: (/^a^^>, r^/^^/ ^/ A :^».urM^^rM^^:jt^^^4^^>^^^ ^?-rrJti^<a^ /oj^„^ ,':'<- '. "^^y ' j^^^S^u^ ^(C.X) aJ-^-^„.^^ ^5^. ^ jr^^ <^^.^^ '^^^K /n-^/^ vu^ M ^ii^ (HammoxmmlXli of Mmsisx\in0itt& A MANUAL FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1917 SUBMITTED TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION BY THE COMMISSION TO COMPILE INFORMATION AND DATA FOR THE USE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION SECOND EDITION BOSTON WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING COMPANY. STATE PRINTERS 32 DERNE STREET 1917 CONTENTS j^ PAGE History of the Constitution of Massachusetts, 5 I. The Govem6r and Company of the Massachusetts Bay (Colony Charter), 1629-1686, 5 II. Inter-Charter Period, 1686-1692, 9 III. The Province of the Massachusetts Bay (Province Char- ter), 1692-1774, . ... 9 IV. Colony and State of Massachusetts Bay (Provincial Con- gress and Province Charter resumed), 1774r-1780, . 12 V. The Movement for a State Constitution, 1776-1780, 14 1. Preliminaries, 14 2. Constitution of 1778, and the Essex Result, 16 3. Constitutional Convention of 1779-1780, . 18 4. The Ratification, 21 VI. Constitutional Development in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780-1915, . .22 1. The Constitution of 1780, 22 2. The Constitutional Convention of 1820, . 28 3. Period 1821-1850, ...*... .38 4. The Constitutional Convention of 1853^ ... 41 (a) Origin, 1850-1853, 41 (6) Character, Organization, Procedure, and Method of Submission, 44 (c) Debates, Rejected Constitution of 1853, and Additional Propositions, 48 (d) Adoption by the Convention, Rejection by the People, . 60 5. Period 1854r-1915, . 63 VII. Tabular Summary of the Constitutional Conventions of Massachusetts, . 66 67 VIII. Bibliography, . ... 73 The Constitution of the United States, . ... The Constitution of Massachusetts Annotated, . .93 PAGE The Executive Branch of the Government of Massachusetts, . 197 I. General Administration, ... 197 II. Military Affairs, . .203 III. Protection of Persons and Property, . 204 IV. Protection of the PubUc Health, . 205 V. Regulation of Pubhc Utilities, 206 Yl. Regulation of Banking and Insurance, . 207 VII. Regulation of Manufacturing and Mercantile Affairs, . 208 VIII. Boards of Registration and Examination, . 210 IX. Development and Regulation of Highways and Waterways, 211 X. Development and Conservation of Natural Resources, . 212 XI. Public Education; Collection and Distribution of Informa- tion, . 213 XII. PubUc Recreation, 216 XIII. Care of PubUc Charges, . 217 The Organization of the State Governments, 222 The Rules of the Convention of 1780, . 227 The Rules of the Convention of 1820, 229 Rules The of the . Convention of 1853, . 235 Rules of the The Convention of 1917, . 242 Governor McCall's Message recommending a Convention, . 251 ". The Convention Act, . 254 The Governor's Proclamation, ... ... 258 The Act creating the Commission to compile Information for the Convention, 260 An Act relative to Membership in the Convention, 262 Delegates to the Constitutional Convention arranged by Districts, 263 Delegates to the Constitutional Convention arranged alphabetically, with their Committee Assignments, . 280 Officers of the Convention, 295 Committees of the Convention, 296 Monitors of the Convention, . 302 The frontispiece, which is supplied through the generosity of Hon. William Wheeler, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from the town of Concord, is a reproduction in facsimile of the original record in the State Archives of Massa- chusetts of the resolution adopted by the town of Concord, October 21, 1776. This is believed to be the earUest formal statement in any official document of the distinction between a legislature and a constitutional convention. THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS Commission to Compile Information and Data FOR THE USE OF THE Constitutional Convention ROOM 426, STATE HOUSE boston The Commission WILLIAM B. MUNRO, chairman LAWRENCE B. EVANS, vice chaibman ROGER SHERMAN HOAR HENRY WARD BIRD, seobetabt History of the Constitution of Massachusehs. The fundamental law of Massachusetts is rooted well back in the past. The Constitution of 1780 is still in force in its essen- tial principles; and these principles are derived in part from the Colony charter of 1629 and the Province charter of 1691. I. THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY (COLONY CHARTER), 1629-1686. Many of the political institutions of the Massachusetts Col- ony were the outgrowth of the charter of a business corpora- tion. In granting articles of incorporation to trading companies operating in sections of the Empire in which no government owing allegiance to England had been established, it was the policy of the Crown to empower such companies not only to trade but also to make settlements and exercise political author- ity in those districts. These trading charters are the parents of the American State constitutions. Such a company was organized in London by a number of small investors in 1628. It obtained "all that part of New England in America" lying between parallels three miles north of the Merrimac and three miles south of the Cha;rles. The next year it secured a royal charter from Charles I, dated March 4, 1629, constituting it the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. This charter followed the lines of other charters to joint-stock corporations. The stockholders were called freemen of the cor- " poration. They were to elect their officials by ballot on the last Wednesday in Easter tearme yearely," — the origin of our annual elections at fixed dates. The officials consisted of a Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants, corresponding to 6 the president, vice-president, and directors of a business corpora- tion. Stockholders and officials must assemble at certain inter- vals in a "Greate and Generall Courte," with power "to make, ordeme, and establishe all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, lawes, statutes," etc., and appoint all minor officials, for the governing of the plantation in Massachusetts Bay; likewise to "incounter, expulse, repell, and resist by force of armes, aswell by sea as by lande, and by all fitting waies and meanes whatsoever, all such person and persons as shall at any tyme hereafter attempt or enterprise the destruction, invasion, detri- ment, or annoyance to the said plantation or inhabitants." ^ The Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants constituted the directors' meeting of the corporation, known as the Court of Assistants, to meet at least once a month. The apparent liberality of this charter is explained by the fact that the Massachusetts Bay Company, like the Virginia Company and other mercantile corporations, was expected to remain in London under the royal observation, there hold its General Courts and directors' meetings, thence to send out em- ployees to govern its plantations in Massachusetts. Thus British India was governed, as late as 1773, by the East India Company in London. At first the Massachusetts Bay Company obeyed the rules of the game. The General Court, meeting in London, sent out a company of emigrants to Salem under John Endicott, who was the company's representative. But shortly after securing the royal charter the Puritan stockholders of the company decided upon a revolutionary move. Wishing themselves to emigrate, they decided to take their government with them. Royal charter. Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor Dudley, Assist- ants, and freemen were transferred from England to the soil of Massachusetts Bay by the ship "Lady Arabella" in the spring of 1630. The Court of Assistants met for the last time in Eng- land on board the emigrant ship, in Cowes Harbor, on March 23. The next entry is at Charlestown, five months later. By the single act of transfer capitalists became colonists, and the char- ter of a business corporation became the constitution of a semi- independent Commonwealth. ' C/. present Constitution, Chapter II, Section I, Article VII. To adjust the charter to the exigencies of governing a Bible Commonwealth required much ingenuity. Most interesting it is to trace the evolution of the General Court from a stock- holders' meeting into a representative body, and finally a bi- cameral legislature. Representation came about through the inconvenience of assembling all the freemen in the General Court in person. Beginning with 1634, the freemen of every town sent one or two Deputies to act as their personal repre- sentatives. Deputies and Assistants sat as one House for ten years, exercising supreme legislative and judicial power. The Deputies, outnumbering the Assistants, wished laws to be passed by a majority of the whole; but in 1636 it was enacted that "no law, order or' sentence shall pass as act of the Court without the consent of the greater part of the magistrates on the one part, and the greater part of the deputies on the other." In 1644, following an acrid dispute between magistrates and Deputies over the case of Goody Sherman and her stray sow, the General Court separated into two co-equal Houses, the House of Assistants and the House of Deputies. "The bicam- eral system in America had its origin in Massachusetts. It is here we find the specific mode and the successive steps by which it took its rise."^ In 1636 the custom of two sessions annually, which lasted until 1831, was established. At the spring session, convening on the annual election day set by the charter, the Governor and magistrates were elected by the freemen and the government organized for the political year.^ At the winter session niost of the laws were enacted.
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