THE REVISED STATUTES OF THE Commonwealth of Massachusetts, PASSED NOVEMBER 4, 1835; TO WHICH ARE SUBJOINED, AN ACT IN AMENDMENT THEREOF, AND AN ACT EXPRESSLY TO BOTH PASSED IN FEBRUARY 1836; AND TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED, THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE United States and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED, BY VIRTUE OF A RESOLVE OF NOV. 3, 1835; ADVERTISEMENT. By a resolve of the legislature, passed February 4, 1832, the Governor was authorized to appoint three commissioners to revise the general statutes of the Commonwealth. Under this resolve, the Hon. Charles Jackson, the Hon. Asahel Stearns, and John H. Ashmun, Esq. were appointed. Mr. Ashmun died in April 1833, and the Hon. John Pickering was appointed in his stead. The report of these commissioners was laid before the legislature at the winter session of 1835. At that session, a joint committee, consisting of nine members of the senate and eighteen members of the house of representatives, was appointed to sit during the recess, and examine the commissioners' report. This committee commenced its sittings, May 20, 1835, and after a session of eighty one days, reported to the legislature the report of the commissioners, with numerous amendments. On the second day of September, 1835, the legislature commenced a session, for the exclusive purpose of acting upon the report of the commissioners and the proposed amendments of the committee. This session continued until the fourth day of the following November, when the act, called the Revised Statutes, was passed. By virtue of a resolve of November 3, 1835, the subscribers were appointed commissioners, with directions personally to superintend the publication of the Revised Statutes, to examine the proof sheets, to compare the same with the original roll in the office of the secretary of state, to prepare marginal notes to the sections, and an exact and copious index to the whole. |