in the hands of some one person; not only to preserve the Laws from being unsystematical and inaccurate, but that a due balance may be preserved in the three capital powers of Government. The Legislative, the Judicial and Executive Powers naturally exist in every Government: And the History of the rise and fall of the Empires of the World affords us ample proof, that when the same Man or Body of Men enact, interpret and execute the Laws, property becomes too precarious to be valuable, and a People are finally borne down with the force of corruption resulting from the Union of those Powers. The Governor is emphatically the Representative of the whole People, being chosen not by one Town or County, but by the People at large. We have therefore thought it safest to rest this Power in his hands ; and as the Safety of the Commonwealth requires, that there should be one Commander in Chief over the Militia, we have given the Governor that Command for the same reason, that we thought him the only proper Person that could be trusted with the power of revising the Bills and Resolves of the General Assembly; but the People may if they please choose their own Officers.

You will observe that we have resolved, that Representation ought to be founded on the Principle of equality; but it cannot be understood thereby that each Town in the Commonwealth shall have Weight and importance in a just proportion to its Numbers and property. An exact Representation would be unpracticable even in a System of Government arising from the State of Nature, and much more so in a state already divided into nearly three hundred Corporations. But we have agreed that each Town having One hundred and fifty Rateable Polls shall be entitled to send one Member, and to prevent an advantage arising to the greater towns by their numbers, have agreed that no Town shall send two unless it hath three hundred and seventy-five Rateable Polls, and then the still larger Towns are to send one Member for every two hundred and twenty-five Rateable Polls over and above Three hundred and seventy-five. This method of calculation will give a more exact Representation, when applied to all the Towns in the State, than any that we could fix upon.

We have however digressed from this rule in admitting the small Towns now incorporated to send Members. There are but a few of them which will not, from their continual increase, be able to send one upon the above plan in a very little Time. And the few who will never probably have that number have been heretofore in the exercise of this privilege, and will now be very unwilling to relinquish it.

To prevent the governor from abusing the Power which is necessary to be put into his hands, we have provided that he shall have a Council to advise him at all Times and upon all important Occasions, and he with the advice of his Council is to have the Appointment of Civil Officers. This was very readily agreed to by your Delegates, and will undoubtedly be agreeable

to their Constituents; for if those Officers who are to interpret and execute the Laws are to be dependent upon the Election of the people, it must forever keep them under the Control of ambitious, artful and interested men, who can obtain most Votes for them.—If they were to be Appointed by the Two Houses or either of them, the persons appointing them would be too numerous to be accountable for putting weak or wicked Men into Office. Besides the House is designed as the Grand Inquest of the Commonwealth, and are to impeach Officers for malconduct; the Senate are to try the Merits of such impeachments; it would be therefore unfit that they should have the Creation of those Officers which the one may impeach and the other remove but we conceive there is the greatest propriety in Vesting the Governor with this Power, he being, as we have before observed, the complete representative of all the People, and at all Times liable to be impeached by the House before the Senate for maladministration. And we would here observe that all the Powers which we have given the Governor are necessary to be lodged in the hands of one Man, as the General of the Army and first Magistrate, and none can be entitled to it but he who has the Annual and United Suffrages of the whole Commonwealth.

You will readily conceive it to be necessary for your own Safety, that your Judges should hold their Offices during good behaviour; for Men who hold their places upon so precarious a Tenure as annual or other frequent Appointments will never so assiduously apply themselves to study as will be necessary to the filling their places with dignity. Judges should at all Times feel themselves independent and free.

YOUR Delegates have further provided that the Supreme Judicial Department, by fixed and ample Salaries, may be enabled to devote themselves wholly to the Duties of their important Office. And for this reason, as well as to keep this Department separate from the others in Government, have excluded them from a Seat in the Legislature; and when our Constituents consider that the final Decision of their Lives and Property must be had in this Court, we conceive they will universally approve the measure. The Judges of Probate, and those other officers whose presence is always necessary in their respective Counties, are also excluded.

We have attended to the inconveniencies suggested to have arisen from having but one Judge of Probate in each County; but the erecting and altering Courts of Justice being a mere matter of Legislation, we have left it with your future Legislature to make such Alterations as the Circumstances of the several Counties may require.

YOUR Delegates did not conceive themselves to be vested with Power to set up one Denomination of Christians above another; for Religion must at all Times be a matter between GOD and individuals: But we have nevertheless, found ourselves obliged by a Solemn Test, to provide for the exclu

sion of those from Offices who will not disclaim those Principles of Spiritual Jurisdiction which Roman Catholicks in some Countries have held, and which are subversive of a free Government established by the People. We find it necessary to continue the former Laws, and Modes of proceeding in Courts of Justice, until a future Legislature shall alter them: For, unless this is done, the title to Estates will become precarious, Law-suits will be multiplied, and universal Confusion must take place. And least the Commonwealth, for want of a due Administration of Civil Justice, should be involved in Anarchy, we have proposed to continue the present Magistrates and Officers until new Appointments shall take place.

THUS we have, with plainness and sincerity, given you the Reasons upon which we founded the principal parts of the System laid before you, which appeared to us as most necessary to be explained: And we do most humbly beseech the Great Disposer of all Events, that we and our Posterity may be established in, and long enjoy the Blessings of a well-ordered and free Gov

ernment.

In the Name, and pursuant to a Resolution of the Convention,

JAMES BOWDOIN,

Attest.

SAMUEL BARRETT, Secretary.

President.

NO. IV.

A CONSTITUTION OR FRAME OF GOVERNMENT, Agreed upon by the DELEGATES of the PEOPLE of the STATE OF MASSACHUSETTSBAY,-In Convention,―Begun and held at Cambridge, on the First of September, 1779, and continued by Adjournments to the Second of March, 1780.

PREAMBLE.

THE end of the institution, maintenance and administration of government, is to secure the existence of the body-politic; to protect it; and to furnish the individuals who compose it, with the power of enjoying, in safety and tranquillity, their natural rights, and the blessings of life; And whenever these great objects are not obtained, the people have a right to alter the government, and to take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity and happiness.

THE body-politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: It is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a Constitution of Government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

WE, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new Constitution of Civil Government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, DO agree upon, ordain and establish, the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the CONSTITUTION of the COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS.

PART THE FIRST.

A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

ART. I.—ALL men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.

II.—IT is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great creator and preserver of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping GOD in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his religious profession or sentiments; provided he doth not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship.

III. As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality; and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the institution of the public worship of GOD, and of public instructions in piety, religion and morality: Therefore, to promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this Commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies-politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of GOD, and for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.

AND the people of this Commonwealth have also a right to, and do, invest their legislature with authority to enjoin upon all the subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public teachers aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any on whose instructions they can conscientiously and conveniently attend.

PROVIDED notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies-politic, or religious societies, shall, at all times, have the exclusive right of electing their public teachers, and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance.