The first elected representative legislature in America was that which met at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. The colonies of Southern New England started with primary assemblies, from which representative assemblies were soon developed. In New York the first true legislature was assembled in 1683. In general the colonial legislatures were modelled on the British Parliament, the procedure of which they followed closely. To king, lords and commons corresponded the governor, the council appointed by him, and the representatives of the people, variously called house of burgesses, house of delegates, assembly, or house of representatives. These last were elected by voters having a property qualification, two members or more for each county in the Middle and Southern States, one or two from each town in New England.
The American Revolution broke up the upper houses or councils, and the new constitutions substituted what in Virginia (1776) and then in the other States was called a senate. Pennsylvania and Georgia had at first legislatures of but one house. The legislatures of the Southern States were generally given the power to choose the governor. The Constitution of 1787 gave the State Legislatures the right to choose US Senators. All the amendments to the Federal Constitution have been ratified by them. During the later half of the 19th century it was generally felt that State Legislatures had been declining in excellence during the last two generations, state constitutions having imposed more and more restrictions upon their action. Research American Legislature
The Council for New England was a Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ordering, ruling and governing of New England in America. It was incorporated on November the 3rd, 1620, and was little else than the reorganization of the Plymouth, or North Virginia Company of 1606. Ferdinando Gorges was the moving spirit of the new corporation. Bradford obtained from this company a patent permitting the settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers. In 1631 Gorges obtained an additional grant of territory called Laconia, which comprised parts of the present States of Maine and New Hampshire. The lands of the new company, which now extended from Long Island to the Bay of Fundy, were distributed among twenty noblemen. Research Council For New England
The Declaration of Independence was made in 1776 by the 13 English colonies in North America breaking away from all allegiance to the British Crown. The Declaration was mainly the work of Thomas Jefferson. Already in December 1775 the Congress had declared itself independent of the English parliament and by this declaration had repudiated allegiance to the Crown.
Absolute separation from Great Britain was not at first contemplated by the colonies. New England favoured it, but the Southern States were opposed. The transfer of the war to the southward in May and June, 1776, brought them to this view. The North Carolina Convention took the first step toward independence by a resolution 'to concur with those in the other colonies in declaring independence', April 22, 1776. Virginia, May 17, 1776, prepared the title of the document by directing her Representatives to propose in Congress a 'Declaration of Independence'. Such a resolution was offered by Richard Henry Lee on June the 7th, 1776. This resolution was adopted on July the 2nd. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R Livingston were the committee appointed to draft the Declaration. The draft was formulated almost entirely by Jefferson. Before July the 1st, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey had instructed their delegates to vote against the Declaration. This instruction was rescinded, South Carolina came over to the majority, and Delaware's vote, at first divided, was in the affirmative. The Declaration was, therefore, adopted by the unanimous vote of twelve States, New York alone not voting, on July the 4th, 1776. The New York Convention afterward ratified the Declaration. The engrossed copy was signed on August the 2nd. The Declaration sets forth the rights of man and of the colonists, enumerates their grievances against the British Government, and declares 'that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States'.
The Episcopal Church is what may be called the Church of England in America. Its history begins with the settlement at Jamestown in 1607, among whose settlers was a clergyman, Reverend R Hunt, who laboured zealously in the colony throughout his life. The clergy were supported by grants from the Legislature, and afterward by tithes, and the interests of the church were carefully fostered by the Virginia Company and by the successive royal governors. William and Mary College was chartered in 1693 in order to educate the clergy for the colonial churches.
By 1701 Maryland for the most part had become Episcopal and attempts were soon made to establish the church in the more southern colonies, but with poor success. In New York City Trinity Church was founded 1696, and generally throughout the Middle States the church was spread through the agency of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, chartered in 1701. By the time of the American Revolution there had been established in New England thirty-six churches. The American War of Independence greatly lessened the influence of the church, which naturally was English in sympathy, but in 1785 the first general convention was held and remodelled the organization to suit the new political condition.
Two years later American bishops were consecrated in London (Seabury in Scotland in 1784), and thus the formal organization of the American church was completed. During the next twenty years the church lost almost all its power through dissension and the withdrawal of State aid, but from that time on a steady growth has been manifest. Research Episcopal Church
In America, the Federal Party was the first political party which had control of the Federal Government. When the Constitution of 1787 was before the people for ratification, those who favoured its adoption took the name of Federalists, giving to its opponents that of Anti-Federalists. In the First Congress, definite party divisions were not found. Before the second had ended, there was a definite division between Federalists and those who called themselves Republicans or Democrats. Hamilton was the leader of the former, Jefferson of the latter. Hamilton's financial measures had been acceptable to those who desired strong government, the commercial classes, those who wished to see the Union drawn still more closely together, still further in the direction of centralization and national consolidation. Their opponents stigmatised them as monarchists. Beside Hamilton and Vice-President John Adams, the party's chief leaders were Fisher Ames, Cabot, Sedgwick, Strong, Pickering and Quincy, of Massachusetts; Ellsworth, Tracy, Griswold and Hillhouse, of Connecticut; Rufus King, Jay and Gouverneur Morris, of New York; Dayton, of New Jersey; Bayard, of Delaware; Marshall, Henry Lee, of Virginia, and C. C. Pinckney, of South Carolina. George Washington was more inclined to this party than to the other.
The Federal Party's strength was always greatest in New England. When war broke out between England and France in 1793, the Federalists, conservative and averse to the French Revolution, favoured Great Britain. In 1796 they elected John Adams President, but failed to elect Thomas Pinckney Vice-President. In 1797 they tried to bring the country into war with France, but Adams, never so extreme as the bulk of the party, prevented this; the result was a schism in the party. In 1798 the party passed the Alien and Sedition laws, which forever destroyed their popularity. In the election of 1800 Adams and Pinckney were decisively defeated by Jefferson and Burr; the causes were, the acts mentioned, internal dissensions, and the indifference of intellectual and acute leaders to popular feelings. During the administrations of Jefferson and Madison the party dwindled. As an opposition party, it took strict-constructionist ground. Some of its leaders engaged in projects for a disruption of the Union. Finally, its unpatriotic course in the War of 1812 and the odium excited by the Hartford Convention destroyed it utterly. Holding the Government during the critical years 1789-1801, it had given it strength, but it distrusted the people top much for permanent success in America. Research Federal Party
In all the American colonies provision was made by law for the arrest and return of fugitive slaves. The articles of confederation between the New England colonies in 1643 provided for mutual restoration between those colonies. Somersett's case prevented extradition from England. The Ordinance for the Northwest Territory provided for return of fugitives thence.
The Constitution of 1787 provided that no fugitive slave, fleeing into a free State, should therefore be free, but that he should be delivered up on claim by his owner. In 1793 Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Act, providing that, on the owner's giving proof of ownership before a magistrate of the locality where the slave was found, the magistrate should order the slave delivered up to him, without trial by jury. Hindering arrest or harbouring a runaway slave was punishable by fine of five hundred dollars. The law was open to much abuse. Many free Negroes in Northern States were kidnapped. Interference with captures and rescue of arrested Negroes became more frequent as anti-slavery feeling increased in the North. In Prigg vs. Pennsylvania the Supreme Court held that the law must be carried out by Federal authorities alone; States or State authorities could not be forced to act (1842). Several States then forbade them to do so. The escape of slaves to Canada was extensive, and systematically aided by the Underground Railway.
In 1850, as a part of the compromise measures of that year, the Fugitive Slave Bill was passed providing for a stricter practice in the matter, through US commissioners appointed by the US courts. Proof of identity and two witnesses to the fact of escape were all that was required as evidence. The Negro could not testify, nor have jury-trial. Upon this many Northern States passed 'Personal Liberty Laws' for the protection of Negroes. Some of these conflicted with the Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 and even with the Constitution. The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850 aroused great feeling in the North, the 'Personal Liberty Laws' in the South. The question of fugitive slaves did much to bring on the American Civil War. The war and emancipation ended the whole matter, and the acts were declared to be unconstitutional by the judges of the superior court in 1855 and repealed in 1864. Research Fugitive Slave Laws
The half-way covenant was a concession made on the part of the Church by the New England Synod convened at Northampton in 1657, mainly in order to secure a more facile working in relation to the State. The requirements for church membership were relaxed in order that certain civil privileges might be obtained by those who had neither the ability nor willingness to make profession of religious experience. Such persons were admitted on grounds of baptism, but were still denied the lord's Supper. This half-way covenant aroused much controversy, and was later opposed by Jonathan Edwards and his followers. Research Half-way Covenant
In America in 1827 a high tariff bill, known as the Woollen Bill, was introduced into Congress by Clay and his adherents. It passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice-President. Accordingly the protectionist faction, in 1828, called a convention at Harrisburg. The delegates were chiefly from New England and the Middle States. The Harrisburg convention presented the cause of protection to the people, and decided to seek an increased duty, not only on woollens, but on other specified articles of manufacture. This resulted in the passage of the high tariff bill of 1828. Research Harrisburg Convention
The Hartford Convention met at Hartford, Connecticut on December the 15th, 1814, and adjourned on January the 5th, 1815. The convention consisted of delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island and was the outgrowth of the opposition of the New England Federalists to the war with Great Britain which was then in progress and which was especially injurious to the commercial interests of New England. The New England States strongly denounced the policy of the Democratic administration in the conduct of the war, especially in respect to forcible drafts. The convention was held in secret and a report was falsely circulated that it looked toward a dissolution of the Union. The general aim of the convention seems to have been to propose certain reforms in the direction of States' rights. Its proceedings brought upon the New England Federalists great odium. Research Hartford Convention
In 1628, William Bradford and others, of the Plymouth colonists, obtained a grant of territory for fishing purposes along the Kennebec and Cobbiseecontee Rivers. This was sold, in 1661, to Tyng and others, and was called the 'Kennebec Purchase'. This grant was made by the Council for New England. Research Kennebec Purchase
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research American Legislature
