Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Population (1910), valuation, and taxes (1911) of Senatorial districts....

Population by towns, 1790-1910, and number of Representatives returned
by each town to the General Court at each decennial period,
1784-1910

308

PREFACE.

This manual has been prepared, pursuant to a vote of the Governor and Council, for the use of the constitutional convention. This fact has determined both its contents and its form.

The text of the constitution of New Hampshire herewith printed as now in force, is based upon the earliest engrossed copy in existence, that of the constitution as amended in 1792.

The sketch of the constitutions of the state is limited to a simple narrative of events, without any attempt to unfold their casual relations. No work of that character can be written properly until numerous manuscripts now in the British or American archives, and important records in possession of the state or its towns are made more accessible to historical students. The same general causes that have governed the constitutional development of the other New England states have been at work in New Hampshire, but its organic law is not without distinguishing marks. The temporary constitution of January 5, 1776, was the first frame of government adopted by any of the thirteen original states which, though not a grant of powers, was deemed by the people to be a fundamental law. The permanent constitution, established October 31, 1783, and drafted in all its important provisions by the statesman of the American Revolution, John Adams, was unchanged for sixty years, 1792-1852, a fact unparalleled among the other states except Rhode Island and New Jersey, and now has been in force one hundred and twenty years, a longer time than the organic law of any other American commonwealth except Massachusetts.

The popular vote by which this enduring constitution was ratified, taken in different towns on different days during the three months preceding its establishment, is unrecorded.

5

A reprint of this manual having been ordered by the Governor and Council for the use of the approaching constitutional convention, endeavor has been made to correct such errors as have been discovered in the first edition, and to supplement it with a sketch of the convention of 1902, and other relevant material.

Any attempt to write the constitutional history of New Hampshire still being premature, as it was ten years ago, both the contents and form of this revision have been determined, as were those of the first edition, by the immediate purpose for which it has been prepared.

A letter from Samuel Philbrick of Kingston to Hon. Josiah Bartlett, recently discovered in a manuscript volume in the library of Dartmouth college, printed upon pages 78, 79, throws some light upon the proceedings of the first session of the convention of 1778.

The draft of an amended constitution of New Hampshire proposed to the people by the convention of 1850-51, which long has been out of print, is reprinted on pages 177-200.

The General Court in 1844, and on five successive occasions during the ten years, 1860-70, when providing for taking the sense of the people upon calling a constitutional convention, sought to limit its action to certain particulars. Such procedure being unusual, extracts from these enactments showing the specific points to which the General Court endeavored to restrict the action of the respective conventions, are inserted in their proper places.

In the sketch of the constitutional convention of 1902 numerous references are made to the pages of its official journal for the fuller treatment of the more important subjects.

The statistical tables included in the Appendix which show the population of New Hampshire and its minor civil divisions have been compiled from the thirteenth census of the United States. The other tables therein printed relating to the number of members in the Senate and House of Representatives of the several states of the Union, the qualifications for the suffrage prescribed by them, the offences for which

[ocr errors]

they disfranchise, and the methods prescribed by them for amending their constitutions are based upon an exhaustive study of the texts of those instruments which are in force in 1912. The difficulty of accurately summarizing widely different constitutional provisions in the form of a tabular statement is large, but endeavor has been made to minimize any inaccuracy by the appended notes.

My thanks are due for valuable suggestions which have contributed to the improvement of the original edition to · Albert S. Batchellor, Editor of State Papers, Chief Justice Frank N. Parsons, and Hon. Joseph B. Walker. I am indebted to William Hugh Mitchell, A. M., of Acworth, New Hampshire, for valuable aid in revising some of the statistical tables, and also in preparing the sketch of the convention of 1902; and to Charles J. Hilkey, Ph. D., Instructor in Political Science in Dartmouth college, for scholarly assistance in revising the tables on suffrage, disfranchisement, and methods of amending constitutions of the several states of the Union.

I am also indebted to the Charles E. Merrill Company of New York, publishers of Laylor's Cyclopedia of Political Science, for the privilege of reprinting the tables on qualifications for suffrage and on disfranchisement, which I prepared for the first edition of that work, but which as now revised and reprinted herewith, in the table between pages 328 and 329 and on pages 329-337, are corrected to 1912.

My special thanks are due to Otis G. Hammond, Assistant State Librarian, for the painstaking and valuable help which he has given me during the progress of this revision, and especially in reading and correcting its proof, which have united to make possible its publication at the date set for the assembling of the constitutional convention.

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE,

Hanover, New Hampshire,
June 1, 1912.

JAMES F. COLBY.

« AnteriorContinuar »