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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) 8: [Massachusetts Election Agreement] - Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History
8: [Massachusetts Election Agreement] - Donald S. Lutz, Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History [1998]Edition used:Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History, ed. Donald S. Lutz (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1998).
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- Preface
- Introductory Essay
- New Hampshire: 1: [agreement of the Settlers At Exeter In New Hampshire]
- 2: General Laws and Liberties of New Hampshire
- Massachusetts: 3: [agreement Between the Settlers At New Plymouth] (the Mayflower Compact)
- 4: [plymouth Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity]
- 5: [the Salem Covenant of 1629]
- 6: [agreement of the Massachusetts Bay Company At Cambridge, England]
- 7: [the Watertown Covenant of July 30, 1630]
- 8: [massachusetts Election Agreement]
- 9: The Oath of a Freeman, Or of a Man to Be Made Free
- 10: [the Massachusetts Agreement On the Legislature]
- 11: [cambridge Agreement]
- 12: [dorchester Agreement]
- 13: [cambridge Agreement On a Town Council]
- 14: [massachusetts Agreement On the Legislature]
- 15: The Oath of a Freeman
- 16: [salem Oath For Residents]
- 17: [watertown Agreement On Civil Officers]
- 18: [the Enlarged Salem Covenant of 1636]
- 19: [plymouth Agreement]
- 20: [pilgrim Code of Law]
- 21: [dedham Covenant]
- 22: [the Massachusetts Body of Liberties]
- 23: [the Combination of the Inhabitants Upon the Piscataqua River For Government]
- 24: [massachusetts Bicameral Ordinance]
- 25: [massachusetts Ordinance On the Legislature]
- 26: The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts
- 27: [massachusetts Ordinance On Legislative Procedure]
- 28: [towns of Wells, Gorgiana, and Piscataqua Form an Independent Government]
- 29: [the Cambridge Agreement of October 4, 1652]
- 30: [puritan] Laws and Liberties
- 31: [an Act of the General Court]
- Rhode Island: 32: [providence Agreement]
- 33: [government of Pocasset]
- 34: [newport Agreement]
- 35: [the Government of Portsmouth]
- 36: Plantation Agreement At Providence
- 37: [organization of the Government of Rhode Island]
- 38: [warwick Agreement]
- 39: Acts and Orders of 1647
- 40: Charter of Providence
- 41: [general Assembly of Rhode Island Is Divided Into Two Houses]
- Connecticut: 42: Plantation Covenant At Quinnipiack
- 43: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
- 44: Guilford Covenant
- 45: Structure of Town Governments
- 46: Fundamental Articles of New Haven
- 47: [connecticut Oath of Fidelity]
- 48: Capitall Lawes of Connecticut, Established By the Generall Court the First of December, 1642
- 49: The Government of Guilford
- 50: New Haven Fundamentals
- 51: [majority Vote of Deputies and Magistrates Required For the Passage of Laws In Connecticut]
- 52: Connecticut Code of Laws
- 53: Preface to the General Laws and Liberties of Connecticut Colony Revised and Published By Order of the General Court Held At Hartford In October 1672
- 54: [division of the Connecticut General Assembly Into Two Houses]
- New York: 55: [a Letter From Governor Richard Nicolls to the Inhabitants of Long Island]
- 56: Charter of Liberties and Privileges
- New Jersey: 57: Fundamentals of West New Jersey
- Pennsylvania: 58: Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania
- 59: Charter of Liberties and Frame of Government of the Province of Pennsylvania In America
- 60: An Act For Freedom of Conscience
- 61: [pennsylvania Charter of Liberties]
- Maryland: 62: Orders Devised and Published By the House of Assembly to Be Observed During the Assembly
- 63: Act For Establishing the House of Assembly and the Laws to Be Made Therein
- 64: An Act For Church Liberties
- 65: An Act For Swearing Allegeance
- 66: An Act What Persons Shall Be Called to Every General Assembly and an Act Concerning the Calling of General Assemblies
- 67: An Act For the Liberties of the People
- 68: [maryland Toleration Act]
- Virginia: 69: Articles, Laws, and Orders, Divine, Politic, and Martial For the Colony In Virginia
- 70: [laws Enacted By the First General Assembly of Virginia]
- 71: Constitution For the Council and Assembly In Virginia
- 72: [laws and Orders Concluded By the Virginia General Assembly]
- 73: Act Relating to the Biennial and Other Assemblies and Regulating Elections and Members In North Carolina
- South Carolina: 74: Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Province
- Georgia: 75: Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Inhabitants of This Province In the Commons House of Assembly
- Confederations: 76: [the New England Confederation]
- 77: [the Albany Plan of Union]
- 78: The Articles of Confederation
- 79: [william Penn’s Plan of Union]
- 80: [joseph Galloway’s Plan of Union]
8
[Massachusetts Election Agreement]
Taken from E. S. Morgan, ed., The Founding of Massachusetts: The Historians and Their Sources (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1964), 406. The spelling is Morgan’s. May 18, 1631 Although elections had been held in a number of colonies prior to this date, the Massachusetts Election Agreement is probably the oldest formal colonial provision defining an election process. The “commons” referred to here included all freemen, as clarified by an agreement on May 9, 1632. A “freeman” was one who held town privileges, one of which was the right to live in that town. A “freeholder,” on the other hand, was a freeman who owned a certain amount of land, usually forty or fifty acres. The use of “freeman,” therefore, essentially included all adult males in elections, without any property holding requirement, and established popular sovereignty, representation, political equality, and majority rule.
For explanation of an order made the last general court, held the 19th of October last, it was ordered now, with full consent of all the commons then present, that once in every year, at least, a general court shall be held, at which court it shall be lawful for the commons to propound any person or persons whom they shall desire to be chosen assistants, and if it be doubtful whether it be the greater part of the commons or not, it shall be put to the poll. The like course to be held when they, the said commons, shall see cause for any defect or misbehavior to remove any one or more of the assistants. And to the end the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it was likewise ordered and agreed that for time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the same.
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