The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 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]

54

[Division of the Connecticut General Assembly into Two Houses]

Taken from Trumbull and Hoadly, Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. 4 (1850), 267.

October 13, 1698

In this document Connecticut altered somewhat the joint government that had resulted from the 1662 charter. Because the charter was given by the king, there was a danger that such a unilateral amendment might be viewed as disloyalty. The colonists, therefore, were careful to reaffirm their allegiance to the king and to note that his charter permitted them to erect and conduct their own local government. The implicit but half-formed bicameralism found in the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639 [43] and New Haven Fundamentals, 1643 [50] is now explicitly and fully developed (see also Majority Vote of Deputies and Magistrates [51]). For bicameralism in other colonies, see the Massachusetts Bicameral Ordinance [24] and General Assembly of Rhode Island [41].

It is ordered by this court, and the authority thereof, that for the future its general assembly shall consist of two houses. The first shall consist of the governor, or, in his absence of the deputy-governor, and assistants, which shall be known by the name of the Upper House. The other shall consist of such deputies as shall be legally returned from the several towns within this colony to serve as members of this general assembly, which shall be known by the name of the Lower House wherein a speaker chosen by themselves shall preside. Which houses so formed shall have a distinct power to apoint all needful officers and to make such rules as they shall severally judge necessary for the regulating of themselves. And it is further ordered that no act shall be passed into a law of this colony, nor any law already enacted be repealed, nor any other act proper to this general assembly, but by the consent of both houses.

55

[A Letter from Governor Richard Nicolls to the Inhabitants of Long Island]

Taken from E. B. O’Callaghan, ed., Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany, 1883), 14: 564–65. The text is complete, with the spelling as found in O’Callaghan.

February 1665

Colony-wide governments were often, but not always, built up from below through federations of already existing towns or colonies. William Penn organized his colony of Pennsylvania from above, as did Lord Calvert, in Maryland. Richard Nicolls was not a charter holder like Penn and Calvert but was instead a governor deputed by the charter holder, the Duke of York. Here he established a legislature for New York through the simple device of a letter. It is notable, however, that even the governors of Royal colonies instinctively felt the need to organize the population through elective bodies rather than govern them by edict. The legislature that eventually emerged from the complicated process initiated by this letter would a number of years later write a constitution for the colony (see Charter of Liberties and Privileges [56]). See also the discussion of Fundamentals of West New Jersey [57].

Whereas the Inhabitants of Long Island, have for a Long time groaned under many grievous inconveniences, and discouragements occasioned partly from their subjection, partly from their opposition to a forraigne Power, in which distracted condition, few or no Lawes could bee putt in due Execution, Bounds and Titles to Lands disputed, Civill Libertyes interrupted, and from this Generall Confusion, private dissentions and animosityes, have too much prevailed against Neighborly Love, and Christian Charity; To the preventing of the future growth of like Evils, his Majesty as a signall grace and honor to his subjects upon Long Island, hath at his owne charge reduc’t the forraigne Power to his obedience and by Pattent hath invested his Royall Highness the Duke of York with full and absolute Power, in and over all and every the Particular Tracts of Land therein mentioned, which said Powers by Comission from his Royall Highnesse the Duke of York, I am deputed to put in execution. In discharge therefore of my Trust and Duty, to Settle good and knowne Laws within this government for the future, and receive your best advice and Information in a General Meeting, I have thought fitt to Publish unto you, That upon the last day of this present February, at Hempsteed upon Long Island, shall be held a Generall Meeting, which is to consist of Deputyes chosen by the major part of the freemen only, which is to be understood of all Persons rated according to their Estates, whether English, or Dutch, within your severall Towns and precincts, whereof you are to make Publication to the Inhabitants, foure dayes before you proceed to an Election appointing a certain day to that purpose; You are futher to impart to the Inhabitants from mee, that I do heartily recommend to them the choice of the most sober, able and discreet persons, without partiality or faction, the fruite & benefitt whereof will return to themselves in a full and perfect settlement and composure of all controversyes, and the propagation of true Religion amongst us. They are also required to bring with them a Draught of each Towne Limits, or such writings as are necessary to evidence the Bounds and Limitts, as well as the right by which they challenge such Bounds and Limits, by Grant or Purchase, or both, as also to give notice of this meeting to Sachems of the Indyans, whose presence may in some cases bee accessary. Lastly I do require you to Assemble your Inhabitants and read this Letter to them, and then and there to nominate a day for the Election of two Deputyes from your Towne, who are to bring a certificate of their due election, (with full power to conclude any cause or matter relating to their serveral Townes) to mee at Hempsteed upon the last day of February, where (God willing) I shall expect them.