Civil list

“ The person of every member of the General Assembly shall be exempt from arrest, and his estate from attachment, in any civil action, during the session of the General Assembly, and two days before the commencement, and two days after the termination thereof, and all process served contrary hereto, shall be void. ”

“ II. According to the constitution of the General Assembly, to nominate and commissionate, the several judges, members and officers of the courts, whether magistratical or ministerial and all other civil officers, coroners, &c. and their commissions, powers, and authority to revoke at pleasure: provided, that they appoint none but such as are freeholders in the Province aforesaid, unless the General Assembly consent. ”

“ They can, at the same time, remove from the lists the enrolled whom they judge unfit to remain there, and replace them by other citizens in whom they have greater confidence.
12. No one is removed from a list except by the votes of the majority of the citizens who have the right to co-operate in its formation. ”

“ The number of men which the province is required to furnish, in due proportion to its population, having been fixed, and this amount having been notified to the authorities of the provincial capital, the mayor and syndics of the different communes received orders to return a full and complete list of all the male population of their jurisdictions within the legal age. The lists are to include all, without reference to any claims for exemption. ”

“ Now, the initial step in the formation of a legal system—which, as already remarked, was at first concerned merely with what we would call civil justice—was taken when the quarrels of individuals came to be settled in the same way as were matters of common concern to the clan or tribe—namely, by the decisions of the two long-established authorities, the 'council of elders,' as they later continued to be called among many civilized peoples, and the individual leader or chieftain. ”

“ Freemen being entitled to the local government vote will, if resident, be placed on the list of the registration unit where they reside, and will, if non-resident, be allotted by the revising barrister among the registration units of the borough for local government purposes in proportion to the number of electors in each registration unit. Claims are to be sent in to the clerk of the peace and town clerk by the 4th of August, including old lodger claims and, in the case of the clerk of the peace, ownership claims. ”

“ The civil government is chiefly concerned with property, and equities in material things, individual or communal. The governor and lieutenant-governor must be of different clans, and, theoretically at any rate, so also are their aids. Certain officials serve only one year at a time, and as there is a general disposition to give equal representation in public affairs to each clan, such diffusion of power tends toward a community thoroughly welded together. ”

“ That doctrine is, that the People alone are supreme; that they are the fountains of power; that all magistrates are the delegated agents of the People, for the purposes limited and prescribed in their letters of appointment, and the general laws of the land; that the constituents of a member of this House have the right to give instructions to him individually; and that every individual one of the People has a right to be heard by petition on the floor of this House. ”

“ Each house is judge of the elections, qualifications, and returns of its own members; determines its own rules of procedure, and may punish its members for disorderly behaviour, or by a two thirds vote expel a member. Absent members may be compelled under penalties to attend. Each house is required to keep a journal of its proceedings and at proper intervals to publish it, except such parts as for reasons of public policy had better be kept secret. ”

“ In England any man who knows the least of our laws and constitution, may perceive that every act of the legislature, every enacting measure that binds either the whole, or a part of the public, and every decision upon the life or the liberty of a subject must pass through an assembly of the people, either in their representative, incorporate, or collective capacity. ”

“ None but natives are capable of holding any office, civil or military, excepting that of governor. The three estates shall be assembled every year. The magistrates and officers of justice shall hold their employments during good behaviour ”

“ That no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate public emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services, which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge, or any other public office, to be hereditary. ”

“ The knights of the shire, the barons, citizens and burgesses of the towns, were severally, chosen by the communa or communitas of that part of the people which they represented.” [5]
“The notion of local representation, by which shires and boroughs chose representatives of their own communities, had to some extent to strive with another doctrine, that of the representation of estates or classes of men. The 13th century was the age when the national assemblies, not only of England but of most other European countries, were putting on their definite shape. ”

“ Your committee consider the regulation contained in the ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, which requires a freehold of fifty acres of land as a qualification for an elector of the General Assembly, as limiting too much the elective franchise. Some restrictions, however, being necessary, your committee conceive that a residence continued long enough to evince a determination to become a permanent inhabitant, should entitle a person to the rights of suffrage. ”

“ What, then, is to be done in those states, where the governors are by the state constitution to be chosen by the people? Is the objection warranted by facts? The representation in the British house of commons (as has been already stated) very little exceeds the proportion of one for every thirty thousand inhabitants. ”

“ Are our governor and council legislators, in both the state and national governments, because, on an examination of votes transmitted to them by the selectmen, they issue certificates of election to our state senators and to the members of Congress elect? Do they exercise any part of that power which makes “each house the judge of the elections, returns, and qualification of its own members”? Just as much, I reply, as sheriff, auditor, commissioner, or clerk, does of “judicial power.” They perform acts preliminary or antecedent to legislation, but no legislative act ”

“ All the inhabitants of this Commonwealth, having such qualifications as they shall establish by their frame of government, have an equal right to elect officers, and to be elected for public employments. ”

“ That there shall be one representative for every thirty thousand according to the enumeration or census mentioned in the Constitution, until the whole number of representatives amounts to two hundred; after which that number shall be continued or increased as Congress shall direct, upon the principles fixed in the Constitution, by apportioning the representatives of each state to some greater number of the people, from time to time, as the population increases. ”

“ That the committee of detail be instructed to receive a clause, requiring certain qualifications of landed property, and citizenship of the United States, in members of the national legislature; and disqualifying persons having unsettled accounts with, or being indebted to, the United States, from being members of the national legislature. ”

“ An aristocracy, where the legislature is in a select assembly, the members of which either fill up, by election, the vacancies in their own body, or succeed to it by inheritance, property, tenure of lands, or in respect of some personal right or qualification. ”

“ The legislature may focus on a particular group or class only when the group designation is a 'shorthand phrase' for the feared characteristic-i.e., when it is common knowledge that all, not just some, members of the group possess the feared characteristic and thus such legislative designation would require no legislative fact-finding about individuals. ”

“ But it is important to remember, in connexion with the House of Lords question, that, in a country like England, where the constitution has provided for a Second Chamber which is composed of members of an estate or estates distinct in the nation from the estate of the commons, these persons may to a predominant degree nevertheless be really representative men by common consent ”

“ The government was placed in the hands of the people in the first of the series of territorial organizations. The demotæ elected a demarch (δήμαρχος) , who had the custody of the public register; he had also power to convene the demotæ for the purpose of electing magistrates and judges, for revising the registry of citizens, and for the enrollment of such as became of age during the year. They elected a treasurer, and provided for the assessment and collection of taxes, and for furnishing the quota of troops required of the deme for the service of the state. ”

“ And to remove all doubts concerning the meaning of the word 'inhabitant' in this constitution, every person shall be considered as an inhabitant, for the purpose of electing and being elected into any office or place within the State in that town, district or plantation where he dwelleth or has his home. ”

“ That the full and open discussion of the Population Question is a matter of vital moment to society, and such discussion should be absolutely unfettered by fear of legal penalties.
IV.—Executive.
1. That the officers of the League consist of a president, vice-presidents, council, treasurer, secretaries, solicitor and auditors. ”

“ Having given a general idea of the lords, and their share of the legislature, it will now be proper to descend, and see the several classes of the lower rank, called Commons, and to examine what share or influence they had formerly, or now enjoy, in the government. The commoners may, in general, then, be divided into the lesser nobility, or gentry, and the others, whom, for distinction sake, I shall call the lower commons. ”

“ If any person, being chosen a member of the house of commons, shall accept of any office from the crown, during such time as he shall continue a member, his election shall be, and is hereby declared to be void; and a new writ shall issue for a new election, as if such person, so accepting, was naturally dead. ”

“ That the members of the Senate and House of Representatives shall be ineligible to, and incapable of holding, any civil office under the authority of the United States, during the time for which they shall respectively be elected.
"5. That the Journals of the proceedings of the Senate and House of Representatives shall be published at least once in every year, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as in their judgment require secrecy. ”

“ Every official, however, has a list of dependents; once in office, he must provide for others; the number of brothers, sons, nephews, and cousins of officials who find some clerkship or small appointment is relatively large. ”

“ The act divides those who may contest the survey into two classes: those who claim through or under the United States, and those who do not. All who claim through the United States, whether by 'pre-emption, settlement, or any other right or title,' constitute one class, who must appear by her attorney and is her name. ”

“ And if we shall have committed the custody of the land of any such heir to a sheriff, or any other who is to account to us for the profits of the land, and that such committee make destruction or waste, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and good men of that fee, who shall account for the profit to us, or to such as we shall appoint. ”

“ Let the people of each state choose its best citizen. The people will know the most eminent characters of their own states; and the people of different states will feel an emulation in selecting those of whom they will have the greatest reason to be proud. Out of the thirteen names thus selected, an executive magistrate may be chosen either by the national legislature, or by electors appointed by it. ”

“ We, reposing trust and confidence in your care and faithfulness, have constituted, ordained, and appointed, and by these presents do constitute, ordain, and appoint you our commissioners, giving and granting unto you, or any two or more of you, full power and authority in pursuance of the said Acts and ordinances to put in execution all and every the instructions hereunto annexed, for the exact and perfect survey and admeasurement of all and every the honors, baronies, castles, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, forfeited by force or vertue of all or any of the said Acts ”

“ The United States engage to allow ninety principal chiefs to select one section each.
2. And every other head of a Creek family to select one half section each, which tracts shall be reserved from sale for their use for the term of five years, unless sooner disposed of by them. A census is to be taken of these persons, and the selections are to include the improvements of each person within his selection. ”

“ The proprietors were always to be eight in number; to possess the whole judicial power, and have the supreme direction of all tribunals. None but large property holders were eligible for a seat in the Legislature, where the commons were to have four members for every three of the nobility. ”