6254 lines
346 KiB
Plaintext
6254 lines
346 KiB
Plaintext
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Public Papers
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by Thomas Jefferson
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_Resolutions of Congress on Lord North's Conciliatory Proposal_
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IN CONGRESS
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THE SEVERAL Assemblies of NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA and
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VIRGINIA, having referred to the Congress a resolution of the House
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of Commons of GREAT BRITAIN, which resolution is in these words, viz.
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_Lunae, 20 degrees die Feb. 1775.
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_The House in a Committee on the American papers. Motion made,
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and question proposed._
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THAT _it is the opinion of this Committee, that when the
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General Council and Assembly, or General Court of any of his
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Majesty's provinces, or colonies in America, shall propose to make
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provision, according to the condition, circumstance, or situation of
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such province or colony, for contributing their proportion to the
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common defence (such proportion to be raised under the authority of
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the General Court, or General Assembly of such province or colony,
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and disposable by Parliament) and shall engage to make provision
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also, for the support of the civil government, and the Administration
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of justice in such province or colony, it will be proper if such
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proposal shall be approved by his Majesty and the two Houses of
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Parliament; and for so long as such provision shall be made
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accordingly, to forbear in respect of such province or colony, to lay
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any duty, tax, or assessment, or to impose any further duty, tax or
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assessment, except only such duties as it may be expedient to
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continue to levy or impose, for the regulation of commerce, the net
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produce of the duties last mentioned, to be carried to the account of
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such province or colony respectively._
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The Congress took the said resolution into consideration, and
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are thereupon of opinion:
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That the colonies of America are entitled to the sole and
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exclusive privilege of giving and granting their own money; that this
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involves a right of deliberating whether they will make any gift, for
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what purposes it shall be made, and what shall be it's amount; and
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that it is a high breach of this privilege for any body of men,
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extraneous to their constitutions, to prescribe the purposes for
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which money shall be levied on them, to take to themselves the
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authority of judging of their conditions, circumstances and
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situations; and of determining the amount of the contribution to be
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levied.
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That as the colonies possess a right of appropriating their
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gifts, so are they entitled at all times to enquire into their
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application, to see that they be not wasted among the venal and
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corrupt for the purpose of undermining the civil rights of the
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givers, nor yet be diverted to the support of standing armies,
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inconsistent with their freedom and subversive of their quiet. To
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propose therefore, as this resolution does, that the monies given by
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the colonies shall be subject to the disposal of parliament alone, is
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to propose that they shall relinquish this right of enquiry, and put
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it in the power of others to render their gifts, ruinous, in
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proportion as they are liberal.
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That this privilege of giving or of withholding our monies is
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an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which
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if left altogether without controul may be exercised to our great
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oppression; and all history shews how efficacious is its intercession
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for redress of grievances and re-establishment of rights, and how
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improvident it would be to part with so powerful a mediator.
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We are of opinion that the proposition contained in this
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resolution is unreasonable and insidious: unreasonable, because, if
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we declare we accede to it, we declare without reservation, we will
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purchase the favour of Parliament, not knowing at the same time at
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what price they will please to estimate their favor: It is insidious,
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because, individual colonies, having bid and bidden again, till they
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find the avidity of the seller too great for all their powers to
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satisfy; are then to return into opposition, divided from their
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sister colonies whom the minister will have previously detached by a
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grant of easier terms, or by an artful procrastination of a
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definitive answer.
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That the suspension of the exercise of their pretended power of
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taxation being expressly made commensurate with the continuance of
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our gifts, these must be perpetual to make that so. Whereas no
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experience has shewn that a gift of perpetual revenue secures a
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perpetual return of duty or of kind disposition. On the contrary,
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the Parliament itself, wisely attentive to this observation, are in
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the established practice of granting their supplies from year to year
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only.
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Desirous and determined as we are to consider in the most
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dispassionate view every seeming advance towards a reconciliation
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made by the British Parliament, let our brethren of Britain reflect
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what would have been the sacrifice to men of free spirits had even
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fair terms been proffered, as these insidious proposals were with
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circumstances of insult and defiance. A proposition to give our
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money, accompanied with large fleets and armies, seems addressed to
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our fears rather than to our freedom. With what patience would
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Britons have received articles of treaty from any power on earth when
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borne on the point of a bayonet by military plenipotentiaries?
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We think the attempt unnecessary to raise upon us by force or
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by threats our proportional contributions to the common defence, when
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all know, and themselves acknowledge we have fully contributed,
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whenever called upon to do so in the character of freemen.
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We are of opinion it is not just that the colonies should be
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required to oblige themselves to other contributions, while Great
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Britain possesses a monopoly of their trade. This of itself lays
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them under heavy contribution. To demand therefore, additional aids
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in the form of a tax, is to demand the double of their equal
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proportion, if we are to contribute equally with the other parts of
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the empire, let us equally with them enjoy free commerce with the
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whole world. But while the restrictions on our trade shut to us the
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resources of wealth, is it just we should bear all other burthens
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equally with those to whom every resource is open.
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We conceive that the British Parliament has no right to
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intermeddle with our provisions for the support of civil government,
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or administration of justice. The provisions we have made are such
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as please ourselves, and are agreeable to our own circumstances; they
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answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and
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other purposes than these should not be answered. We do not mean
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that our people shall be burthened with oppressive taxes to provide
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sinecures for the idle or the wicked, under colour of providing for a
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civil list. While Parliament pursue their plan of civil government
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within their own jurisdiction, we also hope to pursue ours without
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molestation.
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We are of opinion the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory
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because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renunciation
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of the pretended right to tax us: Because too it does not propose to
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repeal the several Acts of Parliament passed for the purposes of
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restraining the trade and altering the form of government of one of
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our Colonies; extending the boundaries and changing the government of
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Quebec; enlarging the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty and
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Vice Admiralty; taking from us the rights of trial by a Jury of the
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vicinage in cases affecting both life and property; transporting us
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into other countries to be tried for criminal offences; exempting by
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mock-trial the murderers of Colonists from punishment; and quartering
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soldiers on us in times of profound peace. Nor do they renounce the
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power of suspending our own Legislatures, and of legislating for us
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themselves in all cases whatsoever. On the contrary, to shew they
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mean no discontinuance of injury, they pass acts, at the very time of
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holding out this proposition, for restraining the commerce and
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fisheries of the Provinces of New-England, and for interdicting the
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trade of other Colonies with all foreign nations and with each other.
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This proves unequivocally they mean not to relinquish the exercise of
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indiscriminate legislation over us.
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Upon the whole, this proposition seems to have been held up to
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the world, to deceive it into a belief that there was nothing in
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dispute between us but the _mode_ of levying taxes; and that the
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Parliament having now been so good as to give up this, the Colonies
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are unreasonable if not perfectly satisfied: Whereas in truth, our
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adversaries still claim a right of demanding _ad libitum_, and of
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taxing us themselves to the full amount of their demand, if we do not
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comply with it. This leaves us without any thing we can call
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property. But, what is of more importance, and what in this proposal
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they keep out of sight, as if no such point was now in contest
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between us, they claim a right to alter our Charters and established
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laws, and leave us without any security for our Lives or Liberties.
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The proposition seems also to have been calculated more particularly
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to lull into fatal security our well-affected fellow subjects on the
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other side the water, till time should be given for the operation of
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those arms, which a British Minister pronounced would instantaneously
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reduce the "cowardly" sons of America to unreserved submission. But
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when the world reflects, how inadequate to justice are these vaunted
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terms; when it attends to the rapid and bold succession of injuries,
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which, during a course of eleven years, have been aimed at these
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Colonies; when it reviews the pacific and respectful expostulations,
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which, during that whole time, were the sole arms we opposed to them;
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when it observes that our complaints were either not heard at all, or
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were answered with new and accumulated injury; when it recollects
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that the Minister himself on an early occasion declared, "that he
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would never treat with America, till he had brought her to his feet,"
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and that an avowed partisan of Ministry has morelately denounced
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against us the dreadful sentence _"delenda est Carthago,"_ that this
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was done in presence of a British Senate, and being unreproved by
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them, must be taken to be theirown sentiment, (especially as the
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purpose has already in part been carried into execution by their
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treatment of Boston, and burning of Charlestown) when it considers
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the great armaments with which they have invaded us, and the
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circumstances of cruelty with which these have commenced and
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prosecuted hostilities; when these things, we say, are laid together,
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and attentively considered, can the world be deceived into an opinion
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that we are unreasonable, or can it hesitate to believe with us, that
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nothing but our own exertions may defeat the ministerial sentence of
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death or abject submission.
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_By Order of the Congress,_
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JOHN HANCOCK, _President._
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_Philadelphia, July 31, 1775_.
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_Draft Constitution for Virginia_
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[_June, 1776._]
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FAIR COPY
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[_A Bil_]l for new-modelling the form of Government and for
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establishing the Fundamental principles thereof in future.
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Whereas George
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Guelf king of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover,
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heretofore entrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in this
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government hath endeavored to pervert the same into a detestable and
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insupportable tyranny;
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by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome & necessary
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for ye public good;
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by denying to his governors permission to pass laws of
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immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their
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operations for his assent, and, when so suspended, neglecting to
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attend to them for many years;
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by refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the person to be
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benefited by them would relinquish the inestimable right of
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representation in the legislature
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by dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually
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for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the
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people;
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when dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of
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time, thereby leaving the political system without any legislative
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head;
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by endeavoring to prevent the population of our country, & for
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that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of
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foreigners & raising the condition [_lacking appro_]priations of
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lands;
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[_by keeping among u_]s, in times of peace, standing armies and
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ships of war;
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[_lacking_]ing to render the military independent of & superior
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to the civil power;
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by combining with others to subject us to a foreign
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jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts of
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legislation.
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for quartering large bodies of troops among us;
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for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
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for imposing taxes on us without our consent;
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for depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury;
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for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended
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offences; and
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for suspending our own legislatures & declaring themselves
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invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever;
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by plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns
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and destroying the lives of our people;
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by inciting insurrections of our fellow subjects with the
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allurements of forfeiture & confiscation;
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by prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us; those very
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negroes whom *he hath from time to time* by an inhuman use of his
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negative he hath refused permission to exclude by law;
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by endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the
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merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
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undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions of
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existence;
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by transporting at this time a large army of foreign
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mercenaries [_to complete_] the works of death, desolation & tyranny
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already begun with circum[_stances_] of cruelty & perfidy so unworthy
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the head of a civilized nation;
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by answering our repeated petitions for redress with a
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repetition of injuries;
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and finally by abandoning the helm of government and declaring
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us out of his allegiance & protection;
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by which several acts of misrule the said George
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Guelf has forfeited the kingly office and has rendered it
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necessary for the preservation of the people that he should be
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immediately deposed from the same, and divested of all its
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privileges, powers, & prerogatives:
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And forasmuch as the public liberty may be more certainly
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secured by abolishing an office which all experience hath shewn to be
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inveterately inimical thereto *or which* and it will thereupon become
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further necessary to re-establish such ancient principles as are
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friendly to the rights of the people and to declare certain others
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which may co-operate with and fortify the same in future.
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Be it therefore enacted by the authority of the people that the
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said, George Guelf be, and he hereby is deposed from the kingly
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office within this government and absolutely divested of all it's
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rights, powers, and prerogatives: and that he and his descendants and
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all persons acting by or through him, and all other persons
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whatsoever shall be and forever remain incapable of the same: and
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that the said office shall henceforth cease and never more either in
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name or substance be re-established within this colony.
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And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that the
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following fundamental laws and principles of government shall
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henceforth be established.
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The Legislative, Executive and Judiciary offices shall be kept
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forever separate; no person exercising the one shall be capable of
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appointment to the others, or to either of them.
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I. LEGISLATIVE.
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Legislation shall be exercised by two separate houses, to wit a
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house of Representatives, and a house of Senators, which shall be
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called the General Assembly of Virginia.
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Ho. of Representatives
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The sd house of Representatives shall be composed of persons
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chosen by the people annually on the [1st day of October] and shall
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meet in General assembly on the [1st day of November] following and
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so from time to time on their own adjournments, or at any time when
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summoned by the Administrator and shall continue sitting so long as
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they shall think the publick service requires.
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Vacancies in the said house by death or disqualification shall
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be filled by the electors under a warrant from the Speaker of the
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said house.
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Electors
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All male persons of full age and sane mind having a freehold
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estate in [one fourth of an acre] of land in any town, or in [25]
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acres of land in the country, and all
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Elected
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persons resident in the colony who shall have paid scot and lot
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to government the last [two years] shall have right to give their
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vote in the election of their respective representatives. And every
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person so qualified to elect shall be capable of being elected,
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provided he shall have given no bribe either directly or indirectly
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to any elector, and shall take an oath of fidelity to the state and
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of duty in his office, before he enters on the exercise thereof.
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During his continuance in the said office he shall hold no public
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pension nor post of profit, either himself, or by another for his
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use.
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The number of Representatives for each county or borough shall
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be so proportioned to the numbers of it's qualified electors that the
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whole number of representatives shall not exceed [300] nor be less
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than [125.] for the present there shall be one representative for
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every [ ] qualified electors in each county or borough: but whenever
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this or any future proportion shall be likely to exceed or fall short
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of the limits beforementioned, it shall be again adjusted by the
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house of representatives.
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The house of Representatives when met shall be free to act
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according to their own judgment and conscience.
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Senate
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The Senate shall consist of not less than [15] nor more than
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[50] members who shall be appointed by the house of Representatives.
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One third of them shall be removed out of office by lot at the end of
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the first [three] years and their places be supplied by a new
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appointment; one other third shall be removed by lot in like manner
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at the end of the second [three] years and their places be supplied
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by a new appointment; after which one third shall be removed annually
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at the end of every [three] years according to seniority. When once
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removed, they shall be forever incapable of being re-appointed to
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that house. Their qualifications shall be an oath of fidelity to the
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state, and of duty in their office, the being [31] years of age at
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the least, and the having given no bribe directly or indirectly to
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obtain their appointment. While in the senatorial office they shall
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be incapable of holding any public pension or post of profit either
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themselves, or by others for their use.
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The judges of the General court and of the High court of
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Chancery shall have session and deliberative voice, but not suffrage
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in the house of Senators.
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The Senate and the house of representatives shall each of them
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have power to originate and amend bills; save only that bills for
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levying money *bills* shall be originated and amended by the
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representatives only: the assent of both houses shall be requisite to
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pass a law.
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The General assembly shall have no power to pass any law
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inflicting death for any crime, excepting murder, & *such* those
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offences in the military service for which they shall think
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punishment by death absolutely necessary: and all capital punishments
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in other cases are hereby abolished. Nor shall they have power to
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prescribe torture in any case whatever: nor shall there be power
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anywhere to pardon crimes or to remit fines or punishments: nor shall
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any law for levying money be in force longer than [ten years] from
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the time of its commencement.
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[Two thirds] of the members of either house shall be a Quorum
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to proceed to business.
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II. EXECUTIVE.
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The executive powers shall be exercised in manner following.
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Administrator
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One person to be called the [Administrator] shall be annually
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appointed by the house of Representatives on the second day of their
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first session, who after having acted [one] year shall be incapable
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of being again appointed to that office until he shall have been out
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of the same [three] years.
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Deputy Admr.
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Under him shall be appointed by the same house and at the same
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time, a Deputy-Administrator to assist his principal in the discharge
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of his office, and to succeed, in case of his death before the year
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shall have expired, to the whole powers thereof during the residue of
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the year.
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The administrator shall possess the power formerly held by the
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king: save only that, he shall be bound by acts of legislature tho'
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not expressly named;
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he shall have no negative on the bills of the Legislature;
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he shall be liable to action, tho' not to personal restraint
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for private duties or wrongs;
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he shall not possess the prerogatives;
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of dissolving, proroguing or adjourning either house of
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Assembly;
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of declaring war or concluding peace;
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of issuing letters of marque or reprisal;
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of raising or introducing armed forces, building armed vessels,
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forts or strongholds;
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of coining monies or regulating their values;
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of regulating weights and measures;
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of erecting courts, offices, boroughs, corporations, fairs,
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markets, ports, beacons, lighthouses, seamarks.
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of laying embargoes, or prohibiting the exportation of any
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commodity for a longer space than [40] days.
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of retaining or recalling a member of the state but by legal
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process pro delicto vel contractu.
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of making denizens.
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*of pardoning crimes, or remitting fines or punishments.*
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of creating dignities or granting rights of precedence.
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but these powers shall be exercised by the legislature alone,
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and excepting also those powers which by these fundamentals are given
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to others, or abolished.
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Privy Council
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A Privy council shall be annually appointed by the house of
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representatives whose duties it shall be to give advice to the
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Administrator when called on by him. With them the Deputy
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Administrator shall have session and suffrage.
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Delegates
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Delegates to represent this colony in the American Congress
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shall be appointed when necessary by the house of Representatives.
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After serving [one] year in that office they shall not be capable of
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being re-appointed to the same during an interval of [one] year.
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Treasurer
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A Treasurer shall be appointed by the house of Representatives
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who shall issue no money but by authority of both houses.
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Attorney Genrl.
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An Attorney general shall be appointed by the house of
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Representatives
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High Sheriffs, &c.
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High Sheriffs and Coroners of counties shall be annually
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elected by those qualified to vote for representatives: and no person
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who shall have served as high sheriff [one] year shall be capable of
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being re-elected to the said office in the same county till he shall
|
|
have been out of office [five] years.
|
|
|
|
Other Officers
|
|
All other Officers civil and military shall be appointed by the
|
|
Administrator; but such appointment shall be subject to the negative
|
|
of the Privy council, saving however to the Legislature a power of
|
|
transferring to any other persons the appointment of such officers or
|
|
any of them.
|
|
|
|
III. JUDICIARY.
|
|
The Judiciary powers shall be exercised
|
|
First, by County courts and other inferior jurisdictions:
|
|
Secondly, by a General court & a High court of Chancery:
|
|
Thirdly, by a Court of Appeals.
|
|
|
|
County Courts, &c.
|
|
The judges of the county courts and other inferior
|
|
jurisdictions shall be appointed by the Administrator, subject to the
|
|
negative of the privy council. They shall not be fewer than [five]
|
|
in number. Their jurisdictions shall be defined from time to time by
|
|
the legislature: and they shall be removable for misbehavior by the
|
|
court of Appeals.
|
|
|
|
Genl. Court and High Ct. of Chancery
|
|
The Judges of the General court and of the High court of
|
|
Chancery shall be appointed by the Administrator and Privy council.
|
|
If kept united they shall be [5] in number, if separate, there shall
|
|
be [5] for the General court & [3] for the High court of Chancery.
|
|
The appointment shall be made from the faculty of the law, and of
|
|
such persons of that faculty as shall have actually exercised the
|
|
same at the bar of some court or courts of record within this colony
|
|
for [seven] years. They shall hold their commissions during good
|
|
behavior, for breach of which they shall be removable by the court of
|
|
Appeals. Their jurisdiction shall be defined from time to time by
|
|
the Legislature.
|
|
|
|
Court of Appeals
|
|
The Court of Appeals shall consist of not less than [7] nor
|
|
more than [11] members, to be appointed by the house of
|
|
Representatives: they shall hold their offices during good behavior,
|
|
for breach of which they shall be removable by an act of the
|
|
legislature only. Their jurisdiction shall be to determine finally
|
|
all causes removed before them from the General Court or High Court
|
|
of Chancery, or of the county courts or other inferior jurisdictions
|
|
for misbehavior: [to try impeachments against high offenders lodged
|
|
before them by the house of representatives for such crimes as shall
|
|
hereafter be precisely defined by the Legislature, and for the
|
|
punishment of which, the said legislature shall have previously
|
|
prescribed certain and determinate pains.] In this court the judges
|
|
of the General court and High court of Chancery shall have session
|
|
and deliberative voice, but no suffrage.
|
|
|
|
Juries
|
|
All facts in causes whether of Chancery, Common,
|
|
Ecclesiastical, or Marine law, shall be tried by a jury upon evidence
|
|
given viva voce, in open court: but where witnesses are out of the
|
|
colony or unable to attend through sickness or other invincible
|
|
necessity, their deposition may be submitted to the credit of the
|
|
jury.
|
|
|
|
Fines, &c.
|
|
All Fines or Amercements shall be assessed, & Terms of
|
|
imprisonment for Contempts & Misdemeanors shall be fixed by the
|
|
verdict of a Jury.
|
|
|
|
Process
|
|
All Process Original & Judicial shall run in the name of the
|
|
court from which it issues.
|
|
|
|
Quorum
|
|
Two thirds of the members of the General court, High court of
|
|
Chancery, or Court of Appeals shall be a Quorum to proceed to
|
|
business.
|
|
|
|
IV. RIGHTS, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC.
|
|
Lands
|
|
Unappropriated or Forfeited lands shall be appropriated by the
|
|
Administrator with the consent of the Privy council.
|
|
|
|
Every person of full age neither owning nor having owned [50]
|
|
acres of land, shall be entitled to an appropriation of [50] acres or
|
|
to so much as shall make up what he owns or has owned [50] acres in
|
|
full and absolute dominion. And no other person shall be capable of
|
|
taking an appropriation.
|
|
|
|
Lands heretofore holden of the crown in fee simple, and those
|
|
hereafter to be appropriated shall be holden in full and absolute
|
|
dominion, of no superior whatever.
|
|
|
|
No lands shall be appropriated until purchased of the Indian
|
|
native proprietors; nor shall any purchases be made of them but on
|
|
behalf of the public, by authority of acts of the General assembly to
|
|
be passed for every purchase specially.
|
|
|
|
The territories contained within the charters erecting the
|
|
colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are
|
|
hereby ceeded, released, & forever confirmed to the people of those
|
|
colonies respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction
|
|
and government and all other rights whatsoever which might at any
|
|
time heretofore have been claimed by this colony. The Western and
|
|
Northern extent of this country shall in all other respects stand as
|
|
fixed by the charter of
|
|
|
|
until by act of the Legislature one or more territories shall
|
|
be laid off Westward of the Alleghaney mountains for new colonies,
|
|
which colonies shall be established on the same fundamental laws
|
|
contained in this instrument, and shall be free and independent of
|
|
this colony and of all the world.
|
|
|
|
Descents shall go according to the laws Gavelkind, save only
|
|
that females shall have equal rights with males.
|
|
|
|
Slaves
|
|
No person hereafter coming into this county shall be held
|
|
within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever.
|
|
|
|
Naturalization
|
|
All persons who by their own oath or affirmation, or by other
|
|
testimony shall give satisfactory proof to any court of record in
|
|
this colony that they propose to reside in the same [7] years at the
|
|
least and who shall subscribe the fundamental laws, shall be
|
|
considered as residents and entitled to all the rights of persons
|
|
natural born.
|
|
|
|
Religion
|
|
All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious
|
|
opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any
|
|
religious institution.
|
|
|
|
Arms
|
|
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own
|
|
lands].
|
|
|
|
Standing Armies
|
|
There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war.
|
|
|
|
Free Press
|
|
Printing presses shall be free, except so far as by commission
|
|
of private injury cause may be given of private action.
|
|
|
|
Forfeitures
|
|
All Forfeitures heretofore going to the king, shall go the
|
|
state; save only such as the legislature may hereafter abolish.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wrecks
|
|
The royal claim to Wrecks, waifs, strays, treasure-trove, royal
|
|
mines, royal fish, royal birds, are declared to have been usurpations
|
|
on common right.
|
|
|
|
Salaries
|
|
No Salaries or Perquisites shall be given to any officer but by
|
|
some future act of the legislature. No salaries shall be given to
|
|
the Administrator, members of the legislative houses, judges of the
|
|
court of Appeals, judges of the County courts, or other inferior
|
|
jurisdictions, Privy counsellors, or Delegates to the American
|
|
Congress: but the reasonable expences of the Administrator, members
|
|
of the house of representatives, judges of the court of Appeals,
|
|
Privy counsellors, & Delegates for subsistence while acting in the
|
|
duties of their office, may be borne by the public, if the
|
|
legislature shall so direct.
|
|
|
|
Qualifications
|
|
No person shall be capable of acting in any office Civil,
|
|
Military [or Ecclesiastical] *The Qualifications of all not otherwise
|
|
directed, shall be an oath of fidelity to state and the having given
|
|
no bribe to obtain their office* who shall have given any bribe to
|
|
obtain such office, or who shall not previously take an oath of
|
|
fidelity to the state.
|
|
|
|
None of these fundamental laws and principles of government
|
|
shall be repealed or altered, but by the personal consent of the
|
|
people on summons to meet in their respective counties on one and the
|
|
same day by an act of Legislature to be passed for every special
|
|
occasion: and if in such county meetings the people of two thirds of
|
|
the counties shall give their suffrage for any particular alteration
|
|
or repeal referred to them by the said act, the same shall be
|
|
accordingly repealed or altered, and such repeal or alteration shall
|
|
take it's place among these fundamentals and stand on the same
|
|
footing with them, in lieu of the article repealed or altered.
|
|
|
|
The laws heretofore in force in this colony shall remain in
|
|
force, except so far as they are altered by the foregoing fundamental
|
|
laws, or so far as they may be hereafter altered by acts of the
|
|
Legislature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
REVISAL OF THE LAWS: DRAFTS OF LEGISLATION
|
|
|
|
_A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom_
|
|
|
|
SECTION I. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men
|
|
depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence
|
|
proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind
|
|
free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by
|
|
making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to
|
|
influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil
|
|
incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,
|
|
and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion,
|
|
who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it
|
|
by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to
|
|
extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious
|
|
presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as
|
|
ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired
|
|
men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their
|
|
own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible,
|
|
and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established
|
|
and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world
|
|
and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions
|
|
of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and
|
|
abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to
|
|
support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is
|
|
depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions
|
|
to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and
|
|
whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness; and is
|
|
withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which
|
|
proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an
|
|
additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the
|
|
instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependance on
|
|
our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or
|
|
geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the
|
|
public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to
|
|
offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or
|
|
that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those
|
|
privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow
|
|
citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the
|
|
principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by
|
|
bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who
|
|
will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these
|
|
are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are
|
|
those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of
|
|
men are not the object of civil government, nor under its
|
|
jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his
|
|
powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or
|
|
propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a
|
|
dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty,
|
|
because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his
|
|
opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments
|
|
of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that
|
|
it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for
|
|
its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts
|
|
against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and
|
|
will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and
|
|
sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the
|
|
conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural
|
|
weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous
|
|
when it is permitted freely to contradict them.
|
|
|
|
SECT. II. WE the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no
|
|
man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,
|
|
place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained,
|
|
molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise
|
|
suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all
|
|
men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their
|
|
opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise
|
|
diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
|
|
|
|
SECT. III. AND though we well know that this Assembly, elected
|
|
by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no
|
|
power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with
|
|
powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act
|
|
irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare,
|
|
and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural
|
|
rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to
|
|
repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an
|
|
infringement of natural right.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments_
|
|
|
|
SECTION I. Whereas it frequently happens that wicked and
|
|
dissolute men, resigning themselves to the dominion of inordinate
|
|
passions, commit violations on the lives, liberties, and property of
|
|
others, and the secure enjoyment of these having principally induced
|
|
men to enter into society, government would be defective in its
|
|
principal purpose, were it not to restrain such criminal acts by
|
|
inflicting due punishments on those who perpetrate them; but it
|
|
appears at the same time equally deducible from the purposes of
|
|
society, that a member thereof, committing an inferior injury, does
|
|
not wholly forfeit the protection of his fellow citizens, but after
|
|
suffering a punishment in proportion to his offence, is entitled to
|
|
their protection from all greater pain, so that it becomes a duty in
|
|
the Legislature to arrange in a proper scale the crimes which it may
|
|
be necessary for them to repress, and to adjust thereto a
|
|
corresponding gradation of punishments. And whereas the reformation
|
|
of offenders, though an object worthy the attention of the laws, is
|
|
not effected at all by capital punishments which exterminate instead
|
|
of reforming, and should be the last melancholy resource against
|
|
those whose existence is become inconsistent with the safety of their
|
|
fellow citizens; which also weaken the State by cutting off so many,
|
|
who, if reformed, might be restored sound members to society, who,
|
|
even under a course of correction, might be rendered useful in
|
|
various labours for the public, and would be, living, and
|
|
long-continued spectacles to deter others from committing the like
|
|
offences. And forasmuch as the experience of all ages and countries
|
|
hath shewn, that cruel and sanguinary laws defeat their own purpose,
|
|
by engaging the benevolence of mankind to withhold prosecutions, to
|
|
smother testimony, or to listen to it with bias; and by producing in
|
|
many instances a total dispensation and impunity under the names of
|
|
pardon and privilege of clergy; when, if the punishment were only
|
|
proportioned to the injury, men would feel it their inclination, as
|
|
well as their duty, to see the laws observed; and the power of
|
|
dispensation, so dangerous and mischievous, which produces crimes by
|
|
holding up a hope of impunity, might totally be abolished, so that
|
|
men while contemplating to perpetrate a crime would see their
|
|
punishment ensuing as necessarily as effects follow their causes; for
|
|
rendering crimes and punishments, therefore, more proportionate to
|
|
each other,
|
|
|
|
SECT. II. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no crime
|
|
shall be henceforth punished by the deprivation of life or limb, (*
|
|
1) except those herein after ordained to be so punished.
|
|
|
|
SECT. III. (* 2) If a man do levy war (* 3) against the
|
|
Commonwealth _in the same_, or be adherent to the enemies of the
|
|
Commonwealth _within the same_, (* 4) giving to them aid or comfort
|
|
in the Commonwealth, or elsewhere, and thereof be convicted, of open
|
|
deed, by the evidence of two sufficient and lawful witnesses, or his
|
|
own voluntary confession, the said cases, and no (* 5) others, shall
|
|
be adjudged treasons which extend to the commonwealth, and the person
|
|
so convicted shall suffer death, by hanging, (* 6) and shall forfeit
|
|
his lands and goods to the commonwealth.
|
|
|
|
SECT. IV. If any person commit petty treason, or a husband
|
|
murder his wife, a parent (* 7) his child, or a child his parent, he
|
|
shall suffer death, by hanging, and his body be delivered to
|
|
Anatomists to be dissected.
|
|
|
|
SECT. V. Whosoever committeth murder by poisoning, shall suffer
|
|
death by poison.
|
|
|
|
SECT. VI. Whosoever committeth murder by way of duel, shall
|
|
suffer death by hanging; and if he were the challenger, his body,
|
|
after death, shall be gibbetted (* 8). He who removeth it from the
|
|
gibbet shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and the officer shall see
|
|
that it be replaced.
|
|
|
|
SECT. VII. Whosoever shall commit murder in any other way shall
|
|
suffer death by hanging.
|
|
|
|
SECT. VIII. And in all cases of Petty treason and murder, one
|
|
half of the lands and goods of the offender shall be forfeited to the
|
|
next of kin to the person killed, and the other half descend and go
|
|
to his own representatives. Save only, where one shall slay the
|
|
challenger in a duel, (* 9) in which case, no part of his lands or
|
|
goods shall be forfeited to the kindred of the party slain, but
|
|
instead thereof, a moiety shall go to the commonwealth.
|
|
|
|
SECT. IX. The same evidence (* 10) shall suffice, and order and
|
|
course (* 11) of trial be observed in cases of Petty treason as in
|
|
those of other (* 12) murders.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. X. Whosoever shall be guilty of manslaughter, (* 13)
|
|
shall, for the first offence, be condemned to hard (* 14) labour for
|
|
seven years in the public works; shall forfeit one half of his lands
|
|
and goods to the next of kin to the person slain; the other half to
|
|
be sequestered during such term, in the hands, and to the use, of the
|
|
commonwealth, allowing a reasonable part of the profits for the
|
|
support of his family. The second offence shall be deemed murder.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XI. And where persons meaning to commit a trespass (* 15)
|
|
only, or larceny, or other unlawful deed, and doing an act from which
|
|
involuntary homicide hath ensued, have heretofore been adjudged
|
|
guilty of manslaughter or of murder, by transferring such their
|
|
unlawful intention to an act, much more penal than they could have in
|
|
probable contemplation; no such case shall hereafter be deemed
|
|
manslaughter unless manslaughter was intended, nor murder, unless
|
|
murder was intended.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XII. In other cases of homicide the law will not add to
|
|
the miseries of the party, by punishments or forfeitures (* 16).
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XIII. Whenever sentence of death shall have been
|
|
pronounced against any person for treason or murder, execution
|
|
thereof shall be done on the next day but one, after such sentence,
|
|
unless it be Sunday, and then on the Monday following (* 17)
|
|
|
|
SECT. XIV. Whosoever shall be guilty of rape, (* 18)
|
|
_polygamy_, (* 19) or sodomy (* 20) with man or woman, shall be
|
|
punished; if a man, by castration, (* 21) a woman, by boring through
|
|
the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half inch in diameter at the
|
|
least.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XV. Whosoever on purpose, (* 22) shall disfigure another,
|
|
by cutting out or disabling the tongue, slitting or cutting off a
|
|
nose, lip, or ear, branding, or otherwise, shall be maimed, or
|
|
disfigured in like (* 23) sort; or if that cannot be, for want of the
|
|
same part, then as nearly as may be, in some other part of at least
|
|
equal value and estimation, in the opinion of a jury, and moreover,
|
|
shall forfeit one half of his lands and goods to the sufferer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XVI. Whosoever shall counterfeit (* 24) any coin current
|
|
by law within this commonwealth, or any paper bills issued in the
|
|
nature of money, or of certificates of loan, on the credit of this
|
|
commonwealth, or of all or any of the United States of America, or
|
|
any Inspectors' notes for tobacco, or shall pass any such
|
|
counterfeited coin, paper bills, or notes, knowing them to be
|
|
counterfeit; or, for the sake of lucre, shall diminish (* 25) each,
|
|
or any such coin, shall be condemned to hard labour six years in the
|
|
public works, and shall forfeit all his lands and goods to the
|
|
commonwealth.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XVII. The making false any such paper bill, or note,
|
|
shall be deemed counterfeiting.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XVIII. (* 26) Whosoever committeth arson, shall be
|
|
condemned to hard labour five years in the public works, and shall
|
|
make good the loss of the sufferers threefold (* 27).
|
|
|
|
SECT. XIX. If any person shall, within this Commonwealth, or,
|
|
being a citizen thereof, shall without the same, wilfully destroy (*
|
|
28) or run (* 29) away with any sea-vessel, or goods laden on board
|
|
thereof, or plunder or pilfer any wreck, he shall be condemned to
|
|
hard labour five years in the public works, and shall make good the
|
|
loss of the sufferers threefold.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XX. Whosoever committeth a robbery, (* 30) shall be
|
|
condemned to hard labour four years in the public works, and shall
|
|
make double reparation to the persons injured.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXI. Whatsoever act, if committed on any mansionhouse,
|
|
would be deemed a burglary, (* 31) shall be burglary, if committed on
|
|
any other house; and he who is guilty of burglary, shall be condemned
|
|
to hard labour four years in the public works, and shall make double
|
|
reparation to the persons injured.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXII. Whatsoever act, if committed in the night time,
|
|
shall constitute the crime of burglary, shall, if committed in the
|
|
day, be deemed house-breaking (* 32); and whoever is guilty thereof,
|
|
shall be condemned to hard labour three years in the public works,
|
|
and shall make reparation to the persons injured.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXIII. Whosoever shall be guilty of horse-stealing, (*
|
|
33) shall be condemned to hard labour three years in the public
|
|
works, and shall make reparation to the person injured.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXIV. Grand larceny (* 34) shall be where the goods
|
|
stolen are of the value of five dollars; and whosoever shall be
|
|
guilty thereof, shall be forthwith put in the pillory for one half
|
|
hour, shall be condemned to hard labour (* 35) two years in the
|
|
public works, and shall make reparation to the person injured.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXV. Petty larceny shall be, where the goods stolen are
|
|
of less value than five dollars; whosoever shall be guilty thereof,
|
|
shall be forthwith put in the pillory for a quarter of an hour, shall
|
|
be condemned to hard labour for one year in the public works, and
|
|
shall make reparation to the persons injured.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXVI. Robbery (* 36) or larceny of bonds, bills
|
|
obligatory, bills of exchange, or promissory notes, for the payment
|
|
of money or tobacco, lottery tickets, paper bills issued in the
|
|
nature of money, or certificates of loan on the credit of this
|
|
commonwealth, or of all or any of the United States of America, or
|
|
inspectors notes for tobacco, shall be punished in the same manner as
|
|
robbery or larceny of the money or tobacco due on, or represented by
|
|
such papers.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXVII. Buyers (* 37) and receivers of goods taken by way
|
|
of robbery or larceny, knowing them to have been so taken, shall be
|
|
deemed accessaries to such robbery or larceny after the fact.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXVIII. Prison-breakers, (* 38) also, shall be deemed
|
|
accessaries after the fact, to traitors or felons whom they enlarge
|
|
from prison (* 39).
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXIX. All attempts to delude the people, or to abuse
|
|
their understanding by exercise of the pretended arts of witchcraft,
|
|
conjuration, enchantment, or sorcery, or by pretended prophecies,
|
|
shall be punished by ducking and whipping, at the discretion of a
|
|
jury, not exceeding fifteen stripes (* 40).
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXX. If the principal offenders be fled, (* 41) or
|
|
secreted from justice, in any case not touching life or member, the
|
|
accessaries may, notwithstanding, be prosecuted as if their principal
|
|
were convicted (* 42).
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXI. If any offender stand mute of obstinacy, (* 43) or
|
|
challenge peremptorily more of the jurors than by law he may, being
|
|
first warned of the consequence thereof, the court shall proceed as
|
|
if he had confessed the charge (* 44).
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXII. Pardon and privilege of clergy, shall henceforth
|
|
be abolished, that none may be induced to injure through hope of
|
|
impunity. But if the verdict be against the defendant, and the
|
|
court, before whom the offence is heard and determined, shall doubt
|
|
that it may be untrue for default of testimony, or other cause, they
|
|
may direct a new trial to be had (* 45).
|
|
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXIII. No attainder shall work corruption of blood in
|
|
any case.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXIV. In all cases of forfeiture, the widow's dower
|
|
shall be saved to her, during her title thereto; after which it shall
|
|
be disposed of as if no such saving had been.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXV. The aid of Counsel, (* 46) and examination of their
|
|
witnesses on oath, shall be allowed to defendants in criminal
|
|
prosecutions.
|
|
|
|
SECT. XXXVI. Slaves guilty of any offence (* 47) punishable in
|
|
others by labour in the public works, shall be transported to such
|
|
parts in the West-Indies, South-America, or Africa, as the Governor
|
|
shall direct, there to be continued in slavery.
|
|
|
|
(* 1) This takes away the punishment of cutting off the hand of
|
|
a person striking another, or drawing his sword in one of the
|
|
superior courts of justice. Stamf. P. C. 38. 33. H. 8. c. 12. In
|
|
an earlier stage of the Common law, it was death. Gif hwa gefeohte
|
|
on Cyninges huse sy he scyldig ealles his yrfes, and sy on Cyninges
|
|
dome hwaether he lif age de nage; si quis in regis domo pugnet,
|
|
perdat omnem suam haereditatem, et in regis sit arbitrio, possideat
|
|
vitam an non possideat. Ll. Inae. 6. Gif hwa on Cyninges healle
|
|
gefeohte, oththe his waepne gebrede, and hine mon gefo, sy thaet on
|
|
Cyninges dome swa death, swa lif, swa he him forgyfan wille: si quis
|
|
in aula regia pugnet, vel arma sua extrahat et capiatur, sit in regis
|
|
arbitrio tam mors quam vita, sicut ei condonare voluerit. Ll. Alfr.
|
|
7, Gif hwa on Cyninges hirede gefeohte tholige thaet lifes, buton se
|
|
Cyning him gearian wille: si quis in regia dimicat, perdat vitam,
|
|
nisi rex hoc illi condonare velit. Ll. Cnuti. 56. 4. Bl. 125.
|
|
|
|
(* 2) 25. E. 3. st. 5. c. 2. 7. W. 3. c. 3. 2.
|
|
|
|
(* 3) Though the crime of an accomplice in treason is not here
|
|
described, yet, Lord Coke says, the partaking and maintaining a
|
|
treason herein described, makes him a principal in that treason: it
|
|
being a rule that in treason all are principals. 3 Inst. 138. 2 Inst.
|
|
590. 1 H. 6. 5.
|
|
|
|
(* 4) These words in the English statute narrow its operation.
|
|
A man adhering to the enemies of the Commonwealth, in a foreign
|
|
country, would certainly not be guilty of treason with us, if these
|
|
words be retained. The convictions of treason of that kind in England
|
|
have been under that branch of the statute which makes the compassing
|
|
the king's death treason. Foster 196, 197. But as we omit that
|
|
branch, we must by other means reach this flagrant case.
|
|
|
|
(* 5) The stat. 25. E. 3. directs all other cases of treasons
|
|
to await the opinion of Parliament. This has the effect of negative
|
|
words, excluding all other treasons. As we drop that part of the
|
|
statute, we must, by negative words, prevent an inundation of common
|
|
law treasons. I strike out the word "it," therefore, and insert "the
|
|
said cases, and no others." Quaere, how far those negative words may
|
|
effect the case of accomplices above mentioned? Though if their case
|
|
was within the statute, so as that it needed not await the opinion of
|
|
Parliament, it should seem to be also within our act, so as not be
|
|
ousted by the negative words.
|
|
|
|
(* 6) This implies "by the neck." See 2 Hawk. 544 notes n. o.
|
|
|
|
(* 7) By the stat. 21. Jac. 1. c. 27. and Act Ass. 1170. c. 12.
|
|
concealment by the mother of the death of a bastard child is made
|
|
murder. In justification of this, it is said, that shame is a feeling
|
|
which operates so strongly on the mind, as frequently to induce the
|
|
mother of such a child to murder it, in order to conceal her
|
|
disgrace. The act of concealment, therefore, proves she was
|
|
influenced by shame, and that influence produces a presumption that
|
|
she murdered the child. The effect of this law then is, to make what,
|
|
in its nature, is only presumptive evidence of a murder conclusive of
|
|
that fact. To this I answer, 1. So many children die before or soon
|
|
after birth, that to presume all those murdered who are found dead,
|
|
is a presumption which will lead us oftener wrong than right, and
|
|
consequently would shed more blood than it would save. 2. If the
|
|
child were born dead, the mother would naturally choose rather to
|
|
conceal it, in hopes of still keeping a good character in the
|
|
neighborhood. So that the act of concealment is far from proving the
|
|
guilt of murder on the mother. 3. If shame be a powerful affection of
|
|
the mind, is not parental love also? Is it not the strongest
|
|
affection known? Is it not greater than even that of
|
|
self-preservation? While we draw presumptions from shame, one
|
|
affection of the mind against the life of the prisoner, should we not
|
|
give some weight to presumptions from parental love, an affection at
|
|
least as strong, in favor of life? If concealment of the fact is a
|
|
presumptive evidence of murder, so strong as to overbalance all other
|
|
evidence that may possibly be produced to take away the presumption,
|
|
why not trust the force of this incontestable presumption to the
|
|
jury, who are, in a regular course, to hear presumptive, as well as
|
|
positive testimony? If the presumption arising from the act of
|
|
concealment, may be destroyed by proof positive or circumstantial to
|
|
the contrary, why should the legislature preclude that contrary
|
|
proof? Objection. The crime is difficult to prove, being usually
|
|
committed in secret. Answer. But circumstantial proof will do; for
|
|
example, marks of violence, the behavior, countenance, &c. of the
|
|
prisoner, &c. And if conclusive proof be difficult to be obtained,
|
|
shall we therefore fasten irremovably upon equivocal proof? Can we
|
|
change the nature of what is contestable, and make it incontestable?
|
|
Can we make that conclusive which God and nature have made
|
|
inconclusive? Solon made no law against parricide, supposing it
|
|
impossible that any one could be guilty of it; and the Persians, from
|
|
the same opinion, adjudged all who killed their reputed parents to be
|
|
bastards; and although parental be yet stronger than filial
|
|
affection, we admit saticide proved on the most equivocal testimony,
|
|
whilst they rejected all proof of an act certainly not more repugnant
|
|
to nature, as of a thing impossible, unprovable. See Beccaria, 31.
|
|
|
|
(* 8) 25. G. 2. c. 37.
|
|
|
|
(* 9) Quaere, if the estates of both parties in a duel, should
|
|
not be forfeited? The deceased is equally guilty with a suicide.
|
|
|
|
(* 10) Quaere, if these words may not be omitted? By the
|
|
Common law, one witness in treason was sufficient. Foster 233. Plowd.
|
|
8. a. Mirror c. 3. 34. Waterhouse on Fortesc. de laud. 252. Carth.
|
|
144. per Holt. But Lord Coke, contra 3 inst. 26. The stat. 1. E. 6.
|
|
c. 12. & 5. E. 6. c. 11. first required two witnesses in treason. The
|
|
clause against high treason supra, does the same as to high treason;
|
|
but it seems if 1st and 5th E. 6. are dropped, Petty treason will be
|
|
tried and proved, as at Common law, by one witness. But quaere, Lord
|
|
Coke being contra, whose opinion it is ever dangerous to neglect.
|
|
|
|
(* 11) These words are intended to take away the peremptory
|
|
challenge of thirty-five jurors. The same words being used 1. 2. Ph.
|
|
& M. c. 10. are deemed to have restored the peremptory challenge in
|
|
high treason; and consequently are sufficient to take it away. Foster
|
|
237.
|
|
|
|
(* 12) Petty treason is considered in law only as an aggravated
|
|
murder. Foster 107. 323. A pardon of all murders, pardons Petty
|
|
treason. 1 Hale P. C. 378. see 2 H. P. C. 340. 342. It is also
|
|
included in the word "felony," so that a pardon of all felonies,
|
|
pardons Petty treason.
|
|
|
|
(* 13) Manslaughter is punishable at law, by burning in the
|
|
hands, and forfeiture of chattels.
|
|
|
|
(* 14) It is best, in this act, to lay down principles only, in
|
|
order that it may not forever be undergoing change; and, to carry
|
|
into effect the minuter parts of it, frame a bill "for the employment
|
|
and government of felons, or malefactors, condemned to labor for the
|
|
Commonwealth," which may serve as an Appendix to this, and in which
|
|
all the particulars requisite may be directed; and as experience
|
|
will, from time to time, be pointing out amendments, these may be
|
|
made without touching this fundamental act. See More's Utopia p. 50.
|
|
for some good hints. Fugitives might, in such a bill, be obliged to
|
|
work two days for every one they absent themselves.
|
|
|
|
(* 15) The shooting at a wild fowl, and killing a man, is
|
|
homicide by misadventure. Shooting at a pullet, without any design to
|
|
take it away, is manslaughter; and with a design to take it away, is
|
|
murder. 6 Sta. tr. 222. To shoot at the poultry of another, and
|
|
thereby set fire to his house, is arson, in the opinion of some.
|
|
Dalt. c. 116. 1. Hale's P. C. 569. c. contra.
|
|
|
|
(* 16) Beccaria. 32. Suicide. Homicides are, 1. Justifiable. 2.
|
|
Excusable. 3. Felonious. For the last, punishments have been already
|
|
provided. The first are held to be totally without guilt, or rather
|
|
commendable. The second are in some cases not quite unblamable. These
|
|
should subject the party to marks of contrition; viz., the killing of
|
|
a man in defence of property; so also in defence of one's person,
|
|
which is a species of excusable homicide; because, although cases may
|
|
happen where these also are commendable, yet most frequently they are
|
|
done on too slight appearance of danger; as in return for a blow,
|
|
kick, fillip, &c.; or on a person's getting into a house, not animo
|
|
furandi, but perhaps veneris causa, &c. Bracton says, "si quis furem
|
|
nocturnum occident, ita demum impune foret, si parcere ei sine
|
|
periculo suo non potuit, si autem potuit, aliter erit." "Item erit si
|
|
quis hamsokne quae dicitur invasio domus contra pacem domini regis in
|
|
domo sua se defenderit, et invasor occisus fuerit; impersecutus et
|
|
insultus remanebit, si ille quem invasit aliter se defendere non
|
|
potuit; dicitur enim quod non est dignus habere pacem qui non vult
|
|
observare eam." L. 3. c. 23. 3. "Qui latronem occiderit, non tenetur,
|
|
nocturnum vel diurum, si aliter periculum evadere non possit; tenetur
|
|
tamen si possit. Item non tenetur si per infortunium, et non animo et
|
|
voluntate occidendi, nec dolus, nec culpa ejus inveniatur." L. 3. c.
|
|
36. 1. The stat. 24. H. 8. c. 5. is therefore merely declaratory of
|
|
the Common law. See on the general subject Puffend. 2. 5. 10. 11.
|
|
12. 16. 17. Excusable homicides are by misadventure, or in
|
|
self-defence. It is the opinion of some lawyers, that the Common law
|
|
punished these with death, and that the statute of Marlbridge c. 26.
|
|
and Gloucester, c. 9. first took away this by giving them title to a
|
|
pardon, as matter of right, and a writ of restitution of their goods.
|
|
See 2. Inst. 148. 315. 3. Inst. 55. Bracton L. 3. c. 4. 2. Fleta L.
|
|
1. c. 23. 15. 21. E. 3. 23. But it is believed never to have been
|
|
capital. 1. H. P. C. 425. 1 Hawk. 75. Foster, 282. 4. Bl. 188. It
|
|
seems doubtful also, whether at Common law, the party forfeited all
|
|
his chattels in this case, or only paid a weregild. Foster, ubi
|
|
supra, doubts, and thinks it of no consequence, as the statute of
|
|
Gloucester entitles the party to Royal grace, which goes as well to
|
|
forfeiture as life. To me there seems no reason for calling these
|
|
excusable homicides, and the killing a man in defence of property, a
|
|
justifiable homicide. The latter is less guiltless than misadventure
|
|
or self-defence.
|
|
|
|
Suicide is by law punishable by forfeiture of chattels. This bill
|
|
exempts it from forfeiture. The suicide injures the State less than he who
|
|
leaves it with his effects. If the latter then be not punished, the former
|
|
should not. As to the example, we need not fear its influence. Men are too
|
|
much attached to life, to exhibit frequent instances of depriving themselves
|
|
of it. At any rate, the quasi-punishment of confiscation will not prevent it.
|
|
For if one be found who can calmly determine to renounce life, who is so
|
|
weary of his existence here, as rather to make experiment of what is beyond
|
|
the grave, can we suppose him, in such a state of mind, susceptible of
|
|
influence from the losses to his family from confiscation? That men in
|
|
general, too, disapprove of this severity, is apparent from the constant
|
|
practice of juries finding the suicide in a state of insanity; because they
|
|
have no other way of saving the forfeiture. Let it then be done away.
|
|
|
|
(* 17) Beccaria. 19. 25. G. 2. c. 37.
|
|
|
|
(* 18) 13. E. 1. c. 34. Forcible abduction of a woman having
|
|
substance is felony by 3. H. 7. c. 2. 3 Inst. 61. 4 Bl. 208. If
|
|
goods be taken, it will be felony as to them, without this statute;
|
|
and as to the abduction of the woman, quaere if not better to leave
|
|
that, and also kidnapping, 4. Bl. 219. to the Common law remedies,
|
|
viz., fine, imprisonment, and pillory, Raym. 474. 2 Show. 221. Skin.
|
|
47. Comb. 10. the writs of Homine replegiando, Capias in Withernam,
|
|
Habeas corpus, and the action of trespass? Rape was felony at the
|
|
Common law. 3. Inst. 60. but see 2. Inst. 181. further -- for its
|
|
definition see 2. Inst. 180. Bracton, L. 3. c. 28. 1. says the
|
|
punishment of rape is "amissio membrorum, ut sit membrum pro membro,
|
|
quia virgo, cum corrumpitur, membrum amittit, et ideo corruptor
|
|
puniatur in eo in quo deliquit; oculus igitur amittat propter
|
|
aspectum decoris quo virginem concupivit; amittat et testiculos qui
|
|
calorem stupri induxerunt. Olim quidem corruptores virginitatis et
|
|
castitatis suspendebantur et eorum fautores, &c. Modernis tamen
|
|
temporibus aliter observatur," &c. And Fleta, "solet justiciarius pro
|
|
quolibet mahemio ad amissionem testiculorum vel oculorum convictum
|
|
condemnare, sed non sine errore, eo quod id judicium nisi in
|
|
corruptione virginum tantum competebat; nam pro virginitatis
|
|
corruptione solebant abscidi et merito judiciari, ut sic pro membro
|
|
quod abstulit, membrum per quod deliquit amitteret, viz., testiculos,
|
|
qui calorem stupri induxerunt," &c. Fleta, L. 1. c. 40. 4. "Gif
|
|
theow man theowne to nydhed genyde, gabte mid his eowende:" "Si
|
|
servus servam ad stuprum coegerit, compenset hoc virga sua virili. Si
|
|
quis puellam," &c. Ll. Aelfridi. 25. "Hi purgist femme per forze
|
|
forfait ad les membres." Ll. Gul. conq. 19. In Dyer, 305, a man was
|
|
indicted, and found guilty of a rape on a girl of seven years old.
|
|
The court "doubted of the rape of so tender a girl; but if she had
|
|
been nine years old, it would have been otherwise." 14. Eliz.
|
|
Therefore the statute 18. Eliz. c. 6. says, "For plain declaration of
|
|
law, be it enacted, that if any person shall unlawfully and carnally
|
|
know and abuse any woman child, under the age of ten years, &c., he
|
|
shall suffer as a felon, without allowance of clergy." Lord Hale,
|
|
however, 1. P. C. 630. thinks it rape independent of that statute, to
|
|
know carnally, a girl under twelve, the age of consent. Yet 4. Bl.
|
|
212. seems to neglect this opinion; and as it was founded on the
|
|
words of 3. E. 1. c. 13. and this is with us omitted, the offence of
|
|
carnally knowing a girl under twelve, or ten years of age, will not
|
|
be distinguished from that of any other.
|
|
|
|
(* 19) I. Jac. 1. c. 11. Polygamy was not penal till the
|
|
statute 1. Jac. The law contented itself with the nullity of the act.
|
|
4. Bl. 163. 3. Inst. 88.
|
|
|
|
But no one shall be punished for Polygamy, who shall have
|
|
married after probable information of the death of his or her husband
|
|
or wife, or after his or her husband or wife, hath absented him or
|
|
herself, so that no notice of his or her being alive hath reached
|
|
such person for seven years together, or hath suffered the
|
|
punishments before prescribed for rape, polygamy, or sodomy.
|
|
|
|
(* 20) 25. H. 8. c. 6. Buggery is twofold. 1. With mankind, 2.
|
|
with beasts. Buggery is the Genus, of which Sodomy and Bestiality,
|
|
are the species. 12. Co. 37. says, "note that Sodomy is with
|
|
mankind." But Finch's L. B. 3. c. 24. "Sodomiary is a carnal
|
|
copulation against nature, to wit, of man or woman in the same sex,
|
|
or of either of them with beasts." 12. Co. 36. says, "it appears by
|
|
the ancient authorities of the law that this was felony." Yet the 25.
|
|
H. 8. declares it felony, as if supposed not to be so. Britton, c. 9.
|
|
says, that Sodomites are to be burnt. F. N. B. 269. b. Fleta, L. 1.
|
|
c. 37. says, "pecorantes et Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur."
|
|
The Mirror makes it treason. Bestiality can never make any progress;
|
|
it cannot therefore be injurious to society in any great degree,
|
|
which is the true measure of criminality in foro civili, and will
|
|
ever be properly and severely punished, by universal derision. It
|
|
may, therefore, be omitted. It was anciently punished with death, as
|
|
it has been latterly. Ll. Aelfrid. 31. and 25. H. 8. c. 6. see
|
|
Beccaria. 31. Montesq.
|
|
|
|
(* 21) Bracton, Fleta, &c.
|
|
|
|
(* 22) 22. 23. Car. 2. c. 1. Maiming was felony at the Common
|
|
law. Britton, c. 25. `Mahemium autem dici poteri, aubia aliquis in
|
|
aliqua parte sui corporis laesionem acceperit, per quam affectus sit
|
|
inutilis ad pugnandum: ut si manus amputetur, vel pes, oculus
|
|
privetur, vel scerda de osse capitis laveter, vel si quis dentes
|
|
praecisores amiserit, vel castratus fuerit, et talis pro mahemiato
|
|
poterit adjudicari.' Fleta L. 1. c. 40. `Et volons que nul maheme ne
|
|
soit tenus forsque de membre tollet dount home es plus feble a
|
|
combatre, sicome del oyl, ou de la mayn, ou del pie, ou de la tete
|
|
debruse, ou de les dentz devant.' Britton, c. 25. For further
|
|
definitions, see Bracton, L. 3. c. 24 3. 4. Finch L. B. 3. c. 12.
|
|
Co. L. 126. a. b. 288. a. 3. Bl. 121. 4. Bl. 205. Stamf. P. C. L. 1.
|
|
c. 41. I do not find any of these definitions confine the offence to
|
|
wilful and malicious perpetrations of it. 22. 23. Car. 2. c. 1.
|
|
called the Coventry act, has the words `on purpose and of malice
|
|
forethought.' Nor does the Common law prescribe the same punishment
|
|
for disfiguring, as for maiming.
|
|
|
|
(* 23) The punishment was by retaliation. "Et come ascun appele
|
|
serra de tele felonie atteint et attende jugement, si soit le
|
|
jugement tiel que il perde autriel membre come il avera tollet al
|
|
pleintyfe. Et sy la pleynte soi faite de femme que avera tollet a
|
|
home ses membres, en tiel cas perdra la femme la une meyn par
|
|
jugement, come le membre dount ele axera trespasse." Britton, c. 25.
|
|
Fleta, B. 1. c. 40. Ll. AElfr. 19. 40.
|
|
|
|
(* 24) 25. E. 3. st. 5 c. 2. 5. El. c. 11. 18. El. c. 1. 8. 9.
|
|
W. 3. c. 26. 15. 16. G. 2. c. 28. 7. Ann. c. 25. By the laws of
|
|
AEthelstan and Canute, this was punished by cutting off the hand.
|
|
"Gif se mynetere ful wurthe slea man tha hand of, the he that ful mid
|
|
worthe and sette uppon tha mynet smiththan." In English characters
|
|
and words "if the minter foul [criminal] wert, slay the hand off,
|
|
that he the foul [crime] with wrought, and set upon the
|
|
mint-smithery." Ll. Aethelst. 14. "Et si quis praeter hanc, falsam
|
|
fecerit, perdat manum quacum falsam confecit." Ll. Cnuti. 8. It had
|
|
been death by the Ll. AEthelredi sub fine. By those of H. 1. "si quis
|
|
cum falso denario inventus fuerit -- fiat justitia mea, saltem de
|
|
dextro pugno et de testiculis." Anno 1108. Operae pretium vero est
|
|
audire quam severus rex fuerit in pravos. Monetarios enim fere omnes
|
|
totius Angliae fecit ementulari, et manus dextras abscindi, quia
|
|
monetam furtive corruperant. Wilkins ib. et anno 1125. When the
|
|
Common law became settled, it appears to have been punishable by
|
|
death. "Est aluid genus criminis quod sub nomine falsi continetur, et
|
|
tangit coronam domini regis, et ultimum inducit supplicium, sicut de
|
|
illis qui falsam fabricant monetam, et qui de re non reproba, faciunt
|
|
reprobam; sicut sunt retonsores denariorum." Bract. L. 3. c 2. Fleta,
|
|
L. 1. c. 22. 4. Lord Hale thinks it was deemed petty treason at
|
|
common law. 1. H. P. C. 220. 224. The bringing in false money with
|
|
_intent_ to merchandize, and make payment of it, is treason, by 25.
|
|
E. 3. But the best proof of the intention, is the act of passing it,
|
|
and why not leave room for repentance here, as in other cases of
|
|
felonies intended? 1. H. P. C. 229.
|
|
|
|
(* 25) Clipping, filing, rounding, impairing, scaling,
|
|
lightening, (the words in the statutes) are included in
|
|
"diminishing;" gilding, in the word "casing;" coloring in the word
|
|
"washing;" and falsifying, or making, is "counterfeiting."
|
|
|
|
(* 26) 43 L. c. 13. confined to four counties. 22. 23. Car. 2.
|
|
c. 7. 9. G. 1. c. 22. 9. G. 3. c. 29.
|
|
|
|
(* 27) Arson was a felony at Common law -- 3. Inst. 66;
|
|
punished by a fine, Ll. Aethelst. 6. But Ll. Cnuti, 61. make it a
|
|
"scelus inexpiable." "Hus brec and baernet and open thyfth
|
|
aeberemorth and hlaford swice aefter woruld laga is botleds." Word
|
|
for word, "house break and burnt, and open theft, and manifest
|
|
murther, and lord-treachery, afterworld's law is bootless." Bracton
|
|
says it was punished by death. "Si quis turbida seditione incendium
|
|
fecerit nequiter et in felonia, vel ob inimicitias, vel praedandi
|
|
causa, capitali puniatur poena vel sententia." Bract. L. 3. 27. He
|
|
defines it as commissible by burning "aedes alienas." Ib. Britton, c.
|
|
9. "Ausi soit enquis de ceux que felonisement en temps de pees eient
|
|
autre _blees_ ou autre _mesons_ ars, et ceux que serrount de ceo
|
|
atteyntz, soient ars issint que eux soient punys par mesme cele chose
|
|
dount ilz pecherent." Fleta, L. 1. c. 37. is a copy of Bracton. The
|
|
Mirror c. 1. 8. says, "Ardours sont que ardent citie, ville, maison
|
|
home, maison beast, ou auters chatelx, de lour felonie en temps de
|
|
pace pour haine ou vengeance." Again, c. 2. 11. pointing out the
|
|
words of the appellor "jeo dise que Sebright, &c., entiel meason ou
|
|
_biens_ mist de feu." Coke 3. Inst. 67. says, "the ancient authors
|
|
extended this felony further than houses, viz., to sacks of corn,
|
|
waynes or carts of coal, wood or other goods." He denies it as
|
|
commissible, not only on the inset houses, parcel of the mansion
|
|
house, but the outset also, as barn, stable, cowhouse, sheep house,
|
|
dairy house, mill house, and the like, parcel of the mansion house.
|
|
But "burning of a barn, being no parcel of a mansion house, is no
|
|
felony," unless there be corn or hay within it. Ib. The 22. 23. Car.
|
|
2. and 9. G. 1. are the principal statutes against arson. They extend
|
|
the offence beyond the Common law.
|
|
|
|
(* 28) 1. Ann. st. 2. c. 9. 12. Ann. c. 18. 4. G. 1. c. 12. 26.
|
|
G. 2. c. 19.
|
|
|
|
(* 28) 11. 12. W. 3. c. 7.
|
|
|
|
(* 30) Robbery was a felony at Common law. 3 Inst. 68. "Scelus
|
|
inexpiable," by the Ll. Cnuti. 61. [See before in Arson.] It was
|
|
punished with death. Britt. c. 15, "de robbours et de larouns et de
|
|
semblables mesfesours, soit ausi ententivement enquis -- et tauntost
|
|
soient ceux robbours juges a la mort." Fleta says, "si quis convictus
|
|
fuerit de bonis viri robbatis vel asportatis ad sectam regis judicium
|
|
capitale subibit. L. 1. c. 39. See also Bract. L. 3. c. 32. 1.
|
|
|
|
(* 31) Burglary was felony at the Common law. 3 Inst. 63. It
|
|
was not distinguished by ancient authors, except the Mirror, from
|
|
simple House-breaking, ib. 65. Burglary and House-breaking were
|
|
called "Hamsockne diximus etiam de pacis violatione et de
|
|
immunitatibus domus, si quis hoc in posterum fecerit ut perdat omne
|
|
quod habet, et sit in regis arbitrio utrum vitam habeat. Eac we
|
|
quaedon be mundbryce and be ham socnum, sethe hit ofer this do thaet
|
|
he dolie ealles thaes the age, and sy on Cyninges dome hwaether he
|
|
life age; and we quoth of mound-breach, and of home-seeking he who it
|
|
after this do, that he dole all that he owe [owns], and is in king's
|
|
doom whether he life owes [owns.] Ll. Eadmundi, c. 6. and see Ll.
|
|
Cnuti. 61. "hus brec," in notes on Arson. ante. A Burglar was also
|
|
called a Burgessor. "Et soit enquis de Burgessours et sunt tenus
|
|
Burgessours trestous ceux que _felonisement_ en temps de pees
|
|
debrusont esglises ou auter mesons, ou murs ou portes de nos cytes,
|
|
ou de nos Burghes." Britt. c. 10. "Burglaria est nocturna diruptio
|
|
habitaculi alicu jus, vel ecclesiae, etiam murorum, partarumve
|
|
civitatis aut burgi, ad feloniam aliquam perpetrandam. _Noctanter_
|
|
dico, recentiores secutus; veteres enim hoc non adjungunt." Spelm.
|
|
gloss. verb. Burglaria. It was punished with death. Ib. citn. from
|
|
the office of a Coroner. It may be committed in the outset houses, as
|
|
well as inset. 3 Inst. 65. though not under the same roof or
|
|
contiguous, provided they be within the Curtilage or Homestall. 4 Bl.
|
|
225. As by the Common law, all felonies were clergiable, the stat. 23
|
|
H. 8. c. 1. 5. E. 6. c. 9. and 18 El. c. 7. first distinguished them,
|
|
by taking the clerical privilege of impunity from the principals, and
|
|
3. 4. W. M. c. 9. from accessories before the fact. No _statute_
|
|
defines what Burglary is. The 12 Ann. c. 7. decides the doubt
|
|
whether, where breaking is subsequent to entry, it is Burglary.
|
|
Bacon's Elements had affirmed, and 1. H. P. C. 554. had denied it.
|
|
Our bill must distinguish them by different degrees of punishment.
|
|
|
|
(* 32) At the Common law, the offence of Housebreaking was not
|
|
distinguished from Burglary, and neither of them from any other
|
|
larceny. The statutes at first took away clergy from Burglary, which
|
|
made a leading distinction between the two offences. Later statutes,
|
|
however, have taken clergy from so many cases of Housebreaking, as
|
|
nearly to bring the offences together again. These are 23 H. 8. c. 1.
|
|
1 E. 6. c. 12. 5 and 6 E. 6. c. 9. 3 and 4 W. M. c. 9. 39 El. c. 15.
|
|
10 and 11 W. 3 c. 23. 12 Ann. c. 7. See Barr. 428. 4 Bl. 240. The
|
|
circumstances which in these statutes characterize the offence, seem
|
|
to have been occasional and unsystematical. The houses on which
|
|
Burglary may be committed, and the circumstances which constitute
|
|
that crime being ascertained, it will be better to define
|
|
Housebreaking by the same subjects and circumstances, and let the
|
|
crimes be distinguished only by the hour at which they are committed,
|
|
and the degree of punishment.
|
|
|
|
(* 33) The offence of Horse-stealing seems properly
|
|
distinguishable from other larcenies, here, where these animals
|
|
generally run at large, the temptation being so great and frequent,
|
|
and the facility of commission so remarkable. See 1 E. 6. c. 12. 23
|
|
E. 6. c. 33. 31 El. c. 12.
|
|
|
|
(* 34) The distinction between grand and petty larceny, is very
|
|
ancient. At first 8d. was the sum which constituted grand larceny.
|
|
Ll. AEthelst. c. 1. "Ne parcatur ulli furi, qui furtum manutenens
|
|
captus sit, supra 12. annos nato, et supra 8. denarios." Afterwards,
|
|
in the same king's reign it was raised to 12d. "non parcatur alicui
|
|
furi ultra 12 denarios, et ultra 12 annos nato --- ut occidemus illum
|
|
et capiamus omne quod possidet, et imprimis sumamus rei furto ablatae
|
|
pretium ab haerede, ac dividatur postea reliquum in duas partes, una
|
|
pars uxori, si munda, et facinoris conscia non sit; et residuum in
|
|
duo, dimidium capiat rex, dimidium societas." Ll. Aethelst. Wilkins,
|
|
p. 65.
|
|
|
|
(* 35) Ll. Inae. c. 7. "Si quis furetur ita ut uxor ejus et
|
|
infans ipsius nesciant, solvat 60. solidos poenae loco. Si autem
|
|
furetur testantibus omnibus haeredibus suis, _abeant omnes in
|
|
servitutem_." Ina was king of the West-Saxons, and began to reign A.
|
|
C. 688. After the union of the Heptarchy, i. e. temp. AEthelst, inter
|
|
924 and 940, we find it punishable with death as above. So it was
|
|
inter 1017 and 1035, i. e. temp. Cnuti. Ll. Cnuti. 61. cited in notes
|
|
on Arson. In the time of William the conqueror, it seems to have been
|
|
made punishable by fine only. Ll. Gul. conq. apud Wilk. p. 218, 220.
|
|
This commutation, however, was taken away by Ll. H. 1. anno 1108. "Si
|
|
quis in furto vel latrocinio deprehensus fuisset, suspenderetur;
|
|
sublata wirgildorum, id est, pecuniarae redemptionis lege." Larceny
|
|
is the felonious taking and carrying away of the personal goods of
|
|
another. 1. As to the taking, the 3. 4. W. M. c. 9 5. is not
|
|
additional to the Common law, but declaratory of it; because where
|
|
only the care or use, and not the possession, of things is delivered,
|
|
to take them was larceny at the Common law. The 33 H. 6. c. 1. and
|
|
21, H. 8. c. 7. indeed, have added to the Common law, by making it
|
|
larceny in a servant to convert things of his master's. But quaere,
|
|
if they should be imitated more than as to other breaches of trust in
|
|
general. 2. As to the subject of larceny, 4 G. 2. c. 32. 6 G. 3. c.
|
|
36. 48. 45. El. c. 7. 15 Car. 2. c. 2. 23 G. 2. c. 26. 31 G. 2. c.
|
|
35. 9 G. 3. c. 41. 25 G. 2. c. 10. have extended larceny to things of
|
|
various sorts either real, or fixed to the reality. But the
|
|
enumeration is unsystematical, and in this country, where the produce
|
|
of the earth is so spontaneous, as to have rendered things of this
|
|
kind scarcely a breach of civility or good manners, in the eyes of
|
|
the people, quaere, if it would not too much enlarge the field of
|
|
Criminal law? The same may be questioned of 9 G. 1. c. 22. 13 Car.
|
|
2. c. 10. 10 G. 2. c. 32. 5 G. 3. c. 14. 22 and 23 Car. 2. c. 25. 37
|
|
E. 3. c. 19. making it felony to steal animals ferae naturae.
|
|
|
|
(* 36) 2 G. 2. c. 25 3. 7 G. 3. c. 50.
|
|
|
|
(* 37) 3. 4. W. M. c. 9. 4. 5 Ann. c. 31. 5. 4 G. 1. c. 11.
|
|
1.
|
|
|
|
(* 38) 1 E. 2.
|
|
|
|
(* 39) Breach of prison at the Common law was capital, without
|
|
regard to the crime for which the party was committed. "Cum pro
|
|
criminis qualitate in carcerem recepti fuerint, conspiraverint (ut
|
|
ruptis vinculis aut fracto carcere) evadant, amplius (quam causa pro
|
|
qua recepti sunt exposeit) puniendi sunt, videlicet ultimo supplicio,
|
|
quamvis ex eo crimine innocentes inveniantur, propter quod inducti
|
|
sunt in carcerem et imparcati." Bracton L. 3. c. 9. 4. Britt. c. 11.
|
|
Fleta, L. 1. c. 26. 4. Yet in the Y. B. Hill. 1. H. 7. 2. Hussey
|
|
says, that by the opinion of Billing and Coke, and all the justices,
|
|
it was a felony in strangers only, but not in the prisoner himself.
|
|
S. C. Fitz. Abr. Coron. 48. They are the principal felons, not
|
|
accessaries. ib. Whether it was felony in the prisoner at Common law,
|
|
is doubted. Stam. P. C. 30. b. The Mirror c. 5. 1, says "abusion est
|
|
a tener escape de prisoner, ou de bruserie del gaole pur peche
|
|
mortell, car cel usage nest garrant per nul ley, ne in nul part est
|
|
use forsque in cest realme, et en France, eins [mais] est leu
|
|
garrantie de ceo faire per la ley de nature." 2 Inst. 589. The stat.
|
|
1. E. 2. de fraugentibus prisonam, restrained the judgment of life
|
|
and limb for prison breaking, to cases where the offence of the
|
|
prisoner required such judgment.
|
|
|
|
It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in
|
|
opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death.
|
|
This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them. The law of nature
|
|
impels every one to escape from confinement; it should not, therefore, be
|
|
subjected to punishment. Let the legislator restrain his criminal by walls,
|
|
not by parchment. As to strangers breaking prison to enlarge an offender,
|
|
they should, and may be fairly considered as accessaries after the fact. This
|
|
bill says nothing of the prisoner releasing himself by breach of jail, he
|
|
will have the benefit of the first section of the bill, which repeals the
|
|
judgment of life and death at the common law.
|
|
|
|
(* 40) Gif wiccan owwe wigleras nansworan, owwe morthwyrhtan
|
|
owwe fule afylede aebere horcwenan ahwhar on lande wurthan agytene,
|
|
thonne fyrsie man of earde and claensie tha theode, owwe on earde
|
|
forfare hi mid ealle, buton hi geswican and the deoper gebetan: if
|
|
witches, or weirds, man-swearers, murther-wroughters, or foul,
|
|
defiled, open whore-queens, anywhere in the land were gotten, then
|
|
force them off earth, and cleanse the nation, or in earth forth-fare
|
|
them withal, but on they beseech, and deeply better. Ll. Ed. et
|
|
Guthr. c. ii. "Sagae, mulieres barbara, factitantes sacrificia, aut
|
|
pestiferi, si cui mortem intulerint, neque id inficiari poterint,
|
|
capitis poena esto." Ll. AEthelst. c. 6. apud Lambard. Ll. Aelfr. 30.
|
|
Ll. Cnuti. c. 4. "Mesme cel jugement (d'etrears) eyent sorcers, et
|
|
sorceresses, &c. ut supra. Fleta ut et ubi supra." 3. Inst. 44. Trial
|
|
of witches before Hale in 1664. The statutes 33 H. 8. c. 8. 5 El. c.
|
|
16 and I Jac. I. c. 12. seem to be only in confirmation of the Common
|
|
law. 9 G. 2. c. 25. punishes them with pillory, and a year's
|
|
imprisonment. 3 E. 6. c. 15. 5 El. c. 15. punish fond, fantastical
|
|
and false prophecies, by fine and imprisonment.
|
|
|
|
(* 41) I Ann. c. 9. 2.
|
|
|
|
(* 42) As every treason includes within it a misprision of
|
|
treason, so every felony includes a misprision, or misdemeanor. I
|
|
Hale P. C. 652. 708. "Licet fuerit felonia, tamen in eo continetur
|
|
misprisio." 2 R. 3. 10. Both principal and accessary, therefore, may
|
|
be proceeded against in any case, either for felony or misprision, at
|
|
the Common law. Capital cases not being mentioned here, accessaries
|
|
to them will of course be triable for misprisions, if the offender
|
|
flies.
|
|
|
|
(* 43) E. I. c. 12.
|
|
|
|
(* 44) Whether the judgment of penance lay at Common law. See 2
|
|
Inst. 178. 2 H. P. C. 321. 4 Bl. 322. It was given on standing mute;
|
|
but on challenging more than the legal number, whether that sentence,
|
|
or sentence of death is to be given, seems doubtful. 2 H. P. C. 316.
|
|
Quaere, whether it would not be better to consider the supernumerary
|
|
challenge as merely void, and to proceed in the trial? Quaere too,
|
|
in case of silence?
|
|
|
|
(* 45) "Cum Clericus sic de crimine convictus degradetur non
|
|
sequitur alia poena pro uno delicto, vel pluribus ante degradationem
|
|
perpetratis. Satis enim sufficit ei pro poena degradatio, quae est
|
|
magna capitis diminutio, nisi forte convictus fuerit de apostatia,
|
|
quia hinc primo degradetur, et postea per manum laicalem comburetur,
|
|
secundum quod accidit in concilio Oxoni celebrato a bonae memoriae S.
|
|
Cantuanen. Archiepiscopo de quodam diacono, qui se apostatavit pro
|
|
quadam Judaae; qui cum esset per episcopum degradatus, statim fuit
|
|
igni traditus per manum laicalem." Bract. L. 3. c. 9. 2. "Et mesme
|
|
cel jugement (i. e. qui ils soient ars eyent) sorcers et sorceresses,
|
|
et sodomites et mescreauntz apertement atteyntz." Britt. c. 9.
|
|
"Christiani autem Apostatae, sortilegii, et hujusmodi detractari
|
|
debent et comburi." Fleta, L. I. c. 37. 2 see 3. Inst. 39. 12. Rep.
|
|
92. I H. P. C. 393. The extent of the clerical privilege at the
|
|
Common law. I. As to the crimes, seems very obscure and uncertain. It
|
|
extended to no case where the judgment was not of life, or limb. Note
|
|
in 2. H. P. C. 326. This therefore excluded it in trespass, petty
|
|
larceny, or killing se defendendo. In high treason against the person
|
|
of the King, it seems not to have been allowed. Note I. H. P. C.
|
|
185. Treasons, therefore, not against the King's person immediately,
|
|
petty treasons and felonies, seem to have been the cases where it was
|
|
allowed; and even of those, not for insidiatio varium, depopulatio
|
|
agrorum, or combustio domorum. The statute de Clero, 25 E. 3. st. 3.
|
|
c. 4. settled the law on this head. 2. As to the persons, it
|
|
extended to all clerks, always, and toties quoties. 2 H. P. C. 374.
|
|
To nuns also. Fitz. Abr. Corone. 461. 22. E. 3. The clerical habit
|
|
and tonsure were considered as evidence of the person being clerical.
|
|
26. Assiz. 19. 20. E. 2. Fitz. Corone. 233. By the 9 E. 4. 28. b.
|
|
34. H. 6. 49 a. b. a simple reading became the evidence. This
|
|
extended impunity to a great number of laymen, and toties quoties.
|
|
The stat. 4 H. 7. c. 13. directed that real clerks should, upon a
|
|
second arraignment, produce their orders, and all others to be burnt
|
|
in the hand with M. or T. on the first allowance of clergy, and not
|
|
to be admitted to it a second time. A heretic, Jew, or Turk (as being
|
|
incapable of orders) could not have clergy. II. Co. Rep. 29 b. But a
|
|
Greek, or other alien, reading in a book of his own country, might.
|
|
Bro. Clergie. 20. So a blind man, if he could speak Latin. Ib. 21.
|
|
qu. II. Rep. 29. b. The orders entitling the party, were bishops,
|
|
priests, deacons and subdeacons, the inferior being reckoned Clerici
|
|
in minoribus. 2. H. P. C. 373. Quaere, however, if this distinction
|
|
is not founded on the stat. 23 H. 8. c. I. 25 H. 8. c. 32. By merely
|
|
dropping all the statutes, it should seem that none but clerks would
|
|
be entitled to this privilege, and that they would, toties quoties.
|
|
|
|
(* 46) I Ann. c. 9.
|
|
|
|
(* 47) Manslaughter, counterfeiting, arson, asportation of
|
|
vessels, robbery, burglary, house-breaking, horse-stealing, larceny.
|
|
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_A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge_
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SECTION I. Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of
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government are better calculated than others to protect individuals
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in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same
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time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience
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hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with
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power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into
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tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of
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preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the
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minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them
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knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed
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thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be
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enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert
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their natural powers to defeat its purposes; And whereas it is
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generally true that the people will be happiest whose laws are best,
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and are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and
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honestly administered, in proportion as those who form and administer
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them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting
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the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed
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with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education
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worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights
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and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be
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called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or other
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accidental condition or circumstance; but the indigence of the
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greater number disabling them from so educating, at their own
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expence, those of their children whom nature hath fitly formed and
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disposed to become useful instruments for the public, it is better
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that such should be sought for and educated at the common expence of
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all, than that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak or
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wicked:
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SECT. II. BE it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that
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in every county within this commonwealth, there shall be chosen
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annually, by the electors qualified to vote for Delegates, three of
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the most honest and able men of their county, to be called the
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Aldermen of the county; and that the election of the said Aldermen
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shall be held at the same time and place, before the same persons,
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and notified and conducted in the same manner as by law is directed
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for the annual election of Delegates for the county.
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SECT. III. THE person before whom such election is holden shall
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certify to the court of the said county the names of the Aldermen
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chosen, in order that the same may be entered of record, and shall
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give notice of their election to the said Aldermen within a fortnight
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after such election.
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SECT. IV. THE said Aldermen on the first Monday in October, if
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it be fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday,
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shall meet at the court-house of their county, and proceed to divide
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their said county into hundreds, bounding the same by water courses,
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mountains, or limits, to be run and marked, if they think necessary,
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by the county surveyor, and at the county expence, regulating the
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size of the said hundreds, according to the best of their discretion,
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so as that they may contain a convenient number of children to make
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up a school, and be of such convenient size that all the children
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within each hundred may daily attend the school to be established
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therein, distinguishing each hundred by a particular name; which
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division, with the names of the several hundreds, shall be returned
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to the court of the county and be entered of record, and shall remain
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unaltered until the increase or decrease of inhabitants shall render
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an alteration necessary, in the opinion of any succeeding Aldermen,
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and also in the opinion of the court of the county.
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SECT. V. THE electors aforesaid residing within every hundred
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shall meet on the third Monday in October after the first election of
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Aldermen, at such place, within their hundred, as the said Aldermen
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shall direct, notice thereof being previously given to them by such
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person residing within the hundred as the said Aldermen shall require
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who is hereby enjoined to obey such requisition, on pain of being
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punished by amercement and imprisonment. The electors being so
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assembled shall choose the most convenient place within their hundred
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for building a school-house. If two or more places, having a greater
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number of votes than any others, shall yet be equal between
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themselves, the Aldermen, or such of them as are not of the same
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hundred, on information thereof, shall decide between them. The said
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Aldermen shall forthwith proceed to have a school-house built at the
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said place, and shall see that the same be kept in repair, and, when
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necessary, that it be rebuilt; but whenever they shall think
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necessary that it be rebuilt, they shall give notice as before
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directed, to the electors of the hundred to meet at the said
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school-house, on such day as they shall appoint, to determine by
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vote, in the manner before directed, whether it shall be rebuilt at
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the same, or what other place in the hundred.
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SECT. VI. AT every of these schools shall be taught reading,
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writing, and common arithmetick, and the books which shall be used
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therein for instructing the children to read shall be such as will at
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the same time make them acquainted with Graecian, Roman, English, and
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American history. At these schools all the free children, male and
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female, resident within the respective hundred, shall be intitled to
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receive tuition gratis, for the term of three years, and as much
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longer, at their private expence, as their parents, guardians or
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friends, shall think proper.
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SECT. VII. OVER ten of these schools (or such other number
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nearest thereto, as the number of hundreds in the county will admit,
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without fractional divisions) an overseer shall be appointed annually
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by the Aldermen at their first meeting, eminent for his learning,
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integrity, and fidelity to the commonwealth, whose business and duty
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it shall be, from time to time, to appoint a teacher to each school,
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who shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth, and to
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remove him as he shall see cause; to visit every school once in every
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half year at the least, to examine the schollars; see that any
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general plan of reading and instruction recommended by the visiters
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of William and Mary College shall be observed; and to superintend the
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conduct of the teacher in every thing relative to his school.
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SECT. VIII. EVERY teacher shall receive a salary of by the
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year, which, with the expences of building and repairing the school
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houses, shall be provided in such manner as other county expences are
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by law directed to be provided and shall also have his diet, lodging,
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and washing found him, to be levied in like manner, save only that
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such levy shall be on the inhabitants of each hundred for the board
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of their own teacher only.
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SECT. IX. AND in order that grammer schools may be rendered
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convenient to the youth in every part of the commonwealth, BE it
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farther enacted, that on the first Monday in November, after the
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first appointment of overseers for the hundred schools, if fair, and
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if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday, after the hour
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of one in the afternoon, the said overseers appointed for the schools
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in the counties of Princess Ann, Norfolk, Nansemond and
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Isle-of-Wight, shall meet at Nansemond court house; those for the
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counties of Southampton, Sussex, Surry and Prince George, shall meet
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at Sussex court-house; those for the counties of Brunswick,
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Mecklenburg and Lunenburg, shall meet at Lunenburg court-house; those
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for the counties of Dinwiddie, Amelia and Chesterfield, shall meet at
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Chesterfield court-house; those for the counties of Powhatan,
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Cumberland, Goochland, Henrico and Hanover, shall meet at Henrico
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court-house; those for the counties of Prince Edward, Charlotte and
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Halifax, shall meet at Charlotte court-house; those for the counties
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of Henry, Pittsylvania and Bedford, shall meet at Pittsylvania
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court-house; those for the counties of Buckingham, Amherst, Albemarle
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and Fluvanna, shall meet at Albemarle court-house; those for the
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counties of Botetourt, Rockbridge, Montgomery, Washington and
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Kentucky, shall meet at Botetourt court-house; those for the counties
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of Augusta, Rockingham and Greenbrier, shall meet at Augusta
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court-house; those for the counties of Accomack and Northampton,
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shall meet at Accomack court-house; those for the counties of
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Elizabeth City, Warwick, York, Gloucester, James City, Charles City
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and New Kent, shall meet at James City court-house; those for the
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counties of Middlesex, Essex, King and Queen, King William and
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Caroline, shall meet at King and Queen court-house; those for the
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counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland,
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shall meet at Richmond court-house; those for the counties of King
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George, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Prince William and Fairfax, shall
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meet at Spotsylvania court-house; those for the counties of Loudoun
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and Fauquier, shall meet at Loudoun court-house; those for the
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counties of Culpeper, Orange and Louisa, shall meet at Orange
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court-house; those for the counties of Shenandoah and Frederick,
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shall meet at Frederick court-house; those for the counties of
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Hampshire and Berkeley, shall meet at Berkeley court house; and those
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for the counties of Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio, shall meet at
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Monongalia court-house; and shall fix on such place in some one of
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the counties in their district as shall be most proper for situating
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a grammar school-house, endeavouring that the situation be as central
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as may be to the inhabitants of the said counties, that it be
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furnished with good water, convenient to plentiful supplies of
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provision and fuel, and more than all things that it be healthy. And
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if a majority of the overseers present should not concur in their
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choice of any one place proposed, the method of determining shall be
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as follows: If two places only were proposed, and the votes be
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divided, they shall decide between them by fair and equal lot; if
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more than two places were proposed, the question shall be put on
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those two which on the first division had the greater number of
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votes; or if no two places had a greater number of votes than the
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others, as where the votes shall have been equal between one or both
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of them and some other or others, then it shall be decided by fair
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and equal lot (unless it can be agreed by a majority of votes) which
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of the places having equal numbers shall be thrown out of the
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competition, so that the question shall be put on the remaining two,
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and if on this ultimate question the votes shall be equally divided,
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it shall then be decided finally by lot.
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SECT. X. THE said overseers having determined the place at
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which the grammer school for their district shall be built, shall
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forthwith (unless they can otherwise agree with the proprietors of
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the circumjacent lands as to location and price) make application to
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the clerk of the county in which the said house is to be situated,
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who shall thereupon issue a writ, in the nature of a writ of ad quod
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damnum, directed to the sheriff of the said county commanding him to
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summon and impannel twelve fit persons to meet at the place, so
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destined for the grammer school-house, on a certain day, to be named
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in the said writ, not less than five, nor more than ten, days from
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the date thereof; and also to give notice of the same to the
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proprietors and tenants of the lands to be viewed, if they be to be
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found within the county, and if not, then to their agents therein if
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any they have. Which freeholders shall be charged by the said
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sheriff impartially, and to the best of their skill and judgement to
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view the lands round about the said place, and to locate and
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circumscribe, by certain metes and bounds, one hundred acres thereof,
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having regard therein principally to the benefit and convenience of
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the said school, but respecting in some measure also the convenience
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of the said proprietors, and to value and appraise the same in so
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many several respective interests and estates therein. And after
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such location and appraisement so made, the said sheriff shall
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forthwith return the same under the hands and seals of the said
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jurors, together with the writ, to the clerk's office of the said
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county and the right and property of the said proprietors and tenants
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in the said lands so circumscribed shall be immediately devested and
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be transferred to the commonwealth for the use of the said grammar
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school, in full and absolute dominion, any want of consent or
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disability to consent in the said owners or tenants notwithstanding.
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But it shall not be lawful for the said overseers so to situate the
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said grammar school-house, nor to the said jurors so to locate the
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said lands, as to include the mansion-house of the proprietor of the
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lands, nor the offices, curtilage, or garden, thereunto immediately
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belonging.
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SECT. XI. THE said overseers shall forthwith proceed to have a
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house of brick or stone, for the said grammar school, with necessary
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offices, built on the said lands, which grammer school-house shall
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contain a room for the school, a hall to dine in, four rooms for a
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master and usher, and ten or twelve lodging rooms for the scholars.
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SECT. XII. TO each of the said grammar schools shall be allowed
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out of the public treasury, the sum of pounds, out of which shall be
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paid by the Treasurer, on warrant from the Auditors, to the
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proprietors or tenants of the lands located, the value of their
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several interests as fixed by the jury, and the balance thereof shall
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be delivered to the said overseers to defray the expence of the said
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buildings.
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SECT. XIII. IN these grammar schools shall be taught the Latin
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and Greek languages, English grammar, geography, and the higher part
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of numerical arithmetick, to wit, vulgar and decimal fractions, and
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the extraction of the square and cube roots.
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SECT. XIV. A visiter from each county constituting the district
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shall be appointed, by the overseers, for the county, in the month of
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October annually, either from their own body or from their county at
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large, which visiters or the greater part of them, meeting together
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at the said grammar school on the first Monday in November, if fair,
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and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding Sunday, shall have
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power to choose their own Rector, who shall call and preside at
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future meetings, to employ from time to time a master, and if
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necessary, an usher, for the said school, to remove them at their
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will, and to settle the price of tuition to be paid by the scholars.
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They shall also visit the school twice in every year at the least,
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either together or separately at their discretion, examine the
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scholars, and see that any general plan of instruction recommended by
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the visiters of William and Mary College shall be observed. The said
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masters and ushers, before they enter on the execution of their
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office, shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth.
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SECT. XV. A steward shall be employed, and removed at will by
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the master, on such wages as the visiters shall direct; which steward
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shall see to the procuring provisions, fuel, servants for cooking,
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waiting, house cleaning, washing, mending, and gardening on the most
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reasonable terms; the expence of which, together with the steward's
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wages, shall be divided equally among all the scholars boarding
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either on the public or private expence. And the part of those who
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are on private expence, and also the price of their tuitions due to
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the master or usher, shall be paid quarterly by the respective
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scholars, their parents, or guardians, and shall be recoverable, if
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withheld, together with costs, on motion in any Court of Record, ten
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days notice thereof being previously given to the party, and a jury
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impannelled to try the issue joined, or enquire of the damages. The
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said steward shall also, under the direction of the visiters, see
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that the houses be kept in repair, and necessary enclosures be made
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and repaired, the accounts for which, shall, from time to time, be
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submitted to the Auditors, and on their warrant paid by the
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Treasurer.
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SECT. XVI. EVERY overseer of the hundred schools shall, in the
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month of September annually, after the most diligent and impartial
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examination and enquiry, appoint from among the boys who shall have
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been two years at the least at some one of the schools under his
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superintendance, and whose parents are too poor to give them farther
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education, some one of the best and most promising genius and
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disposition, to proceed to the grammar school of his district; which
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appointment shall be made in the court-house of the county, on the
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court day for that month, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair
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day, excluding Sunday, in the presence of the Aldermen, or two of
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them at the least, assembled on the bench for that purpose, the said
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overseer being previously sworn by them to make such appointment,
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without favor or affection, according to the best of his skill and
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judgment, and being interrogated by the said Aldermen, either on
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their own motion, or on suggestions from the parents, guardians,
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friends, or teachers of the children, competitors for such
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appointment; which teachers shall attend for the information of the
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Aldermen. On which interrogatories the said Aldermen, if they be not
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satisfied with the appointment proposed, shall have right to negative
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it; whereupon the said visiter may proceed to make a new appointment,
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and the said Aldermen again to interrogate and negative, and so
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toties quoties until an appointment be approved.
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SECT. XVII. EVERY boy so appointed shall be authorised to
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proceed to the grammar school of his district, there to be educated
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and boarded during such time as is hereafter limited; and his quota
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of the expences of the house together with a compensation to the
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master or usher for his tuition, at the rate of twenty dollars by the
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year, shall be paid by the Treasurer quarterly on warrant from the
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Auditors.
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SECT. XVIII. A visitation shall be held, for the purpose of
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probation, annually at the said grammar school on the last Monday in
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September, if fair, and if not, then on the next fair day, excluding
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Sunday, at which one third of the boys sent thither by appointment of
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the said overseers, and who shall have been there one year only,
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shall be discontinued as public foundationers, being those who, on
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the most diligent examination and enquiry, shall be thought to be of
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the least promising genius and disposition; and of those who shall
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have been there two years, all shall be discontinued, save one only
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the best in genius and disposition, who shall be at liberty to
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continue there four years longer on the public foundation, and shall
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thence forward be deemed a senior.
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SECT. XIX. THE visiters for the districts which, or any part of
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which, be southward and westward of James river, as known by that
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name, or by the names of Fluvanna and Jackson's river, in every other
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year, to wit, at the probation meetings held in the years,
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distinguished in the Christian computation by odd numbers, and the
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visiters for all the other districts at their said meetings to be
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held in those years, distinguished by even numbers, after diligent
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examination and enquiry as before directed, shall chuse one among the
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said seniors, of the best learning and most hopeful genius and
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disposition, who shall be authorised by them to proceed to William
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and Mary College, there to be educated, boarded, and clothed, three
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years; the expence of which annually shall be paid by the Treasurer
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on warrant from the Auditors.
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_A Bill Declaring Who Shall Be Deemed Citizens of this
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Commonwealth_
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SECTION I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that all
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white persons born within the territory of this commonwealth and all
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who have resided therein two years next before the passing of this
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act, and all who shall hereafter migrate into the same; and shall
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before any court of record give satisfactory proof by their own oath
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or affirmation, that they intend to reside therein, and moreover
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shall give assurance of fidelity to the commonwealth; and all infants
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wheresoever born, whose father, if living, or otherwise, whose mother
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was, a citizen at the time of their birth, or who migrate hither,
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their father, if living, or otherwise their mother becoming a
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citizen, or who migrate hither without father or mother, shall be
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deemed citizens of this commonwealth, until they relinquish that
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character in manner as herein after expressed: And all others not
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being citizens of any the United States of America, shall be deemed
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aliens. The clerk of the court shall enter such oath of record, and
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give the person taking the same a certificate thereof, for which he
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shall receive the fee of one dollar. And in order to preserve to the
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citizens of this commonwealth, that natural right, which all men have
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of relinquishing the country, in which birth, or other accident may
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have thrown them, and, seeking subsistance and happiness wheresoever
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they may be able, or may hope to find them: And to declare
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unequivocably what circumstances shall be deemed evidence of an
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intention in any citizen to exercise that right, it is enacted and
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declared, that whensoever any citizen of this commonwealth, shall by
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word of mouth in the presence of the court of the county, wherein he
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resides, or of the General Court, or by deed in writing, under his
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hand and seal, executed in the presence of three witnesses, and by
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them proved in either of the said courts, openly declare to the same
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court, that he relinquishes the character of a citizen, and shall
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depart the commonwealth; or whensoever he shall without such
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declaration depart the commonwealth and enter into the service of any
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other state, not in enmity with this, or any other of the United
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States of America, or do any act whereby he shall become a subject or
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citizen of such state, such person shall be considered as having
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exercised his natural right of expatriating himself, and shall be
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deemed no citizen of this commonwealth from the time of his
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departure. The free white inhabitants of every of the states,
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parties to the American confederation, paupers, vagabonds and
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fugitives from justice excepted, shall be intitled to all rights,
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privileges, and immunities of free citizens in this commonwealth, and
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shall have free egress, and regress, to and from the same, and shall
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enjoy therein, all the privileges of trade, and commerce, subject to
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the same duties, impositions and restrictions as the citizens of this
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commonwealth. And if any person guilty of, or charged with treason,
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felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any of the said states, shall
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flee from justice and be found in this commonwealth, he shall, upon
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demand of the Governor, or Executive power of the state, from which
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he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the state having
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jurisdiction of his offence. Where any person holding property,
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within this commonwealth, shall be attainted within any of the said
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states, parties to the said confederation, of any of those crimes,
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which by the laws of this commonwealth shall be punishable by
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forfeiture of such property, the said property shall be disposed of
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in the same manner as it would have been if the owner thereof had
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been attainted of the like crime in this commonwealth.
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_Report on Government for Western Territory_
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March 1, 1784
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The committee appointed to prepare a plan for the temporary
|
|
Government of the Western territory have agreed to the following
|
|
resolutions:
|
|
|
|
Resolved that the territory ceded or to be ceded by Individual
|
|
States to the United States whensoever the same shall have been
|
|
purchased of the Indian Inhabitants & offered for sale by the U. S.
|
|
shall be formed into distinct States bounded in the following manner
|
|
as nearly as such cessions will admit, that is to say; Northwardly &
|
|
Southwardly by parallels of latitude so that each state shall
|
|
comprehend from South to North two degrees of latitude beginning to
|
|
count from the completion of thirty-one degrees North of the equator,
|
|
but any territory Northwardly of the 47'th. degree shall make part of
|
|
the state -- below, and Eastwardly & Westwardly they shall be
|
|
bounded, those on the Mississippi by that river on one side and the
|
|
meridian of the lowest point of the rapids of Ohio on the other; and
|
|
those adjoining on the East by the same meridian on their Western
|
|
side, and on their eastern by the meridian of the Western cape of the
|
|
mouth of the Great Kanhaway. And the territory eastward of this last
|
|
meridian between the Ohio, Lake Erie & Pennsylvania shall be one
|
|
state.
|
|
|
|
That the settlers within the territory so to be purchased &
|
|
offered for sale shall, either on their own petition, or on the order
|
|
of Congress, receive authority from them, with appointments of time
|
|
and place for their free males of full age to meet together for the
|
|
purpose of establishing a temporary government, to adopt the
|
|
constitution & laws of any one of these states, so that such laws
|
|
nevertheless shall be subject to alteration by their ordinary
|
|
legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration counties or
|
|
townships for the election of members for their legislature.
|
|
|
|
That such temporary government shall only continue in force in
|
|
any state until it shall have acquired 20,000 free inhabitants, when,
|
|
giving due proof thereof to Congress, they shall receive from them
|
|
authority with appointments of time and place to call a Convention of
|
|
representatives to establish a permanent Constitution & Government
|
|
for themselves.
|
|
|
|
Provided that both the temporary & permanent Governments be
|
|
established on these principles as their basis. 1, That they shall
|
|
forever remain a part of the United States of America. 2, That in
|
|
their persons, property & territory, they shall be subject to the
|
|
Government of the United States in Congress assembled and to the
|
|
articles of confederation in all those cases in which the original
|
|
states shall be so subject. 3, That they shall be subject to pay a
|
|
part of the federal debts contracted or to be contracted to be
|
|
apportioned on them by Congress, according to the same common rule
|
|
and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the
|
|
other states. 4, That their respective Governments shall be in
|
|
republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a citizen, who
|
|
holds any hereditary title. 5, That after the year 1800 of the
|
|
Christian aera, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
|
|
servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than in punishment of
|
|
crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been
|
|
personally guilty.
|
|
|
|
That whenever any of the sd states shall have, of free
|
|
inhabitants as many as shall then be in any one the least numerous of
|
|
the thirteen original states, such state shall be admitted by it's
|
|
delegates into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing
|
|
with the said original states: After which the assent of two thirds
|
|
of the United States in Congress assembled shall be requisite in all
|
|
those cases, wherein by the Confederation the assent of nine States
|
|
is now required. Provided the consent of nine states to such
|
|
admission may be obtained according to the eleventh of the Articles
|
|
of Confederation. Until such admission by their delegates into
|
|
Congress, any of the said states, after the establishment of their
|
|
temporary Government, shall have authority to keep a sitting Member
|
|
in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting.
|
|
|
|
That the territory Northward of the 45'th. degree, that is to
|
|
say of the completion of 45 degrees from the Equator & extending to
|
|
the Lake of the Woods, shall be called SYLVANIA:
|
|
|
|
That of the territory under the 45'th.& 44'th. degrees that
|
|
which lies Westward of Lake Michigan shall be called MICHIGANIA, and
|
|
that which is Eastward thereof within the peninsula formed by the
|
|
lakes & waters of Michigan, Huron, St. Clair and Erie, shall be
|
|
called CHERRONESUS, and shall include any part of the peninsula which
|
|
may extend above the 45th degree.
|
|
|
|
Of the territory under the 43'd & 42'd degrees, that to the
|
|
Westward thro' which the Assenisipi or Rock river runs shall be
|
|
called ASSENISIPIA, and that to the Eastward in which are the
|
|
fountains of the Muskingum, the two Miamis of Ohio, the Wabash, the
|
|
Illinois, the Miami of the lake and Sandusky rivers, shall be called
|
|
METROPOTAMIA.
|
|
|
|
Of the territory which lies under the 41'st. & 40'th. degrees
|
|
the Western, thro which the river Illinois runs, shall be called
|
|
ILLINOIA; that next adjoining to the Eastward SARATOGA, and that
|
|
between this last & Pennsylvania & extending from the Ohio to Lake
|
|
Erie shall be called WASHINGTON.
|
|
|
|
Of the territory which lies under the 39'th.& 38'th. degrees to
|
|
which shall be added so much of the point of land within the fork of
|
|
the Ohio & Missisipi as lies under the 37th. degree, that to the
|
|
Westward within & adjacent to which are the confluences of the rivers
|
|
Wabash, Shawanee, Tanisse, Ohio, Illinois, Missisipi & Missouri,
|
|
shall be called POLYPOTAMIA, and that to the Eastward farther up the
|
|
Ohio otherwise called the PELISIPI shall be called PELISIPIA.
|
|
|
|
That the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter of
|
|
Compact, shall be duly executed by the President of the U. S. in
|
|
Congress assembled under his hand and the seal of the United States,
|
|
shall be promulgated, and shall stand as fundamental constitutions
|
|
between the thirteen original States, & those now newly described
|
|
unalterable but by the joint consent of the U. S. in Congress
|
|
assembled and of the particular state within which such alteration is
|
|
proposed to be made.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Observations on the Whale-Fishery_
|
|
|
|
Whale oil enters, as a raw material, into several branches of
|
|
manufacture, as of wool, leather, soap: it is used also in painting,
|
|
architecture and navigation. But its great consumption is in
|
|
lighting houses and cities. For this last purpose however it has a
|
|
powerful competitor in the vegetable oils. These do well in warm,
|
|
still weather, but they fix with cold, they extinguish easily with
|
|
the wind, their crop is precarious, depending on the seasons, and to
|
|
yield the same light, a larger wick must be used, and greater
|
|
quantity of oil consumed. Estimating all these articles of
|
|
difference together, those employed in lighting cities find their
|
|
account in giving about 25 per cent. more for whale than for
|
|
vegetable oils. But higher than this the whale oil, in its present
|
|
form, cannot rise; because it then becomes more advantageous to the
|
|
city-lighters to use others. This competition then limits its price,
|
|
higher than which no encouragement can raise it, and becomes, as it
|
|
were, a law of its nature, but, at this low price, the whale fishery
|
|
is the poorest business into which a merchant or sailor can enter.
|
|
If the sailor, instead of wages, has a part of what is taken, he
|
|
finds that this, one year with another, yields him less than he could
|
|
have got as wages in any other business. It is attended too with
|
|
great risk, singular hardships, and long absences from his family.
|
|
If the voyage is made solely at the expence of the merchant, he finds
|
|
that, one year with another, it does not reimburse him his expences.
|
|
As, for example, an English ship of 300 ton, and 42. hands brings
|
|
home, communibus annis, after a four months voyage, 25. ton of oil,
|
|
worth 437l. 10s. sterl. but the wages of the officers and seamen will
|
|
be 400l. The Outfit then and the merchant's profit must be paid by
|
|
the government. And it is accordingly on this idea that the British
|
|
bounty is calculated. From the poverty of this business then it has
|
|
happened that the nations, who have taken it up, have successively
|
|
abandoned it. The Basques began it. But, tho' the most economical
|
|
and enterprising of the inhabitants of France, they could not
|
|
continue it; and it is said they never employed more than 30. ships a
|
|
year. The Dutch and Hanse towns succeeded them. The latter gave it
|
|
up long ago tho' they have continued to lend their name to British
|
|
and Dutch oils. The English carried it on, in competition with the
|
|
Dutch, during the last, and beginning of the present century. But it
|
|
was too little profitable for them in comparison with other branches
|
|
of commerce open to them. In the mean time too the inhabitants of
|
|
the barren Island of Nantucket had taken up this fishery, invited to
|
|
it by the whales presenting themselves on their own shore. To them
|
|
therefore the English relinquished it, continuing to them, as British
|
|
subjects, the importation of their oils into England duty free, while
|
|
foreigners were subject to a duty of 18l. 5s. sterl. a ton. The
|
|
Dutch were enabled to continue it long, because, 1. They are so near
|
|
the northern fishing grounds, that a vessel begins her fishing very
|
|
soon after she is out of port. 2. They navigate with more economy
|
|
than the other nations of Europe. 3. Their seamen are content with
|
|
lower wages: and 4. their merchants with a lower profit on their
|
|
capital. Under all these favorable circumstances however, this
|
|
branch of business, after long languishing, is at length nearly
|
|
extinct with them. It is said they did not send above half a dozen
|
|
ships in pursuit of the whale this present year. The Nantuckois then
|
|
were the only people who exercised this fishery to any extent at the
|
|
commencement of the late war. Their country, from its barrenness,
|
|
yielding no subsistence, they were obliged to seek it in the sea
|
|
which surrounded them. Their economy was more rigorous than that of
|
|
the Dutch. Their seamen, instead of wages, had a share in what was
|
|
taken. This induced them to fish with fewer hands, so that each had
|
|
a greater dividend in the profit. It made them more vigilant in
|
|
seeking game, bolder in pursuing it, and parcimonious in all their
|
|
expences. London was their only market. When therefore, by the late
|
|
revolution, they became aliens in great Britain, they became subject
|
|
to the alien duty of 18l. 5s. the ton of oil, which being more than
|
|
equal to the price of the common whale oil, they were obliged to
|
|
abandon that fishery. So that this people, who before the war had
|
|
employed upwards of 300 vessels a year in the whale fishery, (while
|
|
great Britain had herself never employed one hundred) have now almost
|
|
ceased to exercise it. But they still had the seamen, the most
|
|
important material for this fishery; and they still retained the
|
|
spirit of fishing: so that at the reestablishment of peace they were
|
|
capable in a very short time of reviving their fishery in all its
|
|
splendor. The British government saw that the moment was critical.
|
|
They knew that their own share in that fishery was as nothing. That
|
|
the great mass of fishermen was left with a nation now separated from
|
|
them: that these fishermen however had lost their ancient market, had
|
|
no other resource within their country to which they could turn, and
|
|
they hoped therefore they might, in the present moment of distress,
|
|
be decoyed over to their establishments, and be added to the mass of
|
|
their seamen. To effect this they offered extravagant advantages to
|
|
all persons who should exercise the whale fishery from British
|
|
establishments. But not counting with much confidence on a long
|
|
connection with their remaining possessions on the continent of
|
|
America, foreseeing that the Nantuckois would settle in them
|
|
preferably, if put on an equal footing with those of great Britain,
|
|
and that thus they might have to purchase them a second time, they
|
|
confined their high offers to settlers in Great Britain. The
|
|
Nantuckois, left without resource by the loss of their market, began
|
|
to think of removing to the British dominions: some to Nova Scotia,
|
|
preferring smaller advantages, in the neighbourhood of their ancient
|
|
country and friends; others to great Britain postponing country and
|
|
friends to high premiums. A vessel was already arrived from Halifax
|
|
to Nantucket to take off some of those who proposed to remove; two
|
|
families had gone on board and others were going, when a letter was
|
|
received there, which had been written by Monsieur le Marquis de la
|
|
Fayette to a gentleman in Boston, and transmitted by him to
|
|
Nantucket. The purport of the letter was to dissuade their accepting
|
|
the British proposals, and to assure them that their friends in
|
|
France would endeavour to do something for them. This instantly
|
|
suspended their design: not another went on board, and the vessel
|
|
returned to Halifax with only the two families.
|
|
|
|
In fact the French Government had not been inattentive to the
|
|
views of the British, nor insensible of the crisis. They saw the
|
|
danger of permitting five or six thousand of the best seamen existing
|
|
to be transferred by a single stroke to the marine strength of their
|
|
enemy, and to carry over with them an art which they possessed almost
|
|
exclusively. The counterplan which they set on foot was to tempt the
|
|
Nantuckois by high offers to come and settle in France. This was in
|
|
the year 1785. The British however had in their favour a sameness of
|
|
language, religion, laws, habits and kindred. 9 families only, of 33
|
|
persons in the whole came to Dunkirk; so that this project was not
|
|
likely to prevent their emigration to the English establishments, if
|
|
nothing else had happened.
|
|
|
|
France had effectually aided in detaching the U. S. of America
|
|
from the _force_ of Great Britain. But as yet they seemed to have
|
|
indulged only a silent wish to detach them from her _commerce_. They
|
|
had done nothing to induce that event. In the same year 1785, while
|
|
M. de Calonne was in treaty, with the Nantuckois, an estimate of the
|
|
commerce of the U. S. was submitted to the count de Vergennes, and it
|
|
was shewn that, of 3. millions of pounds sterling to which their
|
|
exports amounted, one third might be brought to France and exchanged
|
|
against her productions and manufactures advantageously for both
|
|
nations, provided the obstacles of prohibition, monopoly, and duty
|
|
were either done away or moderated as far as circumstances would
|
|
admit. A committee, which had been appointed to investigate a
|
|
particular one of these subjects, was thereupon instructed to extend
|
|
its researches to the whole, and see what advantages and facilities
|
|
the Government could offer for the encouragement of a general
|
|
commerce with the United States. The Committee was composed of
|
|
persons well skilled in commerce; and, after labouring assiduously
|
|
for several months, they made their report: the result of which was
|
|
given in the letter of his Majesty's Comptroller General of the 2d of
|
|
Octob. 1786. wherein he stated the principles which should be
|
|
established for the future regulation of the commerce between France
|
|
and the United States. It was become tolerably evident, at the date
|
|
of this letter, that the terms offered to the Nantuckois would not
|
|
produce their emigration to Dunkirk; and that it would be safest in
|
|
every event to offer some other alternative which might prevent their
|
|
acceptance of the British offers. The obvious one was to open the
|
|
ports of France to their oils, so that they might still exercise
|
|
their fishery, remaining in their native country, and find a new
|
|
market for its produce instead of that which they had lost. The
|
|
article of Whale oil was accordingly distinguished, in the letter of
|
|
M. de Calonne, by an immediate abatement of duty, and promise of
|
|
further abatement after the year 1790. This letter was instantly
|
|
sent to America, and bid fair to produce there the effect intended,
|
|
by determining the fishermen to carry on their trade from their own
|
|
homes, with the advantage only of a free market in France, rather
|
|
than remove to Great Britain where a free market and great bounty
|
|
were offered them. An Arret was still to be prepared to give legal
|
|
sanction to the letter of M. de Calonne. M. Lambert, with a patience
|
|
and assiduity almost unexampled, went through all the investigations
|
|
necessary to assure himself that the conclusions of the Committee had
|
|
been just. Frequent conferences on this subject were held in his
|
|
presence; the Deputies of the Chambers of Commerce were heard, and
|
|
the result was the Arret of Dec. 29. 1787. confirming the abatements
|
|
of duty present and future, which the letter of Octob. 1786. had
|
|
promised, and reserving to his Majesty to grant still further favours
|
|
to that production, if on further information he should find it for
|
|
the interest of the two Nations.
|
|
|
|
The English had now begun to deluge the markets of France with
|
|
their whale oils: and they were enabled by the great premiums given
|
|
by their Government to undersell the French fisherman, aided by
|
|
feebler premiums, and the American aided by his poverty alone. Nor
|
|
is it certain that these speculations were not made at the risk of
|
|
the British Government, to suppress the French and American fishermen
|
|
in their only market. Some remedy seemed necessary. Perhaps it
|
|
would not have been a bad one to subject, by a general law, the
|
|
merchandize of every nation and of every nature to pay additional
|
|
duties in the ports of France exactly equal to the premiums and
|
|
drawbacks given on the same merchandise by their own government.
|
|
This might not only counteract the effect of premium in the instance
|
|
of whale oils, but attack the whole British system of bounties and
|
|
drawbacks by the aid of which they make London the center of commerce
|
|
for the whole earth. A less general remedy, but an effectual one,
|
|
was to prohibit the oils of all _European_ nations: the treaty with
|
|
England requiring only that she should be treated as well as the most
|
|
favoured _European_ nation. But the remedy adopted was to prohibit
|
|
all oils without exception.
|
|
|
|
To know how this remedy will operate we must consider the
|
|
quantity of whale oil which France consumes annually, the quantity
|
|
she obtains from her own fishery; and if she obtains less than she
|
|
consumes, we are to consider what will follow this prohibition.
|
|
|
|
The annual consumption of France, as stated by a person who has
|
|
good opportunities of knowing it, is as follows.
|
|
|
|
_pesant_. _quintaux_. _tons_.
|
|
Paris according to the
|
|
registers of 1786 . . . . 2,800,000 28,000 1750
|
|
27. other cities lighted by
|
|
M. Sangrain . . . . . . . 800,000 8,000 500
|
|
Rouen . . . . . . . . . . . 500,000 5,000 312 1/2
|
|
Bordeaux . . . . . . . . . 600,000 6,000 375
|
|
Lyon . . . . . . . . . . . 300,000 3,000 187 1/2
|
|
Other cities, leather and
|
|
light 3,000,000 30,000 1875
|
|
---------- ------ ------
|
|
8,000,000 80,000 5000
|
|
|
|
Other calculations, reduce the consumption to about half this.
|
|
It is treating these with sufficient respect to place them on an
|
|
equal footing with the estimate of the person before alluded to, and
|
|
to suppose the truth half way between them. We will call then the
|
|
present consumption of France only 60,000 quintals, or 3750 ton a
|
|
year. This consumption is increasing fast as the practice of
|
|
lighting cities is becoming more general, and the superior advantages
|
|
of lighting them with whale oil are but now beginning to be known.
|
|
|
|
What do the fisheries of France furnish? she has employed this
|
|
year 15. vessels in the Southern, and 2 in the Northern fishery,
|
|
carrying 4500 tons in the whole or 265 each on an average. The
|
|
English ships, led by Nantuckois as well as the French, have as I am
|
|
told never averaged, in the Southern fishery, more than one fifth of
|
|
their burthen, in the best year. The 15 ships of France, according
|
|
to this ground of calculation, and supposing the present to have been
|
|
one of the best years, should have brought, one with another, one
|
|
fifth of 265 tons, or 53 tons each. But we are told they have
|
|
brought near the double of that, to wit 100 tons each and 1500 tons
|
|
in the whole. Supposing the 2. Northern vessels to have brought home
|
|
the cargo which is common from the Northern fishery, to wit, 25 tons
|
|
each, the whole produce this year will then be 1550 tons. This is 5
|
|
1/2 months provision or two fifths of the annual consumption. To
|
|
furnish for the whole year, would require 40 ships of the same size,
|
|
in years as fortunate as the present, and 85 communibus annis, 44
|
|
tons, or one sixth of the burthen, being as high an average as should
|
|
be counted on, one year with another: and the number must be
|
|
increased with the increasing consumption. France then is evidently
|
|
not yet in a condition to supply her own wants. It is said indeed
|
|
she has a large stock on hand unsold occasioned by the English
|
|
competition. 33,000 quintals, including this year's produce, are
|
|
spoken of. This is between 6. and 7. months provision: and
|
|
supposing, by the time this is exhausted, that the next year's supply
|
|
comes in, that will enable her to go on 5. or 6. months longer; say a
|
|
twelvemonth in the whole. But, at the end of the twelvemonth, what
|
|
is to be done? The Manufactures depending on this article cannot
|
|
maintain their competition against those of other countries, if
|
|
deprived of their equal means. When the alternative then shall be
|
|
presented of letting them drop, or opening the ports to foreign whale
|
|
oil, it is presumable the latter will be adopted, as the lesser evil.
|
|
But it will be too late for America: her fishery, annihilated during
|
|
the late war, only began to raise its head on the prospect of market
|
|
held out by this country. Crushed by the Arret of Sept. 28. in its
|
|
first feeble effort to revive, it will rise no more. Expeditions,
|
|
which require the expence of the outfit of vessels, and from 9. to 12
|
|
months navigation, as the Southern fishery does, most frequented by
|
|
the Americans, cannot be undertaken in sole reliance on a market
|
|
which is opened and shut from one day to another, with little or no
|
|
warning. The English alone then will remain to furnish these
|
|
supplies, and they must be received even from them. We must accept
|
|
bread from our enemies, if our friends cannot furnish it. This comes
|
|
exactly to the point to which that government has been looking. She
|
|
fears no rival in the whale fishery but America. Or rather, it is
|
|
the whale fishery of America of which she is endeavouring to possess
|
|
herself. It is for this object she is making the present
|
|
extraordinary efforts by bounties and other encouragements: and her
|
|
success so far is very flattering. Before the war she had not 100
|
|
vessels in the whale trade, while America employed 309. In 1786.
|
|
Great Britain employed 151 vessels, in 1787. 286. in 1788. 314.
|
|
nearly the ancient American number; while the latter is fallen to
|
|
about 80. They have just changed places then, England having gained
|
|
exactly what America has lost. France by her ports and markets holds
|
|
the balance between the two contending parties, and gives the
|
|
victory, by opening and shutting them, to which she pleases. We have
|
|
still precious remains of seamen educated in this fishery, and
|
|
capable by their poverty, their boldness and address, of recovering
|
|
it from the English, in spite of their bounties. But this Arret
|
|
endangers the transferring to Great Britain every man of them who is
|
|
not invincibly attached to his native soil. There is no other nation
|
|
in present condition to maintain a competition with Great Britain in
|
|
the whale fishery. The expence at which it is supported on her part
|
|
seems enormous. 255 vessels, of 75,436 tons, employed by her this
|
|
year in the Northern fishery, at 42 men each; and 59. in the Southern
|
|
at 18 men each makes 11,772 men. These are known to have cost the
|
|
government 15l. each, or 176,580l. in the whole, and that to employ
|
|
the principal part of them from 3. to 4. months only. The Northern
|
|
ships have brought home 20. and the Southern 60. tons of oil on an
|
|
average, making 8,640 tons, every ton of oil then has cost the
|
|
government 20l. in bounty. Still, if they can beat us out of the
|
|
field and have it to themselves, they will think their money well
|
|
employed. If France undertakes solely the competition against them,
|
|
she must do it at equal expence. The trade is too poor to support
|
|
itself. The 85 ships necessary to supply even her present
|
|
consumption, bountied as the English are, will require a sacrifice of
|
|
1,285,200 livres a year, to maintain 3,570 seamen, and that a part of
|
|
the year only. And if she will push it to 12,000 men in competition
|
|
with England, she must sacrifice, as they do, 4. or 5. millions a
|
|
year. The same number of men might, with the same bounty, be kept in
|
|
as constant employ carrying stone from Bayonne to Cherburg, or coal
|
|
from Newcastle to Havre, in which navigations they would be always at
|
|
hand, and become as good seamen. The English consider among their
|
|
best sailors those employed in carrying coal from Newcastle to
|
|
London. France cannot expect to raise her fishery, even to the
|
|
supply of her own consumption, in one year or in several years. Is
|
|
it not better then, by keeping her ports open to the U. S. to enable
|
|
them to aid in maintaining the field against the common adversary,
|
|
till she shall be in condition to take it herself, and to supply her
|
|
own wants? Otherwise her supplies must aliment that very force which
|
|
is keeping her under. On our part, we can never be dangerous
|
|
competitors to France. The extent to which we can exercise this
|
|
fishery is limited to that of the barren island of Nantucket, and a
|
|
few similar barren spots; its duration to the pleasure of this
|
|
government, as we have no other market.
|
|
|
|
A material observation must be added here. Sudden vicissitudes
|
|
of opening and shutting ports, do little injury to merchants settled
|
|
on the opposite coast, watching for the opening, like the return of a
|
|
tide, and ready to enter with it. But they ruin the adventurer whose
|
|
distance requires 6 months notice. Those who are now arriving from
|
|
America, in consequence of the Arret of Dec. 29. will consider it as
|
|
the false light which has led them to their ruin. They will be apt
|
|
to say that they come to the ports of France by invitation of that
|
|
Arret, that the subsequent one of Sept. 28. which drives them from
|
|
those ports, founds itself on a single principle, viz. `that the
|
|
prohibition of foreign oils is the most useful encouragement which
|
|
can be given to that branch of industry.' They will say that, if this
|
|
be a true principle, it was as true on the 29th. of Dec. 1787. as on
|
|
the 28th. of Sept. 1788. It was then weighed against other motives,
|
|
judged weaker, and over-ruled, and it is hard it should be now
|
|
revived to ruin them.
|
|
|
|
The Refinery for whale oil lately established at Rouen, seems
|
|
to be an object worthy of national attention. In order to judge of
|
|
its importance, the different qualities of whale oil must be noted.
|
|
Three qualities are known in the American and English markets. 1.
|
|
That of the Spermaceti whale. 2. Of the Groenland whale. 3. Of the
|
|
Brazil whale. 1. The Spermaceti whale found by the Nantucketmen in
|
|
the neighbourhood of the western Islands, to which they had gone in
|
|
pursuit of other whales, retired thence to the coast of Guinea,
|
|
afterwards to that of Brazil, and begins now to be best found in the
|
|
latitude of the cape of good hope, and even of cape Horn. He is an
|
|
active, fierce animal and requires vast address and boldness in the
|
|
fisherman. The inhabitants of Brazil make little expeditions from
|
|
their coast, and take some of these fish. But the Americans are the
|
|
only distant people who have been in the habit of seeking and
|
|
attacking them in numbers. The British however, led by the
|
|
Nantuckois whom they have decoyed into their service, have begun this
|
|
fishery. In 1785 they had 18 ships in it; in 1787, 38: in 1788, 54.
|
|
or as some say 64. I have calculated on the middle number 59. Still
|
|
they take but a very small proportion of their own demand. We
|
|
furnish the rest. Theirs is the only market to which we carry that
|
|
oil, because it is the only one where its properties are known. It
|
|
is luminous, resists coagulation by cold to the 41st. degree of
|
|
Farenheit's thermometer, and 4th. of Reaumur's, and yields no smell
|
|
at all. It is used therefore within doors to lighten shops, and even
|
|
in the richest houses for antichambers, stairs, galleries, &c. it
|
|
sells at the London market for treble the price of common whale oil.
|
|
This enables the adventurer to pay the duty of 18l. 5s. sterl. the
|
|
ton, and still to have a living profit. Besides the mass of oil
|
|
produced from the whole body of the whale, his head yields 3. or 4.
|
|
barrels of what is called head-matter, from which is made the solid
|
|
Spermaceti used for medicine and candles. This sells by the pound at
|
|
double the price of the oil. The disadvantage of this fishery is
|
|
that the sailors are from 9. to 12. months absent on the voyage, of
|
|
course they are not at hand on any sudden emergency, and are even
|
|
liable to be taken before they know that a war is begun. It must be
|
|
added on the subject of this whale, that he is rare, and shy, soon
|
|
abandoning the grounds where he is hunted. This fishery being less
|
|
losing than the other, and often profitable, will occasion it to be
|
|
so thronged soon, as to bring it on a level with the other. It will
|
|
then require the same expensive support, or to be abandoned.
|
|
|
|
2. The Groenland whale oil is next in quality. It resists
|
|
coagulation by cold to 36 degrees of Farenheit and 2 degrees of
|
|
Reaumur; but it has a smell insupportable within doors, and is not
|
|
luminous. It sells therefore in London at about 16l. the ton. This
|
|
whale is clumsy and timid, he dives when struck, and comes up to
|
|
breathe by the first cake of ice, where the fishermen need little
|
|
address or courage to find and take him. This is the fishery mostly
|
|
frequented by European nations; it is this fish which yields the fin
|
|
in quantity, and the voyages last about 3. or 4. months.
|
|
|
|
3. The third quality is that of the small Brazil whale. He was
|
|
originally found on the coast of Nantucket, and first led that people
|
|
to this pursuit. He retired first to the banks of Newfoundland, then
|
|
to the western islands; and is now found within soundings on the
|
|
coast of Brazil, during the months of December, January, February and
|
|
March. This oil chills at 50 degrees of Farenheit and 8 degrees of
|
|
Reaumur, is black and offensive, worth therefore but 13l. the ton in
|
|
London. In warm summer nights however it burns better than the
|
|
Groenland oil.
|
|
|
|
The qualities of the oils thus described, it is to be added
|
|
that an individual has discovered methods 1. of converting a great
|
|
part of the oil of the spermaceti whale into the solid substance
|
|
called spermaceti, heretofore produced from his head alone. 2. Of
|
|
refining the Groenland whale oil, so as to take from it all smell and
|
|
render it limpid and luminous, as that of the spermaceti whale. 3.
|
|
of curdling the oil of the Brazil whale into tallow, resembling that
|
|
of the beef, and answering all its purposes. This person is engaged
|
|
by the company which has established the Refinery at Rouen: their
|
|
works will cost them half a million of livres, will be able to refine
|
|
all the oil which can be used in the kingdom, and even to supply
|
|
foreign markets. -- The effect of this refinery then would be 1. to
|
|
supplant the solid spermaceti of all other nations by theirs of equal
|
|
quality and lower price. 2. to substitute, instead of spermaceti
|
|
oil, their black whale oil, refined, of equal quality and lower
|
|
price. 3. to render the worthless oil of the Brazil whale equal in
|
|
value to tallow: and 4. by accomodating these oils to uses, to which
|
|
they could never otherwise have been applied, they will extend the
|
|
demand beyond its present narrow limits to any supply which can be
|
|
furnished, and thus give the most effectual encouragement and
|
|
extension to the whale fishery. But these works were calculated on
|
|
the Arret of Dec. 29. which admitted here freely and fully the
|
|
produce of the American fishery. If confined to that of the French
|
|
fishery alone, the enterprise may fail for want of matter to work on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After this review of the whale fishery as a Political
|
|
institution, a few considerations shall be added on its produce as a
|
|
basis of Commercial exchange between France and the United-States.
|
|
The discussions it has undergone on former occasions, in this point
|
|
of view, leaves little new to be now urged.
|
|
|
|
The United-States not possessing mines of the precious metals,
|
|
they can purchase necessaries from other nations so far only as their
|
|
produce is received in exchange. Without enumerating our smaller
|
|
articles, we have three of principal importance, proper for the
|
|
French market, to wit, Tobacco, whale oil, and rice. The first and
|
|
most important is Tobacco. This might furnish an exchange for 8.
|
|
millions of the productions of this country: but it is under a
|
|
monopoly, and that not of a mercantile, but a financiering company,
|
|
whose interest is to pay in money, and not in merchandise; and who
|
|
are so much governed by the spirit of simplifying their purchases and
|
|
proceedings, that they find means to elude every endeavour on the
|
|
part of government to make them diffuse their purchases among the
|
|
merchants in general. Little profit is derived from this then as an
|
|
article of exchange for the produce and manufactures of France.
|
|
Whale oil might be next in importance; but that is now prohibited.
|
|
American Rice is not yet of great, but it is of growing consumption
|
|
in France, and being the only article of the three which is free, it
|
|
may become a principal basis of exchange. Time and trial may add a
|
|
fourth, that is, timber. But some essays, rendered unsuccessful by
|
|
unfortunate circumstances, place that at present under a discredit,
|
|
which it will be found hereafter not to have merited. The English
|
|
know its value, and were supplied with it before the war. A spirit
|
|
of hostility, since that event, led them to seek Russian rather than
|
|
American supplies. A new spirit of hostility has driven them back
|
|
from Russia, and they are now making contracts for American timber.
|
|
But of the three articles before mentioned, proved by experience to
|
|
be suitable for the French market, one is prohibited, one under
|
|
monopoly, and one alone free, and that the smallest and of very
|
|
limited consumption. The way to encourage purchasers is to multiply
|
|
their means of payment. Whale oil might be an important one. In one
|
|
scale is the interest of the millions who are lighted, shod or
|
|
clothed with the help of it, and the thousands of labourers and
|
|
manufacturers who would be employed in producing the articles which
|
|
might be given in exchange for it, if received from America. In the
|
|
other scale are the interests of the adventurers in the whale
|
|
fishery; each of whom indeed, politically considered may be of more
|
|
importance to the state than a simple labourer or manufacturer: but
|
|
to make the estimate with the accuracy it merits, we should multiply
|
|
the numbers in each scale into their individual importance, and see
|
|
which preponderates.
|
|
|
|
Both governments have seen with concern that their commercial
|
|
intercourse does not grow as rapidly as they would wish. The system
|
|
of the United States is to use neither prohibitions nor premiums.
|
|
Commerce there regulates itself freely, and asks nothing better.
|
|
Where a government finds itself under the necessity of undertaking
|
|
that regulation, it would seem that it should conduct it as an
|
|
intelligent merchant would: that is to say, invite customers to
|
|
purchase, by facilitating their means of payment, and by adapting
|
|
goods to their taste. If this idea be just, government here has two
|
|
operations to attend to, with respect to the commerce of the United
|
|
States. 1. To do away, or to moderate, as much as possible, the
|
|
prohibitions and monopolies of their materials for payment. 2. To
|
|
encourage the institution of the principal manufactures which the
|
|
necessities, or the habits of their new customers call for. Under
|
|
this latter head a hint shall be suggested which must find its
|
|
apology in the motive from which it flows, that is, a desire of
|
|
promoting mutual interests and close friendship. 600,000 of the
|
|
labouring poor of America, comprehending slaves under that
|
|
denomination, are clothed in three of the simplest manufactures
|
|
possible, to wit, Oznabrigs, Plains, and Duffel blankets. The first
|
|
is a linen, the two last woollens. It happens too that they are used
|
|
exactly by those who cultivate the tobacco and rice and in a good
|
|
degree by those employed in the whale fishery. To these manufactures
|
|
they are so habituated, that no substitute will be received. If the
|
|
vessels which bring tobacco, rice and whale oil, do not find them in
|
|
the ports of delivery, they must be sought where they can be found.
|
|
That is in England at present. If they were made in France they
|
|
would be gladly taken in exchange there. The quantities annually
|
|
used by this description of people, and their value are as follows.
|
|
|
|
Oznabrigs 2,700,000 aunes a 16. sous the aune
|
|
worth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,160,000l.
|
|
Plains 1,350,000 aunes a 2. livres the aune . . 2,700,000
|
|
Duffel blankets 300,000 a 7livres. 4sous. each . 2,160,000
|
|
---------
|
|
7,020,000
|
|
|
|
It would be difficult to say how much should be added for the
|
|
consumption of inhabitants of other descriptions. A great deal
|
|
surely. But the present view shall be confined to the one
|
|
description named. 7 millions of livres, are 9 millions of days work
|
|
of those who raise card, spin and weave the wool and flax; and at 300
|
|
working days to the year, would maintain 30,000 people. To introduce
|
|
these simple manufactures suppose government to give 5 per cent. on
|
|
the value of what should be exported of them, for 10. years to come.
|
|
If none should be exported, nothing would be to be paid; but on the
|
|
other hand, if the manufactures, with this encouragement should rise
|
|
to the full demand, it will be a sacrifice of 351,000livres. a year
|
|
for 10. years only, to produce a perpetual subsistence for more than
|
|
30,000 people, (for the demand will grow with our population) while
|
|
she must expend perpetually 1,285,000livres. a year to maintain the
|
|
3,570 seamen, who would supply her with whale oil: that is to say,
|
|
for each seaman as much as for 30. labourers and manufacturers.
|
|
|
|
But to return to our subject, and to conclude.
|
|
|
|
Whether then we consider the Arret of Sept. 28. in a political
|
|
or a commercial light, it would seem that the U. S. should be
|
|
excepted from its operation. Still more so when they invoke against
|
|
it the amity subsisting between the two nations, the desire of
|
|
binding them together by every possible interest and connection, the
|
|
several acts in favour of this exception, the dignity of legislation
|
|
which admits not of changes backwards and forwards, the interests of
|
|
commerce which require steady regulations, the assurances of the
|
|
friendly motives which have led the king to pass these acts, and the
|
|
hope that no cause will arise to change either his motives or his
|
|
measures towards us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and
|
|
Measures of the United States_
|
|
|
|
COMMUNICATED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
|
|
JULY 13, 1790
|
|
|
|
New York, July 4, 1790
|
|
|
|
Sir: -- In obedience to the order of the House of
|
|
Representatives of January 15th, I have now the honor to enclose you
|
|
a report on the subject of measures, weights, and coins. The length
|
|
of time which intervened between the date of the order and my arrival
|
|
in this city, prevented my receiving it till the 15th of April; and
|
|
an illness which followed soon after added, unavoidably, some weeks
|
|
to the delay; so that it was not till about the 20th May that I was
|
|
able to finish the report. A desire to lessen the number of its
|
|
imperfections induced me still to withhold it awhile, till, on the
|
|
15th of June, came to my hands, from Paris, a printed copy of a
|
|
proposition made by the Bishop of Autun, to the National Assembly of
|
|
France, on the subject of weights and measures; and three days
|
|
afterwards I received, through the channel of the public papers, the
|
|
speech of Sir John Riggs Miller, of April 13th, in the British House
|
|
of Commons, on the same subject. In the report which I had prepared,
|
|
and was then about to give in, I had proposed the latitude of 38
|
|
degrees, as that which should fix our standard, because it was the
|
|
medium latitude of the United States; but the proposition before the
|
|
National Assembly of France, to take that of 45 degrees as being a
|
|
middle term between the equator and both poles, and a term which
|
|
consequently might unite the nations of both hemispheres, appeared to
|
|
me so well chosen, and so just, that I did not hesitate a moment to
|
|
prefer it to that of 38 degrees. It became necessary, of course, to
|
|
conform all my calculations to that standard -- an operation which
|
|
has been retarded by my other occupations.
|
|
|
|
These circumstances will, I hope, apologize for the delay which
|
|
has attended the execution of the order of the House; and, perhaps, a
|
|
disposition on their part to have due regard for the proceedings of
|
|
other nations, engaged on the same subject, may induce them still to
|
|
defer deciding ultimately on it till their next session. Should this
|
|
be the case, and should any new matter occur in the meantime, I shall
|
|
think it my duty to communicate it to the House, as supplemental to
|
|
the present report.
|
|
|
|
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most profound
|
|
respect,
|
|
Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.
|
|
|
|
The Secretary of State, to whom was referred, by the House of
|
|
Representatives, to prepare and report a proper plan or plans for
|
|
establishing uniformity in the currency, weights, and measures of the
|
|
United States, in obedience thereto, makes the following report: --
|
|
|
|
To obtain uniformity in measures, weights, and coins, it is
|
|
necessary to find some measure of invariable length, with which, as a
|
|
standard, they may be compared.
|
|
|
|
There exists not in nature, as far as has been hitherto
|
|
observed, a single subject or species of subject, accessible to man,
|
|
which presents one constant and uniform dimension.
|
|
|
|
The globe of the earth itself, indeed, might be considered as
|
|
invariable in all its dimensions, and that its circumference would
|
|
furnish an invariable measure; but no one of its circles, great or
|
|
small, is accessible to admeasurement through all its parts, and the
|
|
various trials to measure definite portions of them, have been of
|
|
such various result as to show there is no dependence on that
|
|
operation for certainty.
|
|
|
|
Matter, then, by its mere extension, furnishing nothing
|
|
invariable, its motion is the only remaining resource.
|
|
|
|
The motion of the earth round its axis, though not absolutely
|
|
uniform and invariable, may be considered as such for every human
|
|
purpose. It is measured obviously, but unequally, by the departure
|
|
of a given meridian from the sun, and its return to it, constituting
|
|
a solar day. Throwing together the inequalities of solar days, a
|
|
mean interval, or day, has been found, and divided, by very general
|
|
consent, into 86,400 equal parts.
|
|
|
|
A pendulum, vibrating freely, in small and equal arcs, may be
|
|
so adjusted in its length, as, by its vibrations, to make this
|
|
division of the earth's motion into 86,400 equal parts, called
|
|
seconds of mean time.
|
|
|
|
Such a pendulum, then, becomes itself a measure of determinate
|
|
length, to which all others may be referred to as to a standard.
|
|
|
|
But even a pendulum is not without its uncertainties.
|
|
|
|
1. The difficulty of ascertaining, in practice, its centre of
|
|
oscillation, as depending on the form of the bob, and its distance
|
|
from the point of suspension; the effect of the weight of the
|
|
suspending wire towards displacing the centre of oscillation; that
|
|
centre being seated within the body of the bob, and therefore
|
|
inaccessible to the measure, are sources of considerable uncertainty.
|
|
|
|
2. Both theory and experience prove that, to preserve its
|
|
isochronism, it must be shorter towards the equator, and longer
|
|
towards the poles.
|
|
|
|
3. The height of the situation above the common level, as being
|
|
an increment to the radius of the earth, diminishes the length of the
|
|
pendulum.
|
|
|
|
4. The pendulum being made of metal, as is best, it varies its
|
|
length with the variations in the temperature of the atmosphere.
|
|
|
|
5. To continue small and equal vibrations, through a sufficient
|
|
length of time, and to count these vibrations, machinery and a power
|
|
are necessary, which may exert a small but constant effort to renew
|
|
the waste of motion; and the difficulty is so to apply these, as that
|
|
they shall neither retard or accelerate the vibrations.
|
|
|
|
1. In order to avoid the uncertainties which respect the centre
|
|
of oscillation, it has been proposed by Mr. Leslie, an ingenious
|
|
artist of Philadelphia, to substitute, for the pendulum, a uniform
|
|
cylindrical rod, without a bob.
|
|
|
|
Could the diameter of such a rod be infinitely small, the
|
|
centre of oscillation would be exactly at two-thirds of the whole
|
|
length, measured from the point of suspension. Giving it a diameter
|
|
which shall render it sufficiently inflexible, the centre will be
|
|
displaced, indeed; but, in a second rod not the (1) six hundred
|
|
thousandth part of its length, and not the hundredth part as much as
|
|
in a second pendulum with a spherical bob of proper diameter. This
|
|
displacement is so infinitely minute, then, that we may consider the
|
|
centre of oscillation, for all practical purposes, as residing at
|
|
two-thirds of the length from the centre of suspension. The distance
|
|
between these two centres might be easily and accurately ascertained
|
|
in practice. But the whole rod is better for a standard than any
|
|
portion of it, because sensibly defined at both its extremities.
|
|
|
|
2. The uncertainty arising from the difference of length
|
|
requisite for the second pendulum, or the second rod, in different
|
|
latitudes, may be avoided by fixing on some one latitude, to which
|
|
our standard shall refer. That of 38 degrees as being the middle
|
|
latitude of the United States, might seem the most convenient, were
|
|
we to consider ourselves alone; but connected with other nations by
|
|
commerce and science, it is better to fix on that parallel which bids
|
|
fairest to be adopted by them also. The 45th, as being the middle
|
|
term between the equator and pole, has been heretofore proposed in
|
|
Europe, and the proposition has been lately renewed there under
|
|
circumstances which may very possibly give it some effect. This
|
|
parallel is distinguished with us also as forming our principal
|
|
northern boundary. Let the completion of the 45th degree, then, give
|
|
the standard for our union, with the hope that it may become a line
|
|
of union with the rest of the world.
|
|
|
|
The difference between the second rod for 45 degrees of
|
|
latitude, and that for 31 degrees, our other extreme, is to be
|
|
examined.
|
|
|
|
The second _pendulum_ for 45 degrees of latitude, according to
|
|
Sir Isaac Newton's computation, must be of (2) 39.14912 inches
|
|
English measure; and a _rod_, to vibrate in the same time, must be of
|
|
the same length between the centres of suspension and oscillation;
|
|
and, consequently, its whole length 58.7 (or, more exactly, 58.72368)
|
|
inches. This is longer than the rod which shall vibrate seconds in
|
|
the 31 degrees of latitude, by about 1/679 part of its whole length;
|
|
a difference so minute, that it might be neglected, as insensible,
|
|
for the common purposes of life, but, in cases requiring perfect
|
|
exactness, the second rod, found by trial of its vibrations in any
|
|
part of the United States, may be corrected by computation for the
|
|
(3) latitude of the place, and so brought exactly to the standard of
|
|
45 degrees.
|
|
|
|
3. By making the experiment in the level of the ocean, the
|
|
difference will be avoided, which a higher position might occasion.
|
|
|
|
4. The expansion and contraction of the rod with the change of
|
|
temperature, is the fourth source of uncertainty before mentioned.
|
|
According to the high authority so often quoted, an iron rod, of
|
|
given length, may vary, between summer and winter, in temperate
|
|
latitudes, and in the common exposure of house clocks, from 1/1728 to
|
|
1/2592 of its whole length, which, in a rod of 58.7 inches, will be
|
|
from about two to three hundredths of an inch. This may be avoided
|
|
by adjusting and preserving the standard in a cellar, or other place,
|
|
the temperature of which never varies. Iron is named for this
|
|
purpose, because the least expansible of the metals.
|
|
|
|
5. The practical difficulty resulting from the effect of the
|
|
machinery and moving power is very inconsiderable in the present
|
|
state of the arts; and, in their progress towards perfection, will
|
|
become less and less. To estimate and obviate this, will be the
|
|
artist's province. It is as nothing when compared with the sources
|
|
of inaccuracy hitherto attending measures.
|
|
|
|
Before quitting the subject of the inconveniences, some of
|
|
which attend the pendulum alone, others both the pendulum and rod, it
|
|
must be added that the rod would have an accidental but very precious
|
|
advantage over the pendulum in this country, in the event of our
|
|
fixing the foot at the nearest aliquot part of either; for the
|
|
difference between the common foot, and those so to be deduced, would
|
|
be three times greater in the case of the pendulum than in that of
|
|
the rod.
|
|
|
|
Let the standard of measure, then, be a uniform cylindrical rod
|
|
of iron, of such length as, in latitude, in the level of the ocean,
|
|
and in a cellar, or other place, the temperature of which does not
|
|
vary through the year, shall perform its vibrations in small and
|
|
equal arcs, in one second of mean time.
|
|
|
|
A standard of invariable length being thus obtained, we may
|
|
proceed to identify, by that, the measures, weights and coins of the
|
|
United States; but here a doubt presents itself as to the extent of
|
|
the reformation meditated by the House of Representatives. The
|
|
experiment made by Congress in the year one thousand seven hundred
|
|
and eighty-six, by declaring that there should be one money of
|
|
account and payment through the United States, and that its parts and
|
|
multiples should be in a decimal ratio, has obtained such general
|
|
approbation, both at home and abroad, that nothing seems wanting but
|
|
the actual coinage, to banish the discordant pounds, shillings,
|
|
pence, and farthings of the different States, and to establish in
|
|
their stead the new denominations. Is it in contemplation with the
|
|
House of Representatives to extend a like improvement to our measures
|
|
and weights, and to arrange them also in a decimal ratio? The
|
|
facility which this would introduce into the vulgar arithmetic would,
|
|
unquestionably, be soon and sensibly felt by the whole mass of the
|
|
people, who would thereby be enabled to compute for themselves
|
|
whatever they should have occasion to buy, to sell, or to measure,
|
|
which the present complicated and difficult ratios place beyond their
|
|
computation for the most part. Or, is it the opinion of the
|
|
Representatives that the difficulty of changing the established
|
|
habits of a whole nation opposes an insuperable bar to this
|
|
improvement? Under this uncertainty, the Secretary of State thinks
|
|
it his duty to submit alternative plans, that the House may, at their
|
|
will, adopt either the one or the other, exclusively, or the one for
|
|
the present and the other for a future time, when the public mind may
|
|
be supposed to have become familiarized to it.
|
|
|
|
I. And first, on the supposition that the present measures and
|
|
weights are to be retained but to be rendered uniform and invariable,
|
|
by bringing them to the same invariable standard.
|
|
|
|
The first settlers of these States, having come chiefly from
|
|
England, brought with them the measures and weights of that country.
|
|
These alone are generally established among us, either by law or
|
|
usage; and these, therefore, are alone to be retained and fixed. We
|
|
must resort to that country for information of what they are, or
|
|
ought to be.
|
|
|
|
This rests, principally, on the evidence of certain standard
|
|
measures and weights, which have been preserved, of long time, in
|
|
different deposits. But differences among these having been known to
|
|
exist, the House of Commons, in the years 1757 and 1758, appointed
|
|
committees to inquire into the original standards of their weights
|
|
and measures. These committees, assisted by able mathematicians and
|
|
artists, examined and compared with each other the several standard
|
|
measures and weights, and made reports on them in the years 1758 and
|
|
1759. The circumstances under which these reports were made entitle
|
|
them to be considered, as far as they go, as the best written
|
|
testimony existing of the standard measures and weights of England;
|
|
and as such, they will be relied on in the progress of this report.
|
|
|
|
MEASURES OF LENGTH.
|
|
The measures of length in use among us are:
|
|
The league of 3 miles, The fathom of 2 yards,
|
|
The mile of 8 furlongs, The ell of a yard and
|
|
The furlong of 40 poles or quarter,
|
|
perches, The yard of 3 feet,
|
|
The pole or perch of 5 1/2 The foot of 12 inches, and
|
|
yards, The inch of 10 lines.
|
|
|
|
On this branch of their subject, the committee of 1757 - 1758,
|
|
says that the standard measures of length at the receipt of the
|
|
exchequer, are a yard, supposed to be of the time of Henry VII., and
|
|
a yard and ell supposed to have been made about the year 1601; that
|
|
they are brass rods, very coarsely made, their divisions not exact,
|
|
and the rods bent; and that in the year 1742, some members of the
|
|
Royal Society had been at great pains in taking an exact measure of
|
|
these standards, by very curious instruments, prepared by the
|
|
ingenious Mr. Graham; that the Royal Society had had a brass rod made
|
|
pursuant to their experiments, which was made so accurately, and by
|
|
persons so skilful and exact, that it was thought not easy to obtain
|
|
a more exact one; and the committee, in fact, found it to agree with
|
|
the standards at the exchequer, as near as it was possible. They
|
|
furnish no means, to persons at a distance, of knowing what this
|
|
standard is. This, however, is supplied by the evidence of the
|
|
second pendulum, which, according to the authority before quoted, is,
|
|
at London, 39.1682 English inches, and, consequently, the second rod
|
|
there is of 58.7523 of the same inches. When we shall have found,
|
|
then, by actual trial, the second rod for 45 degrees by adding the
|
|
difference of their computed length, to wit: 287/10000 of an inch, or
|
|
rather 3/10 of a line (which in practice will endanger less error
|
|
than an attempt at so minute a fraction as the ten thousandth parts
|
|
of an inch) we shall have the second rod of London, or a true measure
|
|
of 58 3/4 English inches. Or, to shorten the operation, without
|
|
varying the result,
|
|
|
|
Let the standard rod of 45 degrees be divided into 587 1/5
|
|
equal parts, and let each of these parts be declared a line.
|
|
|
|
10 lines an inch, 5 1/2 yards a perch or pole,
|
|
12 inches a foot, 40 poles or perches a furlong,
|
|
3 feet a yard, 8 furlongs a mile,
|
|
3 feet 9 inches an ell, 3 miles a league.
|
|
6 feet a fathom,
|
|
|
|
SUPERFICIAL MEASURES.
|
|
Our measures of surface are, the acre of 4 roods and the rood
|
|
of 40 square poles; so established by a statute of 33 Edw. I. Let
|
|
them remain the same.
|
|
|
|
MEASURES OF CAPACITY.
|
|
The measures of capacity in use among us are the following
|
|
names and proportions:
|
|
The gill, four of which make a pint.
|
|
Two pints make a quart.
|
|
Two quarts a pottle.
|
|
Two pottles a gallon.
|
|
Two gallons a peck, dry measure.
|
|
Eight gallons make a measure called a firkin, in liquid
|
|
substances, and a bushel, dry.
|
|
Two firkins, or bushels, make a measure called a rundlet or
|
|
kilderkin, liquid, and a strike, dry.
|
|
Two kilderkins, or strikes, make a measure called a barrel,
|
|
liquid, and a coomb, dry; this last term being ancient and little
|
|
used.
|
|
Two barrels, or coombs, make a measure called a hogshead,
|
|
liquid, or a quarter, dry; each being the quarter of a ton.
|
|
A hogshead and a third make a tierce, or third of a ton.
|
|
Two hogsheads make a pipe, butt, or puncheon; and
|
|
Two pipes make a ton.
|
|
But no one of these measures is of a determinate capacity. The
|
|
report of the committee of 1757 - 8, shows that the gallon is of very
|
|
various content; and that being the unit, all the others must vary
|
|
with it.
|
|
|
|
The gallon and bushel contain --
|
|
224 and 1792 cubic inches, according to the standard wine
|
|
gallon preserved at Guildhall.
|
|
231 and 1848, according to the statute of 5th of Anne.
|
|
264.8 and 2118.4, according to the ancient Rumford quart, of
|
|
1228, examined by the committee.
|
|
265.5 and 2124, according to three standard bushels preserved
|
|
in the Exchequer, to wit: one of Henry VII., without a rim; one dated
|
|
1091, supposed for 1591, or 1601, and one dated 1601.
|
|
266.25 and 2130, according to the ancient Rumford gallon of
|
|
1228, examined by the committee.
|
|
268.75 and 2150, according to the Winchester bushel, as
|
|
declared by statute 13, 14, William III., which has been the model
|
|
for some of the grain States.
|
|
271, less 2 spoonfuls, and 2168, less 16 spoonfuls, according
|
|
to a standard gallon of Henry VII., and another dated 1601, marked E.
|
|
E., both in the Exchequer.
|
|
271 and 2168, according to a standard gallon in the Exchequer,
|
|
dated 1601, marked E., and called the corn gallon.
|
|
272 and 2176, according to the three standard corn gallons last
|
|
mentioned, as measured in 1688, by an artist for the Commissioners of
|
|
the Excise, generally used in the seaport towns, and by mercantile
|
|
people, and thence introduced into some of the grain States.
|
|
277.18 and 2217.44, as established for the measure of coal by
|
|
the statute 12 Anne.
|
|
278 and 2224, according to the standard bushel of Henry VII.,
|
|
with a copper rim, in the Exchequer.
|
|
278.4 and 2227.2 according to two standard pints of 1601 and
|
|
1602, in the Exchequer.
|
|
280 and 2240, according to the standard quart of 1601, in the
|
|
Exchequer.
|
|
282 and 2256, according to the standard gallon for beer and ale
|
|
in the Treasury.
|
|
|
|
There are, moreover, varieties on these varieties, from the
|
|
barrel to the ton, inclusive; for, if the barrel be of herrings, it
|
|
must contain 28 gallons by the statute 13 Eliz. c. 11. If of wine,
|
|
it must contain 31 1/2 gallons by the statute 2 Henry VI. c. 11, and
|
|
1 Rich. III. c. 15. If of beer or ale, it must contain 34 gallons by
|
|
the statute 1 William and Mary, c. 24, and the higher measures in
|
|
proportion.
|
|
|
|
In those of the United States which have not adopted the
|
|
statutes of William and Mary, and of Anne before cited, nor their
|
|
substance, the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches rests on the authority
|
|
of very long usage, before the 5th of Anne, the origin and foundation
|
|
of which are unknown; the bushel is the Winchester bushel, by the 11
|
|
Henry VII. undefined; and the barrel of ale 32 gallons, and of beer
|
|
36 gallons, by the statute 23 Henry VIII. c. 4.
|
|
|
|
The Secretary of State is not informed whether there have been
|
|
any, and what, alterations of these measures by the laws of the
|
|
particular States.
|
|
|
|
It is proposed to retain this series of measures, but to fix
|
|
the gallon to one determinate capacity, as the unit of measure, both
|
|
wet and dry; for convenience is in favor of abolishing the
|
|
distinction between wet and dry measures.
|
|
|
|
The wine gallon, whether of 224 or 231 cubic inches, may be
|
|
altogether disregarded, as concerning, principally, the mercantile
|
|
and the wealthy, the least numerous part of the society, and the most
|
|
capable of reducing one measure to another by calculation. This
|
|
gallon is little used among the mass of farmers, whose chief habits
|
|
and interests are in the size of the corn bushel.
|
|
|
|
Of the standard measures before stated, two are principally
|
|
distinguished in authority and practice. The statute bushel of 2150
|
|
cubic inches, which gives a gallon of 268.75 cubic inches, and the
|
|
standard gallon of 1601, called the corn gallon of 271 or 272 cubic
|
|
inches, which has introduced the mercantile bushel of 2276 inches.
|
|
The former of these is most used in some of the grain States, the
|
|
latter in others. The middle term of 270 cubic inches may be taken
|
|
as a mutual compromise of convenience, and as offering this general
|
|
advantage: that the bushel being of 2160 cubic inches, is exactly a
|
|
cubic foot and a quarter, and so facilitates the conversion of wet
|
|
and dry measures into solid contents and tonnage, and simplifies the
|
|
connection of measures and weights, as will be shown hereafter. It
|
|
may be added, in favor of this, as a medium measure, that eight of
|
|
the standard, or statute measures before enumerated, are below this
|
|
term, and nine above it.
|
|
|
|
The measures to be made for use, being four sided, with
|
|
rectangular sides and bottom.
|
|
The pint will be 3 inches square, and 3 3/4 inches deep;
|
|
The quart 3 inches square, and 7 1/2 inches deep;
|
|
The pottle 3 inches square, and 15 inches deep, or 4 1/2, 5,
|
|
and 6 inches.
|
|
The gallon 6 inches square, and 7 1/2 inches deep, or 5, 6, and
|
|
9 inches;
|
|
The peck 6, 9, and 10 inches;
|
|
The half bushel 12 inches square, and 7 1/2 inches deep; and
|
|
The bushel 12 inches square, and 15 inches deep, or 9, 15, and
|
|
16 inches.
|
|
|
|
Cylindrical measures have the advantage of superior strength,
|
|
but square ones have the greater advantage of enabling every one who
|
|
has a rule in his pocket, to verify their contents by measuring them.
|
|
Moreover, till the circle can be squared, the cylinder cannot be
|
|
cubed, nor its contents exactly expressed in figures.
|
|
|
|
Let the measures of capacity, then, for the United States be ---
|
|
A gallon of 270 cubic inches;
|
|
The gallon to contain 2 pottles;
|
|
The pottle 2 quarts;
|
|
The quart 2 pints;
|
|
The pint 4 gills;
|
|
Two gallons to make a peck;
|
|
Eight gallons a bushel or firkin;
|
|
Two bushels, or firkin, a strike or kilderkin;
|
|
Two strikes, or kilderkins, a coomb or barrel;
|
|
Two coombs, or barrels, a quarter or hogshead;
|
|
A hogshead and a third one tierce;
|
|
Two hogsheads a pipe, butt, or puncheon; and
|
|
Two pipes a ton.
|
|
And let all measures of capacity of dry subjects be stricken
|
|
with a straight strike.
|
|
|
|
|
|
WEIGHTS.
|
|
There are two series of weights in use among us; the one called
|
|
avoirdupois, the other troy.
|
|
|
|
_In the Avoirdupois series:_
|
|
The pound is divided into 16 ounces;
|
|
The ounce into 16 drachms;
|
|
The drachm into 4 quarters.
|
|
|
|
_In the Troy series:_
|
|
The pound is divided into 12 ounces;
|
|
The ounce (according to the subdivision of the apothecaries)
|
|
into 8 drachms;
|
|
The drachm into 3 scruples;
|
|
The scruple into 20 grains.
|
|
|
|
According to the subdivision for gold and silver, the ounce is
|
|
divided into twenty pennyweights, and the pennyweight into
|
|
twenty-four grains.
|
|
|
|
So that the pound troy contains 5760 grains, of which 7000 are
|
|
requisite to make the pound avoirdupois; of course the weight of the
|
|
pound troy is to that of the pound avoirdupois as 5760 to 7000, or as
|
|
144 to 175.
|
|
|
|
It is remarkable that this is exactly the proportion of the
|
|
ancient liquid gallon of Guildhall of 224 cubic inches, to the corn
|
|
gallon of 272; for 224 are to 272 as 144 to 175. (4.)
|
|
|
|
It is further remarkable still, that this is also the exact
|
|
proportion between the specific weight of any measure of wheat, and
|
|
of the same measure of water: for the statute bushel is of 64 pounds
|
|
of wheat. Now as 144 to 175, so are 64 pounds to 77.7 pounds; but
|
|
77.7 pounds is known to be the weight of (5.) 2150.4 cubic inches of
|
|
pure water, which is exactly the content of the Winchester bushel, as
|
|
declared by the statute 13, 14, Will. 3. That statute determined the
|
|
bushel to be a cylinder of 18 1/2 inches diameter, and 8 inches
|
|
depth. Such a cylinder, as nearly as it can be cubed, and expressed
|
|
in figures, contains 2150.425 cubic inches; a result which reflects
|
|
authority on the declaration of Parliament, and induces a favorable
|
|
opinion of the care with which they investigated the contents of the
|
|
ancient bushel, and also a belief that there might exist evidence of
|
|
it at that day, unknown to the committees of 1758 and 1759.
|
|
|
|
We find, then, in a continued proportion 64 to 77.7 as 224 to
|
|
272, and as 144 to 175, that is to say, the specific weight of a
|
|
measure of wheat, to that of the same measure of water, as the cubic
|
|
contents of the wet gallon, to those of the dry; and as the weight of
|
|
a pound troy to that of a pound avoirdupois.
|
|
|
|
This seems to have been so combined as to render it indifferent
|
|
whether a thing were dealt out by weight or measure; for the dry
|
|
gallon of wheat, and the liquid one of wine, were of the same weight;
|
|
and the avoirdupois pound of wheat, and the troy pound of wine, were
|
|
of the same measure. Water and the vinous liquors, which enter most
|
|
into commerce, are so nearly of a weight, that the difference, in
|
|
moderate quantities, would be neglected by both buyer and seller;
|
|
some of the wines being a little heavier, and some a little lighter,
|
|
than water.
|
|
|
|
Another remarkable correspondence is that between weights and
|
|
measures. For 1000 ounces avoirdupois of pure water fill a cubic
|
|
foot, with mathematical exactness.
|
|
|
|
What circumstances of the times, or purposes of barter or
|
|
commerce, called for this combination of weights and measures, with
|
|
the subjects to be exchanged or purchased, are not now to be
|
|
ascertained. But a triple set of exact proportionals representing
|
|
weights, measures, and the things to be weighed and measured, and a
|
|
relation so integral between weights and solid measures, must have
|
|
been the result of design and scientific calculation, and not a mere
|
|
coincidence of hazard. It proves that the dry and wet measures, the
|
|
heavy and light weights, must have been original parts of the system
|
|
they compose -- contrary to the opinion of the committee of 1757,
|
|
1758, who thought that the avoirdupois weight was not an ancient
|
|
weight of the kingdom, nor ever even a legal weight, but during a
|
|
single year of the reign of Henry VIII.; and, therefore, concluded,
|
|
otherwise than will be here proposed, to suppress it altogether.
|
|
Their opinion was founded chiefly on the silence of the laws as to
|
|
this weight. But the harmony here developed in the system of weights
|
|
and measures, of which the avoirdupois makes an essential member,
|
|
corroborated by a general use, from very high antiquity, of that, or
|
|
of a nearly similar weight under another (6.) name, seem stronger
|
|
proofs that this is legal weight, than the mere silence of the
|
|
written laws is of the contrary.
|
|
|
|
Be this as it may, it is in such general use with us, that, on
|
|
the principle of popular convenience, its higher denominations, at
|
|
least, must be preserved. It is by the avoirdupois pound and ounce
|
|
that our citizens have been used to buy and sell. But the smaller
|
|
subdivisions of drachms and quarters are not in use with them. On
|
|
the other hand, they have been used to weigh their money and medicine
|
|
with the pennyweights and grains troy weight, and are not in the
|
|
habit of using the pounds and ounces of that series. It would be for
|
|
their convenience, then, to suppress the pound and ounce troy, and
|
|
the drachm and quarter avoirdupois; and to form into one series the
|
|
avoirdupois pound and ounce, and the troy pennyweight and grain. The
|
|
avoirdupois ounce contains 18 pennyweights 5 1/2 grains troy weight.
|
|
Divide it, then, into 18 pennyweights, and the pennyweight, as
|
|
heretofore, into 24 grains, and the new pennyweight will contain
|
|
between a third and a quarter of a grain more than the present troy
|
|
penny-weight; or, more accurately, it will be to that as 875 to 864
|
|
-- a difference not to be noticed, either in money or medicine, below
|
|
the denomination of an ounce.
|
|
|
|
But it will be necessary to refer these weights to a
|
|
determinate mass of some substance, the specific gravity of which is
|
|
invariable. Rain water is such a substance, and may be referred to
|
|
everywhere, and through all time. It has been found by accurate
|
|
experiments that a cubic foot of rain water weighs 1000 ounces
|
|
avoirdupois, standard weights of the exchequer. It is true that
|
|
among these standard weights the committee report small variations;
|
|
but this experiment must decide in favor of those particular weights,
|
|
between which, and an integral mass of water, so remarkable a
|
|
coincidence has been found. To render this standard more exact, the
|
|
water should be weighed always in the same temperature of air; as
|
|
heat, by increasing its volume, lessens its specific gravity. The
|
|
cellar of uniform temperature is best for this also.
|
|
|
|
Let it, then, be established that an ounce is of the weight of
|
|
a cube of rain water, of one-tenth of a foot; or, rather, that it is
|
|
the thousandth part of the weight of a cubic foot of rain water,
|
|
weighed in the standard temperature; that the series of weights of
|
|
the United States shall consist of pounds, ounces, pennyweights, and
|
|
grains; whereof
|
|
24 grains shall be one pennyweight;
|
|
18 pennyweights one ounce;
|
|
16 ounces one pound.
|
|
|
|
COINS.
|
|
Congress, in 1786, established the money unit at 375.64 troy
|
|
grains of pure silver. It is proposed to enlarge this by about the
|
|
third of a grain in weight, or a mill in value; that is to say, to
|
|
establish it at 376 (or, more exactly, 375.989343) instead of 375.64
|
|
grains; because it will be shown that this, as the unit of coin, will
|
|
link in system with the units of length, surface, capacity, and
|
|
weight, whenever it shall be thought proper to extend the decimal
|
|
ratio through all these branches. It is to preserve the possibility
|
|
of doing this, that this very minute alteration is proposed.
|
|
|
|
We have this proportion, then, 875 to 864, as 375.989343 grains
|
|
troy to 371.2626277; the expression of the unit in the new grains.
|
|
|
|
Let it be declared, therefore, that the money unit, or dollar
|
|
of the United States, shall contain 371.262 American grains of pure
|
|
silver.
|
|
|
|
If nothing more, then, is proposed, than to render uniform and
|
|
stable the system we already possess, this may be effected on the
|
|
plan herein detailed; the sum of which is: 1st. That the present
|
|
measures of length be retained, and fixed by an invariable standard.
|
|
2d. That the measures of surface remain as they are, and be
|
|
invariable also as the measures of length to which they are to refer.
|
|
3d. That the unit of capacity, now so equivocal, be settled at a
|
|
medium and convenient term, and defined by the same invariable
|
|
measures of length. 4th. That the more known terms in the two kinds
|
|
of weights be retained, and reduced to one series, and that they be
|
|
referred to a definite mass of some substance, the specific gravity
|
|
of which never changes. And 5th. That the quantity of pure silver in
|
|
the money unit be expressed in parts of the weights so defined.
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the whole of this no change is proposed, except an
|
|
insensible one in the troy grain and pennyweight, and the very minute
|
|
one in the money unit.
|
|
|
|
II. But if it be thought that, either now, or at any future
|
|
time, the citizens of the United States may be induced to undertake a
|
|
thorough reformation of their whole system of measures, weights and
|
|
coins, reducing every branch to the same decimal ratio already
|
|
established in their coins, and thus bringing the calculation of the
|
|
principal affairs of life within the arithmetic of every man who can
|
|
multiply and divide plain numbers, greater changes will be necessary.
|
|
|
|
The unit of measure is still that which must give law through
|
|
the whole system; and from whatever unit we set out, the coincidences
|
|
between the old and new ratios will be rare. All that can be done,
|
|
will be to choose such a unit as will produce the most of these. In
|
|
this respect the second rod has been found, on trial, to be far
|
|
preferable to the second pendulum.
|
|
|
|
MEASURES OF LENGTH.
|
|
Let the second rod, then, as before described, be the standard
|
|
of measure; and let it be divided into five equal parts, each of
|
|
which shall be called a foot; for, perhaps, it may be better
|
|
generally to retain the name of the nearest present measure, where
|
|
there is one tolerably near. It will be about one quarter of an inch
|
|
shorter than the present foot.
|
|
Let the foot be divided Let 10 feet make a decad;
|
|
into 10 inches; 10 decads one rood;
|
|
The inch into 10 lines; 10 roods a furlong;
|
|
The line into 10 points; 10 furlongs a mile.
|
|
|
|
SUPERFICIAL MEASURES.
|
|
Superficial measures have been estimated, and so may continue
|
|
to be, in squares of the measures of length, except in the case of
|
|
lands, which have been estimated by squares, called roods and acres.
|
|
Let the rood be equal to a square, every side of which is 100 feet.
|
|
This will be 6.483 English feet less than the English (7.) rood every
|
|
way, and 1311 square feet less in its whole contents; that is to say,
|
|
about one-eighth; in which proportion, also, 4 roods will be less
|
|
than the present acre.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MEASURES OF CAPACITY.
|
|
Let the unit of capacity be the cubic foot, to be called a
|
|
bushel. It will contain 1620.05506862 cubic inches, English; be
|
|
about one-fourth less than that before proposed to be adopted as a
|
|
medium; one-tenth less than the bushel made from 8 of the Guildhall
|
|
gallons; and one-fourteenth less than the bushel made from 8 Irish
|
|
gallons of 217.6 cubic inches.
|
|
Let the bushel be divided into 10 pottles;
|
|
Each pottle into 10 demi-pints;
|
|
Each demi-pint into 10 metres, which will be of a cubic inch each.
|
|
Let 10 bushels be a quarter, and
|
|
10 quarters a last, or double ton.
|
|
The measures for use being four-sided, and the sides and
|
|
bottoms rectangular, the bushel will be a foot cube.
|
|
The pottle 5 inches square and four inches deep;
|
|
The demi-pint 2 inches square, and 2 1/2 inches deep;
|
|
The metre, an inch cube.
|
|
|
|
WEIGHTS.
|
|
Let the weight of a cubic inch of rain water, or the thousandth
|
|
part of a cubic foot, be called an ounce; and let the ounce be
|
|
divided into 10 double scruples:
|
|
The double scruple into 10 carats;
|
|
The carat into 10 minims or demi-grains;
|
|
The minim into 10 mites.
|
|
Let 10 ounces make a pound;
|
|
10 pounds a stone;
|
|
16 stones a kental;
|
|
10 kentals a hogshead.
|
|
|
|
COINS.
|
|
Let the money unit, or dollar, contain eleventh-twelfths of an
|
|
ounce of pure silver. This will be 376 troy grains, (or more
|
|
exactly, 375.989343 troy grains,) which will be about a third of a
|
|
grain, (or more exactly, .349343 of a grain,) more than the present
|
|
unit. This, with the twelfth of alloy already established, will make
|
|
the dollar or unit, of the weight of an ounce, or of a cubic inch of
|
|
rain water, exactly. The series of mills, cents, dimes, dollars, and
|
|
eagles, to remain as already established. (8.)
|
|
|
|
The second rod, or the second pendulum, expressed in the
|
|
measures of other countries, will give the proportion between their
|
|
measures and those of the United States.
|
|
|
|
Measures, weights and coins, thus referred to standards
|
|
unchangeable in their nature, (as is the length of a rod vibrating
|
|
seconds, and the weight of a definite mass of rain water,) will
|
|
themselves be unchangeable. These standards, too, are such as to be
|
|
accessible to all persons, in all times and places. The measures and
|
|
weights derived from them fall in so nearly with some of those now in
|
|
use, as to facilitate their introduction; and being arranged in
|
|
decimal ratio, they are within the calculation of every one who
|
|
possesses the first elements of arithmetic, and of easy comparison,
|
|
both for foreigners and citizens, with the measures, weights, and
|
|
coins of other countries.
|
|
|
|
A gradual introduction would lessen the inconveniences which
|
|
might attend too sudden a substitution, even of an easier for a more
|
|
difficult system. After a given term, for instance, it might begin
|
|
in the custom-houses, where the merchants would become familiarized
|
|
to it. After a further term, it might be introduced into all legal
|
|
proceedings, and merchants and traders in foreign commodities might
|
|
be required to use it in their dealings with one another. After a
|
|
still further term, all other descriptions of people might receive it
|
|
into common use. Too long a postponement, on the other hand, would
|
|
increase the difficulties of its reception with the increase of our
|
|
population.
|
|
|
|
_Appendix, containing illustrations and developments of some
|
|
passages of the preceding report._
|
|
(1.) In the second pendulum with a spherical bob, call the
|
|
distance between the centres of suspension and of the bob, 2x19.575,
|
|
or 2d, and the radius of the bob = r; then 2d:r::r:rr/2d and 2/5 of
|
|
this last proportional expresses the displacement of the centre of
|
|
oscillation, to wit: 2rr/5x2d=rr/5d. Two inches have been proposed
|
|
as a proper diameter for such a bob. In that case _r_ will be = 1.
|
|
inch, and rr/5d = 1/9787 inches.
|
|
|
|
In the cylindrical second rod, call the length of the rod,
|
|
3x19.575 or 3d, and its radius = r and rr/2x3d=rr/6d will express the
|
|
displacement of the centre of oscillation. It is thought the rod
|
|
will be sufficiently inflexible if it be 1/5 of an inch in diameter.
|
|
Then _r_ will be = .1 inch, and rr/6d=1/11745 inches, which is but
|
|
the 120th part of the displacement in the case of the pendulum with a
|
|
spherical bob, and but the 689,710th part of the whole length of the
|
|
rod. If the rod be even of half an inch diameter, the displacement
|
|
will be but 1/1879 of an inch, or 1/110356 of the length of the rod.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Sir Isaac Newton computes the pendulum for 45 degrees to
|
|
be 36 pouces 8.428 lignes. Picard made the English foot 11 pouces
|
|
2.6 lignes, and Dr. Maskelyne 11 pouces 3.11 lignes. D'Alembert
|
|
states it at 11 pouces 3 lignes, which has been used in these
|
|
calculations as a middle term, and gives us 36 pouces 8.428 lignes =
|
|
39.1491 inches. This length for the pendulum of 45 degrees had been
|
|
adopted in this report before the Bishop of Autun's proposition was
|
|
known here. He relies on Mairan's ratio for the length of the
|
|
pendulum in the latitude of Paris, to wit: 504:257::72 pouces to a
|
|
4th proportional, which will be 36.71428 pouces = 39.1619 inches, the
|
|
length of the pendulum for latitude 48 degrees 50'. The difference
|
|
between this and the pendulum for 45 degrees is .0113 of an inch; so
|
|
that the pendulum for 45 degrees would be estimated, according to
|
|
Mairan, at 39.1619 - .0113 = 39.1506 inches, almost precisely the
|
|
same with Newton's computation herein adopted.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Sir Isaac Newton's computations for the different degrees
|
|
of latitude, from 30 degrees to 45 degrees, are as follows:
|
|
|
|
degrees Pieds. Lignes. degrees Pieds. Lignes.
|
|
30 3 7.948 42 3 8.327
|
|
35 3 8.099 43 3 8.361
|
|
40 3 8.261 44 3 8.394
|
|
41 3 8.294 45 3 8.428
|
|
|
|
(4.) Or, more exactly, 144:175::224:272.2.
|
|
|
|
(5.) Or, more exactly, 62.5:1728::77.7:2150.39.
|
|
|
|
(6.) The merchant's weight.
|
|
|
|
(7.) The Eng. rood contains 10,890 sq. feet = 104.355 feet sq.
|
|
|
|
|
|
(8.) _The Measures, Weights, and Coins of the Decimal System,
|
|
estimated in those of England, now used in the United States._
|
|
|
|
1. MEASURES OF LENGTH.
|
|
|
|
Feet. Equivalent in English measure.
|
|
The point, . .001 . .011 inch.
|
|
The line, . .01 . .117
|
|
The inch, . .1 . 1.174, about 1/7 more than the
|
|
Eng. inch.
|
|
The foot, . 1. }. 11.744736 } about 1/48 less than
|
|
}. .978728 feet, } than the English foot
|
|
|
|
The decad, . 10. . 9.787, about 1/48 less than the 10
|
|
feet rod of the carpenters.
|
|
The rood, . 100. . 97.872, about 1/16 less than the side
|
|
of an English square rood.
|
|
The furlong, 1000. . 978.728, about 1/3 more than the
|
|
Eng. fur.
|
|
The mile, . 10000. . 9787.28, about 1 6/7 English mile,
|
|
nearly the Scotch and Irish mile,
|
|
and 1/2 the German mile.
|
|
|
|
2. SUPERFICIAL MEASURE.
|
|
|
|
Roods.
|
|
The hundredth, . .01 95.69 square feet English.
|
|
The tenth, . .1 957.9
|
|
The rood, . 1. 9579.085
|
|
The double acre, . 10. 2.199, or say 2.2 acres
|
|
English.
|
|
The square furlong, . 100. 22.
|
|
|
|
3. MEASURE OF CAPACITY.
|
|
|
|
Bushels. Cub. Inches.
|
|
The metre, . .001 1.62
|
|
The demi-pint, . .01 16.2, about 1/24 less than the
|
|
English half-pint.
|
|
The pottle, . .1 162.005, about 1/6 more than the
|
|
English pottle.
|
|
The bushel, . 1. { 1620.05506862 }
|
|
{ .937531868414884352 cub feet. }
|
|
about 1/4 less than the middle sized English bushel.
|
|
|
|
The quarter, . 10. . 9.375, about 1/5 less than
|
|
the Eng. qr.
|
|
The last, . 100. . 93.753, about 1/7 more than
|
|
the Eng. last.
|
|
|
|
4. WEIGHTS.
|
|
Pounds. Avoirdupois. Troy.
|
|
Mite, .00001 . . . . . . . . . . . . .041 grains, about 1/5
|
|
less than the English mite.
|
|
Minim, or }
|
|
demi-grain, } .0001 . . . . . . . . . . . . .4101, about 1/5 less
|
|
than half-grain troy.
|
|
Carat, .001 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.101, about 1/40
|
|
more than the carat troy.
|
|
Double
|
|
scruple, .01 . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.017, about 1/40 more
|
|
than 2 scruples troy.
|
|
Ounce, . .1 { .9375318684148 } { 410.170192431
|
|
{ 84352 oz. } { .85452 oz.
|
|
about 1/16 less than the ounce avoirdupois.
|
|
Pound, . 1. { 9.375 } .712101 lb., about 1/4
|
|
{ .585957417759 lb. } less than the pound
|
|
troy.
|
|
|
|
Stone, . 10. { 93.753 oz. } 7.121 about 1/4 less
|
|
{ 5.8595 lb. } than the English
|
|
stone of 8 lbs. avoirdupois.
|
|
Kental, . 100. { 937.531 oz. } 71.21 about 4/10 less
|
|
{ 58.5957 lb. } than the English
|
|
kental of 100 lbs. avoirdupois.
|
|
Hogshead, . 1000. { 9375.318 oz. } 712.101
|
|
{ 585.9574 lb. }
|
|
|
|
5. COINS.
|
|
Dollars. Troy grains
|
|
The mill, . .001 Dollar, . 1. { 375.98934306 pure silver.
|
|
The cent, . .01 { 34.18084937 alloy.
|
|
The dime, . .1 ------------
|
|
410.17019243
|
|
Eagle. . 10.
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Postscript_.
|
|
January 10, 1791
|
|
It is scarcely necessary to observe that the measures, weights,
|
|
and coins, proposed in the preceding report, will be derived
|
|
altogether from mechanical operations, viz.: A rod, vibrating
|
|
seconds, divided into five equal parts, one of these subdivided, and
|
|
multiplied decimally, for every measure of length, surface, and
|
|
capacity, and these last filled with water, to determine the weights
|
|
and coins. The arithmetical estimates in the report were intended
|
|
only to give an idea of what the new measures, weights, and coins,
|
|
would be nearly, when compared with the old. The length of the
|
|
standard or second rod, therefore, was assumed from that of the
|
|
pendulum; and as there has been small differences in the estimates of
|
|
the pendulum by different persons, that of Sir Isaac Newton was
|
|
taken, the highest authority the world has yet known. But, if even
|
|
he has erred, the measures, weights, and coins proposed, will not be
|
|
an atom the more or less. In cubing the new foot, which was
|
|
estimated at .978728 of an English foot, or 11.744736 English inches,
|
|
an arithmetical error of an unit happened in the fourth column of
|
|
decimals, and was repeated in another line in the sixth column, so as
|
|
to make the result one ten thousandth and one millionth of a foot too
|
|
much. The thousandth part of this error (about one ten millionth of
|
|
a foot) consequently fell on the metre of measure, the ounce weight,
|
|
and the unit of money. In the last it made a difference of about the
|
|
twenty-fifth part of a grain Troy, in weight, or the ninety-third of
|
|
a cent in value. As it happened, this error was on the favorable
|
|
side, so that the detection of it approximates our estimate of the
|
|
new unit exactly that much nearer to the old, and reduces the
|
|
difference between them to 34, instead of 38 hundredths of a grain
|
|
Troy; that is to say, the money unit instead of 375.64 Troy grains of
|
|
pure silver, as established heretofore, will now be 375.98934306
|
|
grains, as far as our knowledge of the length of the second pendulum
|
|
enables us to judge; and the current of authorities since Sir Isaac
|
|
Newton's time, gives reason to believe that his estimate is more
|
|
probably above than below the truth, consequently future corrections
|
|
of it will bring the estimate of the new unit still nearer to the
|
|
old.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The numbers in which the arithmetical error before mentioned
|
|
showed itself in the table, at the end of the report, have been
|
|
rectified, and the table re-printed.
|
|
|
|
The head of superficial measures in the last part of the
|
|
report, is thought to be not sufficiently developed. It is proposed
|
|
that the rood of land, being 100 feet square, (and nearly a quarter
|
|
of the present acre,) shall be the unit of land measure. This will
|
|
naturally be divided into tenths and hundredths, the latter of which
|
|
will be a square decad. Its multiples will also, of course, be tens,
|
|
which may be called double acres, and hundreds, which will be equal
|
|
to a square furlong each. The surveyor's chain should be composed of
|
|
100 links of one foot each.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank_
|
|
|
|
February 15, 1791
|
|
|
|
The bill for establishing a National Bank undertakes among
|
|
other things: --
|
|
|
|
1.the subscribers into a corporation.
|
|
|
|
2. To enable them in their corporate capacities to receive
|
|
grants of land; and so far is against the laws of _Mortmain_. (*)
|
|
|
|
(*) Though the Constitution controls the laws of Mortmain so
|
|
far as to permit Congress itself to hold land for certain purposes,
|
|
yet not so far as to permit them to communicate a similar right to
|
|
other corporate bodies.
|
|
|
|
3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so
|
|
far is against the laws of _Alienage_.
|
|
|
|
4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a
|
|
certain line of successors; and so far changes the course of
|
|
_Descents_.
|
|
|
|
5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture or escheat;
|
|
and so far is against the laws of _Forfeiture and Escheat_.
|
|
|
|
6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a certain
|
|
line; and so far is against the laws of _Distribution_.
|
|
|
|
7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under
|
|
the national authority; and so far is against the laws of Monopoly.
|
|
|
|
8. To communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the
|
|
laws of the States: for so they must be construed, to protect the
|
|
institution from the control of the State legislatures; and so,
|
|
probably, they will be construed.
|
|
|
|
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this
|
|
ground: That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the
|
|
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
|
|
States or to the people." [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step
|
|
beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of
|
|
Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no
|
|
longer susceptible of any definition.
|
|
|
|
The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this
|
|
bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States,
|
|
by the Constitution.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I. They are not among the powers specially enumerated: for
|
|
these are: 1st. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying the
|
|
debts of the United States; but no debt is paid by this bill, nor any
|
|
tax laid. Were it a bill to raise money, its origination in the
|
|
Senate would condemn it by the Constitution.
|
|
|
|
2d. "To borrow money." But this bill neither borrows money nor
|
|
ensures the borrowing it. The proprietors of the bank will be just
|
|
as free as any other money holders, to lend or not to lend their
|
|
money to the public. The operation proposed in the bill, first, to
|
|
lend them two millions, and then to borrow them back again, cannot
|
|
change the nature of the latter act, which will still be a payment,
|
|
and not a loan, call it by what name you please.
|
|
|
|
3. To "regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the
|
|
States, and with the Indian tribes." To erect a bank, and to regulate
|
|
commerce, are very different acts. He who erects a bank, creates a
|
|
subject of commerce in its bills; so does he who makes a bushel of
|
|
wheat, or digs a dollar out of the mines; yet neither of these
|
|
persons regulates commerce thereby. To make a thing which may be
|
|
bought and sold, is not to prescribe regulations for buying and
|
|
selling. Besides, if this was an exercise of the power of regulating
|
|
commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the internal
|
|
commerce of every State, as to its external. For the power given to
|
|
Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal
|
|
regulation of the commerce of a State, (that is to say of the
|
|
commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remain exclusively with
|
|
its own legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to
|
|
say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or
|
|
with the Indian tribes. Accordingly the bill does not propose the
|
|
measure as a regulation of trade, but as "productive of considerable
|
|
advantages to trade." Still less are these powers covered by any
|
|
other of the special enumerations.
|
|
|
|
II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which
|
|
are the two following: --
|
|
|
|
1. To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the
|
|
United States, that is to say, "to lay taxes for _the purpose_ of
|
|
providing for the general welfare." For the laying of taxes is the
|
|
_power_, and the general welfare the _purpose_ for which the power is
|
|
to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes _ad libitum for any
|
|
purpose they please_; but only _to pay the debts or provide for the
|
|
welfare of the Union_. In like manner, they are not _to do anything
|
|
they please_ to provide for the general welfare, but only to _lay
|
|
taxes_ for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as
|
|
describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and
|
|
independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the
|
|
good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent
|
|
enumerations of power completely useless.
|
|
|
|
It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that
|
|
of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the
|
|
good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of
|
|
the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they
|
|
please.
|
|
|
|
It is an established rule of construction where a phrase will
|
|
bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some
|
|
meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which
|
|
would render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal
|
|
power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up
|
|
straitly within the enumerated powers, and those without which, as
|
|
means, these powers could not be carried into effect. It is known
|
|
that the very power now proposed _as a means_ was rejected as _an
|
|
end_ by the Convention which formed the Constitution. A proposition
|
|
was made to them to authorize Congress to open canals, and an
|
|
amendatory one to empower them to incorporate. But the whole was
|
|
rejected, and one of the reasons for rejection urged in debate was,
|
|
that then they would have a power to erect a bank, which would render
|
|
the great cities, where there were prejudices and jealousies on the
|
|
subject, adverse to the reception of the Constitution.
|
|
|
|
2. The second general phrase is, "to make all laws _necessary_
|
|
and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers." But
|
|
they can all be carried into execution without a bank. A bank
|
|
therefore is not _necessary_, and consequently not authorized by this
|
|
phrase.
|
|
|
|
It has been urged that a bank will give great facility or
|
|
convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet
|
|
the Constitution allows only the means which are "_necessary_," not
|
|
those which are merely "convenient" for effecting the enumerated
|
|
powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase
|
|
as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for
|
|
there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a _convenience_
|
|
in some instance _or other_, to _some one_ of so long a list of
|
|
enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated powers, and
|
|
reduce the whole to one power, as before observed. Therefore it was
|
|
that the Constitution restrained them to the _necessary_ means, that
|
|
is to say, to those means without which the grant of power would be
|
|
nugatory.
|
|
|
|
But let us examine this convenience and see what it is. The
|
|
report on this subject, page 3, states the only _general_ convenience
|
|
to be, the preventing the transportation and re-transportation of
|
|
money between the States and the treasury, (for I pass over the
|
|
increase of circulating medium, ascribed to it as a want, and which,
|
|
according to my ideas of paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Every
|
|
State will have to pay a sum of tax money into the treasury; and the
|
|
treasury will have to pay, in every State, a part of the interest on
|
|
the public debt, and salaries to the officers of government resident
|
|
in that State. In most of the States there will still be a surplus
|
|
of tax money to come up to the seat of government for the officers
|
|
residing there. The payments of interest and salary in each State
|
|
may be made by treasury orders on the State collector. This will
|
|
take up the greater part of the money he has collected in his State,
|
|
and consequently prevent the great mass of it from being drawn out of
|
|
the State. If there be a balance of commerce in favor of that State
|
|
against the one in which the government resides, the surplus of taxes
|
|
will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for that commercial
|
|
balance. And so it must be if there was a bank. But if there be no
|
|
balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, all the banks in
|
|
the world could not bring up the surplus of taxes but in the form of
|
|
money. Treasury orders then, and bills of exchange may prevent the
|
|
displacement of the main mass of the money collected, without the aid
|
|
of any bank; and where these fail, it cannot be prevented even with
|
|
that aid.
|
|
|
|
Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more _convenient_ vehicle
|
|
than treasury orders. But a little _difference_ in the degree of
|
|
_convenience_, cannot constitute the necessity which the constitution
|
|
makes the ground for assuming any non-enumerated power.
|
|
|
|
Besides; the existing banks will, without a doubt, enter into
|
|
arrangements for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as
|
|
there will be a competition among them for it; whereas the bill
|
|
delivers us up bound to the national bank, who are free to refuse all
|
|
arrangement, but on their own terms, and the public not free, on such
|
|
refusal, to employ any other bank. That of Philadelphia, I believe,
|
|
now does this business, by their post-notes, which, by an arrangement
|
|
with the treasury, are paid by any State collector to whom they are
|
|
presented. This expedient alone suffices to prevent the existence of
|
|
that _necessity_ which may justify the assumption of a non-enumerated
|
|
power as a means for carrying into effect an enumerated one. The
|
|
thing may be done, and has been done, and well done, without this
|
|
assumption; therefore, it does not stand on that degree of
|
|
_necessity_ which can honestly justify it.
|
|
|
|
It may be said that a bank whose bills would have a currency
|
|
all over the States, would be more convenient than one whose currency
|
|
is limited to a single State. So it would be still more convenient
|
|
that there should be a bank, whose bills should have a currency all
|
|
over the world. But it does not follow from this superior
|
|
conveniency, that there exists anywhere a power to establish such a
|
|
bank; or that the world may not go on very well without it.
|
|
|
|
Can it be thought that the Constitution intended that for a
|
|
shade or two of _convenience_, more or less, Congress should be
|
|
authorised to break down the most ancient and fundamental laws of the
|
|
several States; such as those against Mortmain, the laws of Alienage,
|
|
the rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws of escheat
|
|
and forfeiture, the laws of monopoly? Nothing but a necessity
|
|
invincible by any other means, can justify such a prostitution of
|
|
laws, which constitute the pillars of our whole system of
|
|
jurisprudence. Will Congress be too straight-laced to carry the
|
|
constitution into honest effect, unless they may pass over the
|
|
foundation-laws of the State government for the slightest convenience
|
|
of theirs?
|
|
|
|
The negative of the President is the shield provided by the
|
|
constitution to protect against the invasions of the legislature: 1.
|
|
The right of the Executive. 2. Of the Judiciary. 3. Of the States
|
|
and State legislatures. The present is the case of a right remaining
|
|
exclusively with the States, and consequently one of those intended
|
|
by the Constitution to be placed under its protection.
|
|
|
|
It must be added, however, that unless the President's mind on
|
|
a view of everything which is urged for and against this bill, is
|
|
tolerably clear that it is unauthorised by the Constitution; if the
|
|
pro and the con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just
|
|
respect for the wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the
|
|
balance in favor of their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where
|
|
they are clearly misled by error, ambition, or interest, that the
|
|
Constitution has placed a check in the negative of the President.
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Opinion on the French Treaties_
|
|
|
|
April 28, 1793
|
|
|
|
I proceed, in compliance with the requisition of the President,
|
|
to give an opinion in writing on the general Question, Whether the U
|
|
S. have a right to renounce their treaties with France, or to hold
|
|
them suspended till the government of that country shall be
|
|
established?
|
|
|
|
In the Consultation at the President's on the 19th inst. the
|
|
Secretary of the Treasury took the following positions &
|
|
consequences. `France was a monarchy when we entered into treaties
|
|
with it: but it has now declared itself a Republic, & is preparing a
|
|
Republican form of government. As it may issue in a Republic, or a
|
|
Military despotism, or in something else which may possibly render
|
|
our alliance with it dangerous to ourselves, we have a right of
|
|
election to renounce the treaty altogether, or to declare it
|
|
suspended till their government shall be settled in the form it is
|
|
ultimately to take; and then we may judge whether we will call the
|
|
treaties into operation again, or declare them forever null. Having
|
|
that right of election now, if we receive their minister without any
|
|
qualifications, it will amount to an act of election to continue the
|
|
treaties; & if the change they are undergoing should issue in a form
|
|
which should bring danger on us, we shall not be then free to
|
|
renounce them. To elect to continue them is equivalent to the making
|
|
a new treaty at this time in the same form, that is to say, with a
|
|
clause of guarantee; but to make a treaty with a clause of guarantee,
|
|
during a war, is a departure from neutrality, and would make us
|
|
associates in the war. To renounce or suspend the treaties therefore
|
|
is a necessary act of neutrality.'
|
|
|
|
If I do not subscribe to the soundness of this reasoning, I do
|
|
most fully to its ingenuity. -- I shall now lay down the principles
|
|
which according to my understanding govern the case.
|
|
|
|
I consider the people who constitute a society or nation as the
|
|
source of all authority in that nation, as free to transact their
|
|
common concerns by any agents they think proper, to change these
|
|
agents individually, or the organisation of them in form or function
|
|
whenever they please: that all the acts done by those agents under
|
|
the authority of the nation, are the acts of the nation, are
|
|
obligatory on them, & enure to their use, & can in no wise be
|
|
annulled or affected by any change in the form of the government, or
|
|
of the persons administering it. Consequently the Treaties between
|
|
the U S. and France, were not treaties between the U S. & Louis
|
|
Capet, but between the two nations of America & France, and the
|
|
nations remaining in existance, tho' both of them have since changed
|
|
their forms of government, the treaties are not annulled by these
|
|
changes.
|
|
|
|
The Law of nations, by which this question is to be determined,
|
|
is composed of three branches. 1. The Moral law of our nature. 2.
|
|
The Usages of nations. 3. Their special Conventions. The first of
|
|
these only, concerns this question, that is to say the Moral law to
|
|
which Man has been subjected by his creator, & of which his feelings,
|
|
or Conscience as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which
|
|
his creator has furnished him. The Moral duties which exist between
|
|
individual and individual in a state of nature, accompany them into a
|
|
state of society & the aggregate of the duties of all the individuals
|
|
composing the society constitutes the duties of that society towards
|
|
any other; so that between society & society the same moral duties
|
|
exist as did between the individuals composing them while in an
|
|
unassociated state, their maker not having released them from those
|
|
duties on their forming themselves into a nation. Compacts then
|
|
between nation & nation are obligatory on them by the same moral law
|
|
which obliges individuals to observe their compacts. There are
|
|
circumstances however which sometimes excuse the non-performance of
|
|
contracts between man & man: so are there also between nation &
|
|
nation. When performance, for instance, becomes _impossible_,
|
|
non-performance is not immoral. So if performance becomes
|
|
_self-destructive_ to the party, the law of self-preservation
|
|
overrules the laws of obligation to others. For the reality of these
|
|
principles I appeal to the true fountains of evidence, the head &
|
|
heart of every rational & honest man. It is there Nature has written
|
|
her moral laws, & where every man may read them for himself. He will
|
|
never read there the permission to annul his obligations for a time,
|
|
or for ever, whenever they become `dangerous, useless, or
|
|
disagreeable.' Certainly not when merely _useless_ or _disagreeable_,
|
|
as seems to be said in an authority which has been quoted, Vattel. 2.
|
|
197, and tho he may under certain degrees of _danger_, yet the danger
|
|
must be imminent, & the degree great. Of these, it is true, that
|
|
nations are to be judges for themselves, since no one nation has a
|
|
right to sit in judgment over another. But the tribunal of our
|
|
consciences remains, & that also of the opinion of the world. These
|
|
will revise the sentence we pass in our own case, & as we respect
|
|
these, we must see that in judging ourselves we have honestly done
|
|
the part of impartial & vigorous judges.
|
|
|
|
But Reason, which gives this right of self-liberation from a
|
|
contract in certain cases, has subjected it to certain just
|
|
limitations.
|
|
|
|
I. The danger which absolves us must be great, inevitable &
|
|
imminent. Is such the character of that now apprehended from our
|
|
treaties with France? What is that danger. 1. Is it that if their
|
|
government issues in a military despotism, an alliance with them may
|
|
taint us with despotic principles? But their government, when we
|
|
allied ourselves to it, was a perfect despotism, civil & military,
|
|
yet the treaties were made in that very state of things, & therefore
|
|
that danger can furnish no just cause. 2. Is it that their
|
|
government may issue in a republic, and too much strengthen our
|
|
republican principles? But this is the hope of the great mass of our
|
|
constituents, & not their dread. They do not look with longing to
|
|
the happy mean of a limited monarchy. 3. But says the doctrine I am
|
|
combating, the change the French are undergoing may possibly end in
|
|
something we know not what, and bring on us danger we know not
|
|
whence. In short it may end in a Rawhead & bloody-bones in the dark.
|
|
Very well. Let Rawhead & bloody bones come, & then we shall be
|
|
justified in making our peace with him, by renouncing our antient
|
|
friends & his enemies. For observe, it is not the _possibility of
|
|
danger_ which absolves a party from his contract: for that
|
|
possibility always exists, & in every case. It existed in the
|
|
present one at the moment of making the contract. If _possibilities_
|
|
would avoid contracts, there never could be a valid contract. For
|
|
possibilities hang over everything. Obligation is not suspended,
|
|
till the danger is become real, & the moment of it so imminent, that
|
|
we can no longer avoid decision without forever losing the
|
|
opportunity to do it. But can a danger which has not yet taken it's
|
|
shape, which does not yet exist, & never may exist, which cannot
|
|
therefore be defined, can such a danger I ask, be so imminent that if
|
|
we fail to pronounce on it in this moment we can never have another
|
|
opportunity of doing it?
|
|
|
|
4. The danger apprehended, is it that, the treaties remaining
|
|
valid, the clause guarantying their West India islands will engage us
|
|
in the war? But does the Guarantee engage us to enter into the war
|
|
in any event?
|
|
|
|
Are we to enter into it before we are called on by our allies?
|
|
Have we been called on by them? -- shall we ever be called on? Is it
|
|
their interest to call on us?
|
|
|
|
Can they call on us before their islands are invaded, or
|
|
imminently threatened?
|
|
|
|
If they can save them themselves, have they a right to call on
|
|
us?
|
|
|
|
Are we obliged to go to war at once, without trying peaceable
|
|
negociations with their enemy?
|
|
|
|
If all these questions be against us, there are still others
|
|
behind.
|
|
|
|
Are we in a condition to go to war?
|
|
|
|
Can we be expected to begin before we are in condition?
|
|
|
|
Will the islands be lost if we do not save them? Have we the
|
|
means of saving them?
|
|
|
|
If we cannot save them are we bound to go to war for a
|
|
desperate object?
|
|
|
|
Will not a 10. years forbearance in us to call them into the
|
|
guarantee of our posts, entitle us to some indulgence?
|
|
|
|
Many, if not most of these questions offer grounds of doubt
|
|
whether the clause of guarantee will draw us into the war.
|
|
Consequently if this be the danger apprehended, it is not yet certain
|
|
enough to authorize us in sound morality to declare, at this moment,
|
|
the treaties null.
|
|
|
|
5. Is the danger apprehended from the 17th. article of the
|
|
treaty of Commerce, which admits French ships of war & privateers to
|
|
come and go freely, with prizes made on their enemies, while their
|
|
enemies are not to have the same privilege with prizes made on the
|
|
French? But Holland & Prussia have approved of this article in our
|
|
treaty with France, by subscribing to an express Salvo of it in our
|
|
treaties with them. [Dutch treaty 22. Convention 6. Prussian treaty
|
|
19.] And England in her last treaty with France [art. 40] has entered
|
|
into the same stipulation verbatim, & placed us in her ports on the
|
|
same footing on which she is in ours, in case of a war of either of
|
|
us with France. If we are engaged in such a war, England must
|
|
receive prizes made on us by the French, & exclude those made on the
|
|
French by us. Nay further, in this very article of her treaty with
|
|
France, is a salvo of any similar article in any anterior treaty of
|
|
either party, and ours with France being anterior, this salvo
|
|
confirms it expressly. Neither of these three powers then have a
|
|
right to complain of this article in our treaty.
|
|
|
|
6. Is the danger apprehended from the 22d. Art. of our treaty
|
|
of commerce, which prohibits the enemies of France from fitting out
|
|
privateers in our ports, or selling their prizes here. But we are
|
|
free to refuse the same thing to France, there being no stipulation
|
|
to the contrary, and we ought to refuse it on principles of fair
|
|
neutrality.
|
|
|
|
7. But the reception of a Minister from the Republic of France,
|
|
without qualifications, it is thought will bring us into danger:
|
|
because this, it is said, will determine the continuance of the
|
|
treaty, and take from us the right of self-liberation when at any
|
|
time hereafter our safety would require us to use it. The reception
|
|
of the Minister at all (in favor of which Colo. Hamilton has given
|
|
his opinion, tho reluctantly as he confessed) is an acknolegement of
|
|
the legitimacy of their government: and if the qualifications
|
|
meditated are to deny that legitimacy, it will be a curious compound
|
|
which is to admit & deny the same thing. But I deny that the
|
|
reception of a Minister has any thing to do with the treaties. There
|
|
is not a word, in either of them, about sending ministers. This has
|
|
been done between us under the common usage of nations, & can have no
|
|
effect either to continue or annul the treaties.
|
|
|
|
But how can any act of election have the effect to continue a
|
|
treaty which is acknoleged to be going on still? For it was not
|
|
pretended the treaty was void, but only voidable if we chuse to
|
|
declare it so. To make it void would require an act of election, but
|
|
to let it go on requires only that we should do nothing, and doing
|
|
nothing can hardly be an infraction of peace or neutrality.
|
|
|
|
But I go further & deny that the most explicit declaration made
|
|
at this moment that we acknolege the obligation of the treatys could
|
|
take from us the right of non-compliance at any future time when
|
|
compliance would involve us in great & inevitable danger.
|
|
|
|
I conclude then that few of these sources threaten any danger
|
|
at all; and from none of them is it inevitable: & consequently none
|
|
of them give us the right at this moment of releasing ourselves from
|
|
our treaties.
|
|
|
|
II. A second limitation on our right of releasing ourselves is
|
|
that we are to do it from so much of the treaties only as is bringing
|
|
great & inevitable danger on us, & not from the residue, allowing to
|
|
the other party a right at the same time to determine whether on our
|
|
non-compliance with that part they will declare the whole void. This
|
|
right they would have, but we should not. Vattel. 2. 202. The only
|
|
part of the treaties which can really lead us into danger is the
|
|
clause of guarantee. That clause is all then we could suspend in any
|
|
case, and the residue will remain or not at the will of the other
|
|
party.
|
|
|
|
III. A third limitation is that where a party from necessity or
|
|
danger withholds compliance with part of a treaty, it is bound to
|
|
make compensation where the nature of the case admits & does not
|
|
dispense with it. 2. Vattel 324. Wolf. 270. 443. If actual
|
|
circumstances excuse us from entering into the war under the clause
|
|
of guarantee, it will be a question whether they excuse us from
|
|
compensation. Our weight in the war admits of an estimate; & that
|
|
estimate would form the measure of compensation.
|
|
|
|
If in withholding a compliance with any part of the treaties,
|
|
we do it without just cause or compensation, we give to France a
|
|
cause of war, and so become associated in it on the other side. An
|
|
injured friend is the bitterest of foes, & France had not discovered
|
|
either timidity, or over-much forbearance on the late occasions. Is
|
|
this the position we wish to take for our constituents? It is
|
|
certainly not the one they would take for themselves.
|
|
|
|
I will proceed now to examine the principal authority which has
|
|
been relied on for establishing the right of self liberation; because
|
|
tho' just in part, it would lead us far beyond justice, if taken in
|
|
all the latitude of which his expressions would admit. Questions of
|
|
natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense &
|
|
reason of man. Those who write treatises of natural law, can only
|
|
declare what their own moral sense & reason dictate in the several
|
|
cases they state. Such of them as happen to have feelings & a reason
|
|
coincident with those of the wise & honest part of mankind, are
|
|
respected & quoted as witnesses of what is morally right or wrong in
|
|
particular cases. Grotius, Puffendorf, Wolf, & Vattel are of this
|
|
number. Where they agree their authority is strong. But where they
|
|
differ, & they often differ, we must appeal to our own feelings and
|
|
reason to decide between them.
|
|
|
|
The passages in question shall be traced through all these
|
|
writers, that we may see wherein they concur, & where that
|
|
concurrence is wanting. It shall be quoted from them in the order in
|
|
which they wrote, that is to say, from Grotius first, as being the
|
|
earliest writer, Puffendorf next, then Wolf, & lastly Vattel as
|
|
latest in time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grotius. 2. 16. 16.
|
|
`Hither must be referred the common question, concerning
|
|
personal & real treaties. If indeed it be with a free people, there
|
|
can be no doubt but that the engagement is in it's nature real,
|
|
because the subject is a permanent thing, and even tho the government
|
|
of the state be changed into a Kingdom, the treaty remains, because
|
|
the same body remains, tho' the head is changed, and, as we have
|
|
before said, the government which is exercised by a King, does not
|
|
cease to be the government of the people. There is an _exception_,
|
|
when the object seems peculiar to the government as if free cities
|
|
contract a league for the defence of their freedom.'
|
|
|
|
Puffendorf. 8. 9. 6.
|
|
`It is certain that every alliance made with a republic, is
|
|
real, & continues consequently to the term agreed on by the treaty,
|
|
altho' the magistrates who concluded it be dead before, or that the
|
|
form of government is changed, even from a democracy to a monarchy:
|
|
for in this case the people does not cease to be the same, and the
|
|
King, in the case supposed, being established by the consent of the
|
|
people, who abolished the republican government, is understood to
|
|
accept the crown with all the engagements which the people conferring
|
|
it had contracted, as being free & governing themselves. There must
|
|
nevertheless be an _Exception_ of the alliances contracted with a
|
|
view to preserve the present government. As if two Republics league
|
|
for neutral defence against those who would undertake to invade their
|
|
liberty: for if one of these two people consent afterwards
|
|
voluntarily to change the form of their government, the alliance ends
|
|
of itself, because the reason on which it was founded no longer
|
|
subsists.'
|
|
|
|
Wolf. 1146.
|
|
`The alliance which is made with a free people, or with a
|
|
popular government, is a real alliance; and as when the form of
|
|
government changes, the people remains the same, (for it is the
|
|
association which forms the people, & not the manner of administering
|
|
the government) this alliance subsists, tho' the form of government
|
|
changes, _unless_, as is evident, the reason of the alliance was
|
|
particular to the popular state.'
|
|
|
|
Vattel. 2. 197.
|
|
`The same question presents itself in real alliances, & in
|
|
general on every alliance made with a state, & not in particular with
|
|
a King for the defense of his person. We ought without doubt to
|
|
defend our ally against all invasion, against all foreign violence, &
|
|
even against rebel subjects. We ought in like manner to defend a
|
|
republic against the enterprises of an oppressor of the public
|
|
liberty. But we ought to recollect that we are the ally of the
|
|
state, or of the nation, & not it's judge. If the nation has deposed
|
|
it's King in form, if the people of a republic has driven away it's
|
|
magistrates, & have established themselves free, or if they have
|
|
acknoleged the authority of an usurper, whether expressly or tacitly,
|
|
to oppose these domestic arrangements, to contest their justice or
|
|
validity, would be to meddle with the government of the nation, & to
|
|
do it an injury. The ally remains the ally of the state,
|
|
notwithstanding the change which has taken place. _But if this
|
|
change renders the alliance useless, dangerous or disagreeable to it,
|
|
it is free to renounce it. For it may say with truth, that it would
|
|
not have allied itself with this nation, if it had been under the
|
|
present form of it's government._'
|
|
|
|
The doctrine then of Grotius, Puffendorf & Wolf is that
|
|
`treaties remain obligatory notwithstanding any change in the form of
|
|
government, except in the single case where the preservation of that
|
|
form was the object of the treaty.' There the treaty extinguishes,
|
|
not by the election or declaration of the party remaining in statu
|
|
quo; but independantly of that, by the evanishment of the object.
|
|
Vattel lays down, in fact, the same doctrine, that treaties continue
|
|
obligatory, notwithstanding a change of government by the will of the
|
|
other party, that to oppose that will would be a wrong, & that the
|
|
ally remains an ally notwithstanding the change. So far he concurs
|
|
with all the previous writers. But he then adds what they had not
|
|
said, nor would say `but if this change renders the alliance
|
|
_useless_, dangerous, or _disagreeable_ to it, it is free to renounce
|
|
it.' It was unnecessary for him to have specified the exception of
|
|
_danger_ in this particular case, because that exception exists in
|
|
all cases & it's extent has been considered. But when he adds that,
|
|
because a contract is become merely _useless_ or _disagreeable_, we
|
|
are free to renounce it, he is in opposition to Grotius, Puffendorf,
|
|
& Wolf, who admit no such licence against the obligation of treaties,
|
|
& he is in opposition to the morality of every honest man, to whom we
|
|
may safely appeal to decide whether he feels himself free to renounce
|
|
a contract the moment it becomes merely _useless_ or _disagreeable_,
|
|
to him? We may appeal too to Vattel himself, in those parts of his
|
|
book where he cannot be misunderstood, & to his known character, as
|
|
one of the most zealous & constant advocates for the preservation of
|
|
good faith in all our dealings. Let us hear him on other occasions;
|
|
& first where he shews what degree of danger or injury will authorize
|
|
self-liberation from a treaty. `If simple lezion' (lezion means the
|
|
loss sustained by selling a thing for less than half value, which
|
|
degree of loss rendered the sale void by the Roman law), `if simple
|
|
lezion, says he, or some degree of disadvantage in a treaty does not
|
|
suffice to render it invalid, it is not so as to inconveniences which
|
|
would go to the _ruin_ of the nation. As every treaty ought to be
|
|
made by a sufficient power, a treaty pernicious to the state is null,
|
|
& not at all obligatory; no governor of a nation having power to
|
|
engage things capable of _destroying_ the state, for the safety of
|
|
which the empire is trusted to him. The nation itself, bound
|
|
necessarily to whatever it's preservation & safety require, cannot
|
|
enter into engagements contrary to it's indispensable obligations.'
|
|
Here then we find that the degree of injury or danger which he deems
|
|
sufficient to liberate us from a treaty, is that which would go to
|
|
the absolute _ruin_ or _destruction_ of the state; not simply the
|
|
lezion of the Roman law, not merely the being disadvantageous, or
|
|
dangerous. For as he says himself 158. `lezion cannot render a
|
|
treaty invalid. It is his duty, who enters into engagements, to
|
|
weigh well all things before be concludes. He may do with his
|
|
property what he pleases, he may relinquish his rights, renounce his
|
|
advantages, as he judges proper: the acceptant is not obliged to
|
|
inform himself of his motives, nor to weigh their just value. If we
|
|
could free ourselves from a compact because we find ourselves injured
|
|
by it, there would be nothing firm in the contracts of nations.
|
|
Civil laws may set limits to lezion, & determine the degree capable
|
|
of producing a nullity of the contract. But sovereigns acknolege no
|
|
judge. How establish lezion among them? Who will determine the
|
|
degree sufficient to invalidate a treaty? The happiness & peace of
|
|
nations require manifestly that their treaties should not depend on a
|
|
means of nullity so vague & so dangerous.'
|
|
|
|
Let us hear him again on the general subject of the observance
|
|
of treaties 163. `It is demonstrated in natural law that he who
|
|
promises another confers on him a perfect right to require the thing
|
|
promised, & that, consequently, not to observe a perfect promise, is
|
|
to violate the right of another; it is as manifest injustice as to
|
|
plunder any one of their right. All the tranquillity, the happiness
|
|
& security of mankind rest on justice, on the obligation to respect
|
|
the rights of others. The respect of others for our rights of domain
|
|
& property is the security of our actual possessions; the faith of
|
|
promises is our security for the things which cannot be delivered or
|
|
executed on the spot. No more security, no more commerce among men,
|
|
if they think themselves not obliged to preserve faith, to keep their
|
|
word. This obligation then is as necessary as it is natural &
|
|
indubitable, among nations who live together in a state of nature, &
|
|
who acknolege no superior on earth, to maintain order & peace in
|
|
their society. Nations & their governors then ought to observe
|
|
inviolably their promises & their treaties. This great truth, altho'
|
|
too often neglected in practice, is generally acknoleged by all
|
|
nations: the reproach of perfidy is a bitter affront among
|
|
sovereigns: now he who does not observe a treaty is assuredly
|
|
perfidious, since he violates his faith. On the contrary nothing is
|
|
so glorious to a prince & his nation, as the reputation of inviolable
|
|
fidelity to his word.' Again 219. `Who will doubt that treaties are
|
|
of the things sacred among nations? They decide matters the most
|
|
important. They impose rules on the pretensions of sovereigns: they
|
|
cause the rights of nations to be acknoleged, they assure their most
|
|
precious interests. Among political bodies, sovereigns, who
|
|
acknolege no superior on earth, treaties are the only means of
|
|
adjusting their different pretensions, of establishing a rule, to
|
|
know on what to count, on what to depend. But treaties are but vain
|
|
words if nations do not consider them as respectable engagements, as
|
|
rules, inviolable for sovereigns, & sacred through the whole earth.
|
|
220. The faith of treaties, that firm & sincere will, that
|
|
invariable constancy in fulfilling engagements, of which a
|
|
declaration is made in a treaty, is there holy & sacred, among
|
|
nations, whose safety & repose it ensures; & if nations will not be
|
|
wanting to themselves, they will load with infamy whoever violates
|
|
his faith.'
|
|
|
|
After evidence so copious & explicit of the respect of this
|
|
author for the sanctity of treaties, we should hardly have expected
|
|
that his authority would have been resorted to for a wanton
|
|
invalidation of them whenever they should become merely _useless_ or
|
|
_disagreeable_. We should hardly have expected that, rejecting all
|
|
the rest of his book, this scrap would have been culled, & made the
|
|
hook whereon to hang such a chain of immoral consequences. Had the
|
|
passage accidentally met our eye, we should have imagined it had
|
|
fallen from the author's pen under some momentary view, not
|
|
sufficiently developed to found a conjecture what he meant: and we
|
|
may certainly affirm that a fragment like this cannot weigh against
|
|
the authority of all other writers, against the uniform & systematic
|
|
doctrine of every work from which it is torn, against the moral
|
|
feelings & the reason of all honest men. If the terms of the
|
|
fragment are not misunderstood, they are in full contradiction to all
|
|
the written & unwritten evidences of morality: if they are
|
|
misunderstood, they are no longer a foundation for the doctrines
|
|
which have been built on them.
|
|
|
|
But even had this doctrine been as true as it is manifestly
|
|
false, it would have been asked, to whom is it that the treaties with
|
|
France have become _disagreeable_? How will it be proved that they
|
|
are _useless_?
|
|
|
|
The conclusion of the sentence suggests a reflection too strong
|
|
to be suppressed `for the party may say with truth that it would not
|
|
have allied itself with this nation, if it had been under the present
|
|
form of it's government.' The Republic of the U.S. allied itself with
|
|
France when under a despotic government. She changes her government,
|
|
declares it shall be a Republic, prepares a form of Republic
|
|
extremely free, and in the mean time is governing herself as such,
|
|
and it is proposed that America shall declare the treaties void
|
|
because `it may say with truth that it would not have allied itself
|
|
with that nation, if it had been under the present form of it's
|
|
government!' Who is the American who can say with truth that he would
|
|
not have allied himself to France if she had been a republic? or
|
|
that a Republic of any form would be as _disagreeable_ as her antient
|
|
despotism?
|
|
|
|
Upon the whole I conclude
|
|
That the treaties are still binding, notwithstanding the change
|
|
of government in France: that no part of them, but the clause of
|
|
guarantee, holds up _danger_, even at a distance.
|
|
|
|
And consequently that a liberation from no other part could be
|
|
proposed in any case: that if that clause may ever bring _danger_, it
|
|
is neither extreme, nor imminent, nor even probable: that the
|
|
authority for renouncing a treaty, when _useless_ or _disagreeable_,
|
|
is either misunderstood, or in opposition to itself, to all their
|
|
writers, & to every moral feeling: that were it not so, these
|
|
treaties are in fact neither useless nor disagreeable.
|
|
|
|
That the receiving a Minister from France at this time is an
|
|
act of no significance with respect to the treaties, amounting
|
|
neither to an admission nor a denial of them, forasmuch as he comes
|
|
not under any stipulation in them:
|
|
|
|
That were it an explicit admission, or were an express
|
|
declaration of this obligation now to be made, it would not take from
|
|
us that right which exists at all times of liberating ourselves when
|
|
an adherence to the treaties would be _ruinous_ or _destructive_ to
|
|
the society: and that the not renouncing the treaties now is so far
|
|
from being a breach of neutrality, that the doing it would be the
|
|
breach, by giving just cause of war to France.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Report on the Privileges and Restrictions on the Commerce of
|
|
the United States in Foreign Counies_
|
|
|
|
December 16, 1793
|
|
|
|
_The Secretary of State, to whom was referred by the House of
|
|
Representatives, the report of a committee on the written message of
|
|
the President of the United States, of the 14th of February, 1791,
|
|
with instructions to report to Congress the nature and extent of the
|
|
privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the
|
|
United States with foreign nations, and the measures which he should
|
|
think proper to be adopted for the improvement of the commerce and
|
|
navigation of the same, has had the same under consideration, and
|
|
thereupon makes the following Report:
|
|
|
|
The countries with which the United States have their chief
|
|
commercial intercourse are Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain,
|
|
the United Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, and their American
|
|
possessions; and the articles of export, which constitute the basis
|
|
of that commerce, with their respective amounts, are,
|
|
|
|
Breadstuff, that is to say, bread grains, meals,
|
|
and bread, to the annual amount of. . . . . . . . 7,649,887
|
|
Tobacco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,349,567
|
|
Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,753,796
|
|
Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,263,534
|
|
Salted fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 941,696
|
|
Pot and pearl ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839,093
|
|
Salted meats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599,130
|
|
Indigo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537,379
|
|
Horses and mules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339,753
|
|
Whale oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252,591
|
|
Flax seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236,072
|
|
Tar, pitch and turpentine . . . . . . . . . . . . 217,177
|
|
Live provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137,743
|
|
Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
|
Foreign goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620,274
|
|
|
|
To descend to articles of smaller value than these, would lead
|
|
into a minuteness of detail neither necessary nor useful to the
|
|
present object.
|
|
|
|
The proportions of our exports, which go to the nations b efore
|
|
mentioned, and to their dominions, respectively, are as follows:
|
|
|
|
To Spain and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . $2,005,907
|
|
Portugal and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 1,283,462
|
|
France and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,698,735
|
|
Great Britain and its dominions . . . . . . . . 9,363,416
|
|
The United Netherlands and their dominions . . . 1,963,880
|
|
Denmark and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 224,415
|
|
Sweden and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 47,240
|
|
|
|
Our imports from the same countries, are
|
|
|
|
Spain and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . . 335,110
|
|
Portugal and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 595,763
|
|
France and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 2,068,348
|
|
Great Britain and its dominions . . . . . . . 15,285,428
|
|
United Netherlands and their dominions . . . . 1,172,692
|
|
Denmark and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . 351,364
|
|
Sweden and its dominions . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,325
|
|
|
|
These imports consist mostly of articles on which industry has
|
|
been exhausted.
|
|
|
|
Our _navigation_, depending on the same commerce, will appear
|
|
by the following statement of the tonnage of our own vessels,
|
|
entering in our ports, from those several nations and their
|
|
possessions, in one year: that is to say, from October, 1789, to
|
|
September, 1790, inclusive, as follows:
|
|
|
|
Tons.
|
|
Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,695
|
|
Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,576
|
|
France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116,410
|
|
Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,580
|
|
United Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58,858
|
|
Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,655
|
|
Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750
|
|
|
|
Of our commercial objects, Spain receives favorably our
|
|
breadstuff, salted fish, wood, ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. On
|
|
our meals, however, as well as on those of other foreign countries,
|
|
when re-exported to their colonies, they have lately imposed duties
|
|
of from half-a-dollar to two dollars the barrel, the duties being so
|
|
proportioned to the current price of their own flour, as that both
|
|
together are to make the constant sum of nine dollars per barrel.
|
|
|
|
They do not discourage our rice, pot and pearl ash, salted
|
|
provisions, or whale oil; but these articles, being in small demand
|
|
at their markets, are carried thither but in a small degree. Their
|
|
demand for rice, however, is increasing. Neither tobacco nor indigo
|
|
are received there. Our commerce is permitted with their Canary
|
|
islands under the same conditions.
|
|
|
|
Themselves, and their colonies, are the actual consumers of
|
|
what they receive from us.
|
|
|
|
Our navigation is free with the kingdom of Spain; foreign goods
|
|
being received there in our ships on the same conditions as if
|
|
carried in their own, or in the vessels of the country of which such
|
|
goods are the manufacture or produce.
|
|
|
|
_Portugal_ receives favorably our grain and bread, salted fish,
|
|
and other salted provisions, wood, tar, pitch and turpentine.
|
|
|
|
For flax-seed, pot and pearl ash, though not discouraged, there
|
|
is little demand.
|
|
|
|
Our ships pay 20 per cent. on being sold to their subjects, and
|
|
are then free-bottoms.
|
|
|
|
Foreign goods (except those of the East Indies) are received on
|
|
the same footing in our vessels as in their own, or any others; that
|
|
is to say, on general duties of from 20 to 28 per cent., and,
|
|
consequently, our navigation is unobstructed by them. Tobacco, rice,
|
|
and meals, are prohibited.
|
|
|
|
Themselves and their colonies consume what they receive from
|
|
us.
|
|
|
|
These regulations extend to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape
|
|
de Verd islands, except that in these, meals and rice are received
|
|
freely.
|
|
|
|
_France_ receives favorably our bread-stuffs, rice, wood, pot
|
|
and pearl ashes.
|
|
|
|
A duty of 5 sous the quintal, or nearly 4 1/2 cents, is paid on
|
|
our tar, pitch, and turpentine. Our whale oils pay 6 livres the
|
|
quintal, and are the only foreign whale oils admitted. Our indigo
|
|
pays 5 livres the quintal, their own 2 1/2; but a difference of
|
|
quality, still more than a difference of duty, prevents its seeking
|
|
that market.
|
|
|
|
Salted beef is received freely for re-exportation; but if for
|
|
home consumption, it pays five livres the quintal. Other salted
|
|
provisions pay that duty in all cases, and salted fish is made lately
|
|
to pay the prohibitory one of twenty livres the quintal.
|
|
|
|
Our ships are free to carry thither all foreign goods which may
|
|
be carried in their own or any other vessels, except tobaccoes not of
|
|
our own growth; and they participate with theirs, the exclusive
|
|
carriage of our whale oils and tobaccoes.
|
|
|
|
During their former government, our tobacco was under a
|
|
monopoly, but paid no duties; and our ships were freely sold in their
|
|
ports and converted into national bottoms. The first national
|
|
assembly took from our ships this privilege. They emancipated
|
|
tobacco from its monopoly, but subjected it to duties of eighteen
|
|
livres, fifteen sous the quintal, carried in their own vessels, and
|
|
five livres carried in ours -- a difference more than equal to the
|
|
freight of the article.
|
|
|
|
They and their colonies consume what they receive from us.
|
|
|
|
_Great Britain_ receives our pot and pearl ashes free, whilst
|
|
those of other nations pay a duty of two shillings and three pence
|
|
the quintal. There is an equal distinction in favor of our bar iron;
|
|
of which article, however, we do not produce enough for our own use.
|
|
Woods are free from us, whilst they pay some small duty from other
|
|
countries. Indigo and flax-seed are free from all countries. Our
|
|
tar and pitch pay eleven pence, sterling, the barrel. From other
|
|
alien countries they pay about a penny and a third more.
|
|
|
|
Our tobacco, for their own consumption, pays one shilling and
|
|
three pence, sterling, the pound, custom and excise, besides heavy
|
|
expenses of collection; and rice, in the same case, pays seven
|
|
shillings and four pence, sterling, the hundred weight; which
|
|
rendering it too dear, as an article of common food, it is
|
|
consequently used in very small quantity.
|
|
|
|
Our salted fish and other salted provisions, except bacon, are
|
|
prohibited. Bacon and whale oils are under prohibitory duties, so
|
|
are our grains, meals, and bread, as to internal consumption, unless
|
|
in times of such scarcity as may raise the price of wheat to fifty
|
|
shillings, sterling, the quarter, and other grains and meals in
|
|
proportion.
|
|
|
|
Our ships, though purchased and navigated by their own
|
|
subjects, are not permitted to be used, even in their trade with us.
|
|
|
|
While the vessels of other nations are secured by standing
|
|
laws, which cannot be altered but by the concurrent will of the three
|
|
branches of the British legislature, in carrying thither any produce
|
|
or manufacture of the country to which they belong, which may be
|
|
lawfully carried in any vessels, ours, with the same prohibition of
|
|
what is foreign, are further prohibited by a standing law (12 Car. 2,
|
|
18, sect. 3), from carrying thither all and any of our own domestic
|
|
productions and manufactures. A subsequent act, indeed, has
|
|
authorized their executive to permit the carriage of our own
|
|
productions in our own bottoms, at its sole discretion; and the
|
|
permission has been given from year to year by proclamation, but
|
|
subject every moment to be withdrawn on that single will; in which
|
|
event, our vessels having anything on board, stand interdicted from
|
|
the entry of all British ports. The disadvantage of a tenure which
|
|
may be so suddenly discontinued, was experienced by our merchants on
|
|
a late occasion, (*) when an official notification that this law
|
|
would be stricly enforced, gave them just apprehensions for the fate
|
|
of their vessels and cargoes despatched or destined for the ports of
|
|
Great Britain. The minister of that court, indeed, frankly expressed
|
|
his personal convictions that the words of the order went farther
|
|
than was intended, and so he afterwards officially informed us: but
|
|
the embarrassments of the moment were real and great, and the
|
|
possibility of their renewal lays our commerce to that country under
|
|
the same species of discouragement as to other countries, where it is
|
|
regulated by a single legislator; and the distinction is too
|
|
remarkable not to be noticed, that our navigation is excluded from
|
|
the security of fixed laws, while that security is given to the
|
|
navigation of others.
|
|
|
|
(*) April 12, 1792
|
|
|
|
Our vessels pay in their ports one shilling and nine pence,
|
|
sterling, per ton, light and trinity dues, more than is paid by
|
|
British ships, except in the port of London, where they pay the same
|
|
as British.
|
|
|
|
The greater part of what they receive from us, is re-exported
|
|
to other countries, under the useless charges of an intermediate
|
|
deposit, and double voyage. From tables published in England, and
|
|
composed, as is said, from the books of their customhouses, it
|
|
appears, that of the indigo imported there in the years 1773, '4, '5,
|
|
one-third was re-exported; and from a document of authority, we
|
|
learn, that of the rice and tobacco imported there before the war,
|
|
four-fifths were re-exported. We are assured, indeed, that the
|
|
quantities sent thither for re-exportation since the war, are
|
|
considerably diminished, yet less so than reason and national
|
|
interest would dictate. The whole of our grain is re-exported when
|
|
wheat is below fifty shillings the quarter, and other grains in
|
|
proportion.
|
|
|
|
The _United Netherlands_ prohibit our pickled beef and pork,
|
|
meals and bread of all sorts, and lay a prohibitory duty on spirits
|
|
distilled from grain.
|
|
|
|
All other of our productions are received on varied duties,
|
|
which may be reckoned, on a medium, at about three per cent.
|
|
|
|
They consume but a small proportion of what they receive. The
|
|
residue is partly forwarded for consumption in the inland parts of
|
|
Europe, and partly re-shipped to other maritime countries. On the
|
|
latter portion they intercept between us and the consumer, so much of
|
|
the value as is absorbed in the charges attending and intermediate
|
|
deposit.
|
|
|
|
Foreign goods, except some East India articles, are received in
|
|
vessels of any nation.
|
|
|
|
Our ships may be sold and neutralized there, with exceptions of
|
|
one or two privileges, which somewhat lessen their value.
|
|
|
|
_Denmark_ lays considerable duties on our tobacco and rice,
|
|
carried in their own vessels, and half as much more, if carried in
|
|
ours; but the exact amount of these duties is not perfectly known
|
|
here. They lay such duties as amount to prohibitions on our indigo
|
|
and corn.
|
|
|
|
_Sweden_ receives favorably our grains and meals, salted
|
|
provisions, indigo, and whale oil.
|
|
|
|
They subject our rice to duties of sixteen mills the pound
|
|
weight, carried in their own vessels, and of forty per cent.
|
|
additional on that, or twenty-two and four-tenths mills, carried in
|
|
ours or any others. Being thus rendered too dear as an article of
|
|
common food, little of it is consumed with them. They consume some
|
|
of our tobaccoes, which they take circuitously through Great Britain,
|
|
levying heavy duties on them also; their duties of entry, town
|
|
duties, and excise, being 4 34 dollars the hundred weight, if carried
|
|
in their own vessels, and of forty per cent. on that additional, if
|
|
carried in our own or any other vessels.
|
|
|
|
They prohibit altogether our bread, fish, pot and pearl ashes,
|
|
flax-seed, tar, pitch, and turpentine, wood (except oak timber and
|
|
masts), and all foreign manufactures.
|
|
|
|
Under so many restrictions and prohibitions, our navigation
|
|
with them is reduced to almost nothing.
|
|
|
|
With our neighbors, an order of things much harder presents
|
|
itself.
|
|
|
|
_Spain_ and _Portugal_ refuse, to all those parts of America
|
|
which they govern, all direct intercourse with any people but
|
|
themselves. The commodities in mutual demand between them and their
|
|
neighbors, must be carried to be exchanged in some port of the
|
|
dominant country, and the transportation between that and the subject
|
|
state, must be in a domestic bottom.
|
|
|
|
_France_, by a standing law, permits her West India possessions
|
|
to receive directly our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood,
|
|
tar, pitch, turpentine, rice, and maize, and prohibits our other
|
|
bread stuff; but a suspension of this prohibition having been left to
|
|
the colonial legislatures, in times of scarcity, it was formerly
|
|
suspended occasionally, but latterly without interruption.
|
|
|
|
Our fish and salted provisions (except pork) are received in
|
|
their islands under a duty of three colonial livres the quintal, and
|
|
our vessels are as free as their own to carry our commodities
|
|
thither, and to bring away rum and molasses.
|
|
|
|
_Great Britain_ admits in her islands our vegetables, live
|
|
provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch, and turpentine, rice and bread
|
|
stuff, by a proclamation of her executive, limited always to the term
|
|
of a year, but hitherto renewed from year to year. She prohibits our
|
|
salted fish and other salted provisions. She does not permit our
|
|
vessels to carry thither our own produce. Her vessels alone may take
|
|
it from us, and bring in exchange rum, molasses, sugar, coffee,
|
|
cocoa-nuts, ginger, and pimento. There are, indeed, some freedoms in
|
|
the island of Dominica, but, under such circumstances, as to be
|
|
little used by us. In the British continental colonies, and in
|
|
Newfoundland, all our productions are prohibited, and our vessels
|
|
forbidden to enter their ports. Their governors, however, in times
|
|
of distress, have power to permit a temporary importation of certain
|
|
articles in their own bottoms, but not in ours.
|
|
|
|
Our citizens cannot reside as merchants or factors within any
|
|
of the British plantations, this being expressly prohibited by the
|
|
same statute of 12 Car. 2, c. 18, commonly called the navigation act.
|
|
|
|
In the _Danish American_ possessions a duty of 5 per cent. is
|
|
levied on our corn, corn meal, rice, tobacco, wood, salted fish,
|
|
indigo, horses, mules and live stock, and of 10 per cent. on our
|
|
flour, salted pork and beef, tar, pitch and turpentine.
|
|
|
|
In the American islands of the _United Netherlands_ and Sweden,
|
|
our vessels and produce are received, subject to duties, not so heavy
|
|
as to have been complained of; but they are heavier in the Dutch
|
|
possessions on the continent.
|
|
|
|
To sum up these restrictions, so far as they are important:
|
|
|
|
FIRST. In Europe --
|
|
Our bread stuff is at most times under prohibitory duties in
|
|
England, and considerably dutied on re-exportation from Spain to her
|
|
colonies.
|
|
|
|
Our tobaccoes are heavily dutied in England, Sweden and France,
|
|
and prohibited in Spain and Portugal.
|
|
|
|
Our rice is heavily dutied in England and Sweden, and
|
|
prohibited in Portugal.
|
|
|
|
Our fish and salted provisions are prohibited in England, and
|
|
under prohibitory duties in France.
|
|
|
|
Our whale oils are prohibited in England and Portugal._And our
|
|
vessels are denied naturalization in England, and of late in France.
|
|
|
|
SECOND. In the West Indies --
|
|
All intercourse is prohibited with the possessions of Spain and
|
|
Portugal.
|
|
|
|
Our salted provisions and fish are prohibited by England.
|
|
|
|
Our salted pork and bread stuff (except maize) are received
|
|
under temporary laws only, in the dominions of France, and our salted
|
|
fish pays there a weighty duty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
THIRD. In the article of navigation --
|
|
Our own carriage of our own tobacco is heavily dutied in
|
|
Sweden, and lately in France.
|
|
|
|
We can carry no article, not of our own production, to the
|
|
British ports in Europe. Nor even our own produce to her American
|
|
possessions.
|
|
|
|
Such being the restrictions on the commerce and navigation of
|
|
the United States; the question is, in what way they may best be
|
|
removed, modified or counteracted?
|
|
|
|
As to commerce, two methods occur. 1. By friendly arrangements
|
|
with the several nations with whom these restrictions exist; Or, 2.
|
|
By the separate act of our own legislatures for countervailing their
|
|
effects.
|
|
|
|
There can be no doubt but that of these two, friendly
|
|
arrangements is the most eligible. Instead of embarrassing commerce
|
|
under piles of regulating laws, duties, and prohibitions, could it be
|
|
relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the world, could every
|
|
country be employed in producing that which nature has best fitted it
|
|
to produce, and each be free to exchange with others mutual
|
|
surplusses for mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be
|
|
produced of those things which contribute to human life and human
|
|
happiness; the numbers of mankind would be increased, and their
|
|
condition bettered.
|
|
|
|
Would even a single nation begin with the United States this
|
|
system of free commerce, it would be advisable to begin it with that
|
|
nation; since it is one by one only that it can be extended to all.
|
|
Where the circumstances of either party render it expedient to levy a
|
|
revenue, by way of impost, on commerce, its freedom might be
|
|
modified, in that particular, by mutual and equivalent measures,
|
|
preserving it entire in all others.
|
|
|
|
Some nations, not yet ripe for free commerce in all its extent,
|
|
might still be willing to mollify its restrictions and regulations
|
|
for us, in proportion to the advantages which an intercourse with us
|
|
might offer. Particularly they may concur with us in reciprocating
|
|
the duties to be levied on each side, or in compensating any excess
|
|
of duty by equivalent advantages of another nature. Our commerce is
|
|
certainly of a character to entitle it to favor in most countries.
|
|
The commodities we offer are either necessaries of life, or materials
|
|
for manufacture, or convenient subjects of revenue; and we take in
|
|
exchange, either manufactures, when they have received the last
|
|
finish of art and industry, or mere luxuries. Such customers may
|
|
reasonably expect welcome and friendly treatment at every market.
|
|
Customers, too, whose demands, increasing with their wealth and
|
|
population, must very shortly give full employment to the whole
|
|
industry of any nation whatever, in any line of supply they may get
|
|
into the habit of calling for from it.
|
|
|
|
But should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it may
|
|
better find its advantage by continuing its system of prohibitions,
|
|
duties and regulations, it behooves us to protect our citizens, their
|
|
commerce and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties and
|
|
regulations, also. Free commerce and navigation are not to be given
|
|
in exchange for restrictions and vexations; nor are they likely to
|
|
produce a relaxation of them.
|
|
|
|
Our navigation involves still higher considerations. As a
|
|
branch of industry, it is valuable, but as a resource of defence,
|
|
essential.
|
|
|
|
Its value, as a branch of industry, is enhanced by the
|
|
dependence of so many other branches on it. In times of general
|
|
peace it multiplies competitors for employment in transportation, and
|
|
so keeps that at its proper level; and in times of war, that is to
|
|
say, when those nations who may be our principal carriers, shall be
|
|
at war with each other, if we have not within ourselves the means of
|
|
transportation, our produce must be exported in belligerent vessels,
|
|
at the increased expense of war-freight and insurance, and the
|
|
articles which will not bear that, must perish on our hands.
|
|
|
|
But it is as a resource of defence that our navigation will
|
|
admit neither negligence nor forbearance. The position and
|
|
circumstances of the United States leave them nothing to fear on
|
|
their land-board, and nothing to desire beyond their present rights.
|
|
But on their seaboard, they are open to injury, and they have there,
|
|
too, a commerce which must be protected. This can only be done by
|
|
possessing a respectable body of citizen-seamen, and of artists and
|
|
establishments in readiness for ship-building.
|
|
|
|
Were the ocean, which is the common property of all, open to
|
|
the industry of all, so that every person and vessel should be free
|
|
to take employment wherever it could be found, the United States
|
|
would certainly not set the example of appropriating to themselves,
|
|
exclusively, any portion of the common stock of occupation. They
|
|
would rely on the enterprise and activity of their citizens for a due
|
|
participation of the benefits of the seafaring business, and for
|
|
keeping the marine class of citizens equal to their object. But if
|
|
particular nations grasp at undue shares, and, more especially, if
|
|
they seize on the means of the United States, to convert them into
|
|
aliment for their own strength, and withdraw them entirely from the
|
|
support of those to whom they belong, defensive and protecting
|
|
measures become necessary on the part of the nation whose marine
|
|
resources are thus invaded; or it will be disarmed of its defence;
|
|
its productions will lie at the mercy of the nation which has
|
|
possessed itself exclusively of the means of carrying them, and its
|
|
politics may be influenced by those who command its commerce. The
|
|
carriage of our own commodities, if once established in another
|
|
channel, cannot be resumed in the moment we may desire. If we lose
|
|
the seamen and artists whom it now occupies, we lose the present
|
|
means of marine defence, and time will be requisite to raise up
|
|
others, when disgrace or losses shall bring home to our feelings the
|
|
error of having abandoned them. The materials for maintaining our
|
|
due share of navigation, are ours in abundance. And, as to the mode
|
|
of using them, we have only to adopt the principles of those who put
|
|
us on the defensive, or others equivalent and better fitted to our
|
|
circumstances.
|
|
|
|
The following principles, being founded in reciprocity, appear
|
|
perfectly just, and to offer no cause of complaint to any nation:
|
|
|
|
1. Where a nation imposes high duties on our productions, or
|
|
prohibits them altogether, it may be proper for us to do the same by
|
|
theirs; first burdening or excluding those productions which they
|
|
bring here, in competition with our own of the same kind; selecting
|
|
next, such manufactures as we take from them in greatest quantity,
|
|
and which, at the same time, we could the soonest furnish to
|
|
ourselves, or obtain from other countries; imposing on them duties
|
|
lighter at first, but heavier and heavier afterwards, as other
|
|
channels of supply open. Such duties having the effect of indirect
|
|
encouragement to domestic manufactures of the same kind, may induce
|
|
the manufacturer to come himself into these States, where cheaper
|
|
subsistence, equal laws, and a vent of his wares, free of duty, may
|
|
ensure him the highest profits from his skill and industry. And
|
|
here, it would be in the power of the State governments to co-operate
|
|
essentially, by opening the resources of encouragement which are
|
|
under their control, extending them liberally to artists in those
|
|
particular branches of manufacture for which their soil, climate,
|
|
population and other circumstances have matured them, and fostering
|
|
the precious efforts and progress of _household_ manufacture, by some
|
|
patronage suited to the nature of its objects, guided by the local
|
|
informations they possess, and guarded against abuse by their
|
|
presence and attentions. The oppressions on our agriculture, in
|
|
foreign ports, would thus be made the occasion of relieving it from a
|
|
dependence on the councils and conduct of others, and of promoting
|
|
arts, manufactures and population at home.
|
|
|
|
2. Where a nation refuses permission to our merchants and
|
|
factors to reside within certain parts of their dominions, we may, if
|
|
it should be thought expedient, refuse residence to theirs in any and
|
|
every part of ours, or modify their transactions.
|
|
|
|
3. Where a nation refuses to receive in our vessels any
|
|
productions but our own, we may refuse to receive, in theirs, any but
|
|
their own productions. The first and second clauses of the bill
|
|
reported by the committee, are well formed to effect this object.
|
|
|
|
4. Where a nation refuses to consider any vessel as ours which
|
|
has not been built within our territories, we should refuse to
|
|
consider as theirs, any vessel not built within their territories.
|
|
|
|
5. Where a nation refuses to our vessels the carriage even of
|
|
our own productions, to certain countries under their domination, we
|
|
might refuse to theirs of every description, the carriage of the same
|
|
productions to the same countries. But as justice and good
|
|
neighborhood would dictate that those who have no part in imposing
|
|
the restriction on us, should not be the victims of measures adopted
|
|
to defeat its effect, it may be proper to confine the restrictions to
|
|
vessels owned or navigated by any subjects of the same dominant
|
|
power, other than the inhabitants of the country to which the said
|
|
productions are to be carried. And to prevent all inconvenience to
|
|
the said inhabitants, and to our own, by too sudden a check on the
|
|
means of transportation, we may continue to admit the vessels marked
|
|
for future exclusion, on an advanced tonnage, and for such length of
|
|
time only, as may be supposed necessary to provide against that
|
|
inconvenience.
|
|
|
|
The establishment of some of these principles by Great Britain,
|
|
alone, has already lost to us in our commerce with that country and
|
|
its possessions, between eight and nine hundred vessels of near
|
|
40,000 tons burden, according to statements from official materials,
|
|
in which they have confidence. This involves a proportional loss of
|
|
seamen, shipwrights, and ship-building, and is too serious a loss to
|
|
admit forbearance of some effectual remedy.
|
|
|
|
It is true we must expect some inconvenience in practice from
|
|
the establishment of discriminating duties. But in this, as in so
|
|
many other cases, we are left to choose between two evils. These
|
|
inconveniences are nothing when weighed against the loss of wealth
|
|
and loss of force, which will follow our perseverance in the plan of
|
|
indiscrimination. When once it shall be perceived that we are either
|
|
in the system or in the habit of giving equal advantages to those who
|
|
extinguish our commerce and navigation by duties and prohibitions, as
|
|
to those who treat both with liberality and justice, liberality and
|
|
justice will be converted by all into duties and prohibitions. It is
|
|
not to the moderation and justice of others we are to trust for fair
|
|
and equal access to market with our productions, or for our due share
|
|
in the transportation of them; but to our own means of independence,
|
|
and the firm will to use them. Nor do the inconveniences of
|
|
discrimination merit consideration. Not one of the nations before
|
|
mentioned, perhaps not a commercial nation on earth, is without them.
|
|
In our case one distinction alone will suffice: that is to say,
|
|
between nations who favor our productions and navigation, and those
|
|
who do not favor them. One set of moderate duties, say the present
|
|
duties, for the first, and a fixed advance on these as to some
|
|
articles, and prohibitions as to others, for the last.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Still, it must be repeated that friendly arrangements are
|
|
preferable with all who will come into them; and that we should carry
|
|
into such arrangements all the liberality and spirit of accommodation
|
|
which the nature of the case will admit.
|
|
|
|
France has, of her own accord, proposed negotiations for
|
|
improving, by a new treaty on fair and equal principles, the
|
|
commercial relations of the two countries. But her internal
|
|
disturbances have hitherto prevented the prosecution of them to
|
|
effect, though we have had repeated assurances of a continuance of
|
|
the disposition.
|
|
|
|
Proposals of friendly arrangement have been made on our part,
|
|
by the present government, to that of Great Britain, as the message
|
|
states; but, being already on as good a footing in law, and a better
|
|
in fact, than the most favored nation, they have not, as yet,
|
|
discovered any disposition to have it meddled with.
|
|
|
|
We have no reason to conclude that friendly arrangements would
|
|
be declined by the other nations, with whom we have such commercial
|
|
intercourse as may render them important. In the meanwhile, it would
|
|
rest with the wisdom of Congress to determine whether, as to those
|
|
nations, they will not surcease _ex parte_ regulations, on the
|
|
reasonable presumption that they will concur in doing whatever
|
|
justice and moderation dictate should be done.
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Draft of the Kentucky Resolutions_
|
|
|
|
October 1798
|
|
|
|
1. _Resolved_, That the several States composing the United
|
|
States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited
|
|
submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under
|
|
the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of
|
|
amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special
|
|
purposes, -- delegated to that government certain definite powers,
|
|
reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their
|
|
own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government
|
|
assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and
|
|
of no force; that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and
|
|
is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other
|
|
party: that the government created by this compact was not made the
|
|
exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to
|
|
itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the
|
|
Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other
|
|
cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has
|
|
an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the
|
|
mode and measure of redress.
|
|
|
|
2. _Resolved_, That the Constitution of the United States,
|
|
having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason,
|
|
counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States,
|
|
piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences
|
|
against the law of nations, and no other crimes whatsoever; and it
|
|
being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the
|
|
Constitution having also declared, that "the powers not delegated to
|
|
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
|
|
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,"
|
|
therefore the act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798,
|
|
and intituled "An Act in addition to the act intituled An Act for the
|
|
punishment of certain crimes against the United States," as also the
|
|
act passed by them on the -- day of June, 1798, intituled "An Act to
|
|
punish frauds committed on the bank of the United States," (and all
|
|
their other acts which assume to create, define, or punish crimes,
|
|
other than those so enumerated in the Constitution,) are altogether
|
|
void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and
|
|
punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains
|
|
solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own
|
|
territory.
|
|
|
|
3. _Resolved_, That it is true as a general principle, and is
|
|
also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution,
|
|
that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the
|
|
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
|
|
States respectively, or to the people;" and that no power over the
|
|
freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being
|
|
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by
|
|
it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right
|
|
remain, and were reserved to the States or the people: that thus was
|
|
manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of
|
|
judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be
|
|
abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those
|
|
abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated,
|
|
rather than the use be destroyed. And thus also they guarded against
|
|
all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious
|
|
opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of
|
|
protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed on the general
|
|
demand of its citizens, had already protected them from all human
|
|
restraint or interference. And that in addition to this general
|
|
principle and express declaration, another and more special provision
|
|
has been made by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which
|
|
expressly declares, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an
|
|
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,
|
|
or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press:" thereby guarding
|
|
in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of
|
|
religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch, that whatever
|
|
violated either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others,
|
|
and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and
|
|
false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal
|
|
tribunals. That, therefore, the act of Congress of the United
|
|
States, passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, intituled "An Act in
|
|
addition to the act intituled An Act for the punishment of certain
|
|
crimes against the United States," which does abridge the freedom of
|
|
the press, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force.
|
|
|
|
4. _Resolved_, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction
|
|
and protection of the laws of the State wherein they are: that no
|
|
power over them has been delegated to the United States, nor
|
|
prohibited to the individual States, distinct from their power over
|
|
citizens. And it being true as a general principle, and one of the
|
|
amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that "the powers
|
|
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
|
|
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
|
|
respectively, or to the people," the act of the Congress of the
|
|
United States, passed on the -- day of July, 1798, intituled "An Act
|
|
concerning aliens," which assumes powers over alien friends, not
|
|
delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void,
|
|
and of no force.
|
|
|
|
5. _Resolved_, That in addition to the general principle, as
|
|
well as the express declaration, that powers not delegated are
|
|
reserved, another and more special provision, inserted in the
|
|
Constitution from abundant caution, has declared that "the migration
|
|
or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing
|
|
shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress
|
|
prior to the year 1808;" that this commonwealth does admit the
|
|
migration of alien friends, described as the subject of the said act
|
|
concerning aliens: that a provision against prohibiting their
|
|
migration, is a provision against all acts equivalent thereto, or it
|
|
would be nugatory: that to remove them when migrated, is equivalent
|
|
to a prohibition of their migration, and is, therefore, contrary to
|
|
the said provision of the Constitution, and void.
|
|
|
|
6. _Resolved_, That the imprisonment of a person under the
|
|
protection of the laws of this commonwealth, on his failure to obey
|
|
the simple _order_ of the President to depart out of the United
|
|
States, as is undertaken by said act intituled "An Act concerning
|
|
aliens," is contrary to the Constitution, one amendment to which has
|
|
provided that "no person shall be deprived of liberty without due
|
|
process of law;" and that another having provided that "in all
|
|
criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to public
|
|
trial by an impartial jury, to be informed of the nature and cause of
|
|
the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to
|
|
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to
|
|
have the assistance of counsel for his defence," the same act,
|
|
undertaking to authorize the President to remove a person out of the
|
|
United States, who is under the protection of the law, on his own
|
|
suspicion, without accusation, without jury, without public trial,
|
|
without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without hearing
|
|
witnesses in his favor, without defence, without counsel, is contrary
|
|
to the provision also of the Constitution, is therefore not law, but
|
|
utterly void, and of no force: that transferring the power of judging
|
|
any person, who is under the protection of the laws, from the courts
|
|
to the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same
|
|
act concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution
|
|
which provides that "the judicial power of the United States shall be
|
|
vested in courts, the judges of which shall hold their offices during
|
|
good behavior;" and that the said act is void for that reason also.
|
|
And it is further to be noted, that this transfer of judiciary power
|
|
is to that magistrate of the General Government who already possesses
|
|
all the Executive, and a negative on all legislative powers.
|
|
|
|
7. _Resolved_, That the construction applied by the General
|
|
Government (as is evidenced by sundry of their proceedings) to those
|
|
parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to
|
|
Congress a power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and
|
|
excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and
|
|
general welfare of the United States," and "to make all laws which
|
|
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers
|
|
vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or
|
|
in any department or officer thereof," goes to the destruction of all
|
|
limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution: that words
|
|
meant by the instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of
|
|
limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give
|
|
unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole
|
|
residue of that instrument: that the proceedings of the General
|
|
Government under color of these articles, will be a fit and necessary
|
|
subject of revisal and correction, at a time of greater tranquillity,
|
|
while those specified in the preceding resolutions call for immediate
|
|
redress.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8th. _Resolved_, That a committee of conference and
|
|
correspondence be appointed, who shall have in charge to communicate
|
|
the preceding resolutions to the legislatures of the several States;
|
|
to assure them that this commonwealth continues in the same esteem of
|
|
their friendship and union which it has manifested from that moment
|
|
at which a common danger first suggested a common union: that it
|
|
considers union, for specified national purposes, and particularly to
|
|
those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the
|
|
peace, happiness and prosperity of all the States: that faithful to
|
|
that compact, according to the plain intent and meaning in which it
|
|
was understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely
|
|
anxious for its preservation: that it does also believe, that to take
|
|
from the States all the powers of self-government and transfer them
|
|
to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the
|
|
special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that
|
|
compact, is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these
|
|
States; and that therefore this commonwealth is determined, as it
|
|
doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated, and
|
|
consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth:
|
|
that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the
|
|
General Government, being chosen by the people, a change by the
|
|
people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are
|
|
assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is
|
|
the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases
|
|
not within the compact, (casus non f;oederis,) to nullify of their
|
|
own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits:
|
|
that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute
|
|
and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for
|
|
them: that nevertheless, this commonwealth, from motives of regard
|
|
and respect for its co-States, has wished to communicate with them on
|
|
the subject: that with them alone it is proper to communicate, they
|
|
alone being parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in
|
|
the last resort of the powers exercised under it, Congress being not
|
|
a party, but merely the creature of the compact, and subject as to
|
|
its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom, and
|
|
for whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified:
|
|
that if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions
|
|
would flow from them; that the General Government may place any act
|
|
they think proper on the list of crimes, and punish it themselves
|
|
whether enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as
|
|
cognizable by them: that they may transfer its cognizance to the
|
|
President, or any other person, who may himself be the accuser,
|
|
counsel, judge and jury, whose _suspicions_ may be the evidence, his
|
|
_order_ the sentence, his _officer_ the executioner, and his breast
|
|
the sole record of the transaction: that a very numerous and valuable
|
|
description of the inhabitants of these States being, by this
|
|
precedent, reduced, as outlaws, to the absolute dominion of one man,
|
|
and the barrier of the Constitution thus swept away from us all, no
|
|
rampart now remains against the passions and the powers of a majority
|
|
in Congress to protect from a like exportation, or other more
|
|
grievous punishment, the minority of the same body, the legislatures,
|
|
judges, governors, and counsellors of the States, nor their other
|
|
peaceable inhabitants, who may venture to reclaim the constitutional
|
|
rights and liberties of the States and people, or who for other
|
|
causes, good or bad, may be obnoxious to the views, or marked by the
|
|
suspicions of the President, or be thought dangerous to his or their
|
|
election, or other interests, public or personal: that the friendless
|
|
alien has indeed been selected as the safest subject of a first
|
|
experiment; but the citizen will soon follow, or rather, has already
|
|
followed, for already has a sedition act marked him as its prey: that
|
|
these and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested at
|
|
the threshold, necessarily drive these States into revolution and
|
|
blood, and will furnish new calumnies against republican government,
|
|
and new pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that man cannot
|
|
be governed but by a rod of iron: that it would be a dangerous
|
|
delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our
|
|
fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the
|
|
parent of despotism -- free government is founded in jealousy, and
|
|
not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes
|
|
limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to
|
|
trust with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the
|
|
limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go; and let the
|
|
honest advocate of confidence read the alien and sedition acts, and
|
|
say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the
|
|
government it created, and whether we should be wise in destroying
|
|
those limits. Let him say what the government is, if it be not a
|
|
tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President,
|
|
and the President of our choice has assented to, and accepted over
|
|
the friendly strangers to whom the mild spirit of our country and its
|
|
laws have pledged hospitality and protection: that the men of our
|
|
choice have more respected the bare _suspicions_ of the President,
|
|
than the solid right of innocence, the claims of justification, the
|
|
sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and
|
|
justice. In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of
|
|
confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of
|
|
the Constitution. That this commonwealth does therefore call on its
|
|
co-States for an expression of their sentiments on the acts
|
|
concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein
|
|
before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not
|
|
authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their
|
|
sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment unaltered to
|
|
limited government, whether general or particular. And that the
|
|
rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers
|
|
by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they
|
|
will concur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so
|
|
palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised
|
|
declaration that that compact is not meant to be the measure of the
|
|
powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the
|
|
exercise over these States, of all powers whatsoever: that they will
|
|
view this as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating them
|
|
in the hands of the General Government, with a power assumed to bind
|
|
the States, not merely as the cases made federal, (casus f;oederis,)
|
|
but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent,
|
|
but by others against their consent: that this would be to surrender
|
|
the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving
|
|
its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that
|
|
the co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made
|
|
federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and of no force,
|
|
and will each take measures of its own for providing that neither
|
|
these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly and
|
|
intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised
|
|
within their respective territories.
|
|
|
|
9th. _Resolved_, That the said committee be authorized to
|
|
communicate by writing or personal conferences, at any times or
|
|
places whatever, with any person or person who may be appointed by
|
|
any one or more co-States to correspond or confer with them; and that
|
|
they lay their proceedings before the next session of Assembly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia_
|
|
|
|
August 4, 1818
|
|
|
|
The commissioners for the University of Virginia, having met,
|
|
as by law required, at the tavern, in Rockfish Gap, on the Blue
|
|
Ridge, on the first day of August, of this present year, 1818; and
|
|
having formed a board, proceeded on that day to the discharge of the
|
|
duties assigned to them by the act of the Legislature, entitled "An
|
|
act, appropriating part of the revenue of the literary fund, and for
|
|
other purposes;" and having continued their proceedings by
|
|
adjournment, from day to day, to Tuesday, the 4th day of August, have
|
|
agreed to a report on the several matters with which they were
|
|
charged, which report they now respectfully address and submit to the
|
|
Legislature of the State.
|
|
|
|
The first duty enjoined on them, was to enquire and report a
|
|
site, in some convenient and proper part of the State, for an
|
|
university, to be called the "University of Virginia." In this
|
|
enquiry, they supposed that the governing considerations should be
|
|
the healthiness of the site, the fertility of the neighboring
|
|
country, and its centrality to the white population of the whole
|
|
State. For, although the act authorized and required them to receive
|
|
any voluntary contributions, whether conditional or absolute, which
|
|
might be offered through them to the President and Directors of the
|
|
Literary Fund, for the benefit of the University, yet they did not
|
|
consider this as establishing an auction, or as pledging the location
|
|
to the highest bidder.
|
|
|
|
Three places were proposed, to wit: Lexington, in the county of
|
|
Rockbridge, Staunton, in the county of Augusta, and the Central
|
|
College, in the county of Albemarle. Each of these was
|
|
unexceptionable as to healthiness and fertility. It was the degree
|
|
of centrality to the white population of the State which alone then
|
|
constituted the important point of comparison between these places;
|
|
and the Board, after full enquiry, and impartial and mature
|
|
consideration, are of opinion, that the central point of the white
|
|
population of the State is nearer to the Central College than to
|
|
either Lexington or Staunton, by great and important differences; and
|
|
all other circumstances of the place in general being favorable to
|
|
it, as a position for an university, they do report the Central
|
|
College, in Albemarle, to be a convenient and proper part of the
|
|
State for the University of Virginia.
|
|
|
|
2. The Board having thus agreed on a proper site for the
|
|
University, to be reported to the Legislature, proceed to the second
|
|
of the duties assigned to them -- that of proposing a plan for its
|
|
buildings -- and they are of opinion that it should consist of
|
|
distinct houses or pavilions, arranged at proper distances on each
|
|
side of a lawn of a proper breadth, and of indefinite extent, in one
|
|
direction, at least; in each of which should be a lecturing room,
|
|
with from two to four apartments, for the accommodation of a
|
|
professor and his family; that these pavilions should be united by a
|
|
range of dormitories, sufficient each for the accommodation of two
|
|
students only, this provision being deemed advantageous to morals, to
|
|
order, and to uninterrupted study; and that a passage of some kind,
|
|
under cover from the weather, should give a communication along the
|
|
whole range. It is supposed that such pavilions, on an average of
|
|
the larger and smaller, will cost each about $5,000; each dormitory
|
|
about $350, and hotels of a single room, for a refectory, and two
|
|
rooms for the tenant, necessary for dieting the students, will cost
|
|
about $3500 each. The number of these pavilions will depend on the
|
|
number of professors, and that of the dormitories and hotels on the
|
|
number of students to be lodged and dieted. The advantages of this
|
|
plan are: greater security against fire and infection; tranquillity
|
|
and comfort to the professors and their families thus insulated;
|
|
retirement to the students; and the admission of enlargement to any
|
|
degree to which the institution may extend in future times. It is
|
|
supposed probable, that a building of somewhat more size in the
|
|
middle of the grounds may be called for in time, in which may be
|
|
rooms for religious worship, under such impartial regulations as the
|
|
Visitors shall prescribe, for public examinations, for a library, for
|
|
the schools of music, drawing, and other associated purposes.
|
|
|
|
3, 4. In proceeding to the third and fourth duties prescribed
|
|
by the Legislature, of reporting "the branches of learning, which
|
|
should be taught in the University, and the number and description of
|
|
the professorships they will require," the Commissioners were first
|
|
to consider at what point it was understood that university education
|
|
should commence? Certainly not with the alphabet, for reasons of
|
|
expediency and impracticability, as well from the obvious sense of
|
|
the Legislature, who, in the same act, make other provision for the
|
|
primary instruction of the poor children, expecting, doubtless, that
|
|
in other cases it would be provided by the parent, or become,
|
|
perhaps, subject of future and further attention of the Legislature.
|
|
The objects of this primary education determine its character and
|
|
limits. These objects would be,
|
|
|
|
To give to every citizen the information he needs for the
|
|
transaction of his own business;
|
|
|
|
To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and
|
|
preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing;
|
|
|
|
To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties;
|
|
|
|
To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to
|
|
discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either;
|
|
|
|
To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he
|
|
retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he
|
|
delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor,
|
|
and judgment;
|
|
|
|
And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness
|
|
all the social relations under which he shall be placed.
|
|
|
|
To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights,
|
|
interests and duties, as men and citizens, being then the objects of
|
|
education in the primary schools, whether private or public, in them
|
|
should be taught reading, writing and numerical arithmetic, the
|
|
elements of mensuration, (useful in so many callings,) and the
|
|
outlines of geography and history. And this brings us to the point
|
|
at which are to commence the higher branches of education, of which
|
|
the Legislature require the development; those, for example, which
|
|
are,
|
|
|
|
To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public
|
|
prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend;
|
|
|
|
To expound the principles and structure of government, the laws
|
|
which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally
|
|
for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation, which,
|
|
banishing all arbitrary and unnecessary restraint on individual
|
|
action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal
|
|
rights of another;
|
|
|
|
To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture,
|
|
manufactures and commerce, and by well informed views of political
|
|
economy to give a free scope to the public industry;
|
|
|
|
To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their
|
|
minds, cultivate their morals, and instill into them the precepts of
|
|
virtue and order;
|
|
|
|
To enlighten them with mathematical and physical sciences,
|
|
which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the
|
|
subsistence, and comforts of human life;
|
|
|
|
And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection and
|
|
correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of
|
|
happiness within themselves.
|
|
|
|
These are the objects of that higher grade of education, the
|
|
benefits and blessings of which the Legislature now propose to
|
|
provide for the good and ornament of their country, the gratification
|
|
and happiness of their fellow-citizens, of the parent especially, and
|
|
his progeny, on which all his affections are concentrated.
|
|
|
|
In entering on this field, the Commissioners are aware that
|
|
they have to encounter much difference of opinion as to the extent
|
|
which it is expedient that this institution should occupy. Some good
|
|
men, and even of respectable information, consider the learned
|
|
sciences as useless acquirements; some think that they do not better
|
|
the condition of man; and others that education, like private and
|
|
individual concerns, should be left to private individual effort; not
|
|
reflecting that an establishment embracing all the sciences which may
|
|
be useful and even necessary in the various vocations of life, with
|
|
the buildings and apparatus belonging to each, are far beyond the
|
|
reach of individual means, and must either derive existence from
|
|
public patronage, or not exist at all. This would leave us, then,
|
|
without those callings which depend on education, or send us to other
|
|
countries to seek the instruction they require. But the
|
|
Commissioners are happy in considering the statute under which they
|
|
are assembled as proof that the Legislature is far from the
|
|
abandonment of objects so interesting. They are sensible that the
|
|
advantages of well-directed education, moral, political and
|
|
economical, are truly above all estimate. Education generates habits
|
|
of application, of order, and the love of virtue; and controls, by
|
|
the force of habit, any innate obliquities in our moral organization.
|
|
We should be far, too, from the discouraging persuasion that man is
|
|
fixed, by the law of his nature, at a given point; that his
|
|
improvement is a chimera, and the hope delusive of rendering
|
|
ourselves wiser, happier or better than our forefathers were. As
|
|
well might it be urged that the wild and uncultivated tree, hitherto
|
|
yielding sour and bitter fruit only, can never be made to yield
|
|
better; yet we know that the grafting art implants a new tree on the
|
|
savage stock, producing what is most estimable both in kind and
|
|
degree. Education, in like manner, engrafts a new man on the native
|
|
stock, and improves what in his nature was vicious and perverse into
|
|
qualities of virtue and social worth. And it cannot be but that each
|
|
generation succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those who
|
|
preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions and discoveries, and
|
|
handing the mass down for successive and constant accumulation, must
|
|
advance the knowledge and well-being of mankind, not _infinitely_, as
|
|
some have said, but _indefinitely_, and to a term which no one can
|
|
fix and foresee. Indeed, we need look back half a century, to times
|
|
which many now living remember well, and see the wonderful advances
|
|
in the sciences and arts which have been made within that period.
|
|
Some of these have rendered the elements themselves subservient to
|
|
the purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke of his labors,
|
|
and effected the great blessings of moderating his own, of
|
|
accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, and extending the
|
|
comforts of life to a much enlarged circle, to those who had before
|
|
known its necessaries only. That these are not the vain dreams of
|
|
sanguine hope, we have before our eyes real and living examples.
|
|
What, but education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our
|
|
indigenous neighbors? And what chains them to their present state of
|
|
barbarism and wretchedness, but a bigotted veneration for the
|
|
supposed superlative wisdom of their fathers, and the preposterous
|
|
idea that they are to look backward for better things, and not
|
|
forward, longing, as it should seem, to return to the days of eating
|
|
acorns and roots, rather than indulge in the degeneracies of
|
|
civilization? And how much more encouraging to the achievements of
|
|
science and improvement is this, than the desponding view that the
|
|
condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been must ever
|
|
be, and that to secure ourselves where we are, we must tread with
|
|
awful reverence in the footsteps of our fathers. This doctrine is
|
|
the genuine fruit of the alliance between Church and State; the
|
|
tenants of which, finding themselves but too well in their present
|
|
condition, oppose all advances which might unmask their usurpations,
|
|
and monopolies of honors, wealth, and power, and fear every change,
|
|
as endangering the comforts they now hold. Nor must we omit to
|
|
mention, among the benefits of education, the incalculable advantage
|
|
of training up able counsellors to administer the affairs of our
|
|
country in all its departments, legislative, executive and judiciary,
|
|
and to bear their proper share in the councils of our national
|
|
government; nothing more than education advancing the prosperity, the
|
|
power, and the happiness of a nation.
|
|
|
|
Encouraged, therefore, by the sentiments of the Legislature,
|
|
manifested in this statute, we present the following tabular
|
|
statement of the branches of learning which we think should be taught
|
|
in the University, forming them into groups, each of which are within
|
|
the powers of a single professor:
|
|
|
|
I. Languages, ancient:
|
|
Latin,
|
|
Greek,
|
|
Hebrew.
|
|
|
|
II. Languages, modern:
|
|
French,
|
|
Spanish,
|
|
Italian,
|
|
German,
|
|
Anglo-Saxon.
|
|
|
|
III. Mathematics, pure:
|
|
Algebra,
|
|
Fluxions,
|
|
Geometry, Elementary, Transcendental.
|
|
Architecture, Military, Naval.
|
|
|
|
|
|
IV. Physico-Mathematics:
|
|
Mechanics,
|
|
Statics,
|
|
Dynamics,
|
|
Pneumatics,
|
|
Acoustics,
|
|
Optics,
|
|
Astronomy,
|
|
Geography.
|
|
|
|
V. Physics, or Natural Philosophy:
|
|
Chemistry,
|
|
Mineralogy.
|
|
|
|
VI. Botany, Zoology.
|
|
|
|
VII. Anatomy, Medicine.
|
|
|
|
VIII. Government,
|
|
Political Economy,
|
|
Law of Nature and Nations,
|
|
History, being interwoven with Politics and Law.
|
|
|
|
IX. Law, municipal.
|
|
|
|
X. Ideology,
|
|
General Grammar,
|
|
Ethics, Rhetoric,
|
|
Belles Lettres,and the fine arts.
|
|
|
|
Some of the terms used in this table being subject to a
|
|
difference of acceptation, it is proper to define the meaning and
|
|
comprehension intended to be given them here:
|
|
|
|
Geometry, Elementary, is that of straight lines and of the
|
|
circle.
|
|
Transcendental, is that of all other curves; it includes, of
|
|
course, _Projectiles_, a leading branch of the military art.
|
|
Military Architecture includes Fortification, another branch of
|
|
that art.
|
|
Statics respect matter generally, in a state of rest, and
|
|
include Hydrostatics, or the laws of fluids particularly, at rest or
|
|
in equilibrio.
|
|
Dynamics, used as a general term, include
|
|
Dynamics proper, or the laws of _solids_ in motion; and
|
|
Hydrodynamics, or Hydraulics, those of _fluids_ in motion.
|
|
Pneumatics teach the theory of air, its weight, motion,
|
|
condensation, rarefaction, &c.
|
|
Acoustics, or Phonics, the theory of sound.
|
|
Optics, the laws of light and vision.
|
|
Physics, or Physiology, in a general sense, mean the doctrine
|
|
of the physical objects of our senses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chemistry is meant, with its other usual branches, to
|
|
comprehend the theory of agriculture.
|
|
Mineralogy, in addition to its peculiar subjects, is here
|
|
understood to embrace what is real in geology.
|
|
Ideology is the doctrine of thought.
|
|
General Grammar explains the construction of language.
|
|
|
|
Some articles in this distribution of sciences will need
|
|
observation. A professor is proposed for ancient languages, the
|
|
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, particularly; but these languages being the
|
|
foundation common to all the sciences, it is difficult to foresee
|
|
what may be the extent of this school. At the same time, no greater
|
|
obstruction to industrious study could be proposed than the presence,
|
|
the intrusions and the noisy turbulence of a multitude of small boys;
|
|
and if they are to be placed here for the rudiments of the languages,
|
|
they may be so numerous that its character and value as an University
|
|
will be merged in those of a Grammar school. It is, therefore,
|
|
greatly to be wished, that preliminary schools, either on private or
|
|
public establishment, could be distributed in districts through the
|
|
State, as preparatory to the entrance of students into the
|
|
University. The tender age at which this part of education
|
|
commences, generally about the tenth year, would weigh heavily with
|
|
parents in sending their sons to a school so distant as the central
|
|
establishment would be from most of them. Districts of such extent
|
|
as that every parent should be within a day's journey of his son at
|
|
school, would be desirable in cases of sickness, and convenient for
|
|
supplying their ordinary wants, and might be made to lessen sensibly
|
|
the expense of this part of their education. And where a sparse
|
|
population would not, within such a compass, furnish subjects
|
|
sufficient to maintain a school, a competent enlargement of district
|
|
must, of necessity, there be submitted to. At these district schools
|
|
or colleges, boys should be rendered able to read the easier authors,
|
|
Latin and Greek. This would be useful and sufficient for many not
|
|
intended for an University education. At these, too, might be taught
|
|
English grammar, the higher branches of numerical arithmetic, the
|
|
geometry of straight lines and of the circle, the elements of
|
|
navigation, and geography to a sufficient degree, and thus afford to
|
|
greater numbers the means of being qualified for the various
|
|
vocations of life, needing more instruction than merely menial or
|
|
praedial labor, and the same advantages to youths whose education may
|
|
have been neglected until too late to lay a foundation in the learned
|
|
languages. These institutions, intermediate between the primary
|
|
schools and University, might then be the passage of entrance for
|
|
youths into the University, where their classical learning might be
|
|
critically completed, by a study of the authors of highest degree;
|
|
and it is at this stage only that they should be received at the
|
|
University. Giving then a portion of their time to a finished
|
|
knowledge of the Latin and Greek, the rest might be appropriated to
|
|
the modern languages, or to the commencement of the course of science
|
|
for which they should be destined. This would generally be about the
|
|
fifteenth year of their age, when they might go with more safety and
|
|
contentment to that distance from their parents. Until this
|
|
preparatory provision shall be made, either the University will be
|
|
overwhelmed with the grammar school, or a separate establishment,
|
|
under one or more ushers, for its lower classes, will be advisable,
|
|
at a mile or two distant from the general one; where, too, may be
|
|
exercised the stricter government necessary for young boys, but
|
|
unsuitable for youths arrived at years of discretion.
|
|
|
|
The considerations which have governed the specification of
|
|
languages to be taught by the professor of modern languages were,
|
|
that the French is the language of general intercourse among nations,
|
|
and as a depository of human science, is unsurpassed by any other
|
|
language, living or dead; that the Spanish is highly interesting to
|
|
us, as the language spoken by so great a portion of the inhabitants
|
|
of our continents, with whom we shall probably have great intercourse
|
|
ere long, and is that also in which is written the greater part of
|
|
the earlier history of America. The Italian abounds with works of
|
|
very superior order, valuable for their matter, and still more
|
|
distinguished as models of the finest taste in style and composition.
|
|
And the German now stands in a line with that of the most learned
|
|
nations in richness of erudition and advance in the sciences. It is
|
|
too of common descent with the language of our own country, a branch
|
|
of the same original Gothic stock, and furnishes valuable
|
|
illustrations for us. But in this point of view, the Anglo-Saxon is
|
|
of peculiar value. We have placed it among the modern languages,
|
|
because it is in fact that which we speak, in the earliest form in
|
|
which we have knowledge of it. It has been undergoing, with time,
|
|
those gradual changes which all languages, ancient and modern, have
|
|
experienced; and even now needs only to be printed in the modern
|
|
character and orthography to be intelligible, in a considerable
|
|
degree, to an English reader. It has this value, too, above the
|
|
Greek and Latin, that while it gives the radix of the mass of our
|
|
language, they explain its innovations only. Obvious proofs of this
|
|
have been presented to the modern reader in the disquisitions of Horn
|
|
Tooke; and Fortescue Aland has well explained the great instruction
|
|
which may be derived from it to a full understanding of our ancient
|
|
common law, on which, as a stock, our whole system of law is
|
|
engrafted. It will form the first link in the chain of an historical
|
|
review of our language through all its successive changes to the
|
|
present day, will constitute the foundation of that critical
|
|
instruction in it which ought to be found in a seminary of general
|
|
learning, and thus reward amply the few weeks of attention which
|
|
would alone be requisite for its attainment; a language already
|
|
fraught with all the eminent science of our parent country, the
|
|
future vehicle of whatever we may ourselves achieve, and destined to
|
|
occupy so much space on the globe, claims distinguished attention in
|
|
American education.
|
|
|
|
Medicine, where fully taught, is usually subdivided into
|
|
several professorships, but this cannot well be without the accessory
|
|
of an hospital, where the student can have the benefit of attending
|
|
clinical lectures, and of assisting at operations of surgery. With
|
|
this accessory, the seat of our University is not yet prepared,
|
|
either by its population or by the numbers of poor who would leave
|
|
their own houses, and accept of the charities of an hospital. For
|
|
the present, therefore, we propose but a single professor for both
|
|
medicine and anatomy. By him the medical science may be taught, with
|
|
a history and explanations of all its successive theories from
|
|
Hippocrates to the present day; and anatomy may be fully treated.
|
|
Vegetable pharmacy will make a part of the botanical course, and
|
|
mineral and chemical pharmacy of those of mineralogy and chemistry.
|
|
This degree of medical information is such as the mass of scientific
|
|
students would wish to possess, as enabling them in their course
|
|
through life, to estimate with satisfaction the extent and limits of
|
|
the aid to human life and health, which they may understandingly
|
|
expect from that art; and it constitutes such a foundation for those
|
|
intended for the profession, that the finishing course of practice at
|
|
the bed-sides of the sick, and at the operations of surgery in a
|
|
hospital, can neither be long nor expensive. To seek this finishing
|
|
elsewhere, must therefore be submitted to for a while.
|
|
|
|
In conformity with the principles of our Constitution, which
|
|
places all sects of religion on an equal footing, with the jealousies
|
|
of the different sects in guarding that equality from encroachment
|
|
and surprise, and with the sentiments of the Legislature in favor of
|
|
freedom of religion, manifested on former occasions, we have proposed
|
|
no professor of divinity; and the rather as the proofs of the being
|
|
of a God, the creator, preserver, and supreme ruler of the universe,
|
|
the author of all the relations of morality, and of the laws and
|
|
obligations these infer, will be within the province of the professor
|
|
of ethics; to which adding the developments of these moral
|
|
obligations, of those in which all sects agree, with a knowledge of
|
|
the languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, a basis will be formed
|
|
common to all sects. Proceeding thus far without offence to the
|
|
Constitution, we have thought it proper at this point to leave every
|
|
sect to provide, as they think fittest, the means of further
|
|
instruction in their own peculiar tenets.
|
|
|
|
We are further of opinion, that after declaring by law that
|
|
certain sciences shall be taught in the University, fixing the number
|
|
of professors they require, which we think should, at present, be
|
|
ten, limiting (except as to the professors who shall be first engaged
|
|
in each branch,) a maximum for their salaries, (which should be a
|
|
certain but moderate subsistence, to be made up by liberal tuition
|
|
fees, as an excitement to assiduity,) it will be best to leave to the
|
|
discretion of the visitors, the grouping of these sciences together,
|
|
according to the accidental qualifications of the professors; and the
|
|
introduction also of other branches of science, when enabled by
|
|
private donations, or by public provision, and called for by the
|
|
increase of population, or other change of circumstances; to
|
|
establish beginnings, in short, to be developed by time, as those who
|
|
come after us shall find expedient. They will be more advanced than
|
|
we are in science and in useful arts, and will know best what will
|
|
suit the circumstances of their day.
|
|
|
|
We have proposed no formal provision for the gymnastics of the
|
|
school, although a proper object of attention for every institution
|
|
of youth. These exercises with ancient nations, constituted the
|
|
principal part of the education of their youth. Their arms and mode
|
|
of warfare rendered them severe in the extreme; ours, on the same
|
|
correct principle, should be adapted to our arms and warfare; and the
|
|
manual exercise, military man;oeuvres, and tactics generally, should
|
|
be the frequent exercises of the students, in their hours of
|
|
recreation. It is at that age of aptness, docility, and emulation of
|
|
the practices of manhood, that such things are soonest learnt and
|
|
longest remembered. The use of tools too in the manual arts is
|
|
worthy of encouragement, by facilitating to such as choose it, an
|
|
admission into the neighboring workshops. To these should be added
|
|
the arts which embellish life, dancing, music, and drawing; the last
|
|
more especially, as an important part of military education. These
|
|
innocent arts furnish amusement and happiness to those who, having
|
|
time on their hands, might less inoffensively employ it. Needing, at
|
|
the same time, no regular incorporation with the institution, they
|
|
may be left to accessory teachers, who will be paid by the
|
|
individuals employing them, the University only providing proper
|
|
apartments for their exercise.
|
|
|
|
The fifth duty prescribed to the Commissioners, is to propose
|
|
such general provisions as may be properly enacted by the
|
|
Legislature, for the better organizing and governing the University.
|
|
|
|
In the education of youth, provision is to be made for, 1,
|
|
tuition; 2, diet; 3, lodging; 4, government; and 5, honorary
|
|
excitements. The first of these constitutes the proper functions of
|
|
the professors; 2, the dieting of the students should be left to
|
|
private boarding houses of their own choice, and at their own
|
|
expense; to be regulated by the Visitors from time to time, the house
|
|
only being provided by the University within its own precincts, and
|
|
thereby of course subjected to the general regimen, moral or
|
|
sumptuary, which they shall prescribe. 3. They should be lodged in
|
|
dormitories, making a part of the general system of buildings. 4.
|
|
The best mode of government for youth, in large collections, is
|
|
certainly a desideratum not yet attained with us. It may be well
|
|
questioned whether _fear_ after a certain age, is a motive to which
|
|
we should have ordinary recourse. The human character is susceptible
|
|
of other incitements to correct conduct, more worthy of employ, and
|
|
of better effect. Pride of character, laudable ambition, and moral
|
|
dispositions are innate correctives of the indiscretions of that
|
|
lively age; and when strengthened by habitual appeal and exercise,
|
|
have a happier effect on future character than the degrading motive
|
|
of fear. Hardening them to disgrace, to corporal punishments, and
|
|
servile humiliations cannot be the best process for producing erect
|
|
character. The affectionate deportment between father and son,
|
|
offers in truth the best example for that of tutor and pupil; and the
|
|
experience and practice of other (*) countries, in this respect, may
|
|
be worthy of enquiry and consideration with us. It will then be for
|
|
the wisdom and discretion of the Visitors to devise and perfect a
|
|
proper system of government, which, if it be founded in reason and
|
|
comity, will be more likely to nourish in the minds of our youth the
|
|
combined spirit of order and self-respect, so congenial with our
|
|
political institutions, and so important to be woven into the
|
|
American character. 5. What qualifications shall be required to
|
|
entitle to entrance into the University, the arrangement of the days
|
|
and hours of lecturing for the different schools, so as to facilitate
|
|
to the students the circle of attendance on them; the establishment
|
|
of periodical and public examinations, the premiums to be given for
|
|
distinguished merit; whether honorary degrees shall be conferred, and
|
|
by what appellations; whether the title to these shall depend on the
|
|
time the candidate has been at the University, or, where nature has
|
|
given a greater share of understanding, attention, and application;
|
|
whether he shall not be allowed the advantages resulting from these
|
|
endowments, with other minor items of government, we are of opinion
|
|
should be entrusted to the Visitors; and the statute under which we
|
|
act having provided for the appointment of these, we think they
|
|
should moreover be charged with
|
|
|
|
(*) A police exercised by the students themselves, under proper
|
|
discretion, has been tried with success in some countries, and the
|
|
rather as forming them for initiation into the duties and practices
|
|
of civil life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The erection, preservation, and repair of the buildings, the
|
|
care of the grounds and appurtenances, and of the interest of the
|
|
University generally.
|
|
|
|
That they should have power to appoint a bursar, employ a
|
|
proctor, and all other necessary agents.
|
|
|
|
To appoint and remove professors, two-thirds of the whole
|
|
number of Visitors voting for the removal.
|
|
|
|
To prescribe their duties and the course of education, in
|
|
conformity with the law.
|
|
|
|
To establish rules for the government and discipline of the
|
|
students, not contrary to the laws of the land.
|
|
|
|
To regulate the tuition fees, and the rent of the dormitories
|
|
they occupy.
|
|
|
|
To prescribe and control the duties and proceedings of all
|
|
officers, servants, and others, with respect to the buildings, lands,
|
|
appurtenances, and other property and interests of the University.
|
|
|
|
To draw from the literary fund such moneys as are by law
|
|
charged on it for this institution; and in general
|
|
|
|
To direct and do all matters and things which, not being
|
|
inconsistent with the laws of the land, to them shall seem most
|
|
expedient for promoting the purposes of the said institution; which
|
|
several functions they should be free to exercise in the form of
|
|
by-laws, rules, resolutions, orders, instructions, or otherwise, as
|
|
they should deem proper.
|
|
|
|
That they should have two stated meetings in the year, and
|
|
occasional meetings at such times as they should appoint, or on a
|
|
special call with such notice as themselves shall prescribe by a
|
|
general rule; which meetings should be at the University, a majority
|
|
of them constituting a quorum for business; and that on the death or
|
|
resignation of a member, or on his removal by the President and
|
|
Directors of the Literary Fund, or the Executive, or such other
|
|
authority as the Legislature shall think best, such President and
|
|
Directors, or the Executive, or other authority, shall appoint a
|
|
successor.
|
|
|
|
That the said Visitors should appoint one of their own body to
|
|
be Rector, and with him be a body corporate, under the style and
|
|
title of the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, with
|
|
the right, as such, to use a common seal; that they should have
|
|
capacity to plead and be impleaded in all courts of justice, and in
|
|
all cases interesting to the University, which may be the subjects of
|
|
legal cognizance and jurisdiction; which pleas should not abate by
|
|
the determination of their office, but should stand revived in the
|
|
name of their successors, and they should be capable in law and in
|
|
trust for the University, of receiving subscriptions and donations,
|
|
real and personal, as well from bodies corporate, or persons
|
|
associated, as from private individuals.
|
|
|
|
And that the said Rector and Visitors should, at all times,
|
|
conform to such laws as the Legislature may, from time to time, think
|
|
proper to enact for their government; and the said University should,
|
|
in all things, and at all times, be subject to the control of the
|
|
Legislature.
|
|
|
|
And lastly, the Commissioners report to the Legislature the
|
|
following conditional offers to the President and Directors of the
|
|
Literary Fund, for the benefit of the University:
|
|
|
|
On the condition that Lexington, or its vicinity, shall be
|
|
selected as the site of the University, and that the same be
|
|
permanently established there within two years from the date, John
|
|
Robinson, of Rockbridge county, has executed a deed to the President
|
|
and Directors of the Literary Fund, to take effect at his death, for
|
|
the following tracts of land, to wit:
|
|
|
|
400 acres on the North fork of James river, known by the name
|
|
of Hart's bottom, purchased of the late Gen. Bowyer.
|
|
|
|
171 acres adjoining the same, purchased of James Griggsby.
|
|
|
|
203 acres joining the last mentioned tract, purchased of
|
|
William Paxton.
|
|
|
|
112 acres lying on the North river, above the lands of Arthur
|
|
Glasgow, conveyed to him by William Paxton's heirs.
|
|
|
|
500 acres adjoining the lands of Arthur Glasgow, Benjamin
|
|
Camden and David Edmonson.
|
|
|
|
545 acres lying in Pryor's gap, conveyed to him by the heirs of
|
|
William Paxton, deceased.
|
|
|
|
260 acres lying in Childer's gap, purchased of Wm. Mitchell.
|
|
|
|
300 acres lying, also, in Childer's gap, purchased of Nicholas
|
|
Jones.
|
|
|
|
500 acres lying on Buffalo, joining the lands of Jas. Johnston.
|
|
|
|
340 acres on the Cowpasture river, conveyed to him by General
|
|
James Breckenridge -- reserving the right of selling the two last
|
|
mentioned tracts, and converting them into other lands contiguous to
|
|
Hart's bottom, for the benefit of the University; also the whole of
|
|
his slaves, amounting to 57 in number; one lot of 22 acres, joining
|
|
the town of Lexington, to pass immediately on the establishment of
|
|
the University, together with all the personal estate of every kind,
|
|
subject only to the payment of his debts and fulfillment of his
|
|
contracts.
|
|
|
|
It has not escaped the attention of the Commissioners, that the
|
|
deed referred to is insufficient to pass the estate in the lands
|
|
intended to be conveyed, and may be otherwise defective; but if
|
|
necessary, this defect may be remedied before the meeting of the
|
|
Legislature, which the Commissioners are advised will be done.
|
|
|
|
The Board of Trustees of Washington College have also proposed
|
|
to transfer the whole of their funds, viz: 100 shares in the funds of
|
|
the James River Company, 31 acres of land upon which their buildings
|
|
stand, their philosophical apparatus, their expected interest in the
|
|
funds of the Cincinnati Society, the libraries of the Graham and
|
|
Washington Societies, and $3,000 in cash, on condition that a
|
|
reasonable provision be made for the present professors. A
|
|
subscription has also been offered by the people of Lexington and its
|
|
vicinity, amounting to $17,878, all which will appear from the deed
|
|
and other documents, reference thereto being had.
|
|
|
|
In this case, also, it has not escaped the attention of the
|
|
Commissioners, that questions may arise as to the power of the
|
|
trustees to make the above transfers.
|
|
|
|
On the condition that the Central College shall be made the
|
|
site of the University, its whole property, real and personal, in
|
|
possession or in action, is offered. This consists of a parcel of
|
|
land of 47 acres, whereon the buildings of the college are begun, one
|
|
pavilion and its appendix of dormitories being already far advanced,
|
|
and with one other pavilion, and equal annexation of dormitories,
|
|
being expected to be completed during the present season -- of
|
|
another parcel of 153 acres, near the former, and including a
|
|
considerable eminence very favorable for the erection of a future
|
|
observatory; of the proceeds of the sales of two glebes, amounting to
|
|
$3,280 86 cents; and of a subscription of $41,248, on papers in hand,
|
|
besides what is on outstanding papers of unknown amount, not yet
|
|
returned -- out of these sums are to be taken, however, the cost of
|
|
the lands, of the buildings, and other works done, and for existing
|
|
contracts. For the conditional transfer to these to the President
|
|
and Directors of the Literary Fund, a regular power, signed by the
|
|
subscribers and founders of the Central College generally, has been
|
|
given to its Visitors and Proctor, and a deed conveying the said
|
|
property accordingly to the President and Directors of the Literary
|
|
Fund, has been duly executed by the said Proctor, and acknowledged
|
|
for record in the office of the clerk of the county court of
|
|
Albemarle.
|
|
|
|
Signed and certified by the members present, each in his proper
|
|
hand-writing, this 4th day of August, 1818.
|
|
|
|
TH: JEFFERSON, PHIL. C. PENDLETON,
|
|
CREED TAYLOR, SPENCER ROANE,
|
|
PETER RANDOLPH, JOHN M. C. TAYLOR,
|
|
WM. BROCKENBROUGH, J. G. JACKSON,
|
|
ARCH'D RUTHERFORD, PHIL. SLAUGHTER,
|
|
ARDH'D STUART, WM. H. CABELL,
|
|
JAMES BRECKENRIDGE, NAT. H. CLAIBORNE,
|
|
HENRY E. WATKINS, WM. A. C. DADE,
|
|
JAMES MADISON, WILLIAM JONES,
|
|
A. T. MASON, THOMAS WILSON.
|
|
HUGH HOLMES,
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Memorial on the Book Duty_
|
|
November 30, 1821
|
|
|
|
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
|
|
States of America in Congress assembled:_
|
|
|
|
The petition of the rector and visiters of the University of
|
|
Virginia, on behalf of those for whom they are in the office of
|
|
preparing the means of instruction, as well as of others seeking it
|
|
elsewhere, respectfully representeth:
|
|
|
|
That the Commonwealth of Virginia has thought proper lately to
|
|
establish a university for instruction, generally, in all the useful
|
|
branches of science, of which your petitioners are appointed rector
|
|
and visiters, and, as such, are charged with attention to the
|
|
interests of those who shall be committed to their care.
|
|
|
|
That they observe, by the tariff of duties imposed by the laws
|
|
of Congress on importations into the United States, an article
|
|
peculiarly inauspicious to the objects of their own, and of all other
|
|
literary institutions throughout the United States.
|
|
|
|
That at an early period of the present Government, when our
|
|
country was burdened with a heavy debt, contracted in the war of
|
|
Independence, and its resources for revenue were untried and
|
|
uncertain, the National Legislature thought it as yet inexpedient to
|
|
indulge in scruples as to the subjects of taxation, and, among
|
|
others, imposed a duty on books imported from abroad, which has been
|
|
continued, and now is, of fifteen per cent., on their prime cost,
|
|
raised by ordinary custom-house charges to eighteen per cent., and by
|
|
the importer's profits to perhaps twenty-five per cent., and more.
|
|
|
|
That, after many years' experience, it is certainly found that
|
|
the reprinting of books in the United States is confined chiefly to
|
|
those in our native language, and of popular characters, and to cheap
|
|
editions of a few of the classics for the use of schools; while the
|
|
valuable editions of the classical authors, even learned works in the
|
|
English language, and books in all foreign living languages,
|
|
(vehicles of the important discoveries and improvements in science
|
|
and the arts, which are daily advancing the interest and happiness of
|
|
other nations,) are unprinted here, and unobtainable from abroad but
|
|
under the burden of a heavy duty.
|
|
|
|
That of many important books, in different branches of science,
|
|
it is believed that there is not a single copy in the United States;
|
|
of others, but a few; and these too distant and difficult of access
|
|
for students and writers generally.
|
|
|
|
That the difficulty resulting from this mode of procuring books
|
|
of the first order in the sciences, and in foreign languages, ancient
|
|
and modern, is an unfair impediment to the American student, who, for
|
|
want of these aids, already possessed or easily procurable in all
|
|
countries except our own, enters on his course with very unequal
|
|
means, with wants unknown to his foreign competitors, and often with
|
|
that imperfect result which subjects us to reproaches not unfelt by
|
|
minds alive to the honor and mortified sensibilities of their
|
|
country.
|
|
|
|
That, to obstruct the acquisition of books from abroad, as an
|
|
encouragement of the progress of literature at home, is burying the
|
|
fountain to increase the flow of its waters.
|
|
|
|
That books, and especially those of the rare and valuable
|
|
character, thus burdened, are not articles of consumption, but of
|
|
permanent preservation and value, lasting often as many centuries as
|
|
the houses we live in, of which examples are to be found in every
|
|
library of note.
|
|
|
|
That books, therefore, are capital, often the only capital of
|
|
professional men on their outset in life, and of students destined
|
|
for professions, (as most of our scholars are,) and barely able, too,
|
|
for the most part, to meet the expenses of tuition, and less to pay
|
|
as extra tax on the books necessary for their instruction, that they
|
|
are consequently less instructed than they would be; and that our
|
|
citizens at large do not derive from their employment all the
|
|
benefits which higher qualifications would procure them.
|
|
|
|
That this is the only form of capital on which a tax of from 18
|
|
to 25 per cent. is first levied on the gross, and the proprietor then
|
|
subject to all other taxes in detail, as those holding capitals in
|
|
other forms, on which no such extra tax has been previously levied.
|
|
|
|
That it is true that no duty is required on books imported for
|
|
seminaries of learning; but these, locked up in libraries, can be of
|
|
no avail to the practical man, when he wishes a recurrence to them
|
|
for the uses of life.
|
|
|
|
That more than thirty years' experience of the resources of our
|
|
country prove them equal to all its debts and wants, and permit its
|
|
Legislature now to favor such objects as the public interests
|
|
recommend to favor.
|
|
|
|
That the value of science to a republican people; the security
|
|
it gives to liberty, by enlightening the minds of its citizens; the
|
|
protection it affords against foreign power; the virtues it
|
|
inculcates; the just emulation of the distinction it confers on
|
|
nations foremost in it; in short, its identification with power,
|
|
morals, order, and happiness, (which merits to it premiums of
|
|
encouragement rather than repressive taxes,) are topics, which your
|
|
petitioners do not permit themselves to urge on the wisdom of
|
|
Congress, before whose minds these considerations are always present,
|
|
and bearing with their just weight.
|
|
|
|
And they conclude, therefore, with praying that Congress will
|
|
be pleased to bestow on this important subject the attention it
|
|
merits, and give the proper relief to the candidates of science among
|
|
ourselves, devoting themselves to the laudable object of qualifying
|
|
themselves to become the instructors and benefactors of their
|
|
fellow-citizens.
|
|
|
|
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_From the Minutes of the Board of Visitors, University of
|
|
Virginia, 1822 - 1825_
|
|
_Report to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund_
|
|
_(extract)_
|
|
October 7, 1822
|
|
|
|
In the same report of the commissioners of 1818 it was stated
|
|
by them that "in conformity with the principles of our constitution,
|
|
which places all sects of religion on an equal footing, with the
|
|
jealousies of the different sects in guarding that equality from
|
|
encroachment or surprise, and with the sentiments of the legislature
|
|
in freedom of religion, manifested on former occasions, they had not
|
|
proposed that any professorship of divinity should be established in
|
|
the University; that provision, however, was made for giving
|
|
instruction in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages, the
|
|
depositories of the originals, and of the earliest and most respected
|
|
authorities of the faith of every sect, and for courses of ethical
|
|
lectures, developing those moral obligations in which all sects
|
|
agree. That, proceeding thus far, without offence to the
|
|
constitution, they had left, at this point, to every sect to take
|
|
into their own hands the office of further instruction in the
|
|
peculiar tenet of each."
|
|
|
|
It was not, however, to be understood that instruction in
|
|
religious opinion and duties was meant to be precluded by the public
|
|
authorities, as indifferent to the interests of society. On the
|
|
contrary, the relations which exist between man and his Maker, and
|
|
the duties resulting from those relations, are the most interesting
|
|
and important to every human being, and the most incumbent on his
|
|
study and investigation. The want of instruction in the various
|
|
creeds of religious faith existing among our citizens presents,
|
|
therefore, a chasm in a general institution of the useful sciences.
|
|
But it was thought that this want, and the entrustment to each
|
|
society of instruction in its own doctrine, were evils of less danger
|
|
than a permission to the public authorities to dictate modes or
|
|
principles of religious instruction, or than opportunities furnished
|
|
them by giving countenance or ascendancy to any one sect over
|
|
another. A remedy, however, has been suggested of promising aspect,
|
|
which, while it excludes the public authorities from the domain of
|
|
religious freedom, will give to the sectarian schools of divinity the
|
|
full benefit the public provisions made for instruction in the other
|
|
branches of science. These branches are equally necessary to the
|
|
divine as to the other professional or civil characters, to enable
|
|
them to fulfill the duties of their calling with understanding and
|
|
usefulness. It has, therefore, been in contemplation, and suggested
|
|
by some pious individuals, who perceive the advantages of associating
|
|
other studies with those of religion, to establish their religious
|
|
schools on the confines of the University, so as to give to their
|
|
students ready and convenient access and attendance on the scientific
|
|
lectures of the University; and to maintain, by that means, those
|
|
destined for the religious professions on as high a standing of
|
|
science, and of personal weight and respectability, as may be
|
|
obtained by others from the benefits of the University. Such
|
|
establishments would offer the further and greater advantage of
|
|
enabling the students of the University to attend religious exercises
|
|
with the professor of their particular sect, either in the rooms of
|
|
the building still to be erected, and destined to that purpose under
|
|
impartial regulations, as proposed in the same report of the
|
|
commissioners, or in the lecturing room of such professor. To such
|
|
propositions the Visitors are disposed to lend a willing ear, and
|
|
would think it their duty to give every encouragement, by assuring to
|
|
those who might choose such a location for their schools, that the
|
|
regulations of the University should be so modified and accommodated
|
|
as to give every facility of access and attendance to their students,
|
|
with such regulated use also as may be permitted to the other
|
|
students, of the library which may hereafter be acquired, either by
|
|
public or private munificence. But always understanding that these
|
|
schools shall be independent of the University and of each other.
|
|
Such an arrangement would complete the circle of the useful sciences
|
|
embraced by this institution, and would fill the chasm now existing,
|
|
on principles which would leave inviolate the constitutional freedom
|
|
of religion, the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights,
|
|
over which the people and authorities of this state, individually and
|
|
publicly, have ever manifested the most watchful jealousy: and could
|
|
this jealousy be now alarmed, in the opinion of the legislature, by
|
|
what is here suggested, the idea will be relinquished on any surmise
|
|
of disapprobation which they might think proper to express.
|
|
|
|
March 4, 1825
|
|
A resolution was moved and agreed to in the following words:
|
|
|
|
Whereas, it is the duty of this Board to the government under
|
|
which it lives, and especially to that of which this University is
|
|
the immediate creation, to pay especial attention to the principles
|
|
of government which shall be inculcated therein, and to provide that
|
|
none shall be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which
|
|
the Constitutions of this State, and of the United States were
|
|
genuinely based, in the common opinion; and for this purpose it may
|
|
be necessary to point out specially where these principles are to be
|
|
found legitimately developed:
|
|
|
|
Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Board that as to the
|
|
general principles of liberty and the rights of man, in nature and in
|
|
society, the doctrines of Locke, in his "Essay concerning the true
|
|
original extent and end of civil government," and of Sidney in his
|
|
"Discourses on government," may be considered as those generally
|
|
approved by our fellow citizens of this, and the United States, and
|
|
that on the distinctive principles of the government of our State,
|
|
and of that of the United States, the best guides are to be found in,
|
|
1. The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental act of union
|
|
of these States. 2. The book known by the title of "The Federalist,"
|
|
being an authority to which appeal is habitually made by all, and
|
|
rarely declined or denied by any as evidence of the general opinion
|
|
of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of
|
|
the United States, on questions as to its genuine meaning. 3. The
|
|
Resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia in 1799 on the
|
|
subject of the alien and sedition laws, which appeared to accord with
|
|
the predominant sense of the people of the United States. 4. The
|
|
valedictory address of President Washington, as conveying political
|
|
lessons of peculiar value. And that in the branch of the school of
|
|
law, which is to treat on the subject of civil polity, these shall be
|
|
used as the text and documents of the school.
|
|
|
|
October 3, 1825
|
|
Resolved, that it be communicated to the Faculty of the
|
|
professors of the University, as the earnest request and
|
|
recommendation of the rector and Visitors, that so far as can be
|
|
effected by their exertions, they cause the statutes and rules
|
|
enacted for the government of the University, to be exactly and
|
|
strictly observed; that the roll of each school particularly be
|
|
punctually called at the hour at which its students should attend;
|
|
that the absent and the tardy, without reasonable cause, be noted,
|
|
and a copy of these notations be communicated by mail or otherwise to
|
|
the parent or guardian of each student respectively, on the first
|
|
days of every month during the term (instead of the days prescribed
|
|
in a former statute for such communications).
|
|
|
|
That it is requested of them to make known to the students that
|
|
it is with great regret that some breaches of order, committed by the
|
|
unworthy few who lurk among them unknown, render necessary the
|
|
extension to all of processes afflicting to the feelings of those who
|
|
are conscious of their own correctness, and who are above all
|
|
participation in these vicious irregularities. While the offenders
|
|
continue unknown the tarnish of their faults spreads itself over the
|
|
worthy also, and confounds all in a common censure. But that it is
|
|
in their power to relieve themselves from the imputations and painful
|
|
proceedings to which they are thereby subjected, by lending their aid
|
|
to the faculty, on all occasions towards detecting the real guilty.
|
|
The Visitors are aware that a prejudice prevails too extensively
|
|
among the young that it is dishonorable to bear witness one against
|
|
another. While this prevails, and under the form of a matter of
|
|
conscience, they have been unwilling to authorize constraint, and
|
|
have therefore, in their regulations on this subject, indulged the
|
|
error, however unfounded in reason or morality. But this loose
|
|
principle in the ethics of school-boy combinations, is unworthy of
|
|
mature and regulated minds, and is accordingly condemned by the laws
|
|
of their country, which, in offences within their cognisance, compel
|
|
those who have knowledge of a fact, to declare it for the purposes of
|
|
justice, and of the general good and safety of society. And
|
|
certainly, where wrong has been done, he who knows and conceals the
|
|
doer of it, makes himself an accomplice, and justly censurable as
|
|
such. It becomes then but an act of justice to themselves, that the
|
|
innocent and the worthy should throw off with disdain all communion
|
|
of character with such offenders, should determine no longer to
|
|
screen the irregular and the vicious under the respect of their
|
|
cloak, and to notify them, even by a solemn association for the
|
|
purpose, that they will co-operate with the faculty in future, for
|
|
preservation of order, the vindication of their own character, and
|
|
the reputation and usefulness of an institution which their country
|
|
has so liberally established for their improvement, and to place
|
|
within their reach those acquirements in knowledge on which their
|
|
future happiness and fortunes depend. Let the good and the virtuous
|
|
of the alumni of the University do this, and the disorderly will then
|
|
be singled out for observation, and deterred by punishment, or
|
|
disabled by expulsion, from infecting with their inconsideration the
|
|
institution itself, and the sound mass of those which it is preparing
|
|
for virtue and usefulness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
_Draft Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of
|
|
Virginia, on the Principles of the Constitution of the United
|
|
States of America, and on the Violations of them_
|
|
|
|
December 1825
|
|
|
|
We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf, and in the
|
|
name of the people thereof, do declare as follows:
|
|
|
|
The States in North America which confederated to establish
|
|
their independence of the government of Great Britain, of which
|
|
Virginia was one, became, on that acquisition, free and independent
|
|
States, and as such, authorized to constitute governments, each for
|
|
itself, in such form as it thought best.
|
|
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They entered into a compact, (which is called the Constitution
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of the United States of America,) by which they agreed to unite in a
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single government as to their relations with each other, and with
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foreign nations, and as to certain other articles particularly
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specified. They retained at the same time, each to itself, the other
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rights of independent government, comprehending mainly their domestic
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interests.
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For the administration of their federal branch, they agreed to
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appoint, in conjunction, a distinct set of functionaries,
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legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the manner settled in that
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compact: while to each, severally, and of course, remained its
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original right of appointing, each for itself, a separate set of
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functionaries, legislative, executive, and judiciary, also, for
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administering the domestic branch of their respective governments.
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These two sets of officers, each independent of the other,
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constitute thus a _whole_ of government, for each State separately;
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the powers ascribed to the one, as specifically made federal,
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exercised over the whole, the residuary powers, retained to the
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other, exercisable exclusively over its particular State, foreign
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herein, each to the others, as they were before the original compact.
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To this construction of government and distribution of its
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powers, the Commonwealth of Virginia does religiously and
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affectionately adhere, opposing, with equal fidelity and firmness,
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the usurpation of either set of functionaries on the rightful powers
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of the other.
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But the federal branch has assumed in some cases, and claimed
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in others, a right of enlarging its own powers by constructions,
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inferences, and indefinite deductions from those directly given,
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which this assembly does declare to be usurpations of the powers
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retained to the independent branches, mere interpolations into the
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compact, and direct infractions of it.
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They claim, for example, and have commenced the exercise of a
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right to construct roads, open canals, and effect other internal
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improvements within the territories and jurisdictions exclusively
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belonging to the several States, which this assembly does declare has
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not been given to that branch by the constitutional compact, but
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remains to each State among its domestic and unalienated powers,
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exercisable within itself and by its domestic authorities alone.
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This assembly does further disavow and declare to be most false
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and unfounded, the doctrine that the compact, in authorizing its
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federal branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises
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to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general
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welfare of the United States, has given them thereby a power to do
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whatever _they_ may think, or pretend, would promote the general
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welfare, which construction would make that, of itself, a complete
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government, without limitation of powers; but that the plain sense
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and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the taxes necessary to
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provide for the general welfare, by the various acts of power therein
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specified and delegated to them, and by no others.
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Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of these
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States, by not investing their federal branch with all the means of
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bettering their condition, have denied to themselves any which may
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effect that purpose; since, in the distribution of these means they
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have given to that branch those which belong to its department, and
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to the States have reserved separately the residue which belong to
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them separately. And thus by the organization of the two branches
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taken together, have completely secured the first object of human
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association, the full improvement of their condition, and reserved to
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themselves all the faculties of multiplying their own blessings.
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Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights retained
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by the States, rights which they have never yielded, and which this
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State will never voluntarily yield, they do not mean to raise the
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banner of disaffection, or of separation from their sister States,
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co-parties with themselves to this compact. They know and value too
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highly the blessings of their Union as to foreign nations and
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questions arising among themselves, to consider every infraction as
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to be met by actual resistance. They respect too affectionately the
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opinions of those possessing the same rights under the same
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instrument, to make every difference of construction a ground of
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immediate rupture. They would, indeed, consider such a rupture as
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among the greatest calamities which could befall them; but not the
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greatest. There is yet one greater, submission to a government of
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unlimited powers. It is only when the hope of avoiding this shall
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become absolutely desperate, that further forebearance could not be
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indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties, therefore, contrary
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to the expectation and hope of this assembly, prefer, at this time,
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acquiescence in these assumptions of power by the federal member of
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the government, we will be patient and suffer much, under the
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confidence that time, ere it be too late, will prove to them also the
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bitter consequences in which that usurpation will involve us all. In
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the meanwhile, we will breast with them, rather than separate from
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them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a government
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of unlimited powers. We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to
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our federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with
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temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that
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man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws
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self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life,
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liberty, property, and peace; and further to show, that even when the
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government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we
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are not at once to despair but that the will and the watchfulness of
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its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original
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and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits
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of self-government. And these are the objects of this Declaration
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and Protest.
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Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the whole, as
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some of its co-States seem to think, that the power of making roads
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and canals should be added to those directly given to the federal
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branch, as more likely to be systematically and beneficially
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directed, than by the independent action of the several States, this
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commonwealth, from respect to these opinions, and a desire of
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conciliation with its co-States, will consent, in concurrence with
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them, to make this addition, provided it be done regularly by an
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amendment of the compact, in the way established by that instrument,
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and provided also, it be sufficiently guarded against abuses,
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compromises, and corrupt practices, not only of possible, but of
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probable occurrence.
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And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attachment
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of this commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far as has been
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consented to by the compact called "The Constitution of the United
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States of America," (constructed according to the plain and ordinary
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meaning of its language, to the common intendment of the time, and of
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those who framed it;) to give also to all parties and authorities,
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time for reflection and for consideration, whether, under a temperate
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view of the possible consequences, and especially of the constant
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obstructions which an equivocal majority must ever expect to meet,
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they will still prefer the assumption of this power rather than its
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acceptance from the free will of their constituents; and to preserve
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peace in the meanwhile, we proceed to make it the duty of our
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citizens, until the legislature shall otherwise and ultimately
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decide, to acquiesce under those acts of the federal branch of our
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government which we have declared to be usurpations, and against
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which, in point of right, we do protest as null and void, and never
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to be quoted as precedents of right.
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We therefore do enact, and be it enacted by the General
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Assembly of Virginia, that all citizens of this commonwealth, and
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persons and authorities within the same, shall pay full obedience at
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all times to the acts which may be passed by the Congress of the
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United States, the object of which shall be the construction of post
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roads, making canals of navigation, and maintaining the same in any
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part of the United States, in like manner as if said acts were,
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_totidem verbis_, passed by the legislature of this commonwealth.
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