meet on the first Wednesday in January next after their being chosen, at such place as the present, or future General Court may from time to time appoint: and being duly sworn, shall hold their respective places until the first Wednesday in January then next.

17th. The council shall choose their president, vice president, and Secretary; and the house of representatives shall choose their speaker and clerk.

18th. The council and house of representatives respectively, shall determine all disputed elections of their own members, regulate their own proceedings; and on any vacancy, order a new election to fill up such vacancy.

19th. The said General Court elected and constituted as aforesaid, shall be invested with the supreme power of the State. And all acts, resolves, or votes, except grants of money, lands, or other things, may originate in either house; but such grants shall originate in the house of representatives only.

20th. The said council and house of representatives respectively, shall have power to adjourn themselves from day to day, but not longer than two days at any one time, without concurrence of the other.

21st. The president of the council shall hold public correspondence with other States, or persons; call the council together when occasion shall require; and with advice of three or more of the council shall from time to time call the General Court together if need be, before the time they were adjourned to; and also point out the principal business of their session.

22d. The military and naval power of the State shall be regulated, and all proper officers

thereof appointed, as the legislature by law shall direct from time to time.

23d. The judges of the superior and inferior courts, judges of probate, judge of admiralty, judge of the maritime court, justices of the peace, sheriffs, coroners, attorney general, treasurer of the state, and delegates to the Continental Congress, shall be appointed by the said General Court, and commissionated by the president of the council.

24th. The appointment of registers of deeds, county treasurers, clerks of courts, registers of probate, and all other civil officers whatsoever, not before mentioned, shall be regulated by the laws that now are, or that hereafter may be enacted.

25th. All civil officers of the State, shall be suitably compensated by fees or salaries for their services.

26th. No member of the General Court shall be judge of the superior court, or inferior court, judge or register of probate, or sheriff of any county, or treasurer of the State, or attorney general, or delegate at the Continental Congress.

27th. And no member of the council, judge of the superior court, or sheriff, shall hold a commission in the militia, army, or navy of this State. 28th. No member of the house of representatives shall hold any salary under the government. 29th. The president of the council, with advice of council, may grant reprieves not longer than six months, but the General Court only shall have power to pardon offences against the State.

30th. A quorum of the council, and a quorum of the house of representatives, shall consist of a majority of each house.

31st. This Declaration of Rights and Plan of Government, shall have the force of law, and be esteemed the fundamental law of this State.

32d. The General Court shall have no power to alter any part of this constitution; but in case they should concur in any proposed alteration, amendment, or addition, the same being agreed to by a majority of the people, shall become valid.

State of New-Hampshire. In Convention, June 5th, 1779.

Voted, That the foregoing Bill of Rights, and Plan of Government, be printed, and dispersed throughout this State, for the people thereof, to give their opinion thereon.

Voted, That Colonel Thornton, and Colonel Bartlett, be a committee to get this plan of government printed, and transmit two or more copies of the same to each and every town, parish and place in this State, to which precepts for this convention were sent, and publish the same in the New-Hampshire newspapers.

Voted, That the selectmen of the several towns, parishes, and districts in this State, upon the receipt of the same, are desired to notify and warn the legal inhabitants paying taxes in such town, parish, or place, to meet at some suitable place therein, giving them at least fifteen days notice, for the purpose of taking said plan under consideration; and make return of the number of voters present at such meeting, and how many voted for receiving said plan, and how many for rejecting the same, unto this convention at Concord, in this State, on the third Tuesday in September next.

By order of the Convention,

JOHN LANGDON, President, P. T. E. Thompson, Secretary.

Constitution proposed in 1781.

[This is too long to insert entire, but the Address accompanying it is thought worthy of being copied.]

An Address of the Convention for forming a Constitution of Government for the State of New-Hampshire, 1781.

Friends and Fellow Citizens :

THE General Assembly of this State having thought proper to issue precepts to the several towns within the same, for choosing delegates to form a convention for the purpose of framing a civil constitution for the people of this State; and the convention having met in consequence of such choice, after maturely deliberating on the important subject, agree to report the following plan, which with the humblest deference is submitted to your impartial consideration.

The task of forming a constitution, adapted not only to our present situation, but to the probable situation and circumstances of remote posterity, is an arduous one indeed! How far we have succeeded in it you are the sole judges. It is your interest as well as duty, to examine it with the most critical attention; and it is your unquestionable right to propose such alterations as you may judge necessary, to approve and establish it as it now stands, or wholly to reject it. A perfect system of government is not to be expected in the present imperfect state of humanity. But could a faultless one be framed, it would not be universally approved unless its judges were all equally perfect. Much less then, may we presume to hope that the plan here offered to view will meet with universal approba

tion. Unanimity of sentiment is seldom to be found in any case; there are many reasons for despairing of it in the present. Besides the common sources for variety of opinions on points in general, there are new and particular ones in the case before us. There is nothing which our open, avowed enemies more dread than to see the several States, each formed into a permanent and well constructed body politic, as nothing, under God, can more contribute to the stability of their councils, or the success of their exertions. Nor have we any reason to doubt but that our secret, internal enemies are equally averse thereto. Every artifice will be devised, every effort tried, to frustrate an event equally dreaded by both. Let us guard against their machinations.

Nor is it our enemies only we have to dread. We have much to fear from our friends: from those who wish well to the common cause, and are equally opposed to the common enemy.

The love of power is so alluring, we had almost said infatuating, that few have ever been able to resist its bewitching influence. Wherever power is lodged there is a constant propensity to enlarge its boundaries. Much more then, will those with whom it is entrusted, agonize to retain all that is expressly delegated to them.

When the people of this State first thought proper to assume government for themselves, it was a time of difficulty and peril. That form which was the simplest, and first presented itself to their view, in the perturbation of spirits that then prevailed, they adopted without that thorough discussion and calm deliberation which so important an object required. It was not in