Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

OF THE

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES AND EDITED WITH
SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE, THE
BASIS OF REPRESENTATION, AND APPENDIX,

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

1902 .C7

3. Acts of the General Court of New Hampshire providing for the call-
ing of a convention to revise the constitution, approved March,
1901..

279

PREFACE.

This manual has been prepared, pursuant to a vote of the Governor and Council, for the use of the constitutional convention. This fact has determined both its contents and its form.

The text of the constitution of New Hampshire herewith printed as now in force, is based upon the earliest engrossed copy in existence, that of the constitution as amended in 1792.

The sketch of the constitutions of the State is limited to a simple narrative of events, without any attempt to unfold their causal relations. No work of that character can be written properly until numerous manuscripts now in the British or American archives and important records in possession of the State or its towns are made more accessible to historical students. The same general causes that have governed the constitutional development of the other New England states have been at work in New Hampshire, but its organic law is not without distinguishing marks. The Temporary Constitution of January 5, 1776, was the first frame of government adopted by any of the thirteen original states which, though not a grant of powers, was deemed by the people to be a fundamental law. The Permanent Constitution, established October 31, 1783, and drafted in all its important provisions by the statesman of the American Revolution, John Adams, was unchanged for sixty years, 1792-1852, a fact unparalleled among the other states except Rhode Island and

« ПредишнаНапред »