USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume II > Part 23
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Ninthly, Congress shall at no time consent that any person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall accept a title of nobility or any other title of office, from any king, prince or foreign State.
Tenthly, That no standing army shall be kept up in time of peace, unless with the consent of three fourths of the members of each branch of Con- gress; nor shall soldiers in time of peace be quartered upon private houses without the consent of the owners.
Eleventhly, Congress shall make no Laws touching religion or to in- fringe the rights of conscience.
Twelfthly, Congress shall never disarm any citizens, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.
And the Convention do, in the name and in behalf of the people of this State enjoin it upon their Representatives in Congress, at all times, until the alterations and provisions aforesaid have been considered, agreeably to the fifth article of the Said Constitution, to exert all their Influence and use all reasonable and legal methods to obtain a ratification of the said altera- tions and provisions in such manner as is provided in the said article.
And the United States in Congress Assembled may have due notice of the assent and ratification of the said Constitution by this Convention :-
It is Resolved, That the assent and ratification aforesaid, be engrossed on parchment, together with the recommendation and Injunction aforesaid, and with this Resolution : and that John Sullivan, Esqur., President of Con- vention; and John Langdon, Esqr., President of the State, transmit the same countersigned by the Secretary of Convention and the Secretary of State under their hands and seals, to the United States in Congress assembled.
JOHN CALFE, Secretary.
Such is the story in brief of New Hampshire's part in the adoption of the federal Constitution.2 The amendments recom-
2 See The New Hampshire Federal Convention, by Joseph B. Walker,
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mended were, with some additions, the same as those recom- mended by Massachusetts shortly before, and it has been conjectured that James Sullivan of Massachusetts sent them to his brother, John Sullivan, the President of the Convention. The Federal Constitution, as thus ratified, was, like all similar instru- ments, a compromise, what the majority were willing to accept, even if it did not fully express their wishes. Many think that it should have been radically and thoroughly revised before this time, but the dead hand holds us with wonderful tenacity, and an old formula of political, or of religious faith, is hard to change. Many prefer to retain the form of words and to read into them, from time to time, the meaning that changed condi- tions require. Thus interpretation is of more value than the exact letter of the law. The effort of judicial interpreters should be, and often is, to ascertain what is right and just, what ought to be now, and then hunt for precedents and devise possible and permissible interpretations to suit present needs. Perhaps this is best, for a new and revised Constitution would still be capable of many interpretations, especially as words and phrases take on new meanings with the lapse of years. That eternal Law, which is higher than any Constitution devised by human minds, ought ever to rule in the interpretation and application of any rules of conduct laid down for individuals and nations. In other words, the Constitution of the United States, or of New Hamp- shire, should be accepted by its citizens "for substance of doctrine," without unyielding adherence to the letter that killeth. The spirit of American constitutions is the spirit of liberty, with due regard to the rights of all. In practice those rights have not always been respected, and no change of the letter of a consti- tution will work the needed reform. The reform must be in the character of individuals and hence of society.
The constitution of 1784 made possible its own revision after a lapse of seven years, if the people voted in favor of it. Accord- ingly a fourth constitutional convention assembled in Concord on the seventh of September 1791. The place of assembly was the old meeting house. The whole number of delegates was one
1888, and article in the Granite Monthly for 1888, by William F. Whitcher, Vol. XI., pp. 203-209; also Address of Hon. James W. Patterson on the Centennial Anniversary of the Ratification of the Federal Constitution by New Hampshire, in Proceedings of the N. H. Hist. Society, II., pp. 12-37.
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hundred and eight. Judge Timothy Walker was temporary chairman, and John Calfe was chosen secretary. Samuel Liver- more of Holderness was elected president of the convention, and the Rev. Israel Evans, who had been a chaplain in the Revo- lutionary war and was then minister of the church in Concord, officiated as chaplain of the convention. Four sessions were held during a period of one year, occupying thirty-six days. The convention concluded its work on the sixth of September 1792 and the amended constitution became the fundamental law of the State in June 1793. The amendments, in the form of seventy-two questions had been submitted to the people for voting thereon. Forty-six of them were adopted, and twenty-six rejected. This necessitated a revision and resubmission to the voters, since some of the amendments adopted depended upon others rejected. The new draft of the constitution was accepted by the people and remained in force till 1850, when only one amendment was made therein, abolishing property qualifications for the governor, senators and representatives of the State. The convention of 1791-2 changed the title of the chief executive from President to Governor, revising the action of a previous convention.
The Journal of this convention does not report any of the debates, and its statements are bare of interest. Among the members of the convention appear some well known names and some afterwards became well known. The man of widest influ- ence was William Plumer of Epping, whose biography, written by his son of the same name, gives the best report of the con- vention. The leading men were John Pickering, Gen. Joseph Cilley, John McCleary, Abiel Foster, Nathaniel Peabody, Ebenezer Thompson, Joshua Atherton, Samuel Livermore, men who had been prominent in military and political affairs and were the tried and trusted advisers of the State. The men who were coming into prominence were William Plumer, Ed- ward St. Loe Livermore, Jeremiah Smith, Elisha Payne, Thomas Cogswell, Christopher Toppan, Col. Nathaniel Head, Major Benjamin Pierce and others of local fame.
Mr. Plumer proposed an amendment to secure to every person "the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience." Heretofore all persons had been obliged by law to attend public worship
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on Sunday or pay a fine for absence, and they were also com- pelled to pay taxes for the support of the orthodox, or Congre- gational, church, which was the established church of New England. Mr. Plumer's design was to do away with all com- pulsion in matters of religion and to leave everybody free to be a Protestant, Quaker, Roman Catholic, or Deist, if he so chose. Religionists of a definite type can not be made to order. Thinking beings must have liberty to change their minds on evidence, and a change of mind necessitates a change of conduct in the conscientious. Mr. Plumer's motion was in the interests of a larger freedom. A motion was made in opposition, subjecting all the inhabitants of the State to a town tax for the support of the clergyman whom the majority of voters, in each case, should select as minister. This would abolish the fundamental prin- ciple of Protestantism, the right of private judgment in matters of faith and morals. The debate in favor of the voluntary principle in religion or of the involuntary, as embodied in civil law, was animated then and it has been going on ever since, leaning more and more toward license and laxity. The tendency toward irreligion comes from the abuse of freedom. Protestants have become too independent, too careless and disrespectful of the opinions and convictions of others, too unwilling to cooper- ate in good works with those of opposite desires and views. Yet we can not help feeling that William Plumer was right, though the convention voted down both proposed amendments. The Quakers had long escaped taxation for the support of orthodox ministers. The Baptists soon claimed and were accorded the same privilege, and almost countless denomina- tions have followed their lead. There are now one hundred and eighty-six in the United States, and new denominations are springing up every year. A little religious learning is a danger- ous thing, and the only remedy is either the bliss of ignorance or to drink deeper of the Pierian spring. It is impossible to make a person good by compulsion, and unless religion leads to improvement of character, irreligion were better.
A motion, made by Mr. Plumer, to abolish the religious test for office holders, who were required to be "of the Protest- ant religion," was adopted by the convention and rejected by the people. This test had been adopted by England and trans-
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ferred to the colonies, when Roman Catholicism was more feared than now, when indeed both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism were different from what they are now in America. We have learned to live together in peace and unitedly to seek the nation's highest good.
Mr. Plumer tried to introduce a new system of represent- ation, increasing the number of state senators and diminishing the number of representatives, by dividing the state into sixty districts and basing representation upon population. But then as now each small town wanted to have its legislator in the - House, and the number of senators has remained disproportion- ately small.
Another attempted reform was the lessening of the number of courts, thus decreasing litigation. "A suit, commenced before a Justice of the Peace, might be carried to the General Sessions, thence to the Common Pleas, thence to the Superior Court, and thence to the Legislature; to be by that body sent back to the Superior Court for final decision, with the further chance of a new trial on a writ of review. Add to this, that the verdict might be repeatedly set aside by the court, and that the disagree- ment of the jury often prevented any verdict being rendered ; and it will readily be believed that suitors seldom got what the bill of rights promised them,-'Justice freely, without being obliged to purchase it; completely, without denial; and promptly, without delay.'" As a remedy for these evils it was proposed to abolish the courts of common pleas and general sessions, and to extend the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace to sums not exceeding four pounds,-the very thing which has been recently done in England, where for a fee of fifty cents small debts can be collected by the decision of a judge who has heard both sides of the case, and his decision admits of no appeal. But lawyers then were as loath as now to limit litiga- tion and the effect of the proposed amendment would have thrown twenty judges out of office, the strongest arguments that could have been brought against it. Therefore it failed, while the power of Justices of the Peace was increased, which made them more respectable, wealthy and happy. Before this it had been proposed in the General Court of New Hampshire that attorneys at law should not be elegible to seats in the General Court,
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that is, that lawyers should not make the laws they are sworn to administer justly and faithfully. The motion was lost. For a long time, perhaps now, in proportion to their number in the State, more lawyers have been members of successive legisla- tures than men of any other profession by far, and it is not, many think, because they know how to make better laws. They seem to have leisure, and by mixing politics with law they often get ahead faster in both. Lawyers, ministers, doctors and mili- tary officers were then the educated men of the State. The agricultural colleges and schools of mechanic arts are now turn- ing out men that will give farmers and artisans larger representation among the law-makers, and the State will not suffer therefrom. William Plumer lived away ahead of his times and therefore had his opponents. He was the sole survivor of the convention of 1791 when the next constitutional convention was held, in 1850. Judge Livermore said of him, "He was by all odds the most influential man in the convention ; so much so, that those who disliked the results, called it Plumer's constitu- tion, by way of insinuating that it was the work of one man, and not the collective wisdom of the whole assembly." Plumer at the same time was Speaker of the House of Representatives. One clause in the constitution he always claimed the credit of inserting, "No member of the General Court shall take fees, be of counsel, or act as advocate in any cause before either branch of the legislature : and upon due proof thereof such member shall forfeit his seat in the legislature."
Chapter X STORY OF THE SEALS
Chapter X
STORY OF THE SEALS.
First Seal of the Province, Sent to President John Cutt-Description of the Same-Seal Sent to Edward Cranfield-Seal Used by Joseph Dudley as Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire-New Seal, Authorized in 1692, never Used-This May Be the Seal or Die now Owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society-The Earl of Bellomont Brings a New Seal-Queen Anne Sends a Seal in 1705 and Another in 1709-She Changes the Motto to SEMPER EADEM-George I Restores the Old Motto, DIEU ET MON DROIT-Long Title of the Georges-Tem- porary Seal of the Colony of New Hampshire-Seal of the State of New Hampshire, 1776-1784-Seal from the Adoption of the Constitution, 1784, to the Present Time.
H ERE may be the proper place to say something about the seals of New Hampshire as a colony and as a state. When New Hampshire was separated from the government of Massa- chusetts and John Cutt was appointed President, with a Council, a seal was prepared and sent to him. The following is the order in the King's Council, dated 19 September, 1679:
Whereas His Majestie has thought fit by His Royall Commission Dated the 18th of September 1679 to constitute and appoint a President & Council for the ordering and ruling that part of the Province of New Hampshire lying from three miles Northward of Merrimack River unto the Province of Maine in New England; and whereas the said Councill is thereby directed to have and use from time to time such Seale only for the Sealing their Acts & Orders and Proceedings as His Majesty should please to send unto them, It is this day ordered in Councill, that the Seale herewith sent (an Impres- sion whereof is in the margin affixed) bee taken and acknowledged in the said Province of New Hampshire as the Seal appointed by his Majesty and that the same bee affixed unto all publick Acts, Orders and Proceedings within the said Government And that it be to all intents and purposes of the same force and validity within the said Province as any other His Majesty's publick Seales in Barbados, Jamaica, Virginia or any other of His Majesty's Plantations in America. And His Majesty's said President and Councill of New Hampshire is hereby authorized and directed to keep, and apply the same to the said uses And whereas His Majesty is graciously pleased to send His Royal Portraiture together with his Imperial Armes unto His said President and Councill of New Hampshire as a mark of His Royall
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favour and Protection to the Inhabitants thereof, It is hereby ordered that the same bee kept and exposed to view within such place as shall be ap- pointed for the meeting of His Majesty's said Council-See No. 176 of Mss. copied from the English Archives in the library of the N. H. Hist. Society.
The character of this seal we learn from a record made on this side of the water. At a meeting of the Provincial Council held in Portsmouth, October 4, 1682, Edward Cranfield produced his commission as Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief of New Hampshire. The Secretary made the following record :
The old seal of the Province having this Inscription, Sigillum Preasi- dentis et Consilis de Provincia Novae Hamptoniae in Nova Anglia, was by the Governor demanded (as directed by the said Commission) & de- livered up to him by the late President Richard Waldron esquire And a new one of Silver brought by the Governor having these words around it, Sigillum Provinciae Nostrae Novae Hamptoniae in Nova Anglia, was shown and is to be kept & in custody of the Governor .- N. H. State Papers, XVII. 563.
The inscription as given by the secretary in incorrect Latin may be questioned. He probably tried to expand certain Latin abbreviations, as he certainly did in reporting the inscription on the new seal. The inscription on the seal used by President Cutt and Council probably was SIG : PRAESID : ET : CONCIL : DE : PROVIN : NOV : HAMPTON : IN : NOV : ANGLIA. The preposition DE was probably in the inscription, or the secretary would not have unnecessarily put it in, but would have used the better genitive. There were too many letters in the expanded Latin to inscribe them all upon the seal. In subsequent seals, when more letters were needed, the diameter of the seal was. increased. An impression of the old seal of the President and Council, on a paper dated 22 January, 1679/80, is preserved in the first volume of the Council Book, page 40, in red wax, and may be seen in the office of the Secretary of State. The outer inscription and rim are worn away, but the field, or central part of the seal, has the Arms of Great Britain, surrounded with the garter bearing the motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense. Above is the royal crown. The lion and unicorn appear as supporters, and below is the motto, that dates from the time of Richard the Lion-hearted, DIEU ET MON DROIT.
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The new seal, brought and used by Edward Cranfield, dif- fered only in the inscription on the collar. At least one im- pression of it remains in the office of the Secretary of State. It is affixed to a paper dated 10 May 1684. A careful inspection of it and comparison with other seals show that it is not in the expanded Latin reported by the secretary of the Council, but is SIG: PROVIN: NRAE: NOVAE: HAMPTON: IN: NOV: ANGLIA. See Council Book I, p. 97.
On the death of Charles II, February 6, 1685, Joseph Dudley was appointed President of New England, and he used an appro- priate seal, which is found, as a printer's reproduction, on a printed collection of laws, dated June 10, 1686. It is somewhat oval in shape and bears a front view of an erect Indian, having an arrow at his right and a bow at his left hand. Two wreaths surround it, and between the wreaths is the inscription, SIGILUM, PRAESID. &. CONCIL. DOM. REG. IN. NOV. ANGLIA, Seal of the President and Council of the King's Dominion in New England.
There was, of course, no seal for New Hampshire, while Sir Edmund Andros was governor of all New England and New York. After William and Mary were seated on the throne of Great Britain, in 1688, Samuel Allen was appointed Governor of New Hampshire, in 1692, and the province was separated from Massachusetts finally. John Usher was his Lieutenant Gov- ernor, and in the absence of Allen acted as Governor several years. A new seal was authorized on the 29th of July 1692, and at the same time a report was made concerning the seal and records of New Hampshire. A copy of it has been obtained from the office of the Lords of Trade and Plantations, in Lon- don, and it is Number 617 of the Manuscripts recently copied from the Archives of England :
My Lord President is desired by the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations to present to Her Majesty in Councill a Seal prepared by their Lordships approbation for her Majesty's allowance that the same may be made use of as the Publick Seal of the Government in their Majesty's Province of New Hampshire.
And to move her Majesty that the Publick Records which were removed to Boston from that Province when the same was annexed to the Govern- ment of New England may be ordered to be delivered to the Governor of New Hampshire or such as shall be appointed by him to Receive the same to be brought back to remain in that Province as formerly.
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Here a new seal is mentioned as prepared in 1692 and it was approved by Queen Mary 9 August, 1692, yet John Usher all through his administration, from 1692 to 1698, used the old seal of the Province that had been brought over and used by Edward Cranfield. Numerous impressions are in existence. There is no record that the seal prepared in 1692 was ever received by the governor of New Hampshire, or that the old seal was destroyed at that time. The inference is that the seal prepared in 1692 never reached its destination, and there has been found no impression from any seal of that date.
The New Hampshire Historical Society has in its possession a silver die which is the subject of an address delivered before the Bostonian Society, June 12, 1888, by James Rindge Stan- wood. It was published in book form. The die weighs three ounces and is one and thirteen sixteenths inches in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick. In the papers of New Hampshire there is no mention of it, and no impression of it has been found. The letters and devices are sunken. It bears the shield of Great Britain, crested with the royal crown and the ribbon of the garter surrounds it, not precisely in the form of a circle. The French mottoes are as in former and subsequent seals. The peculiarity of it is, that the lion and unicorn as supporters do not appear, and in their stead, "Outside the shield, upon either side, in script, appears the monogram of William and Mary, and two capital letters R entwined, standing respectively for the Latin Rex and Regina." The Latin inscription upon the collar is precisely the same as in the seal brought by Cran- field, SIG: PROVIN: NRAE: NOVAE: HAMPTON: IN : NOV : ANGLIA.
This silver die was in the possession of the Getchell family of Newbury half a century ago. If it ever was in use, it should have been destroyed when a new one took its place. The truth is, that it was never used as a province seal, and therefore it could be preserved. It may have been sent and lost on the way, and for such a reason the old seal of Cranfield's time was used till a new seal was sent over with the Earl of Bellomont.
Mr. Stanwood simply conjectured that the die now in the possession of the New Hampshire Historical Society must have been in use from 1692 to 1694, and that a change in seal was
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occasioned by the death of Queen Mary at the latter date. He found no illustration of the supposed fact. He fancied that the Charter of New Castle, granted in 1693, must bear the im- pression of the preserved die, but evidently did not examine the charter. Mr. John Albee, in his History of New Castle, printed the charter and immediately after it he printed a seal, which one would suppose to be the seal of the charter, but it is not. It is a representation of the later seal, sent over, with Bellomont, in 1699.
A meeting of the Council and General Assembly held at Portsmouth August 15, 1699, made the following record :
His Excellency the Earl of Bellomont produced a former Great Seale of this Province, which he received this day from the hands of Samuel Allen Esquire, late Governor, and which he caused to be cut in two and de- faced, pursuant to His Majesty's warrant, bearing date the tenth day of Jan'y, 1699, in the tenth year of His Majesty's Reign; and the silver of the said former Seale His Excellency hath delivered to the Secretary, to be restored to Samuel Allen, aforesaid.
His Excellency doth also deliver to Wm. Partridge Esquire Lieutenant- Governor, a new Great Seale, lately sent to his Excellency from England ; and orders that the Secretary do enter His Majesty's warrant in the Council Book, authorizing and commanding the use of the said Seale within His Majesty's Province; which warrant bears date as aforesaid .- N. H. Prov. Papers, III., 80.
In the king's warrant the seal is described as "engraven with our Arms, Garter, Supporters, Motto and Crown; with this Inscription around the same: SIG: PROVINCIAE: NOSTRAE: DE: NOV .: HAMPTONIA. IN. AMERIC." The first use of this seal that is found in the original documents, in the office of the Secretary of State of New Hampshire, was made by the Earl of Bellomont, August 17, 1699, only two days after its delivery. It was used on papers signed by Lieutenant-Governor William Partridge and by Governor Joseph Dudley. The in- troduction, in the inscription, of corrupted Latin, the preposition DE followed by the ablative instead of the genitive without any preposition, is noticeable, and it is omitted in the next seal and the genitive is restored. In the instructions to the Earl of Bello- mont it was ordered that former seals be defaced and broken.
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