INTRODUCTION. 53 



which term was prolonged three years by his successor. These grievances justly 

 irritated the people, and are recorded in the declaration of independence among 

 the wrongs suffered at the hands of the king of Great Britain. 



The general assembly of 1737, truly represented the spirit which then per- 

 vaded the people ; and its proceedings are regarded as constituting an important 

 era in the history of American legislation. In their address to the governor, 

 they affirmed that none ought to represent the people but such as were freely and 

 fairly chosen by them ; that elections ought to be frequent ; that experience had 

 shown the danger of trusting the same men too long with power ; and that pro- 

 per checks and balances were necessary for the preservation of the liberty and 

 happiness of any country. The assembly distinctly informed the representative 

 of the crown, that they would not raise sums unfit to be raised, nor put what 

 they should raise into the jjower of the governor to misapply, if they could pre- 

 vent it ; that they would not at any one time make provision for the support of 

 government for a period longer than a year, nor would they even for that period, 

 until such laws should be passed as were necessary to the safety of the inhabitants 

 of the colony. They asserted the importance of having an agent at the court of 

 Great Britain, appointed and paid by the house, independently of the governor. 

 They firmly remonstrated against the continuance of the court of chancery, as 

 then constituted, declaring that the governors in maintaining that court, without 

 the consent of the assembly, had treated that body with unreasonable neglect 

 and contempt, and affirmed that some of the governors were wholly unfit for the 

 duties of chancellor or of any other station, though buoyed up and bloated with 

 flatteries by the instruments of their misrule and oppression. The house now 

 first adopted the important principle of recording the votes of members. They 

 passed a bill to appoint an agent to the court of Great Britain, which was lost by 

 non-concurrence, as to its principal features, by the council ; demanded from 

 that body satisfaction, for the insult it had offered by transmitting messages by the 

 clerk, instead of a committee, limited supplies granted to the period of one year, 

 and inhibited the treasurer from paying any part of the funds collected, until 



