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The second Section of same Chapter, styled
Senator, unanimously accepted.
26 votes.
The third Section, same Chapter, styled Representatives, unanimously accepted.
23 votes.
All the remainder of said publication was unanimously accepted (with the foregoing amendments), by 23 votes, one-half of the people having before withdrawn.
Stephen Hall, 3d, was the
Delegate from
Medford to form the
Constitution of 1780.
The convention sat at
Cambridge from Sept. 1, 1779, to March 2, 1780.
After the adoption of this Constitution, the form used in warning town-meetings was changed, and they warned “in the name of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Thus established under a Republican Constitution of their own making, our ancestors felt as if they had passed from a state of minority to a state of manhood.
The first election, therefore, under this new political charter, was an event of deep interest.
They wished to set an example of wise selection, disinterested patriotism, and fraternal unanimity, which might serve for an example to all future times.
They did so. They selected intelligent statesmen, true patriots, and professing Christians.
The first election took place Sept. 4, 1780; and, in
Medford, the votes stood thus:--
Here we find two candidates for each office; thus parties, inseparable from a state of free inquiry and equal rights, revealed themselves at once.
The question being settled,
