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202. Massachusetts 1800 House of Representatives, Salem
203. Massachusetts 1800 House of Representatives, Tisbury
204. Massachusetts 1800 House of Representatives, Watertown
205. Massachusetts 1800 House of Representatives, Weston
206. Massachusetts 1800 House of Representatives, Worcester
207. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Bernardston and Leyden
208. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Boston
209. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Brookfield
210. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Brookline
211. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Chatham
212. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Fitchburg
213. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Hallowell
214. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Hardwick
215. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Marshfield
216. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Mendon
217. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Princeton
218. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Salem
219. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Watertown
220. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Weston
221. Massachusetts 1801 House of Representatives, Worcester
222. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Andover
223. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Augusta
224. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Boston
225. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Brookfield
226. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Brookline
227. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Charlemont
228. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Chatham
229. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Falmouth
230. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Fitchburg
231. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Hardwick
232. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Ipswich
233. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Lancaster
234. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Machias
235. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Marshfield
236. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Mendon
237. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Pittsfield
238. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Portland
239. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Princeton
240. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Salem
241. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, South Hadley
242. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Stockbridge
243. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Watertown
244. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Weston
245. Massachusetts 1802 House of Representatives, Worcester
246. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Bernardston and Leyden
247. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Boston
248. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Brookfield
249. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Brookline
250. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Charlemont
251. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Charlestown
252. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Chatham
253. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Falmouth
254. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Fitchburg
255. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Hallowell
256. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Hardwick
257. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Haverhill
258. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Marblehead
259. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Marshfield
260. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Mendon
261. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Paris
262. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Pittsfield
263. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Portland
264. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Raynham
265. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Salem
266. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Tisbury
267. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Watertown
268. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Weston
269. Massachusetts 1803 House of Representatives, Worcester
270. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Amherst
271. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Bernardston and Leyden
272. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Boston
273. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Brookfield
274. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Brookfield, Ballot 2
275. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Brookline
276. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Charlemont
277. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Charlestown
278. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Chatham
279. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Falmouth
280. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Farmington
281. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Fitchburg
282. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Groton
283. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Hallowell
284. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Hardwick
285. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Lynn and Lynnfield
286. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Marshfield
287. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Mendon
288. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Nantucket
289. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, New Bedford
290. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Paris
291. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Plymouth
292. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Princeton
293. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Salem
294. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Stockbridge
295. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Tisbury
296. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Watertown
297. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Waterville
298. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Wells
299. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Weston
300. Massachusetts 1804 House of Representatives, Wiscasset
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With independence from Great Britain in 1776, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was governed by the same bicameral legislature that existed during the colonial period. It was not until 1780 that John Adams, armed with a statewide mandate for a constitutional convention, set about drafting a formal state constitution. What Adams forged proved so successful that it later became a template for the Constitution of United States. What made the 1780 Massachusetts constitution so influential was how it seemingly balanced the populist ideals promised to the citizenry by the Revolution with the fundamentally conservative expectations of the existing Massachusetts elite. In terms of structure, it established an elective chief magistrate (the governor), a bicameral legislature (the General Court made up of a House and a Senate), and an independent judiciary (an appointed state court system). Also, Adams included a declaration of rights to ensure civil liberties (as well as his brainchild's ratification). Although ratified by town meetings throughout the commonwealth, the document was fundamentally conservative in that it secured the ruling elite's control over the state by giving disproportionate power to the wealthy coastal counties of Suffolk and Essex. Not surprisingly, the 1780 constitution became the darling of the Federalist Party establishment that fought to resist constitutional reform. In opposition, the Democratic-Republicans chafed at the propertied basis for representation in the Senate, which gave an eastern county like Suffolk six senators to Berkshire's two, despite the fact that Berkshire had a larger population. Also, the Democratic-Republicans, whose popular base was in the western part of the state and tended to be of modest means, despised the pecuniary qualifications for the franchise, as well as the nonelected judiciary, claiming both were profoundly undemocratic.
In 1820 the opponents to the 1780 constitution had their chance when the Maine district of Massachusetts was broken off and given statehood. As a result of such radical change, the General Court called for a constitutional convention to revisit the constitution of 1780. Despite optimistic expectations for major constitutional reform, an assortment of conservatives, led by a highly sophisticated Federalist Party machine, outwitted the forces of reform at the convention, and little significant change was effected. Power remained centralized in the east, with Boston serving as its epicenter. Although the state constitutional convention proved a great victory for the Federalist establishment, in the early 1820s the party faced an angry populist insurgency fed up with the dictatorial leadership style of the Federalists. In Boston a third party, the Middling Interest, emerged that rejected the deferential nature of past politics and took up an activist stand for reform. In the mayoral election of 1822, the insurgency forced Federalist Party boss Harrison Gray Otis to bow out of the race and elected a Middling Interest candidate, thus marking the demise of the Federalist Party in Massachusetts. Although it still existed in name for a few more years, the party never regained its once dominant position in Massachusetts political life, thus signaling the advent of the Jacksonian Age and the Second Party System.
Bibliography
- Banner, James M., Jr.
To the Hartford Convention: The Federalist and the Origins of Politics in Massachusetts. New York: Knopf, 1970. - Brooke, John L.
The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worchester County, Massachusetts, 1713–1861 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. - Brown, Richard D. and Jack Tager.
Massachusetts: A Concise History. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. - Cayton, Andrew R. L.
"The Fragmentation of 'A Great Family': The Panic of 1819 and the Rise of the Middling Interest in Boston, 1818–1822," Journal of the Early Republic, 2 (Summer 1982), 143–167. - Clark, Christopher.
The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780–1860 Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990. - Crocker, Matthew H.
The Magic of the Many: Josiah Quincy and the Rise of Mass Politics in Boston, 1800–1830. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. - Crocker, Matthew H.
"'The Siege of Boston is once more raised'": Municipal Politics and the Collapse of Federalism, 1821–1823," inMassachusetts Politics: Selected Essays, ed. Jack Tager, Martin Kaufman, and Michael F. Konig. Westfield, MA: Institute for Massachusetts Studies Press, 1998, pp. 52–71. - Dalzell, Robert F., Jr.
Enterprising Elite, The Boston Associates and the World They Made. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. - Fisher, David Hackett.
The Revolution of American Conservatism: The Federalist Party in the Era of Jeffersonian Democracy. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965. - Formisano, Ronald P.
The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. - Handlin, Oscar and Mary Flug Handlin.
Commonwealth: Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy, 1774–1861, rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969. - Hartford, William F.
Money, Morals, and Politics: Massachusetts in the Age of the Boston Associates. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001. - McCaughey, Robert A.
Josiah Quincy, 1772–1864: The Last Federalist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. - Morison, Samuel Eliot.
Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: The Urbane Federalist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969. - Morison, Samuel Eliot.
The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961. - Peterson, Merrill D., ed.
Democracy, Liberty, and Property: The State Constitutional Conventions of the 1820's. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966. - Sheidley, Harlow W.
Sectional Nationalism: Massachusetts Conservative Leaders and the Transformation of America, 1815–1836. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998. - Smith, Page.
John Adams: 1784–1826, Vol. II. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. - Story, Ronald.
Harvard and the Boston Upper Class: The Forging of an Aristocracy, 1800–1870 Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press, 1980. - Wilkie, Richard W. and Jack Tager, eds.
Historical Atlas of Massachusetts. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.
House of Representatives
House of Representatives: the lower or popular house of the United States Congress or of a State legislature. The name of the lower house in all states prior to 1825 except for Maryland and Virginia, (House of Delegates), New Jersey and New York (Assembly) and North Carolina (House of Commons).
Oxford English Dictionary
1787 - 1825: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont
Office Scope: State
Role Scope: County / District / Town(ship) / Parish