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402. Massachusetts 1823 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester North District, Ballot 2
403. Massachusetts 1823 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester North District, Ballot 3
404. Massachusetts 1823 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester South District, Ballot 2
405. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Barnstable District
406. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Berkshire District
407. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Bristol District
408. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Essex North District
409. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Essex South District
410. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Franklin District
411. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Hampden District
412. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Middlesex District
413. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District
414. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District, Ballot 2
415. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District, Special
416. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District, Special, Ballot 2
417. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District, Special, Ballot 3
418. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Plymouth District
419. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Suffolk District
420. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester North District
421. Massachusetts 1824 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester South District
422. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Bristol District, Ballot 2
423. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Essex North District, Ballot 2
424. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Franklin District, Ballot 2
425. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Hampden District, Ballot 2
426. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Hampden District, Ballot 3
427. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Norfolk District, Ballot 3
428. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester South District, Ballot 2
429. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester South District, Ballot 3
430. Massachusetts 1825 U.S. House of Representatives, Worcester South District, Ballot 4
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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.
U.S. House of Representatives
House of Representatives: the lower or popular house of the United States Congress.
1788 - 1826: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia
Office Scope: Federal
Role Scope: District / State
Historical Note: The following states had a Role Scope of State at various times because they only had one member in the U.S. House of Representatives:
Alabama (1819, 1821)
Delaware (1789 - 1810, 1822, 1824)
Illinois (1818 - 1824)
Indiana (1816 - 1820)
Louisiana (1812 - 1820)
Mississippi (1817 - 1824)
Missouri (1820 - 1824)
Ohio (1803)
Rhode Island (1790)
Tennessee (1796 - 1801)
Historical Note: The following states had a Role Scope of State at various times because they elected their members at-large and each Representative served the entire state instead of a specific district:
Connecticut (1790 - 1824)
Delaware (1812 - 1822)
Georgia (1789 - 1824)
New Hampshire (1790 - 1824)
New Jersey (1789 - 1796, 1800 - 1810, 1814 - 1824)
Pennsylvania (1788, 1792)
Rhode Island (1792 - 1825)
Tennessee (1803)
Vermont (1812 - 1818, 1822)