Massachusetts

One of the original thirteen states of the United States of America. The first important settlement on the territory of Massachusetts was made by the sect of Brownlsts or Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth in 1620. On March 4, 1628, Charles I. granted a charter to the Puritans under the nam^ of ‘The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.’* This charter did not Include the Plymouth colony which remained separate until 1691. The charter of 1628 continued till 1684, when it was adjudged forfeited. From this time till 1691, governors appointed by the king ruled the colony. In 1691, William and Mary granted a new charter, by which the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Plymouth, the province of Maine, and the territory called Nova Scotia, and the tract lying between Nova Scotia and Maine were incorporated Into one government, by the name of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. 1 Story, Const. § 71. This charter, amended In 1726, continued until the adoption of the state constitution in 1780, which was drafted by John Adams. 4 Adams, Life and Works 218. It contained a provision for calling a convention for its revision or amendment ip 1795, if two-thirds of the voters at an elecford*8 Hist* Mass. 294; and the constitution continued without amendment till 1820, when a convention was called tor revising or amending It. Mass. Stat. 1820, o. 15. This convention proposed fourteen amendments, nine of which were accepted by the people. Since then, sixteen additional articles of amendment have been adopted at different times, making twenty-five in all. In 1853, a second convention for revising the constitution was held, which prepared an entirely new draft of a constitution. This draft, upon submission to the people, was rejected. In 1912 an amendment gave power to the General Court to develop and conserve the forestry resources of the state. The constitution, as originally drafted, consists of two parts, one entitled A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, hnd the other The Frame of Government. The name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.