Page:History of the Supreme court of the United States (IA historyofsupreme00myeriala).pdf/19



Orthodox Puritan piety went hand in hand with the conmissioncommission [sic] of frauds, if the laws of the day shadow the conditions prevailing. In Massachusetts, then comprising also what is now the State of Maine and a portion of the present State of New York, the corruption of public officials became so general that an act was passed in the year 1645 imposing a penalty of £40 or whipping for corrupting any public official to deface the public records. For forging land deeds, the offending person was to pay the aggrieved party double damages; if he could not or did not he was to be publicly whipped and a "Romaine F" was to be burned in his face. The practices of the Puritan judiciary may be judged from Section ix, Act of 1635, which prohibited judges interested in civic causes, or related to the parties at action, from giving judgment.

In Rhode Island the principal officials and elders were either seizing land, or by their official acts were awarding allotments to one another.

The Connecticut Assembly was constantly passing laws directed at preventing land frauds; a supererogative attempt at virtuous conduct, inasmuch as many of the officials themselves were thus acquiring estates.

In May, 1667, the General Court of Connecticut, "being sensible of the great trouble and contention that doth and may arise in this colony by reason of great defects that are found in records," etc., found it necessary to pass an act aimed at