Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/207

 JSfciu Ilaiiips/i/rc in 178^.

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��Lyme and Orford — Maj. Jonuthan Child.

Haverhill, Piermont, Warren, and Coventry — Col. Timothy Bedel.

Bath, Lyman, Gnnthwait, Apthorp, Lancaster, Northumberland, Strat- ford, Dartmouth, Colburu, and Cock- burn — Capt. John Young. ^

Hon. George Atkinson, Esq., was chosen speaker of the house ; Hon. Woodbury Laugdon, Esq., was chosen as senior senator.

John McClary, Francis Blood, Jo- seph Badger, Nathaniel Peabody, and Moses Chase were elected council- lors.

Abiel Foster, Jonathan Blanchard, John Langdon, and Moses Dow were appointed delegates to represent New Hampshire in Congress for a year, commencing the following November, but all except Mr. Foster refused the honor, and subsequently Samuel Liv- ermore, Pierse Long, and Elisha Paine were associated with Mr. Fos- ter, but two serving at once.

Samuel Livermore, Josiah Bartlett, and John Sullivan were appointed a committee to revise the laws of the state, and to draw such new laws as they might deem necessary.

Ebenezer Thompson was elected seci'etary for the state ; John Taylor Oilman was elected treasurer.

The pay of the members was six shillings a day ; the secretar^^ of the state and the clerk of the house re- ceived nine shillings.

The first session at Concord lasted about two weeks, when the legisla- ture adjourned to meet in October in Portsmouth. It was not until the second meeting that a yea and nay vote was recorded. That was before the parties had formed.

��A town with one hundred and fifty ratable male polls was entitled to one representative ; with four hundred and fifty polls, to two ; with seven hundred and fifty polls, to three. Every member of the house was seized of a free-hold estate in his own right of at least £100 ; a senator had to own £200 in a free-hold estate to be eligible.

His Excellency, Meshech Weare, who had served the state throughout the struggle for independence as its chief executive otficer, was found to have received a large majority of the votes cast, and was duly declared elected the first president of the new commonwealth. He was not, how- ever, sworn into office for several days after the legislature met.

On the first day of the session the members of both branches of "The General Court" attended services at the Old North church, and listened to a sermon by Rev. Samuel McClintock, of Greenland. So well pleased were they that they voted him £15 in the afternoon to recompense him. The sermon is on file among the archives of the state library, and is worthy of perusal after a century has passed b}'. A few extracts may be of interest to the present generation.

" How becoming is it that we should render unto him in a public manner the most devout ascriptions of praise for the great things he has done for us in delivering us from the cruel hand of oppression, and the impend- ing miseries of abject servitude, crowning our arduous struggle in de- fense of the rights of human nature with triumphant success, in acknowl- edgement of our independence and sovereignty, and in giving us the

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