THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
BICAMERAL SYSTEM IN AMERICA
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page: [2][View Page [2]] page: [3][View Page [3]]JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
THIRTEENTH SERIES
V
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor.-----------------
History is Past Politics and Politics are Present History—Freeman.
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THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT
OF
THE
BICAMERAL SYSTEM IN AMERICA
BY
THOMAS FRANCIS MORAN
, A. B.,Fellow in History, J. H. U.
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BALTIMORE
THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS
PUBLISHED MONTHLY
MAY, 1895.
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COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS.
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JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
CONTENTS.
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- INTRODUCTION7
- CHAPTER I.—The Rise and Development of the Bicameral System in the New England Colonies. Section I.—Massachusetts. Section II.—New Hampshire. Section III.—Connecticut. Section IV.—Rhode Island8
- CHAPTER II.—The Bicameral System in the Middle Colonies. Section I.—New Jersey. Section II.—New York. Section III.—Pennsylvania and Delaware27
- CHAPTER III.—The Bicameral System in the Southern Colonies. Section I.—Maryland. Section II.—Virginia. Section III.—The Carolinas. Section IV.—Georgia43
- CHAPTER IV.—The Bicameral System in the Federal Constitution51
INTRODUCTION.
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THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THEBICAMERAL SYSTEM IN AMERICA.
The purpose of this study is to trace the rise and development of the bicameral system from its beginnings in Massachusetts to its incorporation into the Federal Constitution. The acknowledged importance and universal application of this principle of government would seem to warrant a study of the various steps and, in so far as may be, of the causes which led to its introduction into the federal and all of the state constitutions. It is not necessary at this late day to exalt the importance of the bicameral principle. "The division of the legislature into two separate and independent branches," says Kent, "is founded on such obvious principles of good policy, and is so strongly recommended by the unequivocal language of experience, that it has obtained the general approbation of the people of this country." 1 It is, however, no part of the object of this paper to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of the system. Its philosophic aspects have attracted the attention of Kent, 2 Story, 3 Lieber 4 and a host of other political writers of eminence both in Europe and America. With this phase of the subject we have nothing to do. It is to the historical evolution of the system that we turn our attention.
1 Commentaries, I, Sec. 222.
2 Ibid., Secs. 222-224.
3 Commentaries, II, 26-45.
4 Civil Liberty and Self Government, Chap. XVII. See also John Adams' Defence of the American Constitutions.
