master minds that originated the Constitution and carried it to successful adoption one hundred and forty-five years ago.[1]
Some of its Distinctive Features
It would be impossible in this short treatise to explain everything contained in this Constitution. On some of the phases which differentiate it from the constitutions of other States and which seem to me of particular importance, however, I wish to touch.
In many of the original constitutions of the various States the judges and State officers, with the exception of the Governor, were elected by the Legislature. Even to-day in some of them we find provisions for electing various State officers by the Legislature instead of directly by the people. Under the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, it was provided that the Secretary, Treasurer and Receiver-General, the Commissary-General and Notaries Public should be chosen annually by joint ballot of the Senators and Representatives, and this method of election of State officers prevailed up to 1855 when it was changed by amendment so that they should be chosen directly by the people. The office of notary ceased to be elective in 1820, Article 4 of the Amendments providing that notaries should be appointed by the Governor as were other judicial officers, except that their term should be for seven years and not for life. In New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, under the original constitutions the chief executive was elected on joint ballot by the two houses of the Legislature.
The Virginia plan for a Constitution of the United States, moreover, provided that the executive branch of the govern-
- ↑ See 239 Mass., 349.
