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��NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.
��Mr. Samuel Messer, Mr. Benjamin Eastman, and Mr. Nathaniel Everett, for Selectmen ; and Mr. Nathaniel Goodwin, for a Constable ; Mr. Nathan- iel Everett, for Town Treasurer ; and Mr. Benjamin Guile, and Mr. John Austin, for Surveyors. (All of whom' were duly sworn.)
Voted, To choose a committee to lay out roads where, at present, necessary.
Voted, That Mr. Samuel Messei. Mr. Benjamin Eastman, and Mr. Nathan- iel Everett, serve as a committee to lay out roads this year.
Voted, That roads be laid out three rods wide.
Voted, To purchase the land for said roads.
Voted, That four hundred and fifty pounds be raised for clearing roads, and that labor shall be three pounds per day.
Voted, That one hundred and eighty pounds be raised to pay town charges.
Voted, Not to hire any preaching this year.
Voted, To hire three months' school- ing this year.
The meeting dissolved.
I have thus given you a full account of the act of incorporation, and the action of the town at its first meeting. The town is now fully organized, with its town officers, its three months schooling in a year, and its committee to lay out roads where necessary, and money raised to clear them out with. Having thus got our young craft fully rigged and fairly launched, we may- leave her for awhile to prosecute her way upon the tide of successful experi- ment while we pause and examine some things that have been disclosed in our course thus far, which it may be profit- able to consider.
i. It will be observed that the act of incorporation of this town was passed about midway during the time of the Revolutionary War. The first settle- ments were made in the year i 775, the same year that witnessed the commence- ment of the war at Lexington. Con- cord, and Bunker Hill. The first child was born here in t 7 76, • the year in which, upon the 4th
��of July, the ever memorable Declara- tion of American Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress. This year was also noted for another event which no son of New Hamp- shire should forget, that is that on the fifth day of January of that year a tem- porary constitution was adopted by this State, which was the first written con- stitution adopted by any of the states now constituting the American Union. Under this constitution the State was prosperously governed for eight years, and until the new constitution of 1 784 went into effect. The form of govern- ment was not much changed by the constitution of 1776.
Before that the Government of the State consisted of a Royal Governor, appointed and commissioned by the King of England, with a council, also appointed by the King, and an assem- bly elected by the people of the seve- ral towns in the province. After the separation from the mother country the State elected their Council and also their Assembly or House of Representatives ; and the Council elected their presiding officer, who acted for the time being as Governor ; hence the act of incorpora- tion was passed by the House of Rep-' resentatives, then by the Council, and was signed M. Ware, President. This was the form of government until the new constitution of 1 784, when we had a President, and an advisory Council, with a Senate and House of Represent- atives, all elected by the people. Me- shech Ware was President of the Coun- cil for the eight years that the tempor- ary constitution continued, and one year under the new constitution. It will also be observed that our town was incorporated some two years, nearly, af- ter the articles of confederation had been adopted by the American Con- gress, that having been done Nov. 15,
1 777-
2. By examining the boundaries of
the town as incorporated, we shall see that it was of very ample proportions as compared with its present size. It be- gan at the southwesterly corner of Alex- andria, on the patent line, &c. Alex- andria was formerly much larger than
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