01.14.05
The Fundamental Orders of 1639
This post brought to you on the 365th anniversary* of the “ratification” of the Fundamental Orders.
Excerpted from The Avalon Project : Fundamental Orders of 1639:
“… And the rest of the Magistrates or public officers to be chosen in this manner: the Secretary for the time being shall first read the names of all that are to be put to choice and then shall severally nominate them distinctly, and every one that would have the person nominated to be chosen shall bring in one single paper written upon, and he that would not have him chosen shall bring in a blank; and every one that hath more written papers than blanks shall be a Magistrate for that year; …”
I find it fascinating that in 1639 they had the concept of voting _against_ someone. In this case, the “they” are the three towns in “Connectecotte” that participated in this early Constitution.
*Just how long ago was this? At this time, as an English colony (Not “British” as England and Scotland had not joined up) the authors of the Orders were using the Julian calendar, (which was off by 11 days at the time from the now widely used Gregorian Calendar) __and__ at the time, they considered the first day of the year to be March 25, so they signed the document as 1638!