Colonial Origins of the American Constitution

75. Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Inhabitants of This Province in the Commons House of Assembly, June 9, 1761

Origins_351-400.indd 359 2/17/12 6:49 PM 75 Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Inhabitants of This Province in the Commons House ofAssembly Etablished by charter in I7J2, Georgia was initiallygoverned by a board oftrustees in London with noprovisionfor either a governor or a legislature. An appointed governor was in place by I743, but an assembly was not authorized untilI75I, and even then it had no realpower. In I752 the trusteeship ended and Georgia reverted to a royal colony. At this point the Crown established institutions similar to those found in the other royal colonies. In I76I the Georgia legislaturepassed the act in this document to define the electoral basis underlying their government. It is very similar to the act passed by South Carolina in I72I [74}. One feature ofthe present document is that it clearly describes a method ofvoting usedthroughout the colonies and reveals that votes werepublic rather than secret. It was not considered unusualfor voters to be asked to "stand up and be counted. " The secret ballot was not widely used in America until the late nineteenth century. The precise definition and carefulprotection ofthe electoralprocess implies that thepeople are thefoundation ofgovernment. The care taken here and in other colonial documents in this regard indicates that the concept ofthe electoral process is at least emerging, ifnot already accepted. One needs to remember that elections were rare in the worldat this time, and rules for running them are in the process ofbeing worked out in documents like this one. 359 Origins_351-400.indd 360 2/17/12 6:49 PM GEORGIA W hereas the manner and form ofchoosing members of the Commons House ofAssembly to represent the inhabitants of this province and the qualifications of electors and those elected members of the Commons House ofAssembly has never yet been appointed, fixed, and determined by any law of this province. We, therefore, pray your most sacred Majesty that it may be enacted. And be it enacted by his Honor James Wright, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of this his Majesty's province of Georgia, by and with the advice and consent of the honorable Council and the Commons House of Assembly of the said province in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the passing of this act all writs for the election of members of the Commons House of Assembly shall be issued out by the Governor or Commander-in-Chief for the time being with the consent of the Council and shall bear test forty days before the day appointed for the meeting of the said members and shall be directed to the provost marshal in the said writs to cause such elections to be made and to return the names of the persons elected to be members ofthe Commons House ofAssembly. And the provost marshal is hereby empowered and required to execute such writ to him directed and, for the faithful and due performance of which according to the true intent and meaning of this act, the provost marshal shall cause public notice in writing to be affixed at one or more noted place or places in such parish, district, town, or village for which the election ofa member or members by him is to be taken, at least ten days before the day of election, of the time and place where such election is by him to be taken. 11. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that every free white man, and no other, who has attained to the age of twenty-one years and has been resident in the province six months and is legally possessed in his own right of fifty acres of land in the said parish, district, town, or village for which the member or members is or are to be elected to represent in the General Assembly, shall be deemed a person qualified for electing a representative or representatives to serve as member or members ofthe Commons House of Assembly for the parish, district, town, or village wherein he is possessed of the above qualification. III. And for preventing frauds, as much as may be, in all elections, it is hereby enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the returning officer shall come to the place at the time appointed by the public notice given and Origins_351-400.indd...