250 and Counting

Tag: New Hampshire State Constitution

  • Sam Adams Also Has Concerns–January 15, 1776

    Cover art for January 15, 1776: Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
    Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

    Samuel Adams made a point of telling his second cousin John Adams that he didn’t have a lot of time to write. Then he cranked out 570 words of worries about the language in the New Hampshire constitution, which had been ratified ten days earlier.

    Then the next day he tacked on another 250 words. If he’d typed all 820 words out, it would be about three pages (double-spaced). The script for this episode is 219 words; even when Adams was in a hurry he was verbose.

    But Samuel Adams kinda-sorta had a point, in that the New Hampshire constitution hedged its bets a little bit. Clearly he had this in mind when he worked on the original Articles of Confederation (the document that preceded the US Constitution), and when he joined the Constitutional Convention for Massachusetts a couple of years later.

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  • The First State Constitution–January 5, 1776

    Cover art for January 5, 1776: the manuscript for the first New Hampshire constitution. Via New Hampshire Secretary of State social media account.
    The manuscript for the first New Hampshire constitution. Via New Hampshire Secretary of State social media account.

    It’s fun to say that the New Hampshire Constitution was the first time that an American commonwealth constitution, and that several of the others quickly followed, as though a dam had broken.

    But the fact is, the various colonies were putting together their own constitutions at the urging of the Second Continental Congress, and New Hampshire just happened to be the first.

    That said, let’s not take away from them the fact that they managed to get it done with a great deal of efficiency, and I’m also impressed at the way they got the subsequent documents done. But you’ll have to listen to the episode to hear that.

    Oh, yes: I promised you the recipe for Martha Washington’s cake she served for her Twelfth Night party. This comes from the New England Historical Society.

    Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth. Then work four pounds of butter to a cream and put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5 pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it. Add to it half and ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some fresh brandy.

    It was a big honkin’ cake.

    Bon appetit!

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