May 5, 1682
The Charter of Liberties and Frame of Government of Pennsylvania prefaces its beginning by stating that God has ordained government, even quoting Romans 13. Article 38 of the document lists “offenses against God” that may be punished by the magistrate, including:
swearing, cursing, lying, profane talking, drunkenness, drinking of healths, obscene words, incest, sodomy…stage-plays, cards, dice, May-games, gamesters, masques, revels, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, bear-baiting, and the like, which excite the people to rudeness, cruelty, looseness, and irreligion….
The frame of the government of the province of Pensilvania, in America: together with certain laws agreed upon in England, by the Governor arid divers freemen of the aforesaid province. To be further explained and confirmed there, by the first provincial Council, that shall be held, if they see meet.
"Thoughts on Government" was written by John Adams during the spring of 1776 in response to a resolution of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina which requested Adams's suggestions on the establishment of a new government and the drafting of a constitution. Adams says that "Politicks is the Science of human Happiness-and the Felicity of Societies depends on the Constitutions of Government under which they live." Many of the ideas put forth in Adams's essay were adopted in December 1776 by the framers of North Carolina's first constitution.— Excerpted from Thoughts on Government on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
