Re: national v nationalist

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyross.com>]

On 21 Sep 2001, at 9:03, Bill O'Neill wrote:

> I'd been taught that the word "Commonwealth" in the four examples
> above,  were completely trappings.  Totally identical in every way
> to the manner in which "state" is used in other states.  The term
> "Great and General Court" of Massachusetts is yet another example of
> the way the founders labeled the then new institutions for the
> purposes of image and pride, most likely.

That's about it.  But as for the "Great and General Court," that has 
partly to do with the fact that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was 
originally founded by a corporation, the Massachusetts Bay Company.  
In English practice at the time, the head of a corporation was called the 
"governor" and the assembly of shareholders was called the "general 
court."  The term "governor" is still used that way in certain public 
corporations in Great Britain today, though so far as I know, the term 
"general court" has passed out of use. 

The term "Great and General Court" may have been used in colonial 
times, particularly, I suspect, after the corporate charter was revoked 
and Massachusetts became a royal colony.  But according to the state 
constitution, drafted by John Adams in 1780, the legislature is called 
the "General Court of Massachusetts."  The term 'Great and General 
Court" seems to be used nowadays more in a sarcastic sense.


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