Right to Redress

The foundation for the Right to Redress are the Rights of Conscience and Self-Determination. The Right to Redress is secured by many Bills of Rights. In the Federal Constitution it’s in Article 1, and in New Hampshire, the Right to require Redress is secured at Articles 31, and the right to request Remonstrance at 32.

Click HERE to see the 2917 page Secretary of State’s Consolidated Petition Index filed between 1680 and 1819 by 200,000 Petitioners that were heard before the New Hampshire General Court. The hundreds of the Petitioners filed from 1819 thru the 1940’s are currently being added to this index.

These petitions were heard over the span of over 200 years and in reviewing the 100 or so that i looked at, I never saw a Petition or any Evidence showing any of these Petitions were “sponsored” by a Rep or Senator.

Every Petition i saw was laid upon the General Court by the hand of a man or woman, and some for these Petitions were simply Bills, hand written by women, seeking compensation to replace clothes or a horse lost in battle.

The Power of Petitions:

Women and the New Hampshire Provincial Government

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New Hampshire Bill of Rights

NH [Art.] 4. [Rights of Conscience Unalienable.] Among the natural rights, some are, in their very nature unalienable, because no equivalent can be given or received for them. Of this kind are the Rights of Conscience.
June 2, 1784

NH [Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
June 2, 1784

NH [Art.] 31. [Meetings of Legislature, for What Purposes.] The Legislature shall assemble for the redress of public grievances and for making such laws as the public good may require.
June 2, 1784

NH [Art.] 32. [Rights of Assembly, Instruction, and Petition.] The People have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble and consult upon the common good, give instructions to their Representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of petition or remonstrance, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer.
June 2, 1784

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Words to Know

Emolument n. [L. emolumentum, from emolo, molo, to grind. Originally, toll taken for grinding. See Mill.]

1. The profit arising from office or employment; that which is received as a compensation for services, or which is annexed to the possession of office, as salary, feels and perquisites.2. Profit; advantage; gains in general.

Require, v.t. [L. requiro; re and quaero, to seek. See Query.]

1. To demand; to ask, as of right and by authority. We require a person to do a thing, and we require a thing to be done.Why then doth my lord require this thing? 1Chron. 21.

2. To claim; to render necessary; as a duty or any thing indispensable; as, the law of God requires strict obedience.

3. To ask as a favor; to request.I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way. Ezra 8.[In this sense, the word is rarely used.]

4. To call to account for.I will require my flock at their hand. Ezek. 34.5. To make necessary; to need; to demand.The king’s business required haste. 1Sam. 21.6. To avenge; to take satisfaction for. 1Sam. 20.

Redress, v.t.

1. To set right; to amend. In yonder spring of roses, find what to redress till noon.[In this sense, as applied to material things, rarely used.]

2. To remedy; to repair; to relieve from, and sometimes to indemnify for; as, to redress wrongs; to redress injuries; to redress grievances. Sovereigns are bound to protect their subjects, and redress their grievances.

3. To ease; to relieve; as, she labored to redress my pain.[We use this verb before the person or the thing. We say, to redress an injured person, or to redress the injury. The latter is most common.]

Redress, n.

1. Reformation; amendment.For us the more necessary is a speedy redress of ourselves.[This sense is now unusual.]

2. Relief; remedy; deliverance from wrong, injury or oppression; as the redress of grievances. We applied to government, but could obtain no redress.There is occasion for redress when the cry is universal.

3. Reparation; indemnification. [This sense is often directly intended or implied in redress.]

4. One who gives relief.Fair majesty, the refuge and redress of those whom fate pursues and wants oppress.

Remonstrance, n.

1. Show; discovery. [Not in use.]

2. Expostulation; strong representation of reasons against a measure, either public or private, and when addressed to a public body, a prince or magistrate, it may be accompanied with a petition or supplication for the removal or prevention of some evil or inconvenience. A party aggrieved presents a remonstrance to the legislature.

3. Pressing suggestions in opposition to a measure or act; as the remonstrances of conscience or of justice.

4. Expostulatory counsel or advice; reproof.

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