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legislature
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John Adams, by McCullough
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He was too independent by nature and his political experience amounted to less than a year's service in the Massachusetts legislature.†
Subsection 1.1.1 *

legislature = a group, made up of government representatives, that has the power to create laws
A SECOND SON, Charles, was born that summer of 1770, and for all the criticism to which he was being subjected, Adams was elected by the Boston Town Meeting as a representative to the Massachusetts legislature.†
Subsection 1.1.2
In 1774, Adams was chosen by the legislature as one of five delegates to the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and with all Massachusetts on the verge of rebellion, he removed Abigail and the children again to Braintree, where they would remain.†
Subsection 1.1.2
But it was Paine's "feeble" understanding of constitutional government, his outline of a unicameral legislature to be established once independence was achieved, that disturbed Adams most.†
Subsection 1.2.2
Balance would come from the creation of a second, smaller legislative body, a "distinct assembly" of perhaps twenty or thirty, chosen by the larger legislature.†
Subsection 1.2.2
The executive, the governor, should, Adams thought, be chosen by the two houses of the legislature, and for not more than a year at a time.†
Subsection 1.2.2
Despite drenching rain, an open-air public meeting that day at the State House Yard drew a throng of thousands who listened as the May is resolve was read aloud, then voiced a demand vote for a new Pennsylvania constitution and a new legislature.†
Subsection 1.2.3
On June 15, the provincial legislature of New Jersey had ordered the arrest of its royal governor, William Franklin, the estranged, illegitimateson of Benjamin Franklin, and authorized its delegates in Congress to vote for independence.†
Subsection 1.2.3
He had appealed to the clergy to recognize slavery as a sin, and urged all legislators, "ye advocates for American liberty," to work for the liberty of blacks as well.†
Subsection 1.3.1
In Massachusetts the idea of galleries for the public to watch the legislature was the custom.†
Subsection 1.3.2

legislature = a group, made up of government representatives, that has the power to create laws
There would be two branches of the legislature, a Senate and a House of Representatives, an executive, the governor, who was to be elected at large annually and have veto power over the acts of the legislature.†
Subsection 2.4.4
There would be two branches of the legislature, a Senate and a House of Representatives, an executive, the governor, who was to be elected at large annually and have veto power over the acts of the legislature.†
Subsection 2.4.4
and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns;†
Subsection 2.4.4
The legislature was also given power to override the governor's veto, another change Adams regretted, as it was contrary to his belief in a strong, popularly elected executive.†
Subsection 2.4.4

legislature = a group, made up of government representatives, that has the power to create laws
And to a degree he had succeeded, although one of his proudest achievements, a bill for the establishment of religious freedom, a subject of extreme controversy, was not passed by the legislature until several years hence, after he departed for France.†
Subsection 2.6.3
The traitor Benedict Arnold led a sudden, daring raid on Richmond, and with the advance of spring, the British under Cornwallis swept through the state almost at will, scattering the legislature to the hills and very nearly capturing the governor.†
Subsection 2.6.3
At sunrise, Monday, June 4, a lone horseman came pounding up the mountain to warn Jefferson that British cavalry were on the way to capture him and the legislature.†
Subsection 2.6.3
Before he was finished, Jefferson would buy sixty-three paintings in France as well as seven terra-cotta busts for 1,100 livres by the greatest sculptor of the day, Jean-Antoine Houdon, whom, at the request of the Virginia legislature, Jefferson also commissioned to do a life-size statue of George Washington.†
Subsection 2.6.3
There must be three parts to government—executive, legislative, and judicial—and to achieve balance it was essential that it be a strong executive, a bicameral legislature, and an independent judiciary.†
Subsection 2.7.4
If the executive power, or any considerable part of it, is left in the hands of an aristocratical or democratical assembly, it will corrupt the legislature as necessarily as rust corrupts iron, or as arsenic poisons the human body; and when the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.†
Subsection 2.7.4
If the executive power, or any considerable part of it, is left in the hands of an aristocratical or democratical assembly, it will corrupt the legislature as necessarily as rust corrupts iron, or as arsenic poisons the human body; and when the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.†
Subsection 2.7.4
Specifically he had written in defence (hence the title) against the theories of the philosophe Turgot, who espoused perfect democracy and a single legislature, or as he wrote, "collecting all authority into one center, that of the nation."†
Subsection 2.7.4
Reliance on a single legislature was a certain road to disaster, for the same reason reliance on a single executive—king, potentate, president—was bound to bring ruin and despotism.†
Subsection 2.7.4
If all power were to be vested in a single legislature, "What was there to restrain it from making tyrannical laws, in order to execute them in a tyrannical manner?"†
Subsection 2.7.4
At home every state but Pennsylvania and Georgia had a bicameral legislature, and because of the obvious shortcomings of the one-house Congress under the Articles of Confederation, agreement on the need for a bicameral Congress was widespread.†
Subsection 2.7.4
These were the people who had the capacity to acquire great wealth and make use of political power, and for all they contributed to society, they could thus become the most dangerous element in society, unless they and their interests were consigned to one branch of the legislature, the Senate, and given no executive power.†
Subsection 2.7.4
From Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention had assembled, Benjamin Rush, a member of the Convention, wrote that the Defence had "diffused such excellent principles among us, that there is little doubt of our adopting a vigorous and compound federal legislature."†
Subsection 2.7.4
BY PROCEDURE established in the new Constitution, the President was to be chosen by "electors" named by the state legislatures.†
Subsection 3.8.1

legislatures = groups of government representatives that have the power to create laws
"A trust of the greatest magnitude is committed to this legislature," he said in conclusion, "and the eyes of the world are upon you."†
Subsection 3.8.2

legislature = a group, made up of government representatives, that has the power to create laws
From every part of the country came hundreds of patriotic "addresses" to the President—expressions of loyalty and "readiness" from state legislatures, merchant groups, fraternal orders, college stu-dents, small towns and cities.†
Subsection 3.9.3

legislatures = groups of government representatives that have the power to create laws
Jefferson had been absent for six months, during which he had raised no voice as head of the Republican party, but had kept extremely busy, writing letters and secretly drafting a set of resolutions to be introduced in the legislature of Kentucky.†
Subsection 3.10.1

legislature = a group, made up of government representatives, that has the power to create laws
The long-overdue showdown came after the Republicans defeated the Federalists in the election of the New York legislature, a crucial election in that it would determine New York's electoral vote for President.†
Subsection 3.10.4
Firm in his belief in the separation of powers, he saw it as a question for the legislature in which he, as President, had no business and he would stay far from it.†
Subsection 3.10.6
When members of the Massachusetts legislature came to Quincy to present Adams with a tribute to his devoted service to his country, he was moved to tears.†
Subsection 3.11.1
In 1808 the Massachusetts legislature elected a successor even earlier than they had to, which prompted John Quincy to resign before his term ended.†
Subsection 3.11.3
Besides, he was beset by troubles at his university—disappointing enrollment, unruly students—and by now suffered such personal financial distress that, in desperation, he had agreed to a proposal that the Virginia legislature create a special lottery to save him from ruin.†
Subsection 3.12.4
Cannon boomed from Mount Wollaston, bells rang, and the procession that carried the casket from the Adams house to the church included the governor, the president of Harvard, members of the state legislature, and Congressman Daniel Webster.†
Subsection 3.12.5

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(1) (legislature)
a group made up of government representatives (usually elected) that has the power to create laws
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)

legislature in John Adams, by McCullough (Auto-generated)

legislature
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John Adams, by McCullough
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