era aplicable a su situación. Toda la estructura de nuestra jurisprudencia actual se asienta sobre los cimientos originales del common law. » Desde el período del primer establecimiento de las colonias, el derecho consuetudinario de Inglaterra fue reconocido y, en sus rasgos principales, pareció muy aceptable para los colonos. Adoptaron también, y utilizaron, el cuerpo principal de los estatutos ingleses y, entre el resto, el conjunto de las normas inglesas relativas a la usura; que continuaron aplicando en las diferentes colonias hasta que sus respectivas legislaturas promulgaron ' 1 Glialm. Amah., 677 ; Id., 14, 15, 65 ; 2 Wil. Law. Lee, 48 ; 3 WU. Law. Lee, 234.
' 1 Story on the Constitution, 104.
FIRST LEGISLATURE IN AMERICA.
69 and passed acts for themselves, to regulate the rate of interest.^ And very curious and quaint are some of the old cases reported in the books concerning that " detestable sin of vsurie," for which our ancestors were freely introduced to all the pains and penalties attached to the statutes, enforced with all the bitterness approved by the prejudices of the times.
But enough of ex- ample has been said on the subject, in the earlier pages of this work, to render further . reference to it here unnecessary ; hence, we will hasten to enumerate the various legislative enactments that have been spread upon the statutes of our several states, since their legislatures respectively have existed.
' The first legislature that ever sat in America, was in the Colony of Virginia, in 1619, at which time Sir George Yeardley was Gov- ernor. The sanction, however, of the home government, was not obtained until 1621, when an ordinance came from England allowing the establishment of a Colonial Legislature, but required that body, in all its acts, " to imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, and manner of trial, and other administration of justice, used in the realm of England, as near as may be."