him to know the genuine principles and practice of every province, represented officially to the Board of Trade, "that this malignant humor is not confined to Virginia, formerly the most remarkable for loyalty, but is universally diffused." Very shortly after this period, so rapid had been the spread of these anti-monarchical opinions, that the governor writes from New York: "Now the mask is thrown off. The delegates have called in question the Council's share in the legislature, trumped up an inherent right, declared the powers granted by letters patent to be against law, and have but one short step to make toward what I am unwilling to name. The Assemblies claiming all the privileges of a House of Commons, and stretching them even beyond what they were ever imagined to be in England, should the Councilors by the same rule lay claim to the rights of a House of Peers, here is a body co-ordinate with, claiming equal powers, and consequently independent of, the great council of the realm; yet this is the plan of government they all aim at, and make no scruple to own. But as national and sovereign empire is to be exercised by them that have the balance of dominion in the nation, so provincial or dependent empire is not to be exercised by them that have the balance of dominion in the province, because that would bring the government, from being subordinate, to be national and independent."

As no consistent or well-digested plan was prepared to remedy these evils, recourse was had to expostulation, to issuing peremptory orders to governors, and to threats of invoking parliamentary interposition. These measures only aggravated the evils they intended to repress, for commands and menaces were alike disregarded where it was well known that there was no power whatever to enforce them; and the authority that was at first evaded or disobeyed, at last became every where the subject of ridicule or contempt.

CHAPTER VI.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS UNDER THE CHARTER.

Office, Duties, and Modes of Appointment of the Charter Governors-Court of Assistants-Origin and Growth of the House of Delegates-Jealousy of the People as to the Power of Governor and Magistrates--Code of Laws described -Specimens of the Sentences of the Courts-Perfect Equality secured by their Laws and Institutions-Account of Townships and Town MeetingsCounties, Towns, and General Court present a Miniature of a great Republic -Union of the Colonies, the Foundation of the Federal Union of the StatesGeneral System of popular Education prepares the People for Self-government.

We have seen in the foregoing chapters, that in civil and ecclesiastical matters, Massachusetts and the other adjoining colonies, known as New England, asserted and maintained total independence. An attentive consideration of these institutions leads us to the conclusion that they had ever in view the project of adhering as nearly as possible to a democratic form of government.

From the moment of their landing in America, and taking possession of the country, though they preserved a friendly intercourse with England, the colonists extinguished all obedience, and severed all political connection with it. They set up a government of their own, based on popular election, and, as freemen under the charter, claimed and enjoyed the right of modeling their constitution in their own way, and appointing their own officers, to exercise for a limited period executive and legislative functions. Their republicanism was not theoretical, but practical; not having a predominant character of self-government, but possessing no other ingredient but the will of the people. Jealous of gubernatorial influence, they delegated as small a share of authority to the governor as possible, who was chosen annually, and was little more than chairman of the assistants. He had the power of convening the legislature upon urgent occasions; but this he only enjoyed in common with the deputy-governor, and the majority of the councilors, either of whom could command their attendance if he neglected, or did not see fit to do so.

He voted with the assistants, but merely as a member of the court, his opinion having no more weight necessarily attached to it than that of another individual, unless there was an equal division, which entitled him to a casting vote; but he could not adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve them, acts which were reserved for the majority only. He issued commissions to civil and military officers; but the former were appointed by the court, and the latter generally elected by their companies or regiments.

The oldest dispute in the colony related to the grounds and limits of the governor's authority. At Boston, on occasions of dividing the town lands, men of the inferior sort were chosen." The doctrine of rotation was asserted, even to the neglect of Winthrop, "lest there should be a governor for life.” When one

of the elders proposed that the office should be held in that manner, the deputies immediately resolved that no magistrate of any kind should be elected for more than a year. The justices once assembling, in a sort of aristocratic caucus, nominated several persons for the choice of the people, but they took care to neglect every one of the candidates thus proposed. On the other hand, when one of the ministers attempted to dissuade the freemen from selecting certain persons who were obnoxious to the clergy, they disliked the interference of the adviser, more than they approved of the doctrine of frequent change, and returned them almost without an exception.* So deeply rooted and widely spread was the prejudice against a life tenure, that it may be said to have prevailed throughout New England. Connecticut, by a distinct declaratory clause in its fundamental constitutions, carefully guarded against any such result.

The advantage that democracy gains by making provision for public officers annually, and not attaching fixed salaries to their situations, was very early perceived. In a contested election for governor, in the year 1641, Mr. Bellingham was chosen over his rival Winthrop, by a majority of six votes. The result was not agreeable to the General Court; and the first order they made, after proceeding to business, was to repeal a standing law, allowing him a yearly salary of £100. This precedent they afterward adopted, as we shall presently see, with great success, in embarrassing all the subsequent representatives of royalty, until the actual breaking out of hostilities.

* Bancroft; Winthrop.

The assistants or councilors were annually chosen by the whole body of freemen in the colony. They constituted, with the governor, at the first settlement, the whole, and subsequently one of the two branches of the Legislature, and were also the Supreme Court in all civil and criminal causes, except in those instances in which an appeal was allowed to the General Assembly. When the Lower House came into existence, the members chose the Speaker, and proceeded to business, not only without presenting him to the governor for his approbation, but without even acquainting him with the result of their election, or the name of the person whom they had selected.

In the first little republic, every thing was based, as far as the freemen were concerned, on general and often-recurring elections. It was a fresh and young shoot from the tree of liberty, and grew with all the vigor of youth into wild luxuriance, that defied alike the pruning-knife or the training hand of cautious experience, until it overran the whole country. By a natural consequence of causes, the operation of which was not then at all understood, the Upper House became more dependent on the popular voice than the lower branch, inasmuch as it was chosen by the freemen of the whole commonwealth, and the other by those resident in the several districts. The assistants, therefore, had a larger constituency to conciliate and represent, and were consequently more under observation, and more exposed in the conflicts of party, to the ingratitude of unstable friends, or the rancor of inflamed opponents. As sanctity of manners and soundness of doctrine were strong recommendations to popular favor, they became every day more expert in the language of cant, and more obsequious to their partisans the ministers, until at last they were unable to stem the torrent of fanaticism, whose channels they had so industriously widened and deepened themselves. Stripes, confiscations, banishment, and death, were liberally awarded to heresy, to gratify the ignorant zeal of the mass, and the vindictive malice of the clergy, who considered dissent from their opinions as far more criminal than rape, burglary, or highway robbery-the one being punishable, if persisted in, with death; and the others entitled to those lesser penalties that were awarded to offenses not capital.

Men who fail in obedience themselves, generally compensate for the defect by extorting it from others. A stubborn, unyielding

temper is the cause of these peculiarities. While the Puritans of New England made the world ring with their accusations against the tyranny of Laud, they did not disdain to make use of the instruments of despots, to enforce conformity to their own views. For this purpose, they passed a law on the subject of torture, which, though nominally prohibiting, authorizes its application, and regulates its use. It begins by forbidding recourse to be had to it generally, but excepts any case in which the criminal is first fully convicted by clear and sufficient evidence; after which, if it be apparent, from the nature of the case, that there are confederates with him, he may be tortured; yet not with such instruments as are barbarous and inhuman.

The rigor of justice extended itself as well to the protection of the rights of property as to the moral habits of the people. A remarkable instance of this is shown in the power given to creditors over the persons of their debtors. The law admitted of a freeman's being sold for service to discharge his liabilities, though it would not allow of the sacrifice of his time by being kept in prison, unless some estate was concealed.

It was owing to a jealousy of magisterial authority that a compilation of the laws was sought for with avidity by the people. They were disinclined to invest the justices with any discretionary power whatever, in apportioning punishments to the circumstances of each particular case, and required an exact penalty to be attached to every offense, preferring to lose the benefit of mitigation to incurring the dangers of arbitrary decisions. In order to appease the murmurs of dissatisfaction, the work was undertaken in earnest, and after fourteen years of deliberation of committees formed of magistrates, ministers, and elders, a code was produced and ratified by the Legislature. These laws, ninety-eight in number, were named "fundamentals," or "body of liberties." This curious compilation commences with a general statement of the rights of the inhabitants, in seventeen articles, of which several may now be found embodied in the Constitution of the Great Republic, and the State Bills of Rights. Next follow "rights, rules and liberties in judicial matters," forty-one in number; "liberties concerning freemen," twenty in all, and chiefly referring to the civil polity of the colony. Two are devoted to the liberties of women. Liberties of children, and of servants, are each contained in four