CHAPTER II.

HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED.

REFERENCES.

I. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Poore, The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, etc.; Lalor, Cyclopædia of Political Science, etc., articles on the several colonies; Chalmers's Political Annals.

II. HISTORIES OF THE UNITED STATES.-Bancroft, Vols. I., II. (History of the U. S. as Colonies, in Three Parts); Hildreth, Vols. I., II.; Winsor, Vols. III.-V.; Pitkin, Political and Civil History of the U. S., Chaps. I.-V.; Thwaites, The Colonies, 24, 25; Johnston, The U. S., History and Constitution, I., II.; Hart, Formation of the Union, Chap. V.

III. SPECIAL WORKS.-Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the U. S., Book I.; Stevens, Sources of the Constitution, Chap. I.; Frothingham, The Rise of the Republic, Chaps. I.-IV.; Curtis, History of the Constitution, Book I., Chap. I.; Bryce, The American Commonwealth, Part I., Chaps. II., III.; Doyle, Lodge, and American Commonwealths, same as previous chapter; Smith, Goldwin. The United States, Chaps. I., II.; Wilson, The State, XI.

IV. LOCAL GOVERNMENT.-Howard, Local Constitutional History of the U. S., particularly, Part I.; Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science, First Series (Many similar articles are also found in other series, as the Second and Third); Fiske, Same Reference as before, and Civil Government in the U. S.

V. GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.-Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England; Freeman, Growth of the English Constitution; Taylor, Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, particularly Introduction (English Origin of the Federal Republic of the U. S.); Green, The Making of England, Chap. IV., and History of the English People, Books I.-IV.

66. The Three Classes of Colonies.-As we have seen in the last chapter, Colonies frequently passed from one class to another. Still, the three original types were preserved throughout the Colonial period. This is the grouping at the time of the Revolution :

I.

Charter Colonies: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The charters were written documents guaranteeing to the people certain rights, and they may be compared to the State constitutions of the present day. They sprang, however, from the Crown, and not from the people.

2. Proprietary Colonies: Pennsylvania and Delaware and Maryland. The proprietors, William Penn and Lord Baltimore and their descendants, held their provinces by patents emanating from the King, and these patents, together with the concessions of rights and privileges made to the people by the proprietors, had much the same effect as the New England charters.

3. Royal or Provincial Colonies: New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The governors of these Colonies, in conjunction with assemblies and councils, administered them in conformity with written instructions given them from time to time by the Crown. No charter or patent stood between the Colony and the King; at the same time, the various concessions that the Crown made to the people, together with the customary mode of government, formed a traditionary constitution or charter.

67. Common Political Features.-While the thirteen Colonies differed in constitutional features, they practically agreed in respect to governmental form, machinery, and administration. First, the sum total of powers and functions was distributed to local and to central institutions; Secondly, the powers and functions distributed to each class of institutions were, in the main, the same; Thirdly, the local institutions had certain general correspondencies, while fourthly, the central governments conformed to one general type. These local and central institutions will now be briefly described. Of the first class, there were three types: the Town type, found in New England; the County type, found in the South; the Mixed type, found in the Middle States.

I. THE TOWN TYPE.

68. The Puritan Ideas.-The English Puritans desired to diminish the consequence of the higher clergy in Church government, and to increase that of the local pastors and of the lay membership. They also desired to add to the importance of the plain people in all matters of government. To carry out these ideas, was the main object sought by those Puritans who came to New England. Furthermore, the first to come came as Church societies accompanied by their ministers, not as individuals. Moreover, they mainly belonged to the English middle class, which tended to foster a feeling of equality and to render society homogeneous.

69. The First Towns.-Such a Church society, landing on the New England coast, would naturally make choice of some suitable spot where they could build a village or group of houses, and so all go to the same church. This they did, and continued to do as they moved westward. The first towns on the Connecticut River were founded by similar congregations migrating from Massachusetts. Such settlements were favored by the Massachusetts government, which made grants of land to similar societies wishing to live near together and attend one church. In later times, emigrations were sometimes made to the West in the same

manner.

70. Influence of Physical Conditions.- Physical conditions tended strongly to develop the village feature of New England civilization. Large farms or plantations devoted to a single staple, as tobacco or rice, were an impossibility; the country admitted only of small farms and small farming. Then villages could be better defended against Indian attacks than scattered farms and houses. The rigor of the winter climate also drove the people together. Besides, the Colonists interested themselves in commerce and fishing, and finally in manufacturing, as well as in agriculture; the coast was indented with natural harbors: and

these circumstances favored compact societies and trading marts.

71. Education and Schools.-The founders of New England were educated as well as religious men. They believed thoroughly in schools and in education, and the school, as well as the church, tended to centralize the common life. The first school law of Massachusetts, enacted in 1647, ordered "that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, .; also that, where any town shall increase to the number of one hundred householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth as far as they may be fitted for the university." A public school system was also established at an early day in Connecticut.

72. The Old New England Town.-The primal cell of the New England political organism was a reproduction of the English parish under the name of the town, and it presented both a civil and an ecclesiastical phase. As a civil organization, it regulated, in town meeting and by its magistrates, all civil matters of merely domestic concern, and for this purpose imposed and collected taxes. It had its own representation in the Colonial Assembly, and its own militia company. As an ecclesiastical organization, it was a Church society, choosing its own minister and other officers, and regulating its own ecclesiastical affairs. In 1643 counties were first organized in Massachusetts. Each county had its own regiment, as each town had its own company. The county cut a small figure in New England.

73. Influence of the System.-The influence of local self-government upon New England life was very great. It proved an excellent training school in the science and the art of politics. Samuel Adams, who had more to do with preparing the public mind of Massachusetts for the

Revolution than any other one man, has been called the man of the town-meeting. Mr. Jefferson expressed great admiration for town government, and strove to introduce it into Virginia. He said: "These wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its preservation." And again: "These little republics would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our Revolution in its commencement in the Eastern States."

II. THE COUNTY TYPE.

74. Early Virginia Life.-In social factors Virginia differed from Massachusetts. First, the emigrants did not bring with them democratic ideas in relation to religion and civil affairs, but were content with the English Church and State systems. They did not come as organized societies, but as individuals. Secondly, social distinctions were far more marked in the emigration; there were paupers and criminals as well as gentlemen and trades-people. Thirdly, the physical conditions were very different. The rivers, which have been called fingers of an ocean hand,' brought sea-going vessels to the planter's own dock, thus rendering commercial towns at first unnecessary. Lands were granted to individuals, not to communities, and in any quantity that they desired. Men of capital bought large tracts suitable for growing tobacco, just as men of capital in our time buy similar tracts in Dakota suitable for growing wheat. Previous to 1776, when entails were abolished, the oldest son commonly inherited his father's landed estate. There were small farms, but the tendency was to large plantations. Plantation life compelled men to live in the country, while a genial climate and a picturesque nature rendered country life very attractive and enjoyable. In time the absence of towns became a serious inconvenience; there was little trade and less manufactur