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Colonies, as well as in the others, a religious character was considered as the proper basis of confidence; nor were they without an equally intelligent sense of the necessity of excluding from their councils the enemies of their religious freedom.

Rulers were elected from year to year. In Massachusetts this annual resumption and new delegation of the corporate power was required by a provision of Magistrates. the charter. In all the Colonies, this system

suited the views of men who felt that they were competent to self-government, and who understood and prized its securities. Each Colony had a chief magistrate, called Governor, whose power, though not altogether the same in the different jurisdictions, differed little in any from that of the other Magistrates, except in his being the organ of their will, and the moderator in public assemblies. All but Plymouth had a Deputy-Governor to take the Governor's place if it became vacant during the official term, and to act meanwhile with those members of the Council, who, under the name of Assistants in Massachusetts and Plymouth, and of Magistrates in the two western Colonies, were associated with the Governor in the highest functions of administration. The central authority was also shared by the Deputies, who, however, in no Colony constituted as yet a separate and co-ordinate branch of the government.1

While the superior Magistrates were elected by the

mouth, published in 1671, it was pro vided, as a condition of receiving the franchise, that the candidate should be of "sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion." (Brigham, 258.) This may with much probability be regarded as only a legislative recognition of the practice of earlier times. So "a peaceable and honest conversation" became in Connecticut a condition of admission

to the franchise (Conn. Rec., I. 290, 297, 331, 389, 417); and this would mean more or less according to the standard in the voter's mind.

1 The separation of the Legislature into two branches, made in Massachusetts in 1644 (see Vol. I. 622), was adopted in Connecticut in 1645, till which time the Magistrates were a minority of the joint body. (Conn. Rec., I. 119.)

votes of the freemen of the whole Colony1 counted together, the Deputies were chosen for each town by a majority of its voters, who were not however restricted in their choice to their own townspeople. In Massachusetts, the Governor was remuner

Deputies.

1 of the forms of election of the highest officers in Massachusetts, we have a detailed description from the hand of an intelligent observer; "The General Court electory sitting, when are present, in the church or meetinghouse at Boston, the old Governor, Deputy, and all the Magistrates, and two Deputies or Burgesses for every town, or at least one, all the freemen are bidden to come in at one door, and bring their votes in papers for the new Governor, and deliver them down upon the table, before the Court, and so to pass forth at another door. Those that are absent send their votes by proxies. All being delivered in, the votes are counted, and, according to the major part, the old Governor pronounceth that such an one is chosen Governor for the year ensuing. Then the freemen, in like manner, bring their votes for the Deputy-Governor, who being also chosen, the Governor propoundeth the Assistants, one after the other. New Assistants are of late put in nomination, by an order of General Court, beforehand to be considered of. If a freeman give in a blank, that rejects the man named; if the freeman makes any mark with a pen upon the paper which he brings, that elects the man named; then the blanks and marked papers are numbered, and, according to the major part of either, the man in nomination stands elected or rejected. And so for all the Assistants. And after every new election, which is, by their patent, to be upon the last Wednesday in every Easter term, the new Governor and officers are all new sworn. The Governor and Assistants

choose the Secretary. And all the Court, consisting of Governor, Deputy, Assistants, and Deputies of towns, give their votes as well as the rest; and the ministers and elders, and all church officers, have their votes also in all these elections of chief Magistrates." (Thomas Lechford, Plaine Dealing, or Newes from New England, 24; comp. Mass. Rec., I. 293, 333, II. 21, 37, 42.)

Lechford was the London lawyer, whose professional practice did not please the General Court. (See Vol. I. 553.) He went home from Boston, August 3, 1641 (Plaine Dealing, 13), and published his "Plaine Dealing" in the following year, in London. "For some arts, construed to oppose, and as tending to subvert episcopacy," he had "suffered imprisonment, and a kind of banishment" (Ibid., Preface), and was "forth of his native country almost for the space of four years." (Ibid., 1.) In New England, where perhaps he did not pass the whole time of his exile, he changed his mind again, and returned home a friend to the episcopal establishment, but not a ferocious partisan. In a letter to Winthrop (December 11, 1638) Dudley said, "I have read over Mr. Lechford's book "; and added, "I have sent you the book herewith, that, instead of putting it to the press, as he desireth, it may rather be put into the fire, as I desire." (Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc., I. 311.) Dudley's wish may have been accomplished. From his references to the contents of the work which displeased him, it appears not to have been the "Plaine Dealing."

ated for his services by grants of the General Court, made from year to year; and Magistrates and Deputies received an allowance at a fixed rate for each day of their presence in the General Court, paid sometimes by their towns, and sometimes from the general treasury.1 In Plymouth, the Magistrates, when on duty, had their living at the public charge. Neither in Connecticut nor in New Haven does it appear that the Magistrates or Deputies received any regular stipend in the early times.3 The public treasury of each Colony was supplied by direct taxes upon property. There was as yet no capitation tax or excise.5

Towns.

The share, which, through their delegated voice in the General Courts, the towns had in the general legislation, was not the chief of the functions that belonged to them. The municipal jurisdictions present a peculiarity of the social system of New England, than which none more attracts, at this day, the attention of intelligent strangers, or has had more influence on the condition and the character of the people, through the eight generations of their history. The territory of these States, with the exception of that small portion at the north which remains unoccupied, is laid off into districts of moderate extent, and the inhabitants of each form a little body politic, with an administration of its

1 Mass. Rec., I. 183, 187, 228; II. 67; Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 226.— "They [the Assistants] have hitherto been volunteers, governing without pay from the people." (Johnson, Wonderworking Providence, Book I. Chap. XLV.; comp. Body of Liberties, Art. 63; Mass. Hist. Coll., XXI. 16 – 20.) 2 Plym. Rec., I. 101, 127.

Trumbull (History, I. 170) supposes that an allowance to the Governor of Connecticut of thirty pounds, in 1648, was the first that was made to any civil officer in that Colony. But

as early as 1641, a grant was made to the Governor of 160 bushels of corn (worth about twenty-four pounds), and thirty pounds were voted to him in 1645. In 1648, an annual allowance of the latter amount (to both the Governor and Deputy-Governor) was made permanent. (Conn. Rec.. I. 69 131, 161, 162.)

* Mass. Rec., I. 120.

"I believe the first poll-tax was levied in Massachusetts (Mass. Rec., II. 173), and the first excise in Plymouth (Plym. Rec., II. 103); both in 1646.

own, conducted, by officials of its own choice, according to its own will, within certain limits imposed by the higher common authority. With something of the same propriety with which the nation may be said to be a confederacy of republics called States, each New-England State may be described as a confederacy of minor republics, called Towns. The system is the extreme opposite of a political centralization. To the utmost extent consistent with the common action and the common welfare of the aggregate of towns that make the State, the towns severally are empowered to take care of those interests of theirs which they respectively can best understand, and can most efficiently and most economically provide for; and these are identical with the interests which most directly concern the public security, comfort, and morals. Thus it belongs to them, and they are compelled by general laws of the States within which they are severally included, to protect the public health and order by means of a police; to maintain safe and convenient communication about and through their precinct by roads and bridges; to furnish food, clothing, and shelter to their poor; to provide for the education of all their children at their common charge. By force of this institution, every man in New England belongs to a small community of neighbors, known to the law as a corporation, with rights and liabilities as such, capable of suing and subject to be sued in the courts of justice, in disputes with any parties, individual or corporate. Once a year the corporation

In 1850, Massachusetts had 321 towns, Maine 396, New Hampshire 226, Vermont 248, Rhode Island 31, and Connecticut 153. (Seventh Census of the United States, 1-86.) The average number of inhabitants in the Rhode-Island towns was 4,760; in those of Maine, 1,470. In respect to the amount of population in their towns, these States present the two extremes.

2 Towns began early to be admonished of their obligations by heavy fines for neglect. (See, e. g., Mass. Rec., I. 233.) The earliest city governments, those of New Haven and New London in Connecticut, were instituted in 1784. There are now cities in every New-England State. The rights and liabilities of cities and towns in relation to the State are the same.

chooses the administrators of its affairs, and determines the amount of money with which it will intrust them, and how this shall be raised.' If the State levies a general tax, it is the town treasuries that must pay it; and the State fixes the proportion due from each town, leaving it to the town to distribute the burden of its share in the assessment among its own people. As to matters of their own interest, the towns present their petitions, and, as to matters of general concern, they send their advice, to the central authorities. By their magistrates, they exercise a responsible supervision of the elections of officers of the town, the county, the State, and the nation.

The experience of later times dictated improvements of detail in the municipal system of New England; but its outline was complete when it was first devised.2 At the epoch of the confederation, there were forty-nine towns in the four Colonies, of which number Plymouth had eight, Massachusetts thirty, Connecticut (including Saybrook) six, and New Haven five. The institution of towns, with their government of Select-men, had its origin in Massachusetts, and was borrowed thence by the other governments. When the public business had assumed a methodical course, the establishment of towns took place in this manner. The General Court, in the

The difference between a city and a town is, that the former manages its affairs by representatives chosen by the citizens; the latter, by votes of the whole body of citizens in town-meeting. In law, a city is a town. In Connecticut, however, there are some peculiarities of the constitution of a city government, which qualify this doctrine.

1 The aggregate amount of money which the towns of Massachusetts annually raise and expend within themselves is far greater than the amount collected and expended by the Com

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