ernor, who declared or withheld his assent as he thought proper. If approved by him, it then acquired the force of a law, although still liable at any period within three years to be annulled by the royal vote. The local legislature, whether of the charter, the proprietary, or the royal government, had but little similarity to the Parliament, because the one was merely that of a district, the other of an empire. The former was, therefore, provincial and subordinate; the latter was universal and sovereign. Such were the forms of government that then prevailed, and the result was pure democracy in the charter governments. There was but a shadow of a shade of royalty in the proprietary provinces in the person of a governor who represented, but disobeyed the palatine, who himself acknowledged the supreme rank, but disowned the authority of the king. Royal governments were distinguished for turbulence and disaffection. In all of them a refractory people ruled, overawed or bribed the needy representative of royalty, whose silence they knew how to secure, as he was dependent on their bounty for his support, and whose removal they could always obtain by loud and hollow professions of loyalty, accompanied by protestations, that he alone was the cause of their distractions. The exemption from all control enjoyed by the people of New England at once excited the envy, the admiration, and the disobedience of the other colonists, while the democratic opinions of her sectarian population, now fast extending themselves into the other parts of the continent, effected a rapid change in the sentiments of the provincials. Virginia, which had been originally settled by members of the Church of England, and subsequently peopled by the Cavaliers, had ever been distinguished for its loyalty. It had been divided into parishes at an early period, and supported a regular ministry. By the law of the land there was to be a room or house in every plantation "for the worship of God, sequestered and set apart for that purpose and not to be for any temporal use whatever: also a place of burial." Absence from public worship "without allowable excuse" was punishable by the forfeiture of a pound of tobacco, or fifty pounds if the neglect was continued for a month. The celebration of divine service was to be conformable to the Church of England. No minister was to be absent from his parish more than two months, under pain of losing half his salary, or the whole of it, together with 11* his cure, if his non-residence extended to four months. He who disparaged a clergyman without proof was to be fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and to beg his pardon publicly before the whole congregation. Their salaries were to be paid out of the first gathered and best tobacco and corn, and no man was to dispose of his crops before paying his dues, under a penalty equal to the full amount of his tax. It was not then known that a bishop should be the first, and not the last to land on the scene of missionary labor; and the clergy, often badly selected, always poorly paid, and far removed from ecclesiastical control, were gradually overcome by the intrigues and misrepresentations of non-conformity, by the want of proper protection from the home government, and the growing licentiousness of a people, whom the climate, the bounty of nature, and the facility of acquiring wealth, inclined or seduced into indulgence. Amid all the temptations as well as the difficulties of their situation, the long struggles the inhabitants made against the spread of democracy, and the warm attachment they evinced to their king, and the institutions of the mother country clearly prove how loyal and dutiful is the teaching of the establishment, how important it is to further her extension, and assist in the endowment of her parish churches, not only in America, but in all the British possessions abroad. At a still more recent period, it was a most consolatory fact, that in the late rebellion in Canada, there were no Churchmen among the traitors who have been so mercifully compensated for the inconvenience they suffered by impris onment or exile. Neglected as the clergy were in Virginia, and unmindful as they themselves sometimes were of their duty, their labors were not without their effect. Spotswood, writing to the Bishop of London, says: "I will do justice to this country: I have observed here less swearing and profaneness, less drunkenness and debauchery, less uncharitable feuds and animosities and less knaveries and villanies, than in any part of the world where my lot has been." But at the same time he remarked and lamented the growth of republican principles: "The inclinations of the country," he said, are rendered mysterious by a new and unaccountable humor, which had obtained in several counties, of excluding the gentlemen from being burgesses, and choosing only persons of mean figure and character." The people of Pennsylvania, a mixed race of Germans, Swedes, Dutch, and English adventurers, had no innate sense of loyalty, and no common feeling of religious attachment to the church of the mother country. Calvinists, Lutherans, Minists, Moravians, Independents, Anabaptists, Socinians, Dumplers, and Churchmen lived in singular harmony together, because the wants of nature left them but little time for the indulgence of theological discussions; but they all, with the exception of the last, agreed in the opinion that occupancy gave a title to land, and that a laborious population had a better right to the soil than a speculating proprietary. The Quakers, who boasted of their peaceful disposition and habits of submission, though not turbulent, became troublesome subjects by their passive resistance to all measures that they disapproved of, and impeded the machinery of government by refusing to aid in its defense, or contribute to its support. Maryland, originally settled by Papists, regarded the revolution with dread, and had more sympathy with Rome than England, a feeling not a little increased by the contagious disloyalty, as well as the unjust and ungrateful persecution, she experienced from the Protestant sectaries, whom she had received and tolerated within her limits. With regard to both these provinces, as well as Carolina, the Lords of the Committee of Colonies represented to the king, that "the present circumstances and relation they stand in to the government of England is a matter worthy of the consideration of Parliament, for bringing these proprietaries and dominions under a nearer dependence on the Crown, as his Majesty's revenue in the plantations is very much concerned herein." New York, distracted by the contentions of two parties for supremacy, which England could neither compose nor redress, partook of the general contagion. The Council reported to the Lords of the Committee of Colonies, in July, 1691, "that New England had poisoned those Western parts, formerly signal for loyal attachment, with her seditious and anti-monarchical principles;" while Grahame, the Attorney-general, informed them that "the principles of loyalty and good affection to the Crown, which were inherent to the people of New York, are now extinguished." The contagion soon overspread the remaining colonies, because "predisposition of habit naturally attracts infection." Guarry, whose office of Surveyor-general of the customs enabled 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 States-General 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 govern ment. 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. |