such laws as they might deem conducive to the general welfare, and the growth and progress of civil, political, and religious liberty in the land of their adoption.(a)

§ 50. The government of the colony, immediately after the renewal of the charter, was changed in many of its most important features, but its fundamental grant of territory, power, and privileges, were always maintained. They never ceased to recognize its obligatory force, yet they at the same time, did assume to exercise political powers beyond the express words of the grant. They adhered to the charter as a shield against the demands and prerogatives of royal authority; but claimed that it did not set any limits to the natural inherent right of freemen to exercise legislative, executive, or judicial authority. They did not view it as creating an English corporation under the narrow construction of the common law, but as affording the means of founding a broad political government, subject to the crown of England, yet enjoying many exclusive privileges.(b)

§ 51. The first court of assistants was held at Charlestown on the 23d day of August, 1630, on board the ship Arabella; at which time the power of the administration was considered, to the end that the liberties of the people might be secured against the encroachments of their rulers. The records of their proceedings show that these colonists were men of great political sagacity as well as religious zeal; that they were not only well versed in the science of politics, but that they also understood not only the ethics of natural right and civil liberty, but also had learned the corrupting influence which the exercise of civil power exerts over the hearts of men; for says

(a) Robt. Am. 436-7; 1 Story on Const. 50.

(b) 1 Hutch. His. 25, 36, 37, 410, 507, 529; 3 Hutch. Col. 199, 200, 203, 205, 207, 196, 329, 330; 1 Story on Const. 51.

one, "The waves of the sea do not more certainly wash the shore, than the minds of ambitious men are led to invade the liberties of their brethren." (a) The frame of the government in the old colony, was of the utmost simplicity. A governor was chosen by general suffrage, whose powers were subordinate to the general will. For more than eighteen years, the whole body of the male inhabitants constituted the legislature. The state was governed like a strict democracy, and the people were frequently led to decide on executive, not less than on judicial questions. This, however, on the increase of population, and the extension of the colony, led to the introduction of the representative system; and each town sent its representative to the general court.

§ 52. By the terms of the charter, the fundamental laws were to be enacted in the assembly of all the freemen of the colony. For this purpose, the first general court of the colony was held at Boston, on the 19th day of October, 1630, at which many of the first planters attended, and were made free of the colony. The very first act of this assembly was to establish an elective aristocracy, for it was then enacted, that the freemen should in future have power to choose assistants whenever they were chosen; and the assistants were empowered to choose of their number, the governor and deputy governor, who, with the assistants, were to make all laws, and to appoint officers for the execution of them. But the aristocratic spirit of this resolution was soon detected, and as it did not accord with the ideas of equality then prevalent among the people, it did not meet with their approbation; and the very next year, the freemen, whose numbers in the mean time had been greatly increased, resumed their former rights, and or

(a) 1 Holmes' Annals, 255; 1 Ban. 359.

dained that the governor, deputy governor and assistants, should thereafter be chosen by the freemen alone. It was also ordained that, for time to come, no man should be admitted to the freedom of the body politic but such as was a member of some of the churches within the limits of the same. (a) This latter ordinance has elicited the most bitter invective of English, and the most cutting sarcasm from the pen of American historians.

§ 53. In the year 1635, they drew a general declaration that the general court alone had the power to make and establish laws, to elect officers, to raise money by taxes, and to sell lands; and that every town might choose representatives, not exceeding two, who should have full power and the voice of the freemen, except in the choice of certain officers and magistrates, wherein every freeman should give his vote. Thus was established the second house of representatives in any of the American colonies.

The colonists were induced to this important step by the fact that their numbers had so increased, their population so spread, that many of the freemen were too far distant from the place where the general court was held to admit of their personal attendance without great inconvenience. The form of government in their native country had rendered them familiar with a delegation of rights, of committing the guardianship of their liberties to representatives of their own choice; and the experience of ages had taught them, that this sacred trust must of necessity be lodged somewhere, and that it could not with greater safety be delegated to other hands than the immediate representatives of the people.(b)

§ 54. In 1641 the general court established one hun

(a) Robt. Am. 437; 1 Holmes' Ann. 262; 1 Ban. 360. (b) 1 Holmes' Ann. 287; Robt. Am. 438.

dred laws, called the "body of liberties," which strongly delineated the character of the people, the principles and policy by which they were to be governed; in which it was, among other things, ordained that there should be no monopolies, only of such new inventions as were profitable to the country, and those for a short time only. Up to 1644 the entire legislative body sat in the same room and deliberated together. A change then took place in the government, by which the two houses were divided, and from this time the two houses sat apart; the one composed of the magistrates, and the other of the delegates; whatever was passed by one was, thereafter, sent to the other, and if both agreed to it, the act was considered as passed.

This course of legislative proceeding continued until the final dissolution of the charter. (a) The colonial legislature in this colony, with the restrictions necessarily arising from their dependence on Great Britain, were sovereign within the limits of their colony; all laws, however, were required to receive the royal assent in England, and the king possessed the power of abrogating them, and they were never deemed final until they had passed under his review. In respect to the mode of enacting laws, the council were chosen by the legislature, and the governor had a negative on their choice.(b)

§ 55. It appears, that as early as 1634 a consultation had been had respecting a body of laws adapted to the civil and religious state of Massachusetts, and that from that period to 1648, a committee consisting of magistrates and elders had been appointed almost every year to prepare such a code for the colony. Meanwhile laws of the greatest necessity had been successfully enacted. In the latter year the whole of these statutes for the first time

(a) Holmes' An. 331.

(6) Story on Const. vol. i. p. 158, 159.

were collected together, received the ratification of the general court, and were ordered to be published.(a) This was the first revision of this colony's laws. Mr. Brigham, in the letter addressed to me, heretofore alluded to, says, "Although the general court in ordering this revision to be made, also ordered it to be printed. I have not however ever been able to ascertain that it was ever printed."

§ 56. In 1683 a quo warranto was issued against the corporation of Massachusetts Bay. It was insisted that the colonists had conformed so little to the terms of their charter that they had forfeited their franchises; and on the 18th day of June their charter was conditionally adjudged to be forfeited, and the judgment was confirmed on the first day of the then next Michaelmas term of the court.(b)

After the judgment of forfeiture, when all the rights of the corporation were deemed as restored to the crown, Charles began to take measures for remodeling the political frame of the colony, and vesting the offices of it in other hands, but this plan was never carried into execution, as in every corner of his own dominions the storm began to gather, which soon after burst out with such fatal violence, so that during the remainder of his unfortunate reign he was too much occupied with domestic and more interesting cares and perplexities to bestow any attention upon this remote and inconsiderable province. In the mean time the colony remained for some years in a very disturbed state, under the arbitrary power of the crown.(c)

§ 57. Whatever opinions might have been entertained that the subjection of the colony depended on compact

(a) 1 Holmes' An. 344, 345.

(b) 1 Holmes' An. 460. 2 Ban. 127.

(c) 1 Holmes' An. 460, 475. 2. Ban. 127. 1 Rob. Am. 44. 1 Story on Const. 54.