CHAPTER II.

THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS-ROYAL, PROPRIETARY, AND CHARTER-THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION-THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE Colonies, which declared their independence of Great Britain in 1776, and formed a new nation, known from that time as The United States of America, were thirteen in number, viz., Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. These had been. settled at various times, from 1607, when the settlement of Virginia was commenced at Jamestown, to 1732, when the Colony of Georgia was established. They were not all settled as so many distinct colonies, but various changes had taken place among them. Thus, the Colony of Massachusetts, as it existed at the beginning of the War of the American Revolution, embraced what constituted originally three distinct colonies; that of Massachusetts, that of New Plymouth, and the Province of Maine. The Colony of New Haven had been merged in that of Connecticut. The Carolinas, on the other hand, had been divided; and what was at first a single colony, under the name of Carolina, was made two in 1732, and the divisions were called by the present names of North Carolina and South Carolina.

All the lands were held by titles coming from the British crown, which claimed the country by the right of discovery. Near the close of the fifteenth century, King Henry the Seventh had sent out John Cabot on a voyage of exploration, who discovered the Islands of

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Newfoundland and St. John, and sailed along the coast from the fifty-sixth to the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude. All this territory, in consequence, was claimed to belong to Great Britain, and by that power grants were made from time to time to companies and to individual proprietors. Under the charters and patents thus granted, settlements were made and local governments established. The colonies all acknowledged allegiance to the mother country while they had no political connection with one another.

The colonial governments have been described by most writers, following the division given by Blackstone, as of three kinds; Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter. The Provincial governments, which were often called Royal, had a governor and council appointed by the Crown, and a legislature whose upper house was the council and whose lower was elected by the people. The governor had a negative upon all the proceedings of the legislature, and could also prorogue or dissolve them at pleasure. Laws might be enacted not repugnant to the laws of England, and subject to the ratification of the Crown. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, could establish courts and appoint judges and other officers.

In the Proprietary governments, the proprietors appointed the governors, and it was under their authority that legislative assemblies were convened. While the proprietors thus exercised those prerogatives which in the Royal governments were exercised by the Crown, the sovereignty of the mother country was, nevertheless, to be strictly maintained.

In the Charter governments the people had much more political power. Their relation to England was more like that of the citizens of one of our States to the nation, while that of the people in the Royal governments was more like that of the people in one of our Territories. The charter granted to Massachusetts by

C. G. 3.

Charles the First gave power to elect annually a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants. Four "great and general courts" were to be held every year, to consist of the governor or deputy-governor, the assist ants, and the freemen. These courts were authorized to appoint such officers as they should think proper, and also to make such laws and ordinances as to them should seem meet; provided they were not contrary to the laws of England.'

Connecticut and Rhode Island formed governments for themselves; the provisions of which were afterwards secured to them in charters granted by Charles the Second, soon after his restoration to the throne. The people of these colonies, by the express words of their charters, were entitled to the privileges of natural-born subjects, and invested with all the powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial. The only limitation to their legislative power was that their laws should not be contrary to those of England."

"The king and parliament claimed the right to alter and revoke these charters at pleasure; but the colonists, on the other hand, denied this right, and claimed them to be solemn compacts between them and the Crown, irrevocable unless forfeited by some act of the grantees. This was a continual source of contention between the parent country and the charter colonies, and was one of the causes which finally produced a separation between the two countries."

The people of these two colonies were indeed so well satisfied with their charters, granted in 1662 and 1663, that they continued to live under them long after they had ceased to be colonies, and had become States of the American Union. Connecticut did not form a State constitution till 1818, nor Rhode Island till 1842.

'Pitkin's Pol. and Civ. Hist. U. S., I, p. 36. 2 Pitkin, I, p. 54. 3 Ibid, p. 55.

The colonies which had charter governments were, as we have seen, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

The Royal, or Provincial, governments were those of New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Georgia; to which were added New Jersey in 1702, and the Carolinas in 1729, all which had previously been under Proprietary governments.

The colonies that continued under Proprietary governments till the Revolution were Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.

It has been seen that each of the colonies exercised some of the powers of government, while none claimed to be independent of England. In the Plymouth Colony, for the first twenty years, all the freemen met in "general court" and participated in making laws. In 1639, a house of representatives was substituted for the whole body of freemen. In Virginia, a general assembly, composed of representatives from the various plantations, was called in 1619. This was the first representative legislature that ever sat in America. Eventually, all the colonies elected one or both of the branches of their provincial legislatures.

The first union among any of the colonies was formed in 1643. It embraced Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, under the name of “The United Colonies of New England." Their object was to defend themselves against the Indians, and also to resist the claims and encroachments of the Dutch.'

In June, 1754, commissioners from seven of the colonies, viz., Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, met in Albany at the request of the lords commissioners for trade. The object was to form a treaty with some of the Indian tribes, and to consider the best means of

1 Pitkin, I, p. 50.

defending America against France. With reference to this end the British Secretary of State had suggested that a plan of union among the colonies should be formed. At this meeting, after the adoption of a resolution that a union of the colonies was absolutely necessary for their preservation, a committee was appointed, consisting of one member from each colony, to report a plan of union. One proposed by Dr. Franklin, who was a member of the committee, was finally adopted by the Convention.

It provided for a general government of all the American Colonies, to consist of a president-general to be appointed by the Crown, and a grand council of delegates to be chosen every three years by the colonial assemblies. The president and council were to regulate all affairs with the Indians, to make new settlements on lands purchased of the Indians, and govern such settlements, to raise soldiers, build forts, and equip vessels for guarding the coast and protecting the trade. For these purposes, they were to make laws and levy such duties and taxes as they might deem just. The president was to have a negative on all laws and acts of the council, and to see that the laws were executed.

This plan was adopted by the Convention; all the delegates voting for it except those from Connecticut. But it never went into operation, having failed to obtain the approval either of the colonies or the mother country. "It had the singular fate of being rejected in England, because it left too much power in the hands of the colonists; and it was disapproved in America, because it transferred too much power into the hands of the Crown."1

In 1765, a Congress of delegates was held at New York. This was in consequence of the passage of the Stamp Act by the British Parliament in March of the same year. That body had determined to raise a revenue from the colonies by taxation, although the colo

1 Pitkin, I, p. 145.