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Proprietary

Govern

ment.

islature. As these charters gave the people the right to govern themselves and to make their own laws, and as the king rarely interfered with their affairs in the early days, the charter colonies were practically small independent republics. The colonies having charter governments were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

During a quarrel with King James II in 1684, Massachusetts lost her charter, and under a new charter granted in 1691 she was part royal and part charter in that the governor was appointed by the king while the council was elected by the people. The charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island provided such satisfactory forms of government that these colonies merely continued their charters as state constitutions until long after the Federal Constitution went into effect-Connecticut in 1818, and Rhode Island in 1842.

Sometimes the king gave a grant of land and the right to govern it to an individual to whom he was indebted for some special service or with whom he was particularly friendly. This was a proprietary form of government, and the person to whom the grant was made was called the "Lord Proprietary." The Lord Proprietary either governed the colony himself, or appointed some one to act for him, and also appointed the upper branch of the legislature. The lower branch was elected by the people. The nature of this form of government was thus that of a limited monarchy. Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware were proprietary governments.

The grant to the Lord Proprietary of Maryland, Lord Baltimore, was especially liberal. Among other large powers conferred, it was distinctly stated that England had no right to levy taxes in the colony, and that all laws passed by the assembly were valid as soon as approved by the Lord Proprietary. In all the other colonies all laws had to be submitted to the king for approval.

ment.

All the other seven colonies were directly under Royal control of this kind, although some of them in Governtheir early days were proprietary governments. In this form of government the king named a governor to act for him, and appointed the upper branch of the legislature. The people, however, elected the lower branch.

ties

These three forms of colonial government were Similarialike in certain respects. They all had a governor of the and an assembly or legislature consisting of an upper colonial and a lower branch. The lower branch was always Governchosen by the people, and as all bills for raising ments. revenue originated in the lower body, the people practically governed themselves since the power of taxation was in their own hands. If they disapproved of any measure, they could render it inoperative by refusing to appropriate any money for carrying it into effect. The right of taxing themselves had been an inherent right of all Englishmen since the year 1215, when the barons forced King John to sign the Great Charter on the plains of Runnymede. Each successive English sovereign had reaffirmed the provisions of the Great Charter, and

Differ

ences

of the Colonial

Governments.

Effect of SelfGovernment.

The First

Written

Constitution.

the settlers as English subjects claimed the right to levy their own taxes. In the charters granted to the London and the Plymouth companies it had been stated explicitly that the colonists should have the same rights and privileges as belonged to freeborn citizens of England.

The most notable difference among the colonial governments was the manner of selecting the governor and the upper branch of the legislature. In the charter colonies the people chose both; in the royal and proprietary colonies the king or the proprietary appointed both.

This practice in self-government, enjoyed in greater or less degree in all the colonies, was a valuable training. When England finally attempted to exert an unjust authority over them, she found the spirit of liberty and independence too deeply rooted to yield to her demands.

FIRST STEP TOWARD UNION-1639

The first step toward union was taken in 1639, when the inhabitants of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield met at Hartford and adopted a written constitution called "The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut." This action was taken by the settlers on their own authority and responsibility, and is the first instance in history of a written constitution framed and adopted by the people themselves.

Character

istics

In this constitution of the Connecticut colony Chief we have outlined some of the principles of government embodied in the Articles of Confederation and in the Constitution of the United States adopted Fundaa century and a half later.

(1) The government was a "federation of independent towns," each township having equal representation in the general court or assembly.

(2) Each township retained all rights and powers not expressly delegated to the general court.

"The government of the United States to-day is in lineal descent more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of any of the other thirteen colonies."

THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY-1643

mental Orders.

Manage

ment.

Four years after the union of the settlements Object forming the Connecticut colony, the four colonies and of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed a league or confederacy, under the title of "The United Colonies of New England," for mutual aid and protection against the Dutch, the French, and the Indians. The affairs of the league were managed by a board of commissioners, consisting of two church members in good standing from each colony, which had power over all relations with the Indians and foreign powers. No measure could be carried into effect without the ap

A Confederation,

not a Union.

proval of six of the commissioners, and all acts of the commissioners were subject to the revision of the colonial legislatures.

While the presence of a common danger induced these four colonies to act unitedly, yet their confederation was in no sense a union, for it was expressly stated in their agreement that in all things except danger from outside enemies the colonies were to act independently. The security from hostile attacks during the forty years the league existed, served to teach the advantages of a close union of colonies whose interests were identical.

FIRST REAL UNION OF COLONIES

In 1662 the Connecticut and the New Haven colonies were united by royal command under the name Connecticut. In like manner, the Providence and the Rhode Island Plantations became the Rhode Island colony in 1665. In 1691 the Massachusetts Bay and the Plymouth colonies were joined together under the name Massachusetts.

THE FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS

After the Schenectady massacre by the Indians in 1690 the government of New York, influenced by the success that had attended the New England confederacy, invited the various colonies to send delegates to a general colonial congress to confer in regard to the adoption of a plan for providing

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