Formation of the Union | Page 8

accustomed to planting new settlements and to claiming new
boundaries. The English common law was accepted in all the colonies,
but it was modified everywhere by statutes, according to the need of
each colony. Thus the tendency in colonial development was toward
broad legislation on all subjects; but at the same time the limitations
laid down by charters, by the governor's instructions, or by the home
government, increased and were observed. Although the assemblies
freely quarrelled with individual governors and sheared them of as
much power as they could, the people recognized that the executive
was in many respects beyond their reach. The division of the powers of
government into departments was one of the most notable things in
colonial government, and it made easier the formation of the later state
and national governments.
6. LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONIES.
[Sidenote: English local government.]
In each colony in 1750 were to be found two sets of governing
organizations,--the local and the general. The local unit appears at
different times and in different colonies under many names; there were
towns, townships, manors, hundreds, ridings, liberties, parishes,
plantations, shires, and counties. Leaving out of account minor
variations, there were three types of local government,--town
government, county government, and a combination of the two. Each
of these forms was founded on a system with which the colonists were
familiar at the time of settlement, but each was modified to meet the

changed conditions of America. The English county in 1600 was a
military and judicial subdivision of the kingdom; but for some local
purposes county taxes were levied by the quarter sessions, a board of
local government. The officers were the lord lieutenant, who was the
military commander, and the justices of the peace, who were at the
same time petty judges and members of the administrative board. The
English "town" had long since disappeared except as a name, but its
functions were in 1600 still carried out by two political bodies which
much resembled it: the first was the parish,--an organization of persons
responsible as tax-payers for the maintenance of the church building. In
some places an assembly of these tax-payers met periodically, chose
officers, and voted money for the church edifice, the poor, roads, and
like local purposes. In other places a "select vestry," or corporation of
persons filling its own vacancies, exercised the powers of parish
government. In such cases the members were usually of the more
important persons in the parish. The other wide-spread local
organization was the manor; in origin this was a great estate, the
tenants of which formed an assembly and passed votes for their
common purposes.
[Sidenote: Towns.]
From these different forms of familiar local government the colonists
chose those best suited to their own conditions. New Englanders were
settled in compact little communities; they liked to live near the church,
and where they could unite for protection from enemies. They preferred
the open parish assembly, to which they gave the name of "town
meeting." Since some of the towns were organized before the colonial
legislatures began to pass comprehensive laws, the towns continued, by
permission of the colonial governments, to exercise extended powers.
The proceedings of a Boston town meeting in 1731 are thus reported:--
"After Prayer by the Revt. mr. John Webb,
"Habijah Savage Esqr. was chose to be Moderator for this meeting
"Proposed to Consider About Reparing mr. Nathaniell Williams His
Kitchen &c.--

"In Answer to the Earnest Desire of the Honourable House of
Representatives--
"Voted an Entire Satisfaction in the Town in the late Conduct of their
Representatives in Endeavoring to preserve their Valuable Priviledges,
And Pray their further Endeavors therein--
"Voted. That the Afair of Repairing of the Wharff leading to the North
Battrey, be left with the Selectmen to do therein as they Judge best--"
[Sidenote: Counties.]
The county was also organized in New England, but took on chiefly
judicial and military functions, and speedily abandoned local
administration. In the South the people settled in separate plantations,
usually strung out along the rivers. Popular assemblies were
inconvenient, and for local purposes the people adopted the English
select vestry system in what they called parishes. The county
government was emphasized, and they adopted the English system of
justices of the peace, who were appointed by the governor and
endowed with large powers of county legislation. Hence in the South
the local government fell into the hands of the principal men of each
parish without election, while in New England it was in the hands of
the voters.
[Sidenote: Mixed System.]
In some of the middle colonies the towns and counties were both active
and had a relation with each other which was the forerunner of the
present system of local government in the Western States. In New York
each town chose a