Beginnings of Self-Government

As a result of the process thus sketched, southern New Eng land was settled by a population of English origin, with similar instincts and a form of political organization which was common to them all. Gorges, meantime, had secured (1639) a royal charter for his province of Maine, but Mason had died before he obtained such a guaranty for his settlements on the Piscataqua river. The small communities along that entire coast remained weak and divided. In 1635 the New England council surren dered its charter. The helplessness of the Gorges family was in sured by its adherence to the royalist cause in the English Civil War. Massachusetts availed itself of a forced interpretation of the language of its charter respecting its northern boundary to extend its control over all the settlements as far N.E. as the Kennebec river. This was accomplished soon after 165o, and for the time Anglican and royalist interests throughout New England seemed hopelessly wrecked. New England had thus developed into a clearly defined section under Puritan domina tion. This fact was also clearly indicated by the organization, in 1643, of the New England Confederacy, or the United Colonies of New England (see NEW ENGLAND).

Middle and Southern Colonies.

The Colonies of the mid dle and southern sections of the territory which later became the United States were wholly proprietary in form. This was true of New Netherland (founded by the Dutch West India Company in 1621) and of New Sweden (settled under the authority of the Swedish Royal Company in 1638), as well as of the English Colonies. In the case of Virginia and of the Dutch and Swedish settlements, trading companies were the proprietors. But the later Engligh Colonies, beginning with Maryland in 1632, and continuing with the Carolinas (1663), New York (1664), New Jersey (1665), Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, afterwards Delaware 0680, were founded by individual proprietors or proprietary boards. Georgia (1732), the only English Colony settled after 1681 on the continent, existed for 20 years under a proprietary board of trustees. By the efforts of adventurers of this class, put forth chiefly during the period of the Restora tion, the entire coast-line from Florida to Acadia was perma nently occupied by the English. But, unlike New England, the population was of a mixed character, as were the economic and religious systems, and to an extent also the political institutions.

As has already been stated, in their internal structure and in the course of their history the proprietary provinces differed very materially from the corporate Colonies. Those of later English origin also differed in some important respects from Virginia under the company and from New Netherland and New Sweden. The system of joint management of land and trade,

which was so characteristic of early Virginia, was outgrown before the other proprietary provinces were founded. Neither did it prevail in the Dutch and Swedish provinces.

In the proprietary province the proprietor, or board of pro prietors, was the grantee of powers, while in the corporate Colony it was the body of the freemen organized as an assembly or general court. He might exercise his powers in person, or, as was usually the case, delegate them to one or more appointees. In any case, the form of government of the proprietary province was essentially monarchical in character. The powers that were bestowed were fundamentally the same as those which were enjoyed during the middle ages by the counts palatine of Chester and Durham. The normally developed provinces which resulted were miniature kingdoms, and their proprietors petty kings. This character arose from the fact that the grantee of power was the executive of the province. This branch of government was thereby brought into the forefront. At the beginning and for a long time thereafter it continued to bear the leading part in affairs. It was not so in the corporate Colony, for there the freemen and the general court stood at the centre of the system. In most of the corporate Colonies the executive was strong, but that was due to the political and social influence which its officials had gained, and not to their tenure of office.

Proprietary Colonies.

In every case, apart from the ordi nary rights of trade and the guarantees of the liberties of the colonists, the powers which were bestowed on the proprietors were territorial and governmental. The territory of the provinces was granted under the conditions which by English law controlled private estates of land. An entire province, or any part of it, could be leased, sold or otherwise disposed of like a private estate. It was an estate of inheritance, descending to heirs. The attitude of proprietors toward it was that of landlords, investors or speculators in land. They advertised for settlers, and, in doing so, an ever present motive with them was the desire to secure more private income from land. In 1664 the duke of York sold New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret, and the sale was effected by deeds of lease and release. In 1708 William Penn mortgaged Pennsylvania, and under his will devising the province legal complications arose which necessitated a suit in chancery.