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.In 1632 the minister of Watertown Church, George Phillips,more independent in his manner of thinking than the majority of the clergy, induced his congregation to passthe first resolution in America against taxation without representation: "It was not safe," they contended, "topay money after that sort for fear of bringing their posterity into bondage." A magisterial reprimand fromGovernor Winthrop reduced the protestants to the level of an apology; but in 1634 the freemen demanded tosee the charter, and when it became generally known that supreme authority was vested in the freemenassembled in general court, rather than in the board of assistants, the latter was forced to concede to theformer a share in the business of lawmaking.Since it was inconvenient for all the freemen to attend thesessions of the general court in person, they adopted the custom of sending two deputies from each town torepresent them.The assistants, thus overbalanced by the deputies, demanded the privilege of the negativevoice, a contention which the deputies were inclined to deny, but which resulted, in 1644, in the separation ofthe general court into two houses, the board of assistants constituting the upper chamber and the deputies thelower.During the same period the discretionary powers of the magistrates in administering the laws gave thedeputies much concern; and their constant protests were not without effect, although the victory was mainly tothe magistrates.The results of the first decade of conflict between leaders and followers over the distributionof political power are registered in the famous Body of Liberties which was promulgated in 1641.In spite of concessions to the freemen, political privilege remained narrowly limited.Between 1631 and 1674the total number of freemen admitted was 2527, about one fifth of the adult male residents.The suffrage wasthus far more exclusive than a freehold test would have made it.In town meeting, voting was not alwaysrestricted to freemen; but in deciding important matters non-freemen were usually excluded.And yet theformal restriction of political privilege, narrow as it was, gives no true measure of the real concentration ofpolitical power.Deference to the magistrate, no less than the habit of protest against illegal action, was anEnglish tradition.The circumstances of the migration had tremendously accentuated the force of the religiousappeal, and the freemen, being church members, were of all the settlers precisely that part most disposed todefer to the wishes of the clergy, and to select for magistrates those whom they approved."They daily direct their choice to make use of such men as mainly endeavor to keepe the truths of Christunspotted, neither will any christian of sound judgment vote for any but such as earnestly contend for thefaith, although the increase of trade and traffique may be a great inducement to some."The freemen sometimes demonstrated their power, but the same men were customarily returned to office yearafter year.The magistrates and the clergy, a handful of men with practically permanent tenure, men of strongcharacter and of great ability for the most part, virtually governed Massachusetts Bay for two generations.They governed the colony, these "unmitred popes of a pope-hating commonwealth," yet not without stormand stress; and of all their difficulties, the quarrel with the freemen over the distribution of political power wasfar from being the most perplexing.In 1681, Roger Williams, a young minister of engaging personality, with"many precious parts, but very unsettled in judgemente," came to Boston.He scrupled to "officiate to anunseparated people," and soon went down to Plymouth, where he "begane to fall into strange oppinions, andfrom opinion to practise; which caused some controversie, by occasion whereof he left them somethingabruptly." Returning to Massachusetts, he became minister of Salem Church, which was itself thought to betinged with radicalism.But the radicalism of Williams went beyond all reason [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]