lative body for approval. In October, 1698, the council in Connecticut was for the first time styled the Upper House and the deputies the Lower.

Thus almost coincident with the time when the New York Assembly set forth the principles of the bills of rights, the bicameral system was established in America. In the New England colonies the democratic element was stronger than in any to the south; for the first charter of Massachusetts and those of Connecticut and Rhode Island formally recognized the right of freemen to participate in the government. In the proprietary and royal colonies no such right was recognized by charter, although it came to be recognized by custom. To this Pennsylvania was an exception. Penn planned from the first a government democratic in form, promising his people that they should have law-makers of their own choosing and laws of their own making; but the system of the referendum which he attempted to introduce, by which the Governor and council were to submit laws to the representatives of the people, proved cumbrous and unsatisfactory. The recognition which Penn gave to the rights of the people forever settled the question of free government in his province.

Three years before Penn inaugurated his "holy experiment," a royal commission provided that the Governor of New Hampshire should himself prepare the laws, with the approval of his council and the deputies of the people; but in 1680 a law of New Hampshire provided that no executive

Preponderance of Democratical Ideas

ordinance should go into effect unless it had been made by the deputies of the people and approved by the president and council. Thus the order of the initiative in legislation was reversed and distinct functions recognized in the two branches of the Legislature-one comprising the deputies, the other the Governor and council. This reversal in New Hampshire was made necessary by the conditions of colonial life. The Governor could have no peace if he attempted to govern in any other way. This was the experience of all the royal governors. Pennsylvania and Georgia throughout their colonial history had but one legislative House. The executive council, though not nominally exercising the functions of a separate House, was one in fact; the council was more numerous than in other colonies and showed no marked antagonism to the more popular branch.

From the democracy of the colonial era evolved the later civil functions of the commonwealths." Of these the legislative was of greatest importance and destined to continue, with slight modifications, to the present time. Though the Legislature in eleven colonies consisted of two Houses, it was the Lower House-the deputies-which developed as the central authority in the colony. This House was the voice of the politically quali

* The principal authorities for the account, in this chapter, of the transition from colonies to commonwealths are the journals and proceedings of the first State constitutional conventions, and Provincial Congresses. See note, p. 29. The bibliography is nearly complete in the State Library Bulletin, additions No. 2. Albany (November), 1894, pp. 266-277.

fied freeman. It was the only part of the colonial government directly responsible to the people. The Upper House in Rhode Island and Connecticut was similarly constituted, but in the other colonies, excepting Pennsylvania and Georgia, the council was appointed by the executive and assisted him in executive, judicial, and administrative duties. The colonial Governor, except in Connecticut and Rhode Island, was appointed either by the Crown or the proprietary, and was a foreign element in the colonial organization. The meeting of chief importance to the freemen was the annual or semi-annual election at which deputies were chosen. With slight exception, the right to vote was limited to persons possessing a prescribed amount of real estate who also were members of a religious sect. They also were required to reside for a prescribed time in the town in which they voted, although this was of less importance than now, as there was relatively little change of residence in colonial times. The principal difference between the qualifications of the elector and the elected was in the amount of property required.

In May, 1775, while yet the Continental Congress was in session, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts asked for advice respecting the reorganization of the government of the province. Already the Revolution had almost transformed the colonies into commonwealths. The complete transition was comparatively easy. At the present time, a region is set off by Congress as a Terri

The Transition into States

tory, in expectation that it will in due time apply for admission to the Union as a State on an equal footing with the older States. The proceeding throughout is regulated by the Constitution and the laws. No analogous regulation existed when the petition of Massachusetts was made to the Congress of 1775. That body had no authority to prescribe any procedure, and no precedent for one existed. Yet the request of Massachusetts was soon followed by similar ones from New Hampshire, Virginia, and South Carolina, and the course of events compelled reply. (To Massachusetts, Congress replied in June, recommending its provincial convention to request the several towns entitled to send deputies to the General Court to choose them in the usual manner and to instruct them, when convened in Assembly, to choose the colonial councillors as provided for in the charter of 1692. This advice was followed, and the government thus established in Massachusetts continued until supplanted by that of 1780. To the requests of the other colonies. Congress replied, on the 3d and 4th of November, 1775, but only by way of advice, urging them to summon a free representation of the States in order to establish "such a form of government as in their judgment will best promote the happiness of the people and most effectually secure peace and good order in their colony during the continuance of the dispute with Great Britain." Congress was unwilling even to give this somewhat evasive advice. Public sentiment

had so profoundly changed that the transition from colonies to commonwealths could be more easily made than many in Congress realized. These were Revolutionary times; public sentiment was changing from day to day, and the true status of public affairs was difficult of definition. Yet the colonies were not without means of guidance. The civil organization with which each was best familiar was a sufficient basis for a new one. The Lower House of the General Assembly was the nucleus for a reorganization of the government. It is clear enough now that the normal procedure would have been for the Assembly in each colony to provide for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention which should formulate a plan of government, and submit it to the qualified electors. If approved by them it should become the supreme law of the State. This procedure, however, was almost out of the question in most of the colonies. John Adams had declared in Congress that the work of organizing the commonwealths on the basis of colonies "could be done only by conventions of representatives chosen by the people in the several colonies in the most exact proportions." But Adams was ahead of his time. It was not until the 10th of May, 1776, that Congress adopted the decisive resolution, recommending "to the several Assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies" where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs was established, to adopt one "best conducive to the happiness and safety of their con