PREFACE
The period covered by this volume, 1696-1765, is one of the most important in the growth of the American nation. It was during this period that the original colonies developed their traditions of political liberty, and acquired by steady encroachments on the part of the assemblies practically complete self-government. The year 1700 found the colonies outside of New England weak dependencies under the direct control of the crown or of proprietors : in each colony an appointed council exercised the full legislative powers of an upper house, an appointed governor held the executive power unlimited by any written constitution, the elected lower house was timid and inexperienced. By 1765 the councils had been robbed of their chief legislative powers, judges and other officers had become dependent upon the lower house, and the governors had been reduced to inefficient figureheads, dependent upon the assemblies for their daily bread, and impotent to obey the orders they received from England. There are few stories more fascinating than the account of this gradual subversion of the old colonial constitution by our stubborn forefathers, and the substitution in its place of a government which could be controlled independent of the mother country. On account of the steady evolution which was taking place, no period affords a better opportunity than this to study British colonial administration in