middle-class Englishmen who emigrated in the seventeenth century had
developed nothing resembling a real aristocracy. Social distinctions,
modelled on those of the old country, remained between the men of large
wealth--such as the great landed proprietors in New York and the
planters in the South, or the successful merchants in New England and
the Middle colonies--and the small farmers, shopkeepers, and fishermen,
who formed the bulk of the population; while all of these joined in
regarding the outlying frontiersmen as elements of society deserving of
small consideration. Men of property, education, and "position"
exercised a distinct leadership in public and private life. Yet all
this remained purely social; in law no such thing as an aristocracy
could be found, and in government the colonies had grown to be very
nearly republican. Here lay the fundamental distinction between the
England and the America of 1763. In America, a title or peerage
conferred no political rights {15} whatever; these were founded in
every case on law, on a royal charter or a royal commission which
established a frame of government, and were based on moderate property
qualifications which admitted a majority of adult males to the suffrage
and to office.

In every colony the government consisted of a governor, a council, and
an assembly representing the freemen. This body, by charter, or royal
instructions, had the full right to impose taxes and vote laws; and,
although its acts were liable to veto by the governor, or by the Crown
through the Privy Council, it possessed the actual control of political
power. This it derived immediately from its constituents and not from
any patrons, lords, or close corporations. Representation and the
popular will were, in fact, indissolubly united.

The governor in two colonies, Connecticut and Rhode Island, was chosen
by the freemen. Elsewhere, he was appointed by an outside authority:
in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland by the hereditary proprietor to
whom the charter had been granted, in all other colonies by the Crown.
The councillors, who commonly exercised judicial functions in addition
to their duties as the governor's advisers and as the upper house of
the legislature, were appointed in all colonies except the three in New
England; {16} and they were chosen in all cases from among the socially
prominent colonists. The judges, also, were appointed by the governor;
and they, with governor a