h Quakers. With all this diversity of
race there was a great diversity of opinions about political questions,
as about other matters.

[Sidenote: Why Massachusetts and Virginia took the lead.]

We are now beginning to see why it was that Massachusetts and Virginia
took the lead in bringing on the revolutionary war. Not only were these
two the largest colonies, but their people had become much more
thoroughly welded together in their thoughts and habits and associations
than was as yet possible with the people of the younger colonies. When
the revolutionary war came, there were very few Tories in the New
England colonies and very few in Virginia; but there were a great many
in New York and Pennsylvania and the two Carolinas, so that the action
of these commonwealths was often slow and undecided, and sometimes there
was bitter and bloody fighting between men of opposite opinions,
especially in New York and South Carolina.

[Sidenote: The two republics; Connecticut and Rhode Island]

If we look at the governments of the thirteen colonies in the middle of
the eighteenth century, we shall observe some interesting facts. All the
colonies had legislative assemblies elected by the people, and these
assemblies levied the taxes and made the laws. So far as the
legislatures were concerned, therefore, all the colonies governed
themselves. But with regard to the executive department of the
government, there were very important differences. Only two of the
colonies, Connecticut and Rhode Island, had governors elected by the
people. These two colonies were completely self-governing. In almost
everything but name they were independent of Great Britain, and this was
so true that at the time of the revolutionary war they did not need to
make any new constitutions for themselves, but continued to live on
under their old charters for many years,--Connecticut until 1818, Rhode
Island until 1843. Before the revolution these two colonies had
comparatively few direct grievances to complain of at the hands of Great
Britain; but as they were next neighbours to Massachusetts and closely
connected with its history, they were likely to sympathize promptly with
the kind of grievances by which Massachusetts was disturbed.

[Sidenote: The proprietary governments: Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Maryland]

Three of the colonies, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, had a
peculiar kind of government, known as _proprietary government_.