power
of the king over municipal charters manifested at first an inclination
to concede to the city the right to a measure of local self-government.
Thus "the city of New York received from the English kings during the
colonial period a charter which, on the Declaration of the Independence
of the colony of New York, and the establishment of the new state of New
York, was confirmed by the first Constitution of the state. For a
considerable period after the adoption of this constitution, changes in
that charter were made upon the initiation of the people of the city,
which initiation took place through the medium of charter conventions
whose members were elected by the people of the city, and no statute
which was passed by the legislature of the state relative to the affairs
of the city of New York took effect within the city until it had been
approved by the city."[160]

But as Professor Goodnow observes, American cities "have very largely
lost their original powers of local self-government."[161] The original
conception of the city charter as a contract which established certain
rights of local self-government which the legislature was bound to
respect, merely recognized municipal corporations as entitled to the
same exemption from unreasonable legislative interference, as the courts
have since the Dartmouth College decision enforced in favor of private
corporations. If this view had prevailed cities could not have been
deprived arbitrarily of rights once recognized by the legislature, but
they could have enforced the recognition of no rights not thus granted.
The recognition of this doctrine would have prevented many of the abuses
that have characterized the relation between state and municipal
government in this country, but it would have guaranteed no rights which
the legislature had not seen fit to confer. Any liberal interpretation
of the theory of democracy must of necessity go farther than this, and
make municipal self-government a fundamental right which the central
authority of the state can, not only neither abridge nor destroy, but
can not even withhold, since it is a right having its source not in a
legislative grant, but in the underlying principles of popular
government.

The failure to recognize the right of local self-government as
fundamental in any scheme of democracy was unfortunate. Some of the
worst evils of municipal government would have been avoided, however, if
authority once granted to munic