port, and Portsmouth, for the absolute government of themselves, but according to the laws of England.[1]
§ 95. Under this charter an assembly was convened in 1647, consisting of the collective freemen of the various plantations.[2] The legislative power was vested in a court of commissioners of six persons, chosen by each of the four towns then in existence. The whole executive power seems to have been vested in a president and four assistants, who were chosen from the freemen, and formed the supreme court for the administration of justice. Every township, forming within itself a corporation, elected a council of six for the management of its peculiar affairs, and for the settlement of the smallest disputes.[3] The council of state of the Commonwealth soon afterwards interfered to suspend their government; but the distractions at home prevented any serious interference by parliament in the administration of their affairs; and they continued to act under their former government until the restoration of Charles the Second.[4] That event seems to have given great satisfaction to these plantations. They immediately proclaimed the king, and sent an agent to England; and in July, 1663, after some opposition, they succeeded in obtaining a charter from the crown.[5]
§ 96. That charter incorporated the inhabitants by the name of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New-England in America, conferring on them the- ↑ 1 Chalm. 271, 272; 3 Hutch. Coll. 415, 416.
- ↑ 1 Chalm. Annals, 273; 1 Holmes's Annals, 283; Walsh's Appeal, 429; 2 Doug. Summ. 80.
- ↑ 1 Chalm. Annals, 273; 1 Holmes's Annals, 283.
- ↑ 1 Chalm. Annals, 274; 1 Holmes's Annals, 297; Marsh. Colon, ch. 5, p. 133.
- ↑ 1 Chalm. Annals, 274; 1 Holmes's Annals, 329.
