Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/191

§ 167. In the proprietary and charter governments, the right of the people to be governed by laws established by a local legislature, in which they were represented, was recognised as a fundamental principle of the compact. But in the provincial governments it was often a matter of debate, whether the people had a right to be represented in the legislature, or whether it was a privilege enjoyed by the favour and during the pleasure of the crown. The former was the doctrine of the colonists; the latter was maintained by the crown and its legal advisers. Struggles took place from time to time on this subject in some of the provincial assemblies; and declarations of rights were there drawn up, and rejected by the crown, as an invasion of its prerogative.^[1] The crown also claimed, as within its exclusive competence, the right to decide, what number of representatives should be chosen, and from what places they should come.^[2] The provincial assemblies insisted upon an adverse claim. The crown also insisted on the right to continue the legislative assembly for an indefinite period, at its pleasure, without a new election; and to dissolve it in like manner. The latter power was admitted; but the former was most stoutly resisted, as in effect a destruction of the popular right of representation, frequent elections being deemed vital to their political safety; — "a right," (as the declaration of independence emphatically pronounces,) "inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only."^[3] In the colony of New-York the crown succeeded at last [1743]^[4] in establishing septennial assemblies, in imitation of the

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1. 1 Pitk. Hist. 85, 86, 87; 1 Chalm. Opin. 189; 2 Doug. Summ. 251, &c.
2. 1 Pitk. Hist. 88; 1 Chalm. Opin. 268, 272; 2 Doug. Summ. 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 73; Chitty Prerog. ch. 3.
3. 1 Pitk. Hist. 86, 87.
4. 1 Pitk. Hist. 87, 88.