powers given to the governor and council made the character of those who held those offices, particularly the former, of vital importance.
Dudley's commission, which appointed him Governor of New Hampshire and the King's Province, as well as of Massachusetts, and was thus the first constructive step taken toward consolidation, also named the members of his Council.[1] With two exceptions, they were all New Englanders, representative of the several districts, and included such men as the Bradstreets, father and son, the two Winthrops (Wait and Fitz-John), Stoughton, Bulkley, Pynchon, and Tyng, although the Bradstreets and Saltonstall refused to serve.[2] The exceptions were Mason and Randolph; and when the latter heard that Mason had been named, he hurriedly wrote to Sir Robert Southwell, begging that the New Hampshire proprietor be advised "to moderation" or that he would "putt all in a ferment."[3]
Although the Dudley government was avowedly temporary, its organization foreshadowed the more permanent one soon to be provided, with Andros as head. All executive and judicial power was placed in the hands of the Governor and Council, except that appeals to England were provided for in cases involving not less than £300. There was no provision for the laying of new taxes or for passing laws, and the refusal to allow a popular assembly was a serious administrative blunder. In spite of the restricted franchise and the great influence of the clergy and a few families in the public life of Massachusetts, the representative assembly was the foundation of her political liberties, actual or potential; and after being accustomed to it for fifty years, the people could be counted upon not to submit willingly to a form of administration in which they were deprived of all voice. Randolph, Andros, and the Lords of Trade all seem to have been in favor of such an assembly for purposes of legislation and taxation; and the new government
- ↑ The commission is in Colonial Society of Massachusetts Publications, vol. ii, pp. 37 ff.
- ↑ Randolph Papers, vols. vi, p. 171, and iv, p. 86.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. iv, p. 48.
