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ORIGIN OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

there, and they had heard the praise of the Italian republics sung. They had taken part in the government of their town at home, and some of them had been brought up in the democratic environment of the gild and trading company. They had been moulded by the influences which moulded Harrington.

From this point of view a study of Harrington's life and writings is not without value to American history. We focus our gaze on one man. In him we see the blending of English, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Roman, Jewish ideas; the influence of the town, the gild, the company, the college, the church. And as we realise how many factors played a part in the conception of the state of Oceana, we begin to realise also the foundations on which the United States have been built. The Constitution was not thought out round a table in Philadelphia. The men who debated there discovered a way to unite a disunited people under a common government, and produced the first great example of the modern federal state; but the ideas on which they founded the Constitution were independent of federalism. The fundamental doctrines of American democracy had been implanted in America for over a century, and before they were ever planted in America they were being tested in the countries and institutions to which reference has been made. American historians have been inclined to take a narrow view of their national history; by over-concentration they fail to see the whole truth. The one writer who has trod outside the beaten paths has spoilt his work by not restraining his bitterness towards England, and by overstating his Dutch point of view.1 An impartial study of the influences which produced Harrington serve to illustrate in some degree the origin 1 Campbell," The Puritan in England, Holland and America."

THE PROPRIETARY COLONIES

155

of the Constitution of the United States. The ideals that are found in both are drawn to a great extent from identical sources.

But we must go further than this. Not only was there the same background to " Oceana" and the ideas that took root in America. The book was itself read at two different periods in American history, and the prophetic jests of the journalists, who suggested that the theories of the Rota-men should find a home across the Atlantic, were more shrewd than they themselves knew.

Of the two periods in which the direct influence of Harrington is to be traced, the first is that of the Restoration in England. Oceana was published in 1656. Between 1660 and 1688 Carolina, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were planted.

All three were what are called proprietary colonies. The proprietary colonies differed in two respects from the colonies of New England. The latter were in the first place little theocracies, in which affairs of State and Church were closely entwined and civil matters were determined ecclesiastically. In the second place they started as corporations, and gradually achieved self-government by the transference of authority from England to the seat of the corporation's activity. The proprietary colonies, on the other hand, had primarily secular interests, and constitutions were made for them at definite times by definite individuals, who had an external and separate existence. In this way it was much more easy to introduce a particular scheme into a proprietary colony. For the proprietors had full power to govern their lands as they pleased, provided that they kept within the terms of the charter which they were granted. The proprietors of the colonies in question were mostly serious and educated

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COLONIAL CONSTITUTIONS

men. They had lived through a period of political changes and experiments, and they set about their tasks with full consciousness of their meaning and importance. They consulted their friends, they employed the most famous lawyers of the day to assist them, and they made use of the lessons that could be learned from the colonies that had been previously planted. And, living as they did in an age which set great store by the opinions of scholars, they consulted political writings with interest.

It was therefore highly probable that "Oceana would be utilised. It was a book that for four years, from 1656 to 1660, had created a great stir. It had been much discussed at Oxford. Its author for one year at least had enjoyed great publicity in London. He had attracted crowds to his club. He knew many of the leading men of his day, and if he was generally looked on as a crank, he received the advertisement which is always the crank's portion. The book itself was written in a form which would be helpful to a person designing a frame of government. It was no abstract work on government. It was sufficiently imaginative to appeal to the idealist, and sufficiently concrete to appeal to the lawyer. Its doctrines were capable of either an aristocratic or a democratic interpretation. It was not theocratic in tone, and it contained the doctrines of religious liberty which the proprietors considered necessary for their plantations.

On à priori grounds it is reasonable to suppose that the book was referred to by the framers of the constitutions in question. Proof, however, is afforded by independent evidence, which must now be examined.

The first of these colonies to be planted was Carolina. The charter given to the eight proprietors in 1663 and renewed in 1665 was itself liberal, and the government that was set up was of a democratic nature. A governor was chosen by a scheme of indirect election, and great power was given to a popularly elected assembly. For the new plantation which was proposed at Cape Florida in 1667 similar concessions were advertised; and, to prevent the assumption of arbitrary power, the governor was not permitted to hold office for two consecutive terms; he was "to rule for three years and then learn to obey.' In 1669 this arrangement, which was simple and in many ways admirable, was suddenly reversed. The proprietors, declaring that they wished to avoid the erection of a "numerous democracy," agreed upon the curious aristocratic scheme known as the Fundamental Constitutions.

"

The new system was based upon a very elaborate division of the people into classes determined by the amount of land they held. The whole territory was to be divided in such a way that the proprietors should have one-fifth, the hereditary nobility one-fifth, and the people three-fifths "that so in setting out, and planting the lands, the balance of the government may be preserved." At the top of the scale were the proprietors. Below them were the hereditary order of the landgraves, with inalienable estates of exactly 48,000 acres each; below them the hereditary order of the caciques, with estates of exactly half this amount; and below them the commons-first the lords of the manor, possessing anything from 3000 to 12,000 acres ;

1 "Cal. State Papers," Colonial Series, 1675-76, No. 377.

158 FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS OF CAROLINA

next the freeholders, who needed 500 acres to be eligible for parliament, and 50 acres to be enfranchised; finally the serfs or leet-men, with 10 acres but without freedom.

The whole scheme was built up round the ownership of land. The man who lost his land lost his title. A property qualification was attached to every office. Executive power was solely in the arbitrary hands of the proprietors. The judicial power they shared with representatives of the landed nobility and the more wealthy commoners, who were elected in each case indirectly for life. The legislative power was divided between two bodies, a grand council of 50, of whom only 14 could be said in any way to represent the people, and a parliament, in which proprietors, landgraves, and caciques sat in virtue of their property together with a nearly equal number of wealthy commoners. All measures were to be proposed in the council and decided in the parliament.

Complete toleration in matters of religion was continued; marriage was to be a civil rite; everybody was to undergo military training; and it was expressly stated that the ballot should be used at elections.

In England the opinion was held that the constitution would last for ever. The proprietors at any rate thought so; for they set their seals to a sacred and unalterable instrument which was to be "perpetually established" in the colony. To ensure a proper knowledge of the terms of the constitution, provision was made for it to be read and sworn to in every parliament. To prevent possible alteration, ordinary and constitutional legislation were distinguished, and power was given to each of the four orders to veto unconstitutional proposals. To discourage the tampering influence of

1 Dixon, "Life of William Penn," p. 191.