Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/181

 GOVERNMENT P.Y THE PEOPLE. 137 remained the same, while it was changed from a pure to a representative democracy, where a few, by the consent and choice of the many, administered all the duties and offices which related to the interests of the whole community. This was the leading characteristic of the New England policy. In this sense, towns were never known or estab- lished before, and the success of the state and the nation is primarily due to this system here introduced. As was noticed in the church history. Captain Willett and Mr. Myles were the founders and leading men in establishing the Baptist Church in New Swansea. The history of the church of which Rev. Mr. Myles was pastor, is therefore inseparably associated with the civil history of the town, and the two elements are united in the legislation of the inhabitants. A single act of legislation of the Court of Associates at Plymouth, in 1635, is most significant in its declaration of the will of the people as the governing principle in civil af- fairs. On the 15th of November the following order or resolution was passed : "We, the associates of New Plymouth, coming hither as free born subjects of the State of England, and endowed with all and singular the privileges belonging to such, being as- sembled, do ordain that no act, imposition, law or ordinance be made or imposed upon us at the present or to come, but such as shall be made and imposed by consent of the body of associates, or their representatives legally assembled, which is according to the liberties of the State of England." No clearer or more emphatic declaration could be made of the right of the people in their primary capacity as citizens of the towns, to make their own laws and regulate their own affairs. The only allegiance required is to the decision of the people whose major sentiment is the authority and con- tent, to be held in honor and obedience. The town meeting of 1898 in Harrington can be governed by no freer spirit than that which dictated the resolve of 1635, at Plymouth, two hundred and sixty years earlier. The qualifications of a freeman in the towns were, twenty-one years of age, sober