Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/122

 82, and Portsmouth, for the absolute government of themselves, but according to the laws of England.

§ 95. Under this charter an assembly was convened in 1647, consisting of the collective freemen of the various plantations. 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. 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. 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.

§ 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