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

 CH. XVII.] § 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. 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. 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." In the colony of New-York the crown succeeded at last [1743] in establishing septennial assemblies, in imitation of the