DEPUTYES AND LIBERTYES: The Origins of Representative Government in Colonial America

The bulk of this investigation and analysis of representative government in colonial America consists of a selection of Sources--from documents of the Jacobean House of Commons to John Adams' ""Thoughts on Representative Government in 1776."" Through charters, ordinances, assembly journals, and other material, the author documents his view of representative government in the English settlements as a ""unity born of diversity."" The peculiar lures to British North America of the commercial enterprises which promised close representative participation; British parliamentary traditions and ideals, the social organization of Quaker and Puritan thought; the relationship between economic opportunities and early politics; a parochial rather than provincial concern were all among the stimuli to strikingly similar institutions throughout the Colonies. Taking a careful, developmental approach, the author traces movements, organizations and divergencies in the major colonies, Packed and difficult prose studded with footnotes, this is exemplary scholarship for the scholarly few.