[Old governor and deputy reëlected.]
For explanacion of an order made the last Generall Court ... it was ordered nowe, with full consent of all the commons then present, that once in every yeare, att least, a Generall Court shalbe holden; att which Court it shalbe lawfull for the commons to propound any ... persons whom they shall desire to be chosen Assistants [provision for voting on such new nominations by "poll,"—vive-voce]. The like course [of voting] to be holden when they, the said commons, shall see cause for any defect or misbehavior to remove any one or more of the Assistants. And, to the end the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it was likewise ordered ... that, for time to come, noe man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke but such as are members of some of the churches within the lymitts of the same....
[The italicized clause in the above entry is the one which indirectly established a life-tenure for Assistants, contrary to the charter provision for annual reëlection of all such officers. The "commons" were to be permitted to suggest and choose new Assistants (since the charter-number of eighteen was far from full), but, once elected, the Assistant held until deposed for cause.
At this same court, 116 freemen were elected, including those who had so applied in the preceding October. Whether this admission was before or after the legislation given above is wholly uncertain from the Records; but the natural inference is that the applicants were asked to assent to these changes also as a prerequisite to admission. After this meeting, voters are always referred to as "freemen." The words "people" and "commons" used in these records of October, 1630, and May, 1631, refer, presumably, to people not yet admitted to the political corporation.]
64. The First "Popular" Movement—Watertown Protest, 1632
Winthrop's History of New England (under dates given).
Cf. introductory statements to No. 62 a above.
Winthrop's bias for aristocratic organization in politics and in industry appears always in most naïve unconsciousness;[48] but his fine candor and magnanimity make his book as attractive as it is valuable.
[November 23, 1631.] The congregation at Watertown (whereof Mr. George Phillips was pastor) had chosen one Richard Brown for their elder, before named, who, persisting in his opinion of the truth of the Romish church, and maintaining other errors withal, and being a man of a very violent spirit, the court wrote a letter to the congregation, directed to the pastor and brethren, to advise them to take into consideration, whether Mr. Brown were fit to be continued their elder or not; to which, after some weeks, they returned answer to this effect: That if we would take the pains to prove such things as were objected against him, they would endeavour to redress them.