“Whereas particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and disposing of businesses in their own towns, it is therefore ordered, that the freemen of any town, or the major part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the privileges and appurtenances of the said towns, to grant lots, and make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders here established by the General Court; as also to lay mulcts and penalties for the breach of these orders, and to levy and distress the same, not exceeding the sum of twenty shillings; also to choose their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors of the high-ways, and the like; and because much business is like to ensue to the constables of several towns, by reason they are to make distress, and gather fines, therefore that every town shall have two constables, where there is need, that so their office may not be a burthen unto them, and they may attend more carefully upon the discharge of their office, for which they shall be liable to give their accounts to this court, when they shall be called thereunto.”

The reflecting student of political science will probably regard this as the most important legislative act in our annals.  Towns had existed before, but were scarcely more than local designations, or convenient divisions of the people and territories.  This called them into being as depositories and agents of political power in its mightiest efficacy and most vital force.  It remitted to the people their original sovereignty.  Before, that sovereignty had rested in the hands of a remote central deputation; this returned it to them in their primary capacity, and brought it back, in its most important elements, to their immediate control.  It gave them complete possession and absolute power over their own lands, and provided the machinery for managing their own neighborhoods and making and executing their own laws in what is, after all, the greatest sphere of government,—­that which concerns ordinary, daily, immediate relations.  It gave to the people the power to do and determine all that the people can do and determine, by themselves.  It created the towns as the solid foundation of the whole political structure of the State, trained the people as in a perpetual school for self-government, and fitted them to be the guardians of republican liberty and order.

Large tracts were granted to men who had the disposition and the means for improving them by opening roads, building bridges, clearing forests, and bringing the surface into a state for cultivation.  Men of property, education, and high social position, were thus made to lead the way in developing the agricultural resources of the country, and giving character to the farming interest and class.  In cases where men of energy, industry, and intelligence presented