such just and equal laws, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to
time, as shall be most meet and convenient for the general good of the
colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

These words were the constitution of more than a town government. They
erected a democratic state--a commonwealth. It was a general government
separate from and above the town governments which were afterwards
instituted. It enacted general laws by an assembly of deputies in which
the eight plantations in the colony, which afterwards became towns, were
represented. These laws were executed by a governor and an assistant,
and were of equal binding force in all the plantations after, as well as
before, these plantations became towns.

The Massachusetts Colony came over as a corporation with a royal charter
which gave power to the freemen of the company to elect a governor,
deputy-governor, and assistants, and "make laws and ordinances, not
repugnant to the laws of England, for their own benefit and the
government of persons inhabiting their territory." The colonists divided
themselves into plantations, part at Naumkeag (Salem), at Mishawum
(Charlestown), at Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Mystic, and
Saugus (Lynn), and while the General Court, as the governor,
deputy-governor, and assistants were called, made general "laws and
ordinances" for the whole, the plantations were at liberty to manage
their own particular affairs as they pleased. They called meetings and
took action by themselves, as at Watertown, when, in 1632, the people
assembled and expressed their discontent with a tax laid by the court,
and at Dorchester as previously referred to. To Dorchester, however,
belongs the honor of leading the way to that form of town government
which has prevailed in New England ever since. It came about in this
way. The settlement was begun in June, 1630, and for more than three