from
the earliest days of 1774 in sharing with other towns the plans for
resistance to royal authority, they were very jealous of any
continuance of unnecessary power in the Provincial Congress.
Pittsfield by the quill of a cousin of Ethan Allen, the Rev. Thomas
Allen, asserted that the town would remain "in a state of nature" [see
Note 1] (i.e., simple democracy without representative government)
unless it obtained new privileges. If the right of nominating to
office is not vested in the people, they said, "_we are indifferent
who assumes it, whether any particular persons on this or the other
side of the water_." They did not want any bosses, but no doubt would
have voted for Governor Hughes. They were of the belief that the
government of the respective committees (County and Town, Committees
of Correspondence and Inspection) was lenient and efficacious, but
they hoped for a new Constitution "on such a broad basis of civil and
religious liberty as no length of time will corrupt as long as the sun
and moon shall endure." They wished to elect judges by votes of the
people of the county, justices of the peace by the voters of the
towns, and of course allow soldiers to elect their company officers.

Brown was chosen judge of the Common Pleas by the General Court of
Massachusetts for 1779, but never held court, probably because his
fellow-citizens were not submissive to the existing authority of the
General Court as exercised before the adoption of the new Constitution
of Massachusetts. In such a state of affairs Berkshire took her part
largely in her way when she sent men to fight the battles of the
United Colonies. Her officers and men were often too independent to
submit willingly to proper military authority, and in some trying
emergencies the Berkshire men were insubordinate or were disposed to
follow their leaders in attacks not always wisely chosen. It was
Captain Asa Douglas, of Hancock, the man who had done much to promote
the capture of Ticonderoga by skilful recruiting and by pledge of his
estate, who in May, 1776, was Chairman of a convention of Berkshire
towns which, deluded by false rumors and influenced by their own
prejudices against the noble General Schuyler, sent to General
Washington their doubts concerning his loyalty, although expressing
their hope that his name might be handed down to posterity as one of
the great pillars of the American Cause. Their hope is grandly
fulfilled, but the Berkshire men