ey had from the first been quite
enthusiastic about the traffic, in which indeed they were deeply
interested as middle-men; and Calvinist ministers of the purest
orthodoxy held services of thanksgiving to God for cargoes of poor
barbarians rescued from the darkness of heathendom and brought (though
forcibly) into the gospel light. But though the Northerners had no more
scruple about Slavery than the Southerners, they had far less practical
use for it. The Negro was of no value for the sort of labour in which
the New Englanders engaged; he died of it in the cold climate. Negro
slaves there were in all the Northern States, but mostly employed as
domestic servants or in casual occupations. They were a luxury, not a
necessity.

A final word must be said about the form of government under which the
colonists lived. In all the colonies, though there were, of course,
variations of detail, it was substantially the same. It was founded in
every case upon Royal Charters granted at some time or other to the
planters by the English king. In every case there was a Governor, who
was assisted by some sort of elective assembly. The Governor was the
representative of the King and was nominated by him. The legislature was
in some form or other elected by the free citizens. The mode of election
and the franchise varied from colony to colony--Massachusetts at one
time based hers upon pew rents--but it was generally in harmony with the
feeling and traditions of the colonists. It was seldom that any friction
occurred between the King's representative and the burgesses, as they
were generally called. While the relations between the colonies and the
mother country remained tranquil the Governor had every motive for
pursuing a conciliatory policy. His personal comfort depended upon his
being popular in the only society which he could frequent. His repute
with the Home Government, if he valued it, was equally served by the
tranquillity and contentment of the dominion he ruled.

In fact, the American colonists, during the eighteenth century, enjoyed
what a simple society left to itself almost always enjoys, under
whatever forms--the substance of democracy. That fact must be
emphasized, because without a recognition of it the flaming response
which met the first proclamation of theoretic democracy would be
unintelligible. It is explicable only when we remember that to the
unspoiled conscience of man as man democracy will ever be the most
self-ev