Winthrop, no doubt, put the cart before the horse. The increased cost of all European goods, due to high freights, necessitated higher wages; but Winthrop resents any attempt of the laborers to ask more than their old European wages.]
66. The Beginning of Town Government in Massachusetts, 1633
For some three years after the great migration of 1630, the eight Massachusetts "towns" were governed wholly by the central colonial authority,--the courts of Assistants and the General Courts,--and by officers appointed by this central authority. The entry below marks the beginning of local self-government. The Dorchester _Records_, it is true, contain notice of four earlier meetings to regulate pasturage or the division of town lands (cf. one such Boston meeting later; No. 73 _b_); but here we have _a formal assumption of government by periodic town meetings and "select men."_ The next town to act in a like way was Watertown (cf. No. 83, opening). _Later_ (cf. No. 78, law 66), the central government accepted this establishment of local government, giving it the sanction of law. On the history of this movement, see _American History and Government_, ## 71-74.
An agreement made by the whole consent and vote of the Plantation made Mooneday 8th of October, 1633.
_Inprimus_ it is ordered that for the generall good and well ordering of the affayres of the Plantation their shall be every Mooneday before the Court by eight of the Clocke in the morning, and presently upon the beating of the drum, a generall meeting of the inhabitants of the Plantation att the meeteing house, there to settle (and sett downe) such orders as may tend to the generall good as aforesayd; and every man to be bound thereby without gaynesaying or resistance. It is also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the Company that may or the greatest part of them meete as aforesayd to determine as aforesayd, yet so as it is desired that the most of the Plantation will keepe the meeteing constantly and all that are there although none of the Twelve shall have a free voyce as any of the 12 and that the greate[r] vote both of the 12 and the other shall be of force and efficasy as aforesayd. And it is likewise ordered that all things concluded as aforesayd shall stand in force and be obeyed untill the next monthely meeteing and afterwardes if it be not contradicted and other wise ordered upon the sayd monthley meete[ing] by the greatest parts of those that are present as aforesayd.
