Ohio History Journal

THE FIRST PURELY REPUBLICAN FORM OF

GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA

 

BY WILLIAM M. PETTIT

 

The historical political controversy that raged in the

years 1636-37 was over the demand of Anne Hutchin-

son that women be accorded equal political rights with

men, in Massachusetts. Sir Harry Vane was elected

governor in 1636, being a representative of the Hutch-

inson faction, but in 1637 he was defeated by John Win-

throp. The General Court of Massachusetts tried the

famous Hutchinson case, resulting in the expulsion of

Anne Hutchinson and many of her faction from the

colony.

The Rev. John Wheelwright, brother-in-law of Anne

Hutchinson and her supporter, and numerous other

adherents, were expelled from Boston in Novem-

ber, 1637, and went to Exeter, where on the 4th day of

july, 1639 thirty-five of the settlers signed the famous

Exeter Combination, one hundred and thirty-seven

years to the day before the Declaration of Independence.

This compact combined the legislative, executive and

judicial branches of government, therefore the name,

"Combination."

In Taylor's History of the United States, published

in 1849, the author, at pages 158, 159, says:

"¹⁶³⁸ was the beginning of the towns of Exeter and Hamp-

ton. * * * Settlers mostly from Boston. * * * As they judged their

settlement to be without the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, they

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First Purely Republican Form of Government     515

 

formed themselves into a body politic, chose rulers and assistants,

who were sworn to a proper execution of their respective offices,

and a correspondent oath of obedience was taken by the people.

In this compact we have an instance of civil government in its

simplest, perhaps its purest form. The magistrates, who were

few, were vested with legislative, judicial and executive author-

ity. * * * Had this political combination been left to the manage-

ment of the original framers, and their posterity, they might have

exhibited an example of the finest republic known of record. * * *

But the constant influx of emigrants, and demagogues, invited by

their weakness, rendered this expectation hopeless. These con-

siderations induced the settlement to desire a union with the

colony of Massachusetts."

This compact, or charter, may be said to have been

the forerunner of the Constitution of the United States

and the Articles of Confederation. It illustrated the first

republican form of government in America. Written by

the Rev. John Wheelwright, whose name heads the list

of thirty-five signers, it is still preserved as a page of

Volume I of the Exeter Town Records.

Hazard, in his Colonial Documents, published in

1784, includes the Combination as one of the ancient

American documents. The language of the compact is:

Whereas it has pleased the lord to move the heart of our

Dread Sovereigne Charles, by the grace of god King of England,

Scotland, France & Ireland, to grant license & liberty to sundry

of his subjects to plant themselves in the Westerne partes of

America; Wee his loyal subjects, brethren of the church of Ex-

eter, situate & lying upon the river Piscataquacke with other in-

habitants there considering with our selves the holy will of god

and our owne necessity that we should not live without wholesome

lawes & civil government amongst us, of which we are altogether

destitute, doe in the name of Christ & in the sight of god combine

ourselves together, to erect & set up amongst us such government

as shall be to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of god,

professing our selves subjects to our Soveraigne Lord King

Charles according to the libertys of our English Colony of the

Massachusetts & binding our selves solemnely by the grace & helpe

of Christ & in his name & feare to submit our selves to such god-

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ly and christian laws as are established in the Realme of England

to our best knowledge & to all other such lawes which shall upon

good grounds be made & inacted amongst us according to god yet

we may live quietly & peaceably together in all godlyness and

honesty. Mon. 5th, d. ₄th, 1639.

The signers were:

John Wheelright                                       Robert Soward*

Augustine Storre                                     Richard Bullgar

Thomas Wight                                         Christopher Lawson

William Wantworth                                 George Barlow*

Henry Elkins                                           Richard Moris

George Walton*                                      Nicholas Needham

Samuel Walker                                        Thomas Wilson*

Thomas Pettit                                         George Ruobone*

Henry Roby                                            William Coole*

Willia Wenbourne                                   James Walles*

Thomas Crawley*                                  Thomas Levitt*

Chr. Helme                                             Edmond Littlefield

Darby Field*                                           John Crame*

Robert Read*                                          Godfrey Dearborne*

Edward Rishworth                                 Philemon Pormort

Francis Mathews*                                  Thomas Wardell

Ralph Hall                                              Willia Wardell*

Robert Smith*

(* "Made mark.")

The scheme of government provided for a board of

magistrates, or elders, comprised of three persons, one

of whom was styled Ruler. The body of freemen chose

the magistrates, and were the legislators, their enact-

ments requiring the approval of the Ruler. It was neces-

sary to be made a freeman to enjoy the privileges of

an elector. In the "approval of the Ruler" is the prece-

dent for the "veto."