162 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



in their situation and affairs, inclined and united 

 them to make choice of the republican system. 

 Their object was not licentiousness and confu- 

 sion, but the preservation of public liberty, or- 

 der, and safety ; and they were well aware that 

 it was a matter of extreme difficulty, to form 

 such constitutions of civil government, as would 

 preserve these objects from the attacks of licen- 

 tiousness and oppression. Civil policy and gov- 

 ernment became of course an object of universal 

 enquiry, study, and investigation ; and the 

 people were as anxious to provide for their own 

 internal government and safety, as to provide 

 ways and means to carry on the war. 

 , In no, part of America, were the advantages 

 of civil government more wanted, than among 

 the inhabitants on the New Hampshire Grants. 

 Amidst all the difficulties they had passed 

 through, they had not so much as ihe form of 

 any civil government among them. When cal- 

 led upon to oppose the proceedings of New 

 York, they had no other wayof transacting their 

 affairs, than to collect together, and follow the 

 advice of the most active and ambitious of their 

 leaders. When alarmed by the defeat of the 

 American armies, or the approach of the British 

 troops, or when called upon for supplies, the 

 only method in which they cpuld conduct the 

 business, was to collect together and consult 

 what should be done. And when they had voted 

 thcir^conclusions, their agreements had no other 

 force, nor was there any other pov/er to carry 

 the most necessary measures into effiict, than 

 the consent and inclination of every individual 

 imong them. No civil laws were of any other 



