Albert Bushnell Hart
Albert Bushnell Hart
Albert Bushnell Hart, was an American historian based at Harvard, writer, and editor. One of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States, a prolific author and editor of historical works, Albert Bushnell Hart became, as Samuel Eliot Morison described him, "The Grand Old Man" of American history, looking the part with his "patriarchal full beard and flowing moustaches."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth1 July 1854
CountryUnited States of America
Albert Bushnell Hart quotes about
The residence of the Plymouth settlers in the Netherlands, and the later conquest of the Dutch colonies, had brought the Americans into contact with the singularly wise and free institutions of the Dutch.
More emphasis was thus thrown upon the local governments than in England.
In each colony in 1750 were to be found two sets of governing organizations, - the local and the general.
The colonies had little occasion to feel or to resent direct royal prerogative.
In appearance the labor system of all the colonies was the same.
In some of the middle colonies the towns and counties were both active and had a relation with each other which was the forerunner of the present system of local government in the Western States.
Many attempts had been made by colonial legislatures to cut off or to tax the importation of slaves.
Besides paid white laborers, there was everywhere a class of white servants bound without wages for a term of years, and a more miserable class of Negro slaves.
Each colony became accustomed to planting new settlements and to claiming new boundaries.
In any event, colonization and the grant of lands were provincial matters.
The participation of the people in their own government was the more significant, because the colonies actually had what England only seemed to have, - three departments of government.
Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized.
Washington's defeat in 1754 was followed by active military preparations on both sides.
Everywhere among the English-speaking race criminal justice was rude, and punishments were barbarous; but the tendency was to do away with special privileges and legal exemptions.