wild frontier country the people were obliged to depend upon their
neighbors for defence or companionship. More emphasis was thus thrown upon
the local governments than in England. The titles of rank, which continued
to have great social and political force in England, were almost unknown
in America. The patroons in New York were in 1750 little more than great
land-owners; the fanciful system of landgraves, palsgraves, and caciques
in Carolina never had any substance. No permanent colonial nobility was
ever created, and but few titles were conferred on Americans. An American
aristocracy did grow up, founded partly on the ownership of land, and
partly on wealth acquired by trade. It existed side by side with a very
open and accessible democracy of farmers.

[Sidenote: Powers of the colonies.]

The gentlemen of the colonies were leaders; but if they accepted too many
of the governor's favors or voted for too many of that officer's measures,
they found themselves left out of the assemblies by their independent
constituents. The power over territory, the right to grant wild lands, was
also peculiar to the New World, and led to a special set of difficulties.
In New England the legislatures insisted on sharing in this power. In
Pennsylvania there was an unceasing quarrel over the proprietors' claim to
quit-rents. Farther south the governors made vast grants unquestioned by
the assemblies. In any event, colonization and the grant of lands were
provincial matters. Each colony became accustomed to planting new
settlements and to claiming new boundaries. The English common law was
accepted in all the colonies, but it was modified everywhere by statutes,
according to the need of each colony. Thus the tendency in colonial
development was toward broad legislation on all subjects; but at the same
time the limitations laid down by charters, by the governor's
instructions, or by the home government, increased and were observed.