Fundamental constitutions.
The
proprietors of the Carolinas, which included the territory of what was afterwards the colony of
Georgia, wishing to establish an aristocratic government, in feudal form, employed the
Earl of
Shaftesbury and
John Locke to frame one.
They
completed the task in March, 1669, and named the instrument “Fundamental constitutions.”
It provided for two orders of nobility; the higher to consist of landgraves, or earls, the lower of caciques, or barons.
The territory was to be divided into counties, each containing 480,000 acres, with one landgrave and two caciques.
There were also to be lords of manors, who, like the nobles, might hold courts and exercise judicial functions, but could never attain to a higher rank.
The four estates—proprietors, earls, barons, and commoners—were to sit in one legislative chamber.
The proprietors were always to be eight in number, to possess the whole judicial power, and have the supreme control of all tribunals.
The commons were to have four members in the legislature to every three of the nobility.
Every form of religion was professedly tolerated, but the Church of England only was declared to be orthodox.
In the highest degree monarchical in its tendency, this form of government was distasteful to the people; so, after a contest of about twenty years between them and the proprietors, the absurd scheme was abandoned.
