ABSTRACT
The governor of the Crown colony of Massachusetts was the conservator of the king’s peace, which meant simultaneously that he possessed the Crown’s authority and that he made the sovereign present in the colonial space through his officers and men. With veneration being produced by the populace, and effective government of their temper by the governor, the colonial sovereign machine was fully operative. But the substantial procession of 17,000 people also underlined the possibility of a new federal people: a calm, orderly and restrained popular sovereign whose sublimity and dignity were entwined. In ordinary times habit renders sovereignty’s authority implicit and the government of temper is imperceptible. Because when the Port’s sign was delivered to the populace, it was not a sign taken for sovereignty. At the same time, the governmental power signs for the sovereign, actually managing the popular temper.
