ABSTRACT
Long before the transmission of the commonwealth ideology across the Atlantic Ocean, the American colonies had been engaged in creating new societies and new forms of government, and not surprisingly republican techniques surfaced there as well, especially in the corporate and to a lesser extent proprietary colonies, both of which had more scope for innovation than did those immediately under royal control and for that matter than did the Englishmen they left behind in Britain. But although sprouting a few seeds in America, the republican project did not take root in colonial America. Joint stock companies, which provided the organizational structure for settling corporate colonies, played an equivocal role. The requirements of Puritanism did as well. Certain strong-willed individuals, and a social culture of rank and deference, played their part. All these influences came together to shape the early procedures of Massachusetts government and imprint upon them a decidedly unrepublican character. Massachusetts was the model; others looked to her. Nowhere were republican stirrings stronger than in the Bay Colony, but ultimately no single influence had greater force in smothering republicanism in early America than the choices made by the bellwether Massachusetts commonwealth.
