The Old American Aristocracy

ne most marked feature of colonia society was its aristocratie character. Our ancestors brought with them the notions of rank and precedence which prevailec at home, and even in those coloniea which like tho New England, were established on a democratie basis, the aristocratie feeling of the superiors was almost as strong as in the feudal South and New York. Custoru gave privileges which the laws did not recognize, and a comparatively few families monopolized official dignities. John Adams, for instance, inentions that the Chandler family, " engrossed almost all the public offices and employment in the town and county " of Worcester, Massachusetts. It is well known how the Hutchinson kin filled the chief places of public trust in that province. In New York the Delanceys and Livingstons were aaid to be "the two great families upon whose motions all their politics turn." The aristocratie spirit of the Virginian magnates is proverbial to this day. In South Carolina the gentry, we are told, were more numerous than in any other colony in North America. It was common to see several offices in the hands of a single person, who perhaps was colonel of militia, judge of probate, justice of the peace, menber of the legislativa body, etc. The colonial families, however, were compelled to share such distinctions with the favorites of courtiers. A dignitary of New York, writing in 1764 of the low rate of judicial salaries, which were not enough to tempt an able lawyer to leave hia practice fears that if they should bo raised "some scurvy fellow wouuld be orammed upom the colony because his patrón did not know what else to do with