Succession Politics in Massachusetts, 1730-1741
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3468420 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John A Schutz (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1958 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 508 |
| Publication date | 1958-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The William and Mary Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-5597 • E-ISSN: 1933-7698 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2936905 |
| OpenAlex | W2326493698 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
W T THEN Jonathan Belcher was recalled from the governorships of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in i74I, the provinces were nearly in revolution. So bitter and desperate had politics become in that year that they obscured the hard-bitten battles of the ten previous years. The turbulence of politics during the I730's was partly caused by Belcher's personality and partly by the instability of his rule. His uncanny knack for acquiring enemies bred more than the usual discontent-a circumstance dramatized by his habit of magnifying incidents so that even small matters took on the character of celestial struggles. Though his tactics in annoying the opposition were somewhat less than celestial in character, so too were those of his enemies, who used forged documents, slander, and half truths as they tried to remove him from his offices. There was reason, if not justification, for their unscrupulous methods. As rival groups seeking control of the governorships, they wanted a share of the spoils: contracts, offices, favorable legislation, and official support of their wishes in communications with the British government. To win these rich prizes, they found it essential to have the power of the governor on their side. They calculated carefully their relative influence with Jonathan Belcher, the incumbent, and with a half-dozen contenders for the office, including William Shirley, and they estimated the weight these men might have with the legislature, the people, and the British authorities in obtaining their desires. But the governorships, whether they were in the hands of Belcher or others, were filled by the leading politicians of England, who made appointments to office and determined tenure according to their desires and fancies. While these facts concerning appointments were well known to Americans, they hoped nonetheless to circumvent the system. They
Ecological succession · Political science · Politics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 1959 - 2005 (47) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |