<P> The perennial struggles between the colonial governors and the assemblies are sometimes viewed, in retrospect, as signs of a rising democratic spirit . However, those assemblies generally represented the privileged classes, and they were protecting the colony against unreasonable executive encroachments . </P> <P> Legally, the crown governor's authority was unassailable . In resisting that authority, assemblies resorted to arguments based upon natural rights and the common welfare, giving life to the notion that governments derived, or ought to derive, their authority from the consent of the governed.;) </P>

Who made the laws in most of the colonies