The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 provided that there should be a council “for advising the governor in the executive part of the government.” The governor was authorized to convene the council at any time at his discretion “for the ordering and directing the affairs of the commonwealth.” Without the advice and consent of the council, the governor was declared to be incapable of exercising any of his powers of convoking, adjourning, or proroguing the legislature, of making appointments to office, of pardoning criminals, or of authorizing by warrant the expenditure of public moneys. The governor was not made dependent upon the advice and consent of his council in exercise of his legislative powers. He might at discretion recommend measures to the legislature and veto legislative enactments, but no executive authority whatsoever was entrusted to him alone, to be exercised without his council's advice and consent, except the command of the armed forces of the commonwealth. In short, the governor, though declared to be the supreme executive magistrate of the commonwealth, without the consent of his council was impotent in the conduct of state administration.

In the beginning the Massachusetts council was chosen by the legislature, and constituted one of the chief agencies relied upon by the revolutionary “fathers” to protect the people against the menace of executive usurpation and tyranny. Similar bulwarks of liberty were established in most of the other states.