of
their "godly friends in England," and to not afford a pretext for the
"rebellious course" of their fellow-colonists in Virginia and the West
Indies, who claimed the same independence of Parliament that the
Government of Massachusetts claimed, but upon the ground which was
abhorrent to the Congregational Puritans of Massachusetts--namely, that
of loyalty to the king.

I will now give in a note, in their own words, the principal parts of
their petition, entitled "General Court of Massachusetts Bay, New
England, in a Petition to Parliament in 1651,"[97] together with
extracts of two addresses to Cromwell, the one enclosing a copy of their
petition to Parliament, when he was Commander-in-Chief of the army, and
the other in 1654, after he had dismissed the Rump Parliament, and
become absolute--denying to the whole people of England the elective
franchise, as his admiring friends in Massachusetts denied it to the
great majority of the people within their jurisdiction. Chalmers says
they "outfawned and outwitted Cromwell." They gained his support by
their first address, and thanked him for it in their second. Having "the
Parliament in his pocket" until he threw even the rump of it aside
altogether, Cromwell caused Parliament to desist from executing its own
order.

It will be seen in the following chapter, that ten years after these
laudatory addresses to Parliament and Cromwell, the same General Court
of Massachusetts addressed Charles the Second in words truly loyal and
equally laudatory, and implored the continuance of their Charter upon
the ground, among other reasons, that they had never identified
themselves with the Parliament against his Royal father, but had been
"passive" during the whole of that contest. Their act against having any
commerce with the colonies who adhered to the King indicated their
neutrality; and the reader, by reading their addresses to the Parliament
and Cromwell, will see whether they did not thoroughly identify
themselves with the Parliament and Cromwell against Charles the First.
They praise Cromwell as raised up by the special hand of God, and crave
upon him the success of "the Captain of the Lord's hosts;" and they
claim the favourable consideration of Parliament to their request upon
the ground that they had identified themselves with its fortunes to rise
or fall with it; that they had aided it by their prayers and fastings,
and by men who had rendered it valuable service. The reader w