before. It is said that at
Seekonk he was met by fourteen canoes filled with people, who escorted
him across the water to Providence with shouts of triumph.[22]

Peace and union, however, did not at once flow from the labors of
Williams. The hostility of Massachusetts and Plymouth towards the
Rhode-Islanders seemed at first increased; and the principle of
self-government, to which the Rhode Island townships owed their
existence, delayed their confederation. At last, in May, 1647, an
assembly of freemen from the four towns of Portsmouth, Newport,
Providence, and Warwick met at Portsmouth, and proceeded to make laws
in the name of the whole body politic, incorporated under the charter.
The first president was John Coggeshall; and Roger Williams and
William Coddington were two of the first assistants.

Massachusetts, aided by the Plymouth colony, still continued her
machinations, and an ally was found in Rhode Island itself in the
person of William Coddington. In 1650 he went to England and obtained
an order, dated April 3, 1651, for the severance of the island from
the main-land settlements.[23] Fortunately, however, for the
preservation of Rhode Island unity, an act of intemperate bigotry on
the part of Massachusetts saved the state from Coddington's
interference.

The sect called Anabaptists, or Baptists, opposed to infant baptism,
made their appearance in New England soon after the banishment of Mrs.
Hutchinson. Rhode Island became a stronghold for them, and in 1638
Roger Williams adopted their tenets and was rebaptized.[24] In 1644 a
Baptist church was established at Newport.[25] The same year
Massachusetts passed a law decreeing banishment of all professors of
the new opinions.[26] In October, 1650, three prominent Baptists, John
Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall, visited Massachusetts, when
they were seized, whipped, fined, imprisoned, and barely escaped with
their lives.[27]

The alarm created in Rhode Island by these proceedings brought the
towns once more into a common policy, and Clarke and Williams were
sent to England to undo the work of Coddington. Aided by the warm
friendship of Sir Harry Vane, the efforts of the agents were crowned
with success. Coddington's commission was revoked by an order of
council in September, 1652, and the townships were directed to unite
under the charter of 1644.[28] Coddington did not at once submit, and
there was a good deal of dissension in the Rhode Island towns t