ad been
formally condemned in the King's courts, and there was a large party
about them who bore it no good-will; nor was it to be expected that
their President, the timid Bradstreet, whatever were his own wishes,
could be brought to consent to so bold a measure. Naturally and not
improperly desirous to escape from such a responsibility, they decided
to summon a Convention of delegates from the towns.

On the appointed day, sixty-six delegates came together. They brought
from their homes, or speedily reached, the conclusion that of right the
old Charter was still in force; and they addressed a communication to
that effect to the Magistrates who had been chosen just before the
Charter government was superseded, desiring them to resume their
functions, and to constitute, with the delegates just now sent from the
towns, the General Court of the Colony, according to ancient law and
practice. Their request was denied. Either the wisdom or the timidity of
the Magistrates held them back from so bold a venture. The delegates
then desired the Council to continue to act as a Committee of Public
Safety till another Convention might assemble, of delegates bringing
express instructions from their towns.

Fifty-four towns were represented in the new Convention. All but
fourteen of them had instructed their delegates to insist on the
resumption of the Charter. In the Council, the majority was opposed to
that scheme. After a debate of two days, the popular policy prevailed,
and the Governor and Magistrates chosen at the last election under the
Charter consented to assume the trusts then committed to them, and, in
concert with the delegates recently elected, to form a General Court,
and administer the Colony for the present according to the ancient
forms. They desired that the other gentlemen lately associated with them
in the Council should continue to hold that relation. But this the
delegates would not allow; and accordingly those gentlemen, among whom
were Wait Winthrop, the newly appointed commander-in-chief, and
Stoughton, whom the people could not yet forgive for his recent
subserviency, relinquished their part in the conduct of affairs. They
did so with prudence and magnanimity, engaging to exert themselves to
allay the dissatisfaction of their friends, and only avowing their
expectation that the state-prisoners would be well treated, and that
there should be no encouragement to popular manifestations of hostility
to England.