The plea of fear for the safety of Congregational worship in Massachusetts was a mere pretence to justify the proscription and persecution of all dissent from the Congregational establishment.

The spirit of the local Government and of the clergy that controlled it was _intolerance_.
Toleration was denounced by them as the doctrine of devils; and the dying lines of Governor Dudley are reported to have been-- "Let men of God, in Court and Church, watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch."[94] There is one other of Mr.Palfrey's statements which is of special importance; it is the admission that a majority of the population of Massachusetts were excluded from all share in the Government, and were actually opposed to it.

Referring to the petition to the local Legislature, he says: "The demand was enforced by considerations which were not without plausibility, and were presented in a seductive form.
It was itself an appeal to the _discontent of the numerical majority not invested with a share in the government_."[95] It is thus admitted, and clear from indubitable facts, that professing to be republicans, they denied to the great majority of the people any share in the government.

Professing hatred of the persecuting intolerance of King Charles and Laud in denying liberty of worship to all who differed from them, they now deny liberty of worship to all who differ from themselves, and punish those by fine and imprisonment who even petition for equal religious and civil liberty to all classes of citizens.

They justify even armed resistance against the King, and actually decapitating as well as dethroning him, in order to obtain, professedly, a government by the majority of the nation and liberty of worship; and they now deny the same principle and right of civil and religious liberty to the great majority of the people over whom they claimed rule.