When the King, after his restoration, required them to take the oath of allegiance as the first condition of continuing the Charter, they evaded it by attaching to the oath the Charter _according to their interpretation of it_.

Any American citizen could at this day take the oath of allegiance to the Sovereign of England if it were limited to the Constitution of the United States.

First of all, they required of every freeman the oath of fidelity to the local Government; and then, after three years' delay and debating about the oath of allegiance to the King, the Massachusetts Bay Court adopted the following order: "May 16th, 1665.
"It is ordered by this Court and by the authority thereof, that the following oath be annexed unto the oaths of every freeman, and oath of fidelity, and to the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants, and to all other public officers as followeth.

The oaths of freemen and of fidelity to run thus: 'Whereas, I, A.B., an inhabitant within this jurisdiction, considering how I stand to the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, _by our Charter_, and the Government established thereby, do swear _accordingly_, by the great and dreadful name of the ever living God, that I will bear faithful and true allegiance to our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors; and so proceed _as in the printed oaths of freemen and fidelity_.'"[149] On this, Col.

Nichols, Chairman of the Royal Commission, addressing the Court, remarks as follows: "You profess you highly prize the King's favour, and that offending him shall never be imputed to you; and yet you, in the same paper, refuse to do what the King requires should be done--that all that come into this colony to dwell should take the oath of allegiance here.