I will not here recapitulate those acts, so fully stated in preceding pages, and established by evidence of documents and testimony which cannot be successfully denied.

But there are two features of their pretensions and government which demand further remark.
I.The first is the character and narrowness of the foundation on which rested their legislation and government.

None but members of the Congregational Churches were eligible to legislate or fill any office in the colony, or even to be an elector.

A more narrow-minded and corrupting test of qualification for civil or political office, or for the elective franchise, can hardly be conceived.[201] However rich a man might be, and whatever might be his education or social position, if he were not a member of the Congregational Church he was an "alien in the Commonwealth" of the Massachusetts Israel, was ineligible for office, or to be an elector; while his own servant, if a member of the Church, though not worth a shilling, or paying a penny to the public revenue, was an elector, or eligible to be elected to any public office.

The non-members of the Congregational Church were subject to all military and civil burdens and taxes of the State, without any voice in its legislation or administration.