Being, however, a man
of liberal views he had not found Massachusetts congenial; he had returned
to England after a stay of only a month, and when he came again to America
in 1635, he had settled at Scituate, the town adjoining Hingham, but in
the Plymouth jurisdiction. Having both wealth and social position he
possessed great influence, and he now determined to lead an agitation for
equal rights and liberty of conscience in both colonies at once, by
petitioning the legislatures, and in case of failure there, presenting
similar petitions to Parliament.
Bradford was this year [Footnote: 1645.] governor of Plymouth, and Edward
Winslow was an assistant. Winslow himself had been governor repeatedly,
was a thorough-going churchman, and deep in all the councils of the
conservative party. There was, however, no religious qualification for the
suffrage in the old colony, and the complexion of its politics was
therefore far more liberal than in Massachusetts; so Vassal was able to
command a strong support when he brought forward his proposition. Winslow,
writing to his friend Winthrop at Boston, gives an amusing account of his
own and Bradford's consternation, and the expedients to which they were
forced to resort in the legislature to stave off a vote upon the petition,
when Vassal made his motion in October, 1645.
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