and its Early History_, p. 110] His conclusion
is: "It is to be as frankly and positively affirmed that their Quaker
tormentors were the aggressive party; that they wantonly initiated the
strife, and with a dogged pertinacity persisted in outrages which drove
the authorities almost to frenzy...." [Footnote: _Idem_, p. 104]
The proposition that the Congregationalists owned the territory granted by
the charter of Charles I. as though it were a private estate, has been
considered in an earlier chapter; and if the legal views there advanced
are sound, it is incontrovertible, that all peaceful British subjects had
a right to dwell in Massachusetts, provided they did not infringe the
monopoly in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the
Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr. Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have
carefully collected a certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view
of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the government had
reasonable grounds for apprehending such another outbreak as one which
occurred a century before in Germany and is known as the Peasants' War.
Before, however, it is possible to enter upon a consideration of the
evidence intelligently, it is necessary to fix the chronological order of
the leading events of the persecution.
The twenty-one years over which it extended may be conveniently divided
into three periods, of which the first began in July, 1656, when Mary
Fisher and Anne Austin came to Boston, and lasted till December, 1661,
when Charles II.
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