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" Meanwhile the controversy, in connection with the preservation of
their Charter Privileges, had been agitating the Colony from the time of
the restoration of royalty, and in this, as we have above seen, Willoughby
had taken an active part. In the fall of 1666, Samuel Maverick, the
Royal Commissioner, presented a signification from the King, directing
the Council, or Gen. Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to send to
England five able and meet persons to make answer for refusing the juris-
diction of his Commissioners the previous year. It was required that the
Governor, Mr. Richard Bellingham, and Mr. Hawthorne should be two of
the number chosen, and they were ordered, on their allegiance, to come by
the first opportunity. In the emergency a special session was called by the
Governor, and, the clergy having been invited to be present, a day was
given to prayer, and on the 14 th of September a long debate ensued in
which Bellingham, Bradstreet, Dudley, Willoughby, Hawthorne, Stough-
ton, Winthrop, Sir Th. Temple and others participated. Some, including
Bradstreet and Dudley favored the request, upon the ground that the King
should be obeyed, etc. ; while others denied the Royal prerogative.
Willoughby argued as to
' Whether God doth not call us to argue one way as well as another whether
Calais, Dunkirk—have not been governed by commission, and if this be allowed,
how easily may the king in one year undo all that he hath done ; and we must as
well consider God's displeasure as the king's, the interest of ourselves and God's
things as his majesty's prerogative ; for our liberties are of concernment, and to be
regarded as to the preservation ; for if the king may send for me now, and another
to-morrow, we are a miserable people.'"
"An evasive answer was accordingly returned, but the Colonial
government, though expressing loyalty and humility, still persisted in their
independent course, and refused to obey the directions of the Royal
Commissioner.
" This bold course of action, followed, a few years after, by the over-
throw and imprisonment of Andros, the Governor appointed by the
Crown, was but a step in the development of those principles, which
springing into vigorous life on the field of Lexington found full expression
in the 'Declaration' of July 4 th , 1776."
Hist. Coll., vol. xxviii. pp. 99, 100." [Boston, 1819, Second Series, viii. 99, 100.]