Chapter 2

GOVERNMENT OF THE "PILGRIM FATHERS" AT NEW PLYMOUTH DURING SEVENTY YEARS, FROM 1620 TO 1690, AS DISTINCT FROM THAT OF THE "PURITAN FATHERS" OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 11-23

Two governments--difference between the government of the Pilgrims and that of the Puritans 11

Compact, and seven successive governors of the Pilgrims 12

Simple, just, popular and loyal government of the Pilgrims and their descendants 13

Illustrations of their loyalty to successive sovereigns, and the equity and kindness with which Charles the First and Charles the Second treated them 14

Complaints against the unjust and persecuting conduct of the government of Massachusetts Bay, the cause of Parliamentary and Royal Commissions in 1646, 1664, and 1678 17

Four questions of inquiry by the Commissioners of Charles the Second, in 1665, and satisfactory answers by the Plymouth Government 18

Opposition of the Puritan Government of Massachusetts Bay to the Pilgrim Government in seeking a Royal Charter in 1630 and 1678 21

Absorption of the Plymouth Colony into that of Massachusetts Bay by the second Royal Charter; the exclusion of its chief men from public offices 21

Reflections on the melancholy termination of the Plymouth Government; the noble and loyal character of the Pilgrim Fathers and their descendants 22