Further modifications in the exemption laws, made in 1 770, were so slight, leaving as they did the certificate principle practically untouched, 1 that Baptist opposition was aroused even more deeply and the determination struck deeper root to push the battle for religious freedom to a decision. The times also were propitious. The near approach of the Revolutionary struggle focused attention upon the subject of tyranny and caused acts of oppression, whether civil or ecclesiastical in character, to stand out in a new relief before the eye of the public. That dissenters were quick to see the bearing of political events will appear from the following pithy comments in the address which the Committee of Grievances 2 drew up late in 1774 and presented to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts:
It seems that the two main rights which all America are contending for at this time, are, Not to be taxed where they are not represented, and To have their causes tried by unbiased judges. And the Baptist churches in this province as heartily unite with their countrymen in this cause, as any denomination in the land; and are as ready to exert all their abilities to defend it. Yet only because they have thought it to be their duty to claim an equal title to these rights with their neighbors, they have repeatedly been accused of evil attempts against the general welfare of the colony; therefore, we have thought it expedient to lay a brief statement of the case before this assembly. . . . Great complaints have been made about a tax
- 1 Backus, History of New England, vol. ii, pp. 156 et seq.
- 2 This standing committee of the Warren Association is itself a token of the strengthened purpose of the Baptists.
