them, but stood ready to take advantage of the first false step of the
commissioners; and they did not have long to wait.

Porter had taken refuge in Rhode Island. When the commissioners
visited that colony, he appealed to them for redress against the
Massachusetts General Court. They were inconsiderate enough to espouse
his cause, and issued a proclamation giving him protection to return
to Boston to have his case tried before them. The General Court at
once took issue with them, and changed their attitude from the
defensive to the offensive; denounced their proceedings; spread upon
the official records a full account, in the plainest language, of
Porter's outrages upon his parents, exhibiting it in details that
could not but shock every sentiment of humanity and decency; holding
up the commissioners as the abettors and protectors of criminality of
the deepest dye; and planting themselves fair and square against them
on the merits of Porter's case. The commissioners tried to explain and
extricate themselves; but they could not escape from the toils in
which, through rashness, they had become entangled. The General Court
made a public declaration charging the commissioners with "obstructing
the sentence of justice passed against that notorious offender," and
with sheltering and countenancing "his rebellion against his natural
parents;" with violating a court of justice, discharging a whole
country "from their oaths whereby they had sworn obedience to His
Majesty's authority according to the Constitution of his Royal
Charter;" and with attempting to overthrow the rights of the colony
under the charter by bringing in a military force to overawe and
suppress the civil authorities. They denounced them as guilty of a
perversion of their trust, and as having committed a breach upon the
dignity of the crown, by pursuing a course "derogatory to His
Majesty's authority here established," and "repugnant to His Majesty's