George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 2, 17th edition.

With regard to powers of government, the charter was still more extraordinary. It conferred on the colonists unqualified power to govern themselves. They were allowed to elect all their own officers, to enact their own laws, to administer justice without appeals to England, to inflict punishments, to confer pardons, and, in a word, to exercise every power, deliberative and active. The king, far from reserving a negative on the acts of the colony, did not even require that the laws should be transmitted for his inspection; and no provision was made for the interference of the English government in any event whatever. Connecticut was independent except in name. Charles II. and Clarendon thought they had created a close corporation, and they had really sanctioned a democracy.

After his successful negotiations,¹ and efficient concert in founding the Royal Society, Winthrop returned to America, bringing with him a name which England honored, and which his country should never forget, and resumed his tranquil life in rural retirement. The amalgamation of the two colonies could not be effected without collision; and New Haven had been unwilling to merge itself in the larger colony; the wise moderation of Winthrop was able to reconcile the jarrings, and blend the interests of the united colonies. The universal approbation of Connecticut followed him throughout all the remainder of his life; for twice