Perry Miller, The New England Mind, vol. 2: From Colony to Province, p. 124:"In 1657 Commissioners of the United Colonies tried to force Rhode Island (which was not, of course, in the Union) to banish Quakers; that colony replied with the curious observation that Quakers had proved, when tolerated, to be hostile only against persecutors. "Surely we find that they delight to be persecuted by civill powers, when they are soe, they are likely to gain more adherents by the conseyte of their patient sufferings, than by consent to their pernicious sayings." Roger Williams was shocked by the doctrines of George Fox and wrote against them, and the colony's authorities assured the Commissioners that Quaker teaching did indeed threaten the overturn of all civil government. But Rhode Island found itself obliged, by its previous declarations, to tolerate differences of opinion, and so made this astounding discovery."