More Puritans

As the prime example of the pious conflict that runs through American history, McLoughlin lists Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, two Puritans who left the Massachusetts colony for very different reasons.  Anne desired individual religious freedom while Williams sought to establish a restrictive community separate from the Church of England.  While McLoughlin then goes on to examine how these two opposing ideals interact with each other and eventually shape the American character, I am curious as to how the Massachusetts colony itself fits between the two.  If Anne and Williams represent the extremes of American pietism at its founding, then maybe the old Massachusetts colony, ill fitting for both of them, represents the happy medium that can possibly reconcile two conflicting ideals.  Of course there will always be those on the fringe of society refusing to compromise, but what really matters in our democracy is what the people decide, and more people chose Massachusetts over Rhode Island or Anne's doomed foray into New Netherland.