as a steward of the college from 1669 to 1682. From 1659 he sat on the colony's council of assistants, and was elected deputy governor in 1679. In 1665 Danforth was member of a commission that oversaw the extension of Massachusetts colonial authority over the territories of what is now southern Maine, which colonial surveyors had determined to fall within its borders. Danforth's politics and religion were relatively conservative, with one historian describing him as "the Pym of Massachusetts politics". In 1661 the colony was rebuked by King Charles II for its mistreatment of Quakers; the colonial government had banned Quakers from its territory under threat of death, and four of them had recently been hanged after repeatedly violating the ban. The king in his letter demanded that the colony allow Quakers and others freedom of religious expression. Danforth was one member of a committee that was established to formulate a response. The document the committee drafted was a conservative declaration that the colonial government was essentially sovereign except where its laws conflicted with English law. (By the time the king's letter arrived the colonial government had already lessened the harsh punishments for violating bans.) Two committee members, magistrate Simon Bradstreet and minister John Norton, were sent to England to argue the colony's case. When King Philip's War broke out in 1675 (pitting many Native American tribes of southern New England against English colonists), Danforth was involved in some of the events of the war. Many colonists distrusted the Praying Indians (Christianized Indians living peacefully in communities on the outskirts of English towns), some of whom were attacked by mobs of English settlers seeking revenge for attacks on their communities. Danforth, along with Daniel Gookin and the Indian missionary Reverend John Eliot, was a vocal supporter of the Praying Indians, and worked to prevent some of these excesses, at some personal risk. In one notable instance Danforth was aboard a small boat with other colonial officials in Boston Harbor en route to Long Island to inspect facilities for Praying Indians who had been relocated there "for their own safety" when a nearby ship apparently intentionally rammed the smaller vessel. No one was injured in the incident, but all of the older officials were dunked in the cold waters of the harbor. In 1680 Danforth was chosen president in the District of Maine by the Massachusetts assembly. The colony had previously