 He served for many years as a commissioner representing Massachusetts to the New England Confederation , an organization that coordinated matters of common interest ( principally defense ) among most of the New England colonies . He was regularly chosen as an assistant , serving on the council that dominated the public affairs of the colony , but did not reach higher office until <unk> , when he was first elected deputy governor under John Leverett . He was against military actions against some of the colony 's foreign neighbors , opposing official intervention in a French <unk> dispute in the <unk> , and also spoke against attacking the New Netherland during the First Anglo @-@ Dutch War ( 1652 – <unk> ) . 
