A short history of Rhode Island
by George Washington Greene · English · Gutenberg #44955 · 674,920 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: A short history of Rhode Island
Author: George Washington Greene
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[Illustration: STATUE OF ROGER WILLIAMS.]
A
SHORT HISTORY
OF
RHODE ISLAND,
BY
GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE, LL.D.,
LATE NON-RESIDENT PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN CORNELL
UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL
NATHANAEL GREENE;" "HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION," ETC., ETC.
[Illustration]
PROVIDENCE:
J. A. & R. A. REID, PUBLISHERS,
1877.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by
ANNA MARIA GREENE,
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
TO
Anna Maria Greene,
MY DEAR MOTHER:
You bear your ninety-three years so lightly that I invite your
attention to a new volume of mine with as much assurance of your
sympathy as when I crowed and wondered over my first picture book an
infant on your knee. For your sympathy is as quick and as warm as it
was then, and your memory goes back with unerring certainty to the men
and the scenes of almost a century ago. Your eyes have looked upon
Washington, and your tenacious memory can still recall the outline of
his majestic form.
The first time that I ventured to send forth a volume to the world,
I set upon the dedication page the name of my father. He has been dead
many years. You still linger behind, and long may you linger. Long
may those fresh memories which give such a charm to your daily life
continue to cheer you and instruct those who have the privilege of
living with you. They have seen life imperfectly who have not seen what
a charm it wears when the heart that has beat so long still lends its
genial warmth to the still inquiring mind.
REVERENTIALLY AND AFFECTIONATELY YOUR SON,
GEORGE W. GREENE.
Preface.
There are two classes of history, each of which has claims upon our
attention peculiarly its own. One is a sober teacher, the other a
pleasant companion. One opens new paths of thought, the other throws
new light upon the old, and both agree in making man the chief object
of their meditations.
Nearly two thousand years ago a Roman historian likened the life of his
country to the life of man. Time has confirmed the parallel. Nations,
like men, have their infancy and their youth, their robust manhood and
their garrulous old age. Their lives like the lives of men are full of
encouragement and of warning. Interpret them aright and they become
trusty guides. Misapply their lessons and you grope in the dark and
stumble at every step.
And both states and men have their special duties and were created for
special ends. The God that made them assigned to each its problem,
and to work this out is to work out His will. Of this problem history
is the record and the interpreter. It tells us what man has been, and
thereby aids us to divine what he yet may be.
If with the philosopher history reveals the laws of life, with the poet
she recalls the past and stirs human sympathies in their profoundest
depths. Man follows man on her checkered stage; nations rise and fall;
mysteries enchain us; imagination controls us; reason guides us;
conscience admonishes and warns; and first and foremost of all our
stimulants to action is our sympathy with our fellow-man.
I have attempted in the following pages to tell what the part of Rhode
Island has been in this great drama. A talent was entrusted to her. Did
she wrap it in a napkin?
To those who are familiar with the accurate and exhaustive work of
Governor Arnold, it will be needless to say that but for the aid of his
volumes, mine would never have been written.
GEORGE W. GREENE.
WINDMILL COTTAGE,
_East Greenwich, R. I., April 8th, 1877_.
Analytical Table.
CHAPTER I.
CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND PLYMOUTH
COLONIES.--ARRIVAL AND BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
The religious sentiment connected with the
foundation of states, 1
Resistance to the doctrine of theocracy occasioned
the settlement of Rhode Island, 2
1631. Ship Lyon arrived at Boston, bringing Roger
Williams, 2
Early life of Williams, 2
Massachusetts in possession of two distinct
colonies, 3
In Massachusetts Colony the clergy were virtually
rulers, and they were extremely rigid, 3
Disputes between Williams and the authorities of
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 4
Removal of Williams to Plymouth, 4
Williams makes friendship with Massasoit and
Miantonomi, 5
Learns the Indian language, 5
Williams returns to Salem, 5
1635. He is persecuted and finally banished, 6
Articles of banishment, 6
CHAPTER II.
SUFFERINGS OF ROGER WILLIAMS IN THE WILDERNESS.--FOUNDS A SETTLEMENT
ON THE SEEKONK RIVER.--IS ADVISED TO DEPART.--SEEKS OUT A NEW
PLACE WHICH HE CALLS PROVIDENCE.
Attempt to send Williams to England, 7
His flight, 8
He is fed by the Indians, 8
He is given land on the Seekonk River by Massasoit
and starts a settlement, 8
He receives a friendly letter from the Governor of
Plymouth asking him to remove, 9
He starts with five companions in a canoe to find
a place for a settlement, and finally lands at
Providence, 9
CHAPTER III.
WILLIAMS OBTAINS A GRANT OF LAND AND FOUNDS A COLONY.--FORM OF
GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONY.--WILLIAMS GOES TO ENGLAND TO OBTAIN A
ROYAL CHARTER.
Early inhabitants of Rhode Island, 11
Williams makes peace between Canonicus and Massasoit, 12
He receives a grant of land from Canonicus and begins
a settlement, 12
Compact of the colonists at Providence, 13
Experiment of separation of church from state tried
in the new Colony, 13
The right of suffrage not regarded as a natural right.
Illustrated by Joshua Verin and his wife, 14
1639. The first church founded in Providence, 15
Five select men appointed to govern the Colony, subject
to the action of the Monthly Town Meeting, 15
Massachusetts Colony applied for a new charter to cover
the land occupied by Providence, 15
1643. Providence in connection with Aquidneck and Warwick
sent Williams to England to obtain a Royal charter, 15
1644. Williams returns in 1644 successful, and is
received with exultation, 16
CHAPTER IV.
SETTLEMENT OF AQUIDNECK AND WARWICK.--PEQUOT WAR.--DEATH OF
MIANTONOMI.
1637. Anna Hutchinson arrived in Massachusetts and banished, 17
Nineteen of her followers under William Coddington
and John Clarke, purchased the Island of
Aquidneck and formed settlements at Pocasset and
Newport, 17
Roger Williams proclaimed the right of religious
liberty to every human being, 18
Samuel Gorton banished from Pocasset, 19
He denied the authority of all government except
that authorized by the King and Parliament, 19
He, with eleven others, bought Shawomet and settled
there, 19
He is besieged by troops from Massachusetts, is
captured, imprisoned, and afterwards released, 19
He is appointed to a magistracy in Aquidneck, 19
Roger Williams prevented the alliance of the
Pequots and Narragansetts, and formed one between
the English and the Narragansetts, 21
Pequots rooted out and crushed, 21
Miantonomi treacherously put to death, 22
The Narragansetts put themselves under the protection
of the English, 22
CHAPTER V.
CHARTER GRANTED TO PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.--ORGANIZATION UNDER
IT.--THE LAWS ADOPTED.
1643. The charter granted to Providence Plantations, 23
Provisions of the charter, 23
1647. The corporators met at Portsmouth and in a general
assembly accepted the charter, and proceeded to
organize under it, 24
The government declared to be democratical, 24
President and other officers chosen, 25
Description of the code of laws, 25
Design for a seal adopted, 26
Roger Williams presented with one hundred pounds
for services in obtaining the charter, 26
Spirit of the law, 27
CHAPTER VI.
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC TROUBLES.--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT AT USURPATION BY
CODDINGTON.
Death of Canonicus, 28
Possibility of the doctrine of soul liberty
demonstrated, 28
Dissensions among the colonists, 29
Troubles with Massachusetts, 29
Baptists persecuted in Massachusetts, 30
1651. Coddington obtained a royal commission as
Governor of Rhode Island and Connecticut for life,
which virtually dissolved the first charter, 30
Roger Williams sent to England to ask for a
confirmation of the charter, 31
John Clarke, also, sent to ask for a revocation of
Coddington's commission, 31
1652. Slaves not allowed to be held in bondage longer than
ten years, 32
Commerce with the Dutch of Manhattan interrupted by
war between England and Holland, 32
Coddington's commission revoked and the first charter
restored, 32
CHAPTER VII.
MORE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC TROUBLES.--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
REGULATIONS OF THE COLONY.--ARRIVAL OF QUAKERS.
Conscience claimed as the rule of action in civil
as well as religious matters, 33
Contentions between the Island and the main-land
towns, 34
1654. Court of Commissioners met and effected a reunion
in the Colony, 34
Attempts of the United Colonies to make war on the
Narragansetts, but they failed, as Williams had
influenced Massasoit not to sanction it, 35
Qualification of citizenship, 36
Duties of citizenship ascendant over dignity of
office, 37
Protection of marriage, 38
The Pawtuxet controversy settled by acknowledgement
of the claims of Rhode Island, 38
Fort built for protection against Indians, 39
Quakers arrived. Difference of treatment of them
between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 39
1663. A new charter granted by Charles II. and accepted
by the colonists, 40
CHAPTER VIII.
TROUBLES IN OBTAINING A NEW CHARTER.--PROVISIONS OF THE
CHARTER.--DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING THE NARRAGANSETT
PURCHASE.--CURRENCY.--SCHOOLS.
The new charter gave a democratic government, 41
Some of its provisions, 41
Religious liberty recognized by it, 42
Assembly and courts reörganized, 43
State magistrates chosen by the freemen, 44
Jealousy of Massachusetts, 44
Trouble concerning the ownership of Narragansett, 45
Attempt to dispossess Rhode Island of part of her
territory, 46
The Narragansetts compelled to mortgage their lands
to the United Colonies, 47
New charter obtained by Connecticut extending its
bounds to the Narragansett River, 48
1663. The boundary line left to arbitrators who fix it at
the Pawcatuck River, 49
The intrigues of John Scott for the purchase of the
Narragansett tract, 49
Letter obtained from the King, putting the
Narragansett purchase under protection of
Massachusetts and Connecticut, 50
This was rendered null by the second charter of
Rhode Island grant soon afterward, 51
Wampum used as money in the Colony, 52
Also used as an article of ornament by the natives, 52
1652. Massachusetts began to coin silver in 1652, 53
Rhode Island abolished the use of wampum ten years
later, 53
1662. New England shilling made legal tender in Rhode
Island, 53
1640-1663. First schools established at Providence and
Newport, 53
Affirmation is declared to be equal to an oath, 54
CHAPTER IX.
TERRITORY OF RHODE ISLAND IS INCREASED BY THE ADDITION OF BLOCK
ISLAND.--DISPUTES BETWEEN RHODE ISLAND AND THE OTHER COLONIES
SETTLED BY ROYAL COMMAND.--STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE COLONY IN 1667.
1663. Block Island added to Rhode Island, 55
Regulations concerning its admission, 56
It is incorporated under the name of New Shoreham, 56
Four Commissioners sent to America to reduce the
Dutch and settle all questions of appeal between
the colonies, 57
The vexed questions of boundary line between
Rhode Island and Plymouth; the Narragansett
question and Warwick difficulties referred to the
Commissioners, who referred the first to the King
and decided the second in favor of Rhode Island, 57
The Indians removed from King's Province, 59
Five propositions submitted by the Commissioners to
the Rhode Island Assembly, 59
1st. All householders should take the oath of
allegiance to the King, 59
2d. Mode of admitting freemen, 59
3d. Admission to the sacrament open to all well
disposed persons, 60
4th. All laws and resolves derogatory to the King
repealed, 60
5th. Provisions for self-defence, 60
1672. Trouble with John Paine concerning Prudence Island, 62
Members of the Assembly to be paid for their
services, 63
Financial difficulties in the Colony, 64
1667. Preparations for defence against the French, 64
1672. Act passed to facilitate the collection of taxes, 65
CHAPTER X.
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
Wamsutta summoned before the General Court at Plymouth, 67
His death, 67
Indignation of the Indians, especially King Philip, 68
Condition of the Indians, 68
Attack on Swanzey, 69
The Indians pursued by the English, 69
Philip and his allies besieged in a swamp at Pocasset, 71
His escape, 71
The Indian attack on Hadley, 71
Goffe, the regicide, 72
Philip joined the Narragansetts, 72
Battle in the swamp, 73
Indians defeated, and their village destroyed, 74
Depredations in Rhode Island, 75
Death of Canonchet, 76
Death of Philip and end of the war, 77
Condition of the country after the war, 77
CHAPTER XI.
INDIANS STILL TROUBLESOME.--CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.--TROUBLES
CONCERNING THE BOUNDARY LINES.
Precautions against the Indians, 78
Troubles with Connecticut concerning Narragansett, 79
Two agents sent to England, 80
War party obtains power, 80
Foundation of East Greenwich, 82
Bitter controversy concerning the limits and extent
of the Providence and Pawtuxet purchase, 82
1696-1712. Settled in 1696 and 1712, 83
CHAPTER XII.
DEATH OF SEVERAL OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN.--CHANGES
IN LEGISLATION.
The United Colonies still encroached upon Rhode
Island, 84
Deaths of John Clarke, Roger Williams, Samuel
Gorton, William Harris, and William Coddington, 85
1678. Financial condition of the Colony in 1678, 88
Changes in the usages of election, 89
Bankrupt law passed and afterwards repealed, 89
Law concerning disputed titles to lands, 90
1679. Law for the protection of servants, 91
Law for the protection of sailors, 91
John Clawson's curse, 92
CHAPTER XIII.
COURTS AND ARMY STRENGTHENED.--COMMISSIONERS SENT FROM
ENGLAND.--CHARTER REVOKED.
Disputes concerning the title of Potowomut, 93
1680. Power of the town to reject or accept new citizens, 93
Efficiency of the courts increased, 94
English navigation act injures the commercial
interests of the Colony, 95
Commissioners appointed to settle the vexed
question of the King's Province, 96
Rhode Island's position in New England in regard to
the other colonies, 96
Trouble with the Commissioners, 97
Charter revoked, 98
Rhode Island returned to its original form of
government, 98
CHAPTER XIV.
CHANGES IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT.--SIR EDMOND ANDROS APPOINTED
GOVERNOR.--HE OPPRESSES THE COLONISTS AND IS FINALLY DEPOSED.
John Greene sent to England with an address to the
King for the preservation of the charter, 100
Changes in the names and the boundaries of
Kingston, Westerly and East Greenwich, 101
1687. Arrival of Sir Edmond Andros, 101
Taxes farmed out, 102
Marriages made illegal unless performed by the rites
of the English Church, 103
Passport system introduced, 103
Composition of the council, 103
Andros's commission enlarged, 105
The press subjected to the will of the Governor, 105
Title of Rhode Island to King's Province again
confirmed, 106
Persecution of the Huguenots, 107
Andros deposed, 107
CHAPTER XV.
CHARTER GOVERNMENT AGAIN RESUMED.--FRENCH WAR.--INTERNAL
IMPROVEMENTS.--CHARGES AGAINST THE COLONIES.
Chief-Justice Dudley attempted to open his court,
he is seized and imprisoned, 108
Return of the old form of government, 108
Legality of resumption confirmed by the King, 109
1690. The Assembly reorganized, 110
Town house built, 111
The colonists taxed to sustain the French and
Indian war, 112
Coast invaded by French privateers, 112
New taxes levied, 113
Small-pox broke out in the Colony, 113
1691. Sir William Phipps appointed Governor of
Massachusetts with command over all the forces of
New England, 114
This command over the forces of Rhode Island
restricted to time of war, 115
1693. First mail line established between Boston
and Virginia, 116
State officers to be paid a regular salary, 116
Assembly divided into two houses, 116
Indians still troublesome, 117
Courts of Admiralty established in the Colony, 117
1697-1698. Trouble from enemies to the charter government, 117
Interests of trade fostered, 118
Smuggling common, 118
Charges made against the Colony by the Royal
Governor, 119
Captain Kidd, 119
CHAPTER XVI.
COLONIAL PROSPERITY.--DIFFICULTIES OCCASIONED BY THE WAR WITH THE
FRENCH.--DOMESTIC AFFAIRS OF THE COLONY.
1702. Prosperity of the Colony, 120
Providence the second town in the Colony, 120
Religious freedom, 120
Attempt to establish a Vice-Royalty over the Colonies, 122
1701. Better Laws enacted, 123
1702. Preparations for defence, 123
1703. Boundary line between Rhode Island and
Connecticut finally settled, 124
The character and interest of the Colony
misunderstood by England, 124
French privateer captured, 125
Further acts of the Assembly, 126
Slave trade, 127
1708. First census taken, 127
Public auctions first held, 128
Commercial and agricultural progress, 128
1709. First printing press set up at Newport, 129
Internal improvements, 130
CHAPTER XVII.
PAPER MONEY TROUBLES.--ESTABLISHMENT OF BANKS.--PROTECTION OF HOME
INDUSTRIES.--PROPERTY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SUFFRAGE.
Issue of paper money, 131
Clerk of the Assembly first elected from outside
the House, 131
Arts of peace resumed, 132
New militia laws enacted, 132
Laws concerning trade, 133
Troubles occasioned by paper money, 134
1715. Banks established in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 134
Paper money question carried into election, 134
Improvements in Newport, 136
Criminal code, 136
1716. School-houses built in Portsmouth, 136
Punishment of slander, 137
Indian lands taken under the protection of the Colony, 137
Law concerning intestates, 137
1719. First edition of the laws printed, 138
Boundary troubles, 138
Industry of the Colony protected by loans and
bounties, 138
1724. Freehold act passed, 139
1723. Pirate captured, 139
Evidences of the progress of the Colony, 139
1727. Death of Governor Cranston, 141
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHANGE OF THE EXECUTIVE.--ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY.--GEORGE BERKELEY'S
RESIDENCE IN NEWPORT.--FRIENDLY FEELING BETWEEN THE COLONISTS AND
THE MOTHER COUNTRY.
New Governor elected, 142
State of affairs in England, 142
1728. Revision of the criminal code, 143
Laws for the encouragement and regulation of trade, 144
1727. Earthquake, 145
1723-1724. Division of the Colony into counties, 146
George Berkeley, 146
Establishment of Redwood Library, 147
Laws concerning charitable institutions, Quakers
and Indians, 147
1730. New census taken, 148
1731. New bank voted, 149
Commercial prosperity, 149
New edition of the laws published, 149
Fisheries encouraged, 150
Regulation concerning election, 150
William Wanton chosen Governor, 152
Depreciation of paper money, 152
1733. Marriage laws, 152
John Wanton chosen Governor, 153
Watchfulness of the Board of Trade, 153
1735-1736. Throat distemper, 154
Law against bribery at elections, 154
Arrival of his Majesty's ship Tartar, 155
Means of protection against fire, 155
CHAPTER XIX.
WAR WITH SPAIN.--NEW TAXES LEVIED BY ENGLAND.--RELIGIOUS AWAKENING
AMONG THE BAPTISTS.
Preparation for war against the Spaniards, 156
Great expedition against the Spanish West Indies, 157
New taxes levied on importations by England, 157
Death of Governor Wanton, who is succeeded by
Richard Ward, 158
Arrival of Whitefield and Fothergill, 159
Further provisions for the defence of the Colony, 159
Report of the Governor concerning paper money, 160
1741. Boundary line between Rhode Island and
Massachusetts settled, 161
CHAPTER XX.
PROGRESS OF THE WAR WITH THE FRENCH.--CHANGE IN THE JURISDICTION
OF THE COURTS.--SENSE OF COMMON INTEREST DEVELOPING AMONG THE
COLONISTS.--LOUISBURG CAPTURED.
Privateers fitted out, 162
1741. James Greene started an iron works, 162
Changes of the jurisdictions of the courts, 163
Encroachments of Connecticut, 163
1741. Newport Artillery chartered, 165
Counterfeit bills troublesome, 164
1744. Lotteries legalized, 165
Rhode Island's part in the capture of Louisburg, 165
Death of Colonel John Cranston, 166
Two privateers and two hundred men lost, 166
Sense of common interest and mutual dependence
gaining ground, 166
Caution against fraudulent voting, 167
Disaster to the French armada, 168
1746. Close of the campaign, 168
Accession of territory, 168
CHAPTER XXI.
ATTEMPT TO RETURN TO SPECIE PAYMENTS.--CHANGES IN THE REQUIREMENTS OF
CITIZENSHIP.--NEW COUNTIES AND TOWNS FORMED.--FRENCH AND INDIAN
WAR.--WARD AND HOPKINS CONTEST.--ESTABLISHMENT OF NEWSPAPERS.
1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 170
Hutchinson's scheme for returning to specie payment
rejected by Rhode Island, 171
Act against swearing revised, 172
Provisions concerning legal residence, 172
New census taken, 172
1748-1749. Death of John Callender, 173
Beaver Tail Light built, 173
Troubles from depreciation of currency, 173
1754. First divorce granted, 174
Kent County formed, 174
1752. Gregorian calendar adopted, 175
Troubles concerning the Narragansett land settled, 175
1753. First patent granted in the Colony for making potash, 175
Fellowship Club founded--afterwards the Newport
Marine Society, 176
1754. Commissioners sent to the Albany Congress, 176
French and Indian war, 177
French settlers imprisoned, 178
Ward and Hopkins contest, 178
Providence court house and library burned, 179
David Douglass built a theatre at Providence, 180
1758. Newport Mercury established, 180
1762. Providence Gazette established, 180
Writs of assistance first called for, 181
1759. Death of Richard Partridge, 181
Freemasonry first introduced into the Colony, 181
Regulations concerning fires, 181
Towns of Hopkinton and Johnston formed, 182
CHAPTER XXII.
RETROSPECT.--ENCROACHMENTS OF ENGLAND.--RESISTANCE TO THE REVENUE
LAWS.--STAMP ACT.--SECOND CONGRESS OF COLONIES MET AT NEW
YORK.--EDUCATIONAL INTEREST.
Resumé of the progress of the Colony, 183
Reason for the enactment of the laws, 184
Rhode Island's solution of the problem of
self-government and soul-liberty, 185
Encroachments of England on the liberties of the
colonies, 186
War had taught the colonies a much needed lesson, 187
Harbor improvements, 188
Parliament votes men and money for the defence of
the American colonies, 188
Restrictions of commerce, 189
1764. Molasses and sugar act renewed and extended, 189
Resistance to the enforcement of the obnoxious
revenue laws, 190
Action of the colonies in regard to the stamp act, 191
England is obliged to repeal the stamp act, 193
Resistance to impressment, 193
1765. Second Colonial Congress met at New York and issued
addresses to the people, Parliament, and to the
King, 194
New digest of the laws completed and printed, 195
1766. Free schools established at Providence, 196
Brown University founded, 196
Iron mine discovered, 197
CHAPTER XXIII.
TRANSIT OF VENUS.--A STRONG DISLIKE TO ENGLAND MORE OPENLY
EXPRESSED.--NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT.--INTRODUCTION OF SLAVES
PROHIBITED.--CAPTURE OF THE GASPEE.
Collision between British officers and citizens, 199
Dedication of liberty trees, 199
Laws concerning domestic interests, 199
Transit of Venus, 200
Armed resistance to England more openly talked of, 201
Scuttling of the sloop-of-war Liberty, 202
Non-importation of tea agreed to, 203
Prosperity of Newport, 203
First Commencement at Rhode Island College, 204
1770. Further introduction of slaves prohibited, 204
Governor Hutchinson advanced a claim for the
command of the Rhode Island militia, 205
Evidence of justice in Rhode Island, 206
Capture and destruction of the schooner Gaspee, 207
CHAPTER XXIV.
PROPOSITION FOR THE UNION OF THE COLONIES.--ACTIVE MEASURES
TAKEN LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE.--DELEGATES ELECTED
TO CONGRESS.--DESTRUCTION OF TEA AT PROVIDENCE.--TROOPS
RAISED.--POSTAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED.--DEPREDATIONS OF THE
BRITISH.--"GOD SAVE THE UNITED COLONIES."
1774. Limitation of negro slavery, 210
Resolution recommending the union of the colonies
passed at Providence town meeting, 210
1774. Boston port bill passed, 211
Small-pox at Newport, 211
Indication of popular indignation, 212
Activity of Committees of Correspondence, 212
Publishment of the Hutchinson letters, 213
Franklin removed from his position as superintendent
of American post-offices, 214
1774. General Gage entered Boston as Governor, 215
Sympathy of Rhode Island for Boston; East Greenwich
the first to open a subscription, 215
Hopkins and Ward elected delegates to Congress, 216
1774. Congress met in Philadelphia; adopted a declaration
of rights; recommended the formation of an American
Association, 217
Distribution of arms, 218
Exportation of sheep stopped; manufacture of
fire-arms begun, 219
Tea burnt at Providence, 219
Troops started for Boston, 219
Army of Observation formed with Nathanael Greene,
commander, 220
Rhode Island troops on Jamaica Plains, 221
Articles of war passed, 221
Capture of a British vessel by Captain Abraham
Whipple, 221
Rhode Island Navy founded, 222
William Goddard's postal system went into operation, 222
Colony put upon a war footing, 223
Bristol bombarded and the coast of Rhode Island
plundered, 224
Part of the debt of Rhode Island assumed by
Congress as a war debt, 225
Rhode Island in the expedition against Quebec, 226
Depredation of the British squadron, 226
Battle on Prudence Island, 227
Evacuation of Boston, 228
Death of Samuel Ward, 228
The Assembly of Rhode Island renounced their
allegiance to the British Crown, 228
CHAPTER XXV.
RHODE ISLAND BLOCKADED.--DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE INDORSED BY THE
ASSEMBLY.-- NEW TROOPS RAISED.--FRENCH ALLIANCE.--UNSUCCESSFUL
ATTEMPT TO DRIVE THE BRITISH FROM RHODE ISLAND.
Islands and waters of Rhode Island taken possession
of by the British, 229
Quota of Rhode Island, 230
Inoculation introduced, 231
Treatment of Tories, 231
Declaration of Independence indorsed by the Assembly, 232
Rhode Island's part in the Continental Navy, 232
Convention of Eastern States to form a concerted
plan of action, 233
Financial troubles, 234
Regiment of negroes raised, 234
1778. Tidings of the French alliance received, 235
Expedition against Bristol and Warren, 235
Attempt to drive the British from Rhode Island
rendered unsuccessful by a terrible storm, and
jealousy among the officers of the French fleet, 236
CHAPTER XXVI.
ACTS OF THE BRITISH TROOPS.--DISTRESS IN RHODE ISLAND.--EVACUATION
OF NEWPORT.--REPUDIATION.--END OF THE WAR.
Disappointment of the Americans, 241
Wanton destruction of life and property by the
British, 241
Pigot galley captured by Talbot, 242
Scarcity of food in Rhode Island, 242
Steuben's tactics introduced into the army, 244
Difficulty in raising money, 244
British left Newport, 245
Town records carried off by the British, 246
Repudiation of debt, 247
Rhode Island's quota, 248
Preparations for quartering and feeding the troops, 249
An English fleet of sixteen ships menaced the Rhode
Island coast, 250
Assembly met at Newport; the first time in four
years, 250
1781. End of the war, 251
The federation completed, 251
CHAPTER XXVII.
ARTS OF PEACE RESUMED.--DOCTRINE OF STATE RIGHTS.
Name of King's County changed to Washington, 252
New census taken, 253
Question of State Rights raised, 253
1782. Nicholas Cooke died, 254
Armed resistance to the collection of taxes, 254
Troubles arising from financial embarrassment, 255
1783. Acts of the Assembly, 256
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DEPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY.--INTRODUCTION OF THE
SPINNING-JENNY.--BITTER OPPOSITION TO THE FEDERAL UNION.--RHODE
ISLAND FINALLY ACCEPTS THE CONSTITUTION.
Desperate attempt to float a new issue of paper money, 257
Forcing acts declared unconstitutional, 258
First spinning-jenny made in the United States, 259
Bill passed to pay five shillings in the pound for
paper money, 260
Refusal of Rhode Island to send delegates to the
Federal Convention, 261
Proposed United States Constitution printed, 261
Acceptance of the Constitution by various states, 261
State of manufactures, 262
1790. Rhode Island declared her adhesion to the Union, 264
CHAPTER XXIX.
MODE OF LIFE IN OUR FOREFATHERS' DAYS.
Early condition of the land, 265
Agriculture the principal pursuit of the early
settlers, 266
Early traveling, 267
Early means of education, 267
Amusements, 268
CHAPTER XXX.
COMMERCIAL GROWTH AND PROSPERITY OF RHODE ISLAND.
Rhode Island wiser on account of her previous
struggles for self-government, 270
Commercial condition of Rhode Island, 271
Trade with East Indies commenced, 271
1790. First cotton factory went into operation, 273
1799. Free school system established, 273
1819. Providence Institution for Savings founded, 274
Canal from the Providence River to the north line
of the state projected and failed, 274
1801. Great fire in Providence, 274
Visit of Washington to Rhode Island, 275
1832. Providence made a city, 275
Rhode Island in the War of 1812, 276
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE DORR REBELLION.
The Right of Suffrage becomes the question of Rhode
Island's politics, 277
Inequality of representation, 278
No relief obtainable from the Assembly, 278
Formation of Suffrage Associations, 279
Peoples' Constitution, so called, voted for, 279
1842. Thomas Wilson Dorr elected Governor under it, 280
Conflict between the old and new government, 280
Attempt of the Dorr government to organize and
seize the arsenal both failures, 281
End of the War, 281
Dorr tried for treason and sentenced to imprisonment
for life; afterwards restored to his political and
civil rights, 281
New Constitution adopted, 282
Freedom of thought and speech the foundation of
Rhode Island's prosperity, 282
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIFE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.--THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.--THE
CENTENARY.
Life under the Constitution, 283
The War of the Rebellion, 283
Rhode Island's quota, 284
The Centennial Exposition, 285
APPENDIX.
King Charles' Charter, 291
Present State Constitution, 301
Copy of the Dorr Constitution, 317
State seal, 333
Governors of Rhode Island, 334
Deputy-Governors of Rhode Island, 337
Members of the Continental Congress, 339
Towns, date of incorporation, &c., 340
Population from 1708 to 1875, 345
State valuation, 348
The Corliss Engine at the Centennial Exposition, 349
A Short History of Rhode Island.
CHAPTER I.
CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND PLYMOUTH
COLONIES.--ARRIVAL AND BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
The nations of antiquity, unable to discover their real origin, found
a secret gratification in tracing it to the Gods. Thus a religious
sentiment was connected with the foundation of states, and the building
of the city walls was consecrated by religious rites. The Christian
middle ages preserved the spirit of Pagan antiquity, and every city
celebrated with solemn rites the day of its patron saint. The colonies,
which, in the natural progress of their development, became the United
States of America, traced their history, by authentic documents, to
the first Christian cultivators of the soil; and in New England the
religious idea lay at the root of their foundation and development. In
Plymouth it took the form of separatism, or a simple severance from the
Church of England. In Massachusetts Bay it aimed at the establishment
of a theocracy, and the enforcement of a rigorous uniformity of creed
and discipline. From the resistance to this uniformity came Rhode
Island and the doctrine of soul liberty.
On the 5th of February, 1631, the ship Lyon, with twenty passengers and
a large cargo of provisions, came to anchor in Nantaskett roads. On the
8th she reached Boston, and the 9th, which had been set apart as a day
of fasting and prayer for the little Colony, sorely stricken by famine,
was made a day of thanksgiving and praise for its sudden deliverance.
Among those who, on that day, first united their prayers with the
prayers of the elder colonists, was the young colonist, Roger Williams.
Little is known of the early history of Roger Williams, except that he
was born in Wales, about 1606; attracted, early in life, the attention
of Sir Edward Coke by his skill in taking down in short hand, sermons,
and speeches in the Star Chamber; was sent by the great lawyer to
Sutton Hospital, now known as the Charter House, with its fresh
memories of Coleridge and Charles Lamb; went thence in the regular time
to Oxford; took orders in the Church of England, and finally embraced
the doctrine of the Puritans. Besides Latin and Greek, which formed
the principal objects of an University course, he acquired a competent
knowledge of Hebrew and several modern languages, for the study of
which he seemed to have had a peculiar facility. His industry and
attainments soon won him a high place in the esteem of his religions
brethren, and although described by one who knew him as "passionate
and precipitate," he gained and preserved the respect of some of the
most eminent among his theological opponents. The key to his life may
be found in the simple fact that he possessed an active and progressive
mind in an age wherein thought instantly became profession, and
profession passed promptly into action.
When this "godly and zealous young minister" landed in Boston, he
found the territory which has long been known as Massachusetts in
the possession of two distinct colonies, the Colony of Plymouth,
founded in 1620, by the followers of John Robinson, of Leyden, and
known as the colony of separatists, or men who had separated from
the Church of England, but were willing to grant to others the same
freedom of opinion which they claimed for themselves; and the Colony
of Massachusetts Bay, founded ten years later by a band of intelligent
Puritans, many of them men of position and fortune, who, alarmed by the
variety of new opinions and doctrines which seemed to menace a total
subversion of what they regarded as religion, had resolved to establish
a new dwelling place in a new world, with the Old and New Testament
for statute book and constitution. Building upon this foundation the
clergy naturally became their guides and counselors in all things, and
the control of the law, which was but another name for the control
of the Bible, extended to all the acts of life, penetrating to the
domestic fireside, and holding every member of the community to a rigid
accountability for speech as well as action. Asking for no exemption
from the rigorous application of Bible precept for themselves,
they granted none to others, and looked upon the advocate of any
interpretation but theirs as a rebel to God and an enemy to their peace.
It was to this iron-bound colony that Roger Williams brought his
restless, vigorous and fearless spirit. Disagreements soon arose and
suspicions were awakened. He claimed a freedom of speech irreconcilable
with the fundamental principles of their government; and they a power
over opinion irreconcilable with freedom of thought. Neither of them
could look upon his own position from the other's point of view. Both
were equally sincere. And much as we may now condemn the treatment
which Williams received at the hands of the colonial government of
Massachusetts Bay, its charter and its religious tenets justified it in
treating him as an intruder.
The first public expression of the hostility he was to encounter
came from the magistrates of Boston within two months after his
arrival, and, on the very day on which the church of Salem had
installed him as assistant to their aged pastor, Mr. Skelton. The
magistrates were a powerful body, and before autumn he found his
situation so uncomfortable that he removed to Plymouth, where the
rights of individual opinion were held in respect, if not fully
acknowledged. Here, while assiduously engaged in the functions of his
holy office, he was brought into direct contact with several of the
most powerful chiefs of the neighboring tribes of Indians, and among
them of Massasoit and Miantonomi, who were to exercise so controlling
an influence over his fortunes. His fervent spirit caught eagerly at
the prospect of bringing them under Christian influences, and his
natural taste for the study of languages served to lighten the labor
of preparation. "God was pleased," he wrote many years afterwards, "to
give me a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy
holes, even while I lived at Plymouth and Salem, to gain their tongue;
my soul's desire was to do the natives good."
This was apparently the calmest period of his stormy career. It was
at Plymouth that his first child, a daughter, was born. But although
he soon made many friends, and had the satisfaction of knowing that
his labors were successful, his thoughts still turned towards Salem,
and, receiving an invitation to resume his place as assistant of Mr.
Skelton, whose health was on the wane, he returned thither after an
absence of two years. Some of the members of his church had become so
attached to him that they followed him to the sister colony.
And now came suspicions which quickly ripened into controversies,
and before another two years were over led to what he regarded as
persecution, but what the rulers of the Bay Colony held to be the
fulfillment of the obligation which they had assumed in adopting the
whole Bible as their rule of life. In 1635 he was banished from the
colony by a solemn sentence of the General Court, for teaching:
"1st. That we have not our land by Pattent from the King, but that
the natives are the true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of
such receiving it by Pattent.
2d. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear, to pray,
as being actions of God's worship.
3d. That it is not lawful to heare any of the Ministers of the Parish
Assemblies in England.
4th. That the civil magistrates power extends only to the Bodies and
Goods and outward state of man."
For us who read these charges with the light of two more centuries of
progress upon them, it seems strange that neither the General Court
nor Williams himself should have perceived that the only one wherein
civilization was interested was that to which they have assigned the
least conspicuous place.
CHAPTER II.
SUFFERINGS OF ROGER WILLIAMS IN THE WILDERNESS.--FOUNDS A
SETTLEMENT ON THE SEEKONK RIVER.--IS ADVISED TO DEPART.--SEEKS
OUT A NEW PLACE, WHICH HE CALLS PROVIDENCE.
When the sentence of banishment was first pronounced against the
future founder of Rhode Island, his health was so feeble that it was
resolved to suspend the execution of it till spring. This, however,
was soon found to be impracticable, for the affection and confidence
which he had inspired presently found open expression, and friends
began to gather around him in his own house to listen to his teaching.
Lack of energy was not a defect of the government of the Colony of
Massachusetts Bay, and learning that rumors of a new colony to be
founded on Narragansett Bay were already afloat, it resolved to send
the supposed leader of the unwelcome enterprise back to England. A
warrant, therefore, was given to Captain Underhill, a man of doubtful
character in the employment of the Colony, with orders to proceed
directly to Salem, put the offender on board his pinnace, and convey
him to a ship that lay in Boston harbor ready to sail for England with
the first fair wind. When the pinnace reached Salem, he found only
the wife and infant children of the banished man, and a people deeply
grieved for the loss of their pastor. Williams was gone, and whither no
one could say.
And whither, indeed, could he go? The thin and scattered settlements
of the northern colonies were bounded seaward by a tempestuous ocean,
and inland by a thick belt of primeval forest, whose depths civilized
man had never penetrated. If he escaped the wild beasts that prowled in
their recesses, could he hope to escape the wilder savage, who claimed
the forest for his hunting grounds? "I was sorely tossed," Williams
writes in after years, "for fourteen weeks in a bitter winter-season,
not knowing what bread or bed did mean." The brave man's earnest mind
bore up the frail and suffering body.
And now he began to reap the fruit of his kind treatment of the
natives, and the pains which he had taken to learn their language.
"These ravens fed me in the wilderness," he wrote, with a touching
application of Scripture narrative. They gave him the shelter of their
squalid wigwams, and shared with him their winter store. The great
chief Massasoit opened his door to him, and, when spring came, gave him
a tract of land on the Seekonk River, where he "pitched and began to
build and plant." Here he was soon joined by some friends from Salem,
who had resolved to cast in their lot with his. But the seed which they
planted had already begun to send up its early shoots, when a letter
from his "ancient friend, the Governor of Plymouth," came, to "lovingly
advise him" that he was "fallen into the edge of their bounds;" that
they were "loth to displease the Bay," and that if he would "remove
but to the other side of the water," he would have "the country
before [him] and might be as free as themselves," and they "should be
loving neighbors together." Williams accepted the friendly counsel,
and, taking five companions with him, set out in a canoe to follow
the downward course of the Seekonk and find a spot whereon he might
plant and build in safety. As the little boat came under the shade
of the western bank of the pleasant stream, a small party of Indians
was seen watching them from a large flat rock that rose a few feet
above the water's edge. "Wha-cheer, netop?--Wha-cheer?--how are you,
friend?" they cried; and Williams accepting the friendly salutation as
a favorable omen, turned the prow of his canoe to the shore. Tradition
calls the spot where he landed, Slate Rock, and the name of Wha-cheer
square has been given in advance to the land around it. What was said
or done at that first interview has not been recorded, but the parting
was as friendly as the meeting, and Williams resuming his course, soon
found himself at the junction of the Seekonk and Mooshausick. Two
points mark the intermingling of the two streams, and in those days the
waters must have spread their broad bosom like a lake, and gleamed and
danced within their fringe of primeval forest. Williams, following,
perhaps, the counsel of the Indians, turned northward and held his way
between the narrowing banks of the Mooshausick, till he espied, at the
foot of a hill which rose shaggy with trees and precipitate from its
eastern shore, the flash and sparkling of a spring. Here he landed,
and, recalling his trials and the mighty hand that had sustained him
through them all, called the place Providence.
CHAPTER III.
WILLIAMS OBTAINS A GRANT OF LAND AND FOUNDS A COLONY.-FORM OF
GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONY.--WILLIAMS GOES TO ENGLAND TO OBTAIN A
ROYAL CHARTER.
The territory which now forms the State of Rhode Island, with the
exception of Bristol County, in which lay Mount Hope, the seat of
Massasoit, chief of the Wamponoags, was held by the Narragansetts, a
tribe skilled in the Indian art of making wampum, the Indian money,
and the art common to most barbarous nations of making rude vessels
in clay and stone. They had once been very powerful, and could still
bring four or five thousand braves to the warpath. Their language was
substantially the same with that of the other New England tribes, and
was understood by the natives of New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
With this language Roger Williams had early made himself familiar.
It was labor well bestowed, and he was to reap the reward of it in his
day of tribulation. The chiefs of the Narragansetts when he came among
them were Canonicus, an "old prince, most shy of the English to his
latest breath," and his nephew, Miantonomi. Their usual residence was
on the beautiful Island of Conanicut; and when Williams first came he
found them at feud with his other friend, Ossameguin, or Massasoit,
Sachem of the Wamponoags. His first care was to reconcile these chiefs,
"traveling between them three to pacify, to satisfy all these and their
dependent spirits of (his) honest intention to live peaceably by them."
The well founded distrust of the English which Canonicus cherished to
the end of his life did not extend to Williams, to whom he made a grant
of land between the Mooshausick and the Wanasquatucket; confirming it
two years later by a deed bearing the marks of the two Narragansett
chiefs. This land Williams divided with twelve of his companions,
reserving for them and himself the right of extending the grant "to
such others as the major part of us shall admit to the same fellowship
of vote with us." It was a broad foundation, and he soon found himself
in the midst of a flourishing colony.
The proprietors, dividing their lands into two parts, "the grand
purchase of Providence," and the "Pawtuxet purchase," made an
assignment of lots to other colonists, and entered resolutely upon
the task of bringing the soil under cultivation. The possession of
property naturally leads to the making of laws, and the new colonists
had not been together long before they felt the want of a government.
The form which it first assumed amongst them was that of a democratic
municipality, wherein the "masters of families" incorporated
themselves into a town, and transacted their public business in town
meeting. The colonists of Plymouth had formed their social compact in
the cabin of the Mayflower. The colonists of Providence formed theirs
on the banks of the Mooshausick. "We, whose names are hereunder," it
reads, "desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to
subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders
or agreements as shall be made for public good for the body, in an
orderly way, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of
families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and such others
as they shall admit unto them only in civil things."
Never before, since the establishment of Christianity, has the
separation of Church from State been definitely marked out by this
limitation of the authority of the magistrate to civil things; and
never, perhaps, in the whole course of history, was a fundamental
principle so vigorously observed. Massachusetts looked upon the
experiment with jealousy and distrust, and when ignorant or restless
men confounded the right of individual opinion in religious matters
with a right of independent action in civil matters, those who had
condemned Roger Williams to banishment, eagerly proclaimed that
no well ordered government could exist in connection with liberty
of conscience. Many grave discussions were held, and many curious
questions arose before the distinction between liberty and license
became thoroughly interwoven with daily life; but only one passage of
this singular chapter has been preserved, and, as if to leave no doubt
concerning the spirit which led to its preservation, the narrator
begins with these ominous words: "At Providence, also, the Devil was
not idle."
The wife of Joshua Verin was a great admirer of Williams's preaching,
and claimed the right of going to hear him oftener than suited the
wishes of her husband. Did she, in following the dictates of her
conscience, which bade her go to a meeting which harmonized with her
feelings, violate the injunction of Scripture which bids wives obey
their husbands? Or did he, in exercising his acknowledged control as a
husband, trench upon her right of conscience in religious concerns? It
was a delicate question; but after long deliberation and many prayers,
the claims of conscience prevailed, and "it was agreed that Joshua
Verin, upon the breach of a covenant for restraining of the libertie of
conscience, shall be withheld from the libertie of voting till he shall
declare the contrarie"--a sentence from which it appears that the
right of suffrage was regarded as a conceded privilege, not a natural
right.
Questions of jurisdiction also arose. Massachusetts could not bring
herself to look upon her sister with a friendly eye, and Plymouth
was soon to be merged in Massachusetts. It was easy to foresee that
there would be bickerings and jealousies, if not open contention
between them. Still the little Colony grew apace. The first church
was founded in 1639. To meet the wants of an increased population the
government was changed, and five disposers or selectmen charged with
the principal functions of administration, subject, however, to the
superior authority of monthly town meetings; so early and so naturally
did municipal institutions take root in English colonies. A vital
point was yet untouched. Williams, indeed, held that the Indians, as
original occupants of the soil, were the only legal owners of it, and
carrying his principle into all his dealings with the natives, bought
of them the land on which he planted his Colony. The Plymouth and
Massachusetts colonists, also, bought their land of the natives, but
in their intercourse with the whites founded their claim upon royal
charter. They even went so far as to apply for a charter covering all
the territory of the new Colony.
Meanwhile two other colonies had been planted on the shores of
Narragansett Bay: the Colony of Aquidnick, on the Island of Rhode
Island, and the Colony of Warwick. The sense of a common danger united
them, and, in 1643, they appointed Roger Williams their agent to repair
to England and apply for a royal charter. It has been treasured up as a
bitter memory that he was compelled to seek a conveyance in New York,
for Massachusetts would not allow him to pass through her territories.
His negotiations were crowned with full success. In 1644 he was again
in the colonies, and the inhabitants of Providence, advised of his
success, met him at Seekonk and escorted him across the river with an
exultant procession of fourteen canoes.
To defray the expenses of his mission he taught Latin, Greek and
Hebrew--counting "two sons of Parliament men" among his pupils--and
read Dutch to Milton.
CHAPTER IV.
SETTLEMENT OF AQUIDNECK AND WARWICK.-PEQUOT WAR.--DEATH OF
MIANTONOMI.
I have said that two other colonies had been founded in Rhode Island.
Like Providence, they both had their origin in religious controversy.
Not long after the return of Roger Williams there came to Boston a
woman of high and subtle spirit, deeply imbued with the controversial
temper of her age. Her name was Anna Hutchinson, and she taught that
salvation was the fruit of grace, not of works. It is easy to conceive
how such a doctrine might be perverted by logical interpretation,
and religious standing made independent of moral character. This was
presently done, and Massachusetts, true to her theoretic system,
banished Anna Hutchinson and her followers as she had banished Roger
Williams. In the autumn of 1637, nineteen of these Antinomians, as they
were called to distinguish them from the legalists or adherents of the
law, took refuge in Rhode Island, where they were kindly welcomed;
and, soon after, purchasing the Island of Aquidneck, through the
intervention of Williams and Sir Henry Vane, laid the foundation of a
new town at Pocasset, near the north end of the Island. Their leaders
were William Coddington and John Clarke, under whose wise guidance the
little Colony made rapid progress, and soon began another settlement
at Newport, in the southern part of the island. Here, breaking roads,
clearing up woods, exterminating wolves and foxes, opening a trade
in lumber, engaging boldly in building ships, and above all forming
a free and simple government, with careful regard to religion and
education, they soon found themselves in advance of their elder sister,
Providence. In both colonies the principle of religious liberty
formed the basis of civil organization. On Rhode Island, however, it
was confined to Christians--a step greatly in advance of the general
intelligence of the age. But in Providence Roger Williams went still
further, and, meeting the wants of all future ages, proclaimed it the
right of every human being.
The other Colony, as if to illustrate the varieties of human opinion,
was founded by Samuel Gorton, one of those bold but restless men who
leave doubtful names in history because few see their character from
the same point of view. In Gorton's religious sentiments there seems
to have been a large leaven of mysticism, and the writings that he
has left us are not pleasant reading. But the practical danger of his
teaching lay in his denial of all government not founded upon the
authority of the King or of Parliament. Massachusetts was a legitimate
government within her own bounds. But unchartered Rhode Island had
no legal existence. At Pocasset Gorton soon came into collision with
the civil authorities and was banished. In Providence he presently
raised such dissensions that Williams almost lost heart, and began to
think seriously of withdrawing to his little Island of Patience, in
Narragansett Bay. At last Gorton with eleven companions bought Shawomet
of its Indian owners and established himself there. This brought him
into open hostility with Massachusetts, which having already cast
longing eyes upon the commercial advantages of Narragansett Bay, was
secretly endeavoring to establish a claim to all the land on its shores.
Hostile words were soon followed by hostile acts. Gorton and his
companions were besieged in their house by an armed band, compelled
to surrender, carried by force to Massachusetts, tried for heresy,
and barely escaping the gibbet, condemned to imprisonment and irons.
A reaction soon followed. Public sentiment came to their relief. They
were banished indeed from Massachusetts, but they were set at liberty
and allowed to return to Rhode Island. At Aquidneck they were received
with the sympathy which generous natures ever feel for the victims of
persecution, and Gorton was raised to an honorable magistracy in the
very colony wherein he had been openly whipped as a disturber of the
public peace. It was not till the claims of Massachusetts had been
virtually set aside by the charter which Roger Williams obtained for
his Colony that Gorton returned to Shawomet, and set himself to rebuild
the Colony of Warwick.
Meanwhile great changes had taken place in the relations of the white
man to the red. I have told how kindly the natives received Roger
Williams, and how justly he dealt by them. I will now tell, though
briefly, with what a Christian spirit he used the influence over the
Indians, which his justice had won for him, to protect the white men
who had driven him from amongst them. On the western border of the
territory of the Massachusetts dwelt the fierce and powerful Pequots.
No Indian had ever hated the whites with a hatred more intense than
they, or watched the growth of the white settlements with a truer
perception of the danger with which they menaced the original owners
of the soil. They resolved upon war, and to make their triumph sure,
resolved also to win over the Narragansetts as active allies. Tidings
of the danger soon reached the Bay Colony, and Governor Vane appealed
to Roger Williams to interpose and prevent the fatal alliance. Not
a moment was to be lost. The Pequot embassadors were already in
conference with Canonicus and Miantonomi on Conanicut. Forgetting his
personal wrongs, and barely taking time to tell his wife whither he was
going, he set forth alone in his canoe, "cutting through a stormy wind
and great seas, every minute in hazard of life."
Greater hazard awaited him on shore. English blood had already been
shed by the Pequots, and knowing their fierce nature, he "nightly
looked for their bloody knives at his own throat also." For three days
and three nights he confronted them face to face, and so great was
the control which he had gained over the Narragansett chiefs that he
succeeded in "breaking in pieces the Pequot negotiation and design, and
made and finished by many travels and charges the English league with
the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequots." The war came. The
Narragansetts were on the side of the English; fearful massacres were
committed; the Pequots were rooted out from their native soil forever;
Massachusetts was saved; but the Christian, forgetting of injuries
wherewith Williams had come to her aid in the critical moment of her
fortunes, was not deemed of sufficient virtue to wash out the stain
of heresy, and the sentence of banishment was left unrepealed on the
darker page of her colonial records.
The Pequots were crushed. The turn of the Narragansetts came next. It
was the fate of the red man to everywhere give way as a civilization
irreconcilable with his habits and his beliefs advanced, and it is for
the good of humanity that it is so. But it is sad to remember that
the Christian, with the Bible in his hand, should have sought his
examples in the stern denunciations of the Old Testament, rather than
in the injunctions to love and mercy of the New. Six years after the
formation of the league against the Pequots, a war broke out between
Sequasson, an ally of Miantonomi and the Mohegans. The Narragansett
Sachem, trusting to the good faith of his adversary, the powerful
Uncas, was betrayed in a conference, and his followers, taken by
surprise in open violation of the laws of even Indian warfare, were
put to flight. The unfortunate chief fell into the hands of his enemy,
who, fearing the English too much to put an ally of theirs to death,
referred the question of his fate to the Commissioners of the United
Colonies--Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven--who were
about to hold a conference in Boston. Rhode Island, which had been
excluded from the league, had no voice in this outrage, and Williams,
whose remonstrances might have been of some avail, was in England.
To give greater solemnity to their deliberations the Commissioners
called to their aid "five of the most judicious elders," and by their
united voices Miantonomi was condemned to die. The execution of the
sentence was entrusted to Uncas, and the only condition attached to the
shameful act was that the generous friend of the white man should not
be tortured. His people never recovered from the blow. In the very next
year they placed themselves by a solemn resolution under the protection
of the King, and appointed four commissioners, one of whom was Gorton,
to carry their submission to England.
CHAPTER V.
CHARTER GRANTED TO PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.--ORGANIZATION UNDER
IT.--THE LAWS ADOPTED.
We have seen that in 1643 Roger Williams had been sent to England as
agent to solicit a charter for the three colonies of Narragansett
Bay. He found the King at open war with the Parliament, and the
administration of the colonies entrusted to the Earl of Warwick and a
joint committee of the two Houses. Of the details of the negotiation
little is known, but on the 14th of March of the following year,
a "free and absolute charter was granted as the Incorporation of
Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay in New England." It was not
such as Charles would have given. But one fetter was placed upon the
free action of the people--"that the laws, constitutions, punishments
for the civil government of the said plantation be conformable to
the laws of England"--and that was made powerless by the qualifying
condition that the conformity should extend only "so far as the nature
and constitution of that place will admit." Civil government and civil
laws were the only government and laws which it recognized; and the
absence of any allusion to religious freedom in it shows how firmly
and wisely Williams avoided every form of expression which might seem
to recognize the power to grant or to deny that inalienable right.
The regulation of the "general government" in its "relation to the
rest of the plantations in America," was reserved "to the Earl and
Commissioners."
Yet more than three years were allowed to pass before it went into
full force as a bond of union for the four towns. Then, in May, 1647,
the corporators met at Portsmouth in General Court of Election, and,
accepting the charter, proceeded to organize a government in harmony
with its provisions. Warwick, although not named in the charter, was
admitted to the same privileges with her larger and more flourishing
sisters.
This new government was in reality a government of the people, to whose
final decision in their General Assembly all questions were submitted.
"And now," says the preamble to the code, "sith our charter gives us
powere to governe ourselves and such other as come among us, and by
such a forme of Civill Government as by the voluntairie consent, &c.,
shall be found most suitable to our estate and condition:
"It is agreed by this present Assembly thus incorporate and by this
present act declared, that the form of Government established in
_Providence Plantations_, is Democratical; that is to say, a Government
held by y^e free and voluntairie consent of all or the greater part of
the free Inhabitants."
In accordance with this fundamental principle all laws were first
discussed in Town Meeting, then submitted to the General Court, a
committee of six men from each town freely chosen, and finally referred
to the General Assembly. The General Court possessed, also, the power
of originating laws, by recommending a draft of law to the towns,
upon whose approval the draft obtained the force of law till the next
meeting of the General Assembly.
The first act of this first Colonial Assembly was to organize by
electing John Coggeshall Moderator, and secure an acting quorum by
fixing it at forty. It was next "agreed that all should set their hands
to an engagement to the Charter." Then, after some provision for the
union of the towns, the formation of the General Court and the adoption
of the laws "as they are contracted in the bulk," Mr. John Coggeshall
was chosen "President of this Province or Colonie; Wm. Dyer, General
Recorder; Mr. Jeremy Clarke, Treasurer, and Mr. Roger Williams, Mr.
John Sanford, Mr. Wm. Coddington and Mr. Randall Holden, Assistants
for Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick" respectively. Then,
entering boldly upon its independent existence, the little Colony--a
State in all but the name--proceeded to examine the body of laws which
had been prepared for its acceptance. One of the most significant of
them, as indicating their commercial aspirations, was their adoption of
the laws of Oleron for a maritime code; and another, as illustrating
their consciousness of their perilous position in the midst of savages,
still able to strike sudden blows, though no longer strong enough to
wage long wars, the revival and extension of "the Statute touching
Archerie," and the enactment of a stringent militia law. The laws
against parricide, murder, arson, robbery and stealing, show that
there were men in the community who were believed to be capable of
these crimes. The law against suicide, and still more the law against
witchcraft, are too much in harmony with the general spirit of the
age to warrant a severe condemnation. The punishment provided against
drunkenness reads as though it were not an infrequent offence. Marriage
was regarded as a civil contract. The law of debt was wise and humane,
forbidding the sending of the debtor to prison, "there," it says with
simplicity and force, "to lie languishing to no man's advantage,
unless he refuse to stand to their order." The character of the whole
code was just and benevolent, breathing a gentle spirit of practical
Christianity and a calm consciousness of high destinies. "These," it
says, "are the laws that concern all men, and these are the Penalties
for the transgression thereof; which by common consent are Ratified and
Established throughout this whole Colonie; and otherwise than thus what
is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences persuade
them, every one in the name of his God."
By the same Assembly it was ordered, "that the seale of the Providence
shall be an anchor." A free gift, also, of one hundred pounds was made
to Roger Williams, "in regarde to his so great travaile, charges, and
good endeavors in the obtaining of the Charter for this Province." This
sum was "to be levied out of the three towns;" and how far the island
was in advance of the main-land may be seen by the distribution of the
levy which assigns fifty pounds to Newport and thirty to Portsmouth,
while Providence was held at twenty. Of Warwick, still poor and weak,
nothing was asked.
The spirit of this first legislation may be comprised in four articles:
the first of which provides for the protection of the citizen against
the government by guaranteeing liberty of property and person, and
restricting criminal suits to the violation of the letter of the law.
The second forbids the assumption of office by any who are not legally
chosen, and the extension of official action beyond its prescribed
bounds. The third by making the charter and acts of the Assembly the
sources of law, secures the rights of minorities. And the fourth,
displaying a comprehension of the true principles of public service
which succeeding generations would do well to study, required that
every citizen should serve when chosen to office or pay a fine,
and that his service should receive an adequate compensation. The
engagement of state and officer was reciprocal--the officer binding
himself to serve the state faithfully, and the state to stand by her
officers in the legitimate exercise of their functions.
CHAPTER VI.
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC TROUBLES.--UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT AT USURPATION
BY CODDINGTON.
And now, just as the new Province was entering upon that chartered
existence which was to lead to such brilliant results, the wise and
peaceable Canonicus died, closing in humiliation and sorrow a life
which had begun in strength and hope. He had seen the first foot-prints
of the stranger; had aided him in his weakness; had resisted him in
his strength; had lived to see his destined successor fall victim to
an unholy policy, and his people, impoverished and enfeebled, vainly
strive to avenge the murder on their adversaries; and thus with a heavy
heart he passed away from the scene of his early glory and his long
humiliation. We shall see bye and bye the miserable end of the great
Narragansetts.
The new Colony entered upon its career with two great problems before
it. The first was almost solved. An experience of eleven years had
demonstrated the possibility of soul liberty, which had taken a hold
upon the hearts of the colonists too strong to be shaken. But did
it leave the needed strength in the civil organization to bear "a
government held by the free and voluntary consent of all, or the
greater part, of the free inhabitants?" Thus the reconciliation of
liberty and law formed from the beginning the fundamental problem of
Rhode Island history.
At first there were great and frequent dissensions. There were
dissensions between Newport and Portsmouth. There were still greater
dissensions in Providence. Enemies exulted, foretelling an early
dissolution of the feeble bands which held the dangerous Colony
together. Friends trembled lest their last hope of the reconciliation
of liberty and law should fail them. But still the great work of
solution went on, each new dissension revealing some new error, or
aiding in the demonstration of some new truth. It would take us far
beyond our limits were we to attempt to follow up the history of these
dissensions in detail, even if the materials for a full narrative of
them had been preserved. There were other difficulties, also, which
demand more than a passing allusion.
Massachusetts had not yet renounced her designs upon the territories of
the heretical Colony. A party in Pawtuxet which had put itself under
the protection of the Bay Colony had opened the way for action, and the
dispute with Shawomet had enlarged it. Gorton was in England in 1647,
exerting himself to answer the assertions of the Massachusetts agent,
Winslow. Three years later the question became so complicated and the
danger so imminent that Roger Williams was asked to go again to England
on behalf of the Colony. Meanwhile there were menacing indications
of an Indian war, and a serious effort was made on the part of the
Island towns to obtain admission to the New England confederation. The
application was refused unless on terms equivalent to the surrender of
all right to independent existence. The time for justice and a clear
comprehension of the common interest was not yet come. Especially
strong was Massachusetts' dread of the Baptists, who were becoming a
powerful body in Rhode Island, and three of the prominent members of
that communion, among whom was John Clarke, one of the most illustrious
of the colonists, were seized at Lynn--whither they had been summoned
to give comfort and counsel to an aged brother--cast into prison,
fined, and one of their number, Obadiah Holmes, cruelly scourged with a
three-corded whip.
Another danger menaced the Colony. William Coddington, who had been
chosen President, but had never taken the legal engagement, had gone
to England, and, as was soon ascertained, with the design of applying
for a commission as Governor of the Island. For two years he was unable
to obtain a hearing. The new government of England was too busy with
its own concerns to lend an ear to the agent of a distant and humble
Colony. At last the favorable moment came, and, on the 3d of April,
1651, he received a commission from the Council of State, appointing
him Governor for life of Rhode Island and Connecticut. By what
representations or misrepresentations he obtained the object of his
ambition, history does not tell us. A council of six, nominated by the
people and approved by him, were to assist him in the government. The
charter government was apparently dissolved.
But the men of Providence and Warwick did not lose heart. Roger
Williams, who had already given proof of his diplomatic skill at home
by his successful negotiations with the native chiefs, and in England
by obtaining a charter, was still with them, and to him all turned
their eyes in this hour of supreme danger. It was resolved that he
should repair to England without delay, and ask for a confirmation of
the charter in the name of Providence and Warwick. To provide money for
the support of his family during his absence he sold his trading-house
in Narragansett, and, obtaining a hard-wrung leave to embark at
Boston, set forth in October, 1651, upon his memorable mission. In
the same ship went John Clarke, as agent for the Island towns, to
ask for the revocation of Coddington's commission. On the success of
their application hung the fate of the Colony. Meanwhile the Island
towns submitted silently to Coddington's usurpation, and the main-land
towns continued to govern themselves by their old laws, and meet and
deliberate as they had done before in their General Assembly.
It was in the midst of these dangers and dissensions that on the 19th
of May, in the session of 1652, it was "enacted and ordered ... that
no black mankind or white being forced by covenant, bond or other wise
shall be held to service longer than ten years," and that "that man
that will not let them go free, or shall sell them any else where to
that end that they may be enslaved to others for a longer time, hee or
they shall forfeit to the Colonie forty pounds." This was the first
legislation concerning slavery on this continent. If forty pounds
should seem a small penalty, let us remember that the price of a slave
was but twenty. If it should be objected that the act was imperfectly
enforced, let us remember how honorable a thing it is to have been the
first to solemnly recognize a great principle. Soul liberty had borne
her first fruits.
In the same month of May the embarrassments of the Colony were
increased by the breaking out of a war between England and Holland,
which interrupted the profitable commerce between Rhode Island and the
Dutch of Manhattan. But welcome tidings came in September, and still
more welcome in October. Williams and Clarke, who went hand in hand in
their mission, had obtained, first, permission for the Colony to act
under the charter until the final decision of the controversy, and a
few weeks later the revocation of Coddington's commission. The charter
was fully restored. Williams had again proved himself a consummate
diplomatist, and Clarke had proved himself worthy to be his colleague.
We shall soon see him using his newly acquired skill under more
difficult circumstances.
CHAPTER VII.
MORE FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC TROUBLES.--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL REGULATIONS
OF THE COLONY.--ARRIVAL OF QUAKERS.
And now it seemed as though the little Colony might peaceably return to
its original organization and devote itself to the development of its
natural resources. But the spirit of dissension had struck deep. The
absolute independence which was claimed for religious opinion, led some
to claim an equal independence for civil action. If conscience was to
be the supreme test in the relations between man and God, why should
not conscience decide between man and man? Roger Williams addressed a
letter full of calm wisdom to the Town of Providence, explaining, under
the figure of a ship, the distinction between civil obedience and soul
liberty. A few years later an able advocate of the opposite opinion was
found in William Harris; and for a long while an unhealthy agitation
pervaded the community, justifying, in appearance, the unfriendly
prophecies of the early enemies of Williams and his doctrines.
There was still another ground of contention. Who should take the
lead in restoring the charter government? The Island towns claimed
it on the ground of superior wealth and population, the main-land
towns because they had always held fast to their charter. There were
double elections and two Assemblies, and the dispute grew so warm as
to threaten a permanent division. At the same time the Island towns
entered zealously into the Dutch war, issuing letters of marque
and making captures which led to new controversies with the United
Colonies. Williams became alarmed, and leaving Mr. Clarke in charge of
their common business hurried back from England to meet the danger.
Sir Henry Vane, who had already been a firm friend of Rhode Island,
wrote in a public letter, "Are there no wise men among you? no public,
self-denying spirits who can find some way of union before you become a
prey to your enemies?"
At last, in August, 1654, a full Court of Commissioners met at Warwick,
and on the 31st set their hands to articles of reunion. To meet
the difficulties that arose from the different acts of independent
assemblies, it was agreed that all such acts should be held good for
the towns and persons who originally took part in them. Then the
charter was once more made the fundamental law of the land, and finally
the General Assembly recognized by fixing the number of delegates from
each town at six for all purposes except the election of officers.
Two days were then devoted to general legislation, and among other
acts the delicate question of a Sunday law was reconciled with the
distinguishing principle of the Colony, by referring the matter to the
several towns under the head of a day "for servants and children to
recreate themselves."
As the danger of civil commotions passed away, came the danger of an
Indian war. The Narragansetts had old quarrels with the Indians of
Long Island, and in 1654 a new quarrel broke out between them. For
the Colony itself there was nothing to fear from the Narragansetts
with whom it had always maintained friendly relations. But should
the Long Island Indians prevail, an inroad upon the main would
bring them dangerously near to the new towns. The United Colonies,
proceeding as usual with a high hand, summoned Ninigret, the chief
sachem of the Narragansetts, to Hartford. He refused to go, saying
that the enemy had slain a sachem's son and sixty of his people--all
he asked of the English was that they would let him alone. "If your
Governor's son were slain," he said, "and several other men, would
you ask counsel of another nation how and when to right yourselves?"
The spirit of the Narragansetts was not yet broken. Williams, who was
then President, wrote to the government of Massachusetts defending
the Indians, asserting that the war was a war of self-defence, and
that the Narragansetts had always been true to the English. But the
Commissioners were resolved upon war, and without listening to his
remonstrances sent Captain Willard with a body of troops to seize the
refractory chief. The wily Indian took post in a swamp where the troops
were unable to reach him. The Commissioners were sorely annoyed, but
Massachusetts, listening, perhaps, to the energetic representations of
Williams, refused to sanction the war, and without her coöperation it
could not be carried on.
There were still dissensions and jars, but the Colony throve and grew
in industry and strength. Newport above all increased in wealth and
population. In estimating the population, however, we must bear in mind
that not every inhabitant was a freeman, nor every resident a legal
inhabitant. A probationary residence was required before the second
step was reached and the resident became an inhabitant with certain
rights to the common lands, the right of sitting on the jury and of
being chosen to some of the lower offices. This, also, was a period of
probation, and it was only after it had been passed to the satisfaction
of the freemen that the name of the new candidate could be proposed
in town meeting for full citizenship. Even then he had to wait for
a second meeting before he could be admitted to all the rights and
distinctions of that honorable grade.
As a picture of the times it deserves notice that there was still a
struggle with crime which called for stocks and a jail; that the sale
of liquors was regulated by a license, and the number of taverns that
could be licensed in a single town limited to three; that the bars were
closed at nine in the evening; that a fine of ten pounds or whipping,
"accordinge as y^e court shall see meete," was the penalty of giving
a blow in court; that malicious language was treated as slander and
made ground for legal prosecution. The Assembly seldom sat beyond three
or four days, and six in the morning was the usual hour of entering
upon the business of the day. Absence from roll call was punished by a
fine of a shilling. As an illustration of the degree in which the idea
of the duties of citizenship prevailed over the idea of the dignity
of office, it deserves to be recorded that when the first justices'
court was established in Providence for the hearing of cases under
forty shillings, Roger Williams though President of the Colony was
appointed one of the justices, and of the other two Thomas Olney was
assistant for Providence, and Thomas Harris a member of the Assembly.
The principle of the reciprocal obligation of citizen and state seems,
as we have already observed, to have found early acceptance. High
treason was recognized as a great crime and provision made for sending
the accused to England for trial--a dangerous measure even in that
early day, and which in the following century became a just ground of
alarm. But now, even Coddington not only came off unharmed from his
daring usurpation, but appears again in 1656 as member of the Court
of Trials. A written submission and a fine for refusing to give up the
public records were the only penalties that he paid for his offence.
Early provision was made for the protection of marriage, and to give it
that publicity which is essential to security the bans were announced
in town meeting, or at the head of a company on training days, or by
a written declaration signed by a magistrate and set up in some place
of common resort. If objections were made the parties were heard by
a tribunal of two magistrates, or for final decision by the Court of
Trials. Freedom in the young society was always connected with morality.
There were still questions to arrange with Massachusetts, which had
not yet given up the hope of enlarging her territory at the expense of
her diminutive neighbors. The Pawtuxet controversy which began almost
with the beginning of the Colony, was a fruitful source of anxiety
till 1658, when it was finally settled by the acknowledgment of the
claims of Rhode Island, Roger Williams again appearing in his favorite
character of mediator. Hog Island, at the mouth of Bristol harbor,
gave rise to other disputes which extended through several years. In
the original purchase of Aquidneck the grass only had been bought.
To secure the fee of the land itself a second purchase was required.
Other purchases also were made, which gave rise to long and vexatious
disputes. Small as it was, it was almost inch by inch that Rhode
Island won its narrow territory.
From time to time, also, there were alarms of Indians. In 1656 their
movements excited so much apprehension in Providence, that a fort was
built on Stamper's Hill for the protection of the town. In this same
year the fundamental principles of the governments of Rhode Island and
of Massachusetts were brought into striking contrast by the arrival
of the Quakers. In Massachusetts they were imprisoned, scourged,
mutilated, put to death, and with the increase of persecution increased
in numbers. In Rhode Island they were allowed to follow their own
convictions and became useful and industrious citizens. And when the
United Colonies urged the General Assembly, not without threats, to
join in the persecution, it appealed to Cromwell, asking "that it might
not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's consciences
so long as human orders, in point of civility, are not corrupted or
violated."
In these days great changes were taking place in England. Cromwell
was dead. Richard Cromwell soon resigned the Protectorate. A general
reaction for royalty followed, and Charles II. was received as King
with general satisfaction. How would the young and dissolute monarch
look upon the claims of Rhode Island? It was well for her that at this
perilous moment she was represented at the new court by so earnest,
clear-headed, and dexterous a diplomatist as John Clarke. By his
exertions a new charter was obtained, and, on the 24th of November,
1663, accepted "at a very great meeting and assembly of the Colony of
Providence Plantations, at Newport, in Rhode Island, in New England."
With the adoption of this charter begins a new period in the history of
Rhode Island.
CHAPTER VIII.
TROUBLES IN OBTAINING A NEW CHARTER.--PROVISIONS OF THE
CHARTER.--DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING THE NARRAGANSETT
PURCHASE.--CURRENCY.--SCHOOLS.
The charter of Charles II. was a practical recognition of the right
of self-government. The government which it established, like that
instituted by the colonists in their first organization, was a pure
democracy, emanating from the people and framed for their good. In
form it consisted of a Governor, a Deputy-Governor, ten assistants,
and a House of Deputies, six of whom represented Newport, four
Providence, four Portsmouth, four Warwick, and two each other towns.
The first appointments of Governor, Deputy-Governor, and assistants,
as preparatory to a permanent organization, were made by the King. The
organization once effected, they were chosen annually at Newport, on
the first Wednesday in May. The deputies were elected by the people
in their respective towns. Thus election day became the great civil
festival of the year, bringing the inhabitants of the towns together to
interchange thoughts and feelings, and make merry with their wives and
children in the chief town of the Colony.
Although the new charter was negotiated by John Clarke, it is
impossible not to recognize in it the spirit of Roger Williams.
The original right of the natives to the soil was acknowledged,
practically, in other colonies; but it was acknowledged as subordinate
to the right of the King. The royal grant preceded the actual purchase.
But in Rhode Island the royal grant followed the Indian title-deed, and
was never accepted as sufficient of itself to justify the occupation
of Indian territory. This doctrine, so widely at variance with the
received doctrine of the age, stood first in the list of heresies for
which Massachusetts had driven Roger Williams into exile.
No less prominent in the second charter was that great principle which
had formed the leading characteristic of the first. "Noe person," it
says, "within the sayd colonye, at any tyme hereafter, shall be any
wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any
difference of opinion in matters of religion which doe not actually
disturb the civill peace of our sayd colonye; but that all and everye
person may, from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter, freelye and
fullye have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences, in
matters of religious concernments, through the tract of lande hereafter
mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceablie and quietlie, and not
using this libertye to licentiousness, and profaneness, nor to the
civill injurye or outward disturbance of others."
There was much work for the new Assembly to do, and it addressed
itself promptly to the task. The statute book contained laws which,
arising from circumstances no longer existing, were "inconsistent
with the present government." To weed these out and replace them by
others better suited to the new order of things, was an early object of
attention. Hitherto the assistants had not been vested with legislative
authority. They now held it by the charter, and henceforth acted in
conjunction with the deputies, a change which at a later day led to the
division into two houses. The increase of population brought with it an
increase of litigation. The original courts were not sufficient to meet
the demand for legal protection. They were reorganized.
There were two general courts of trials, composed of the Governor, with
or without the aid of the Deputy-Governor, and of a body of assistants
whose number was never less than six. Their place of meeting was
Newport, the seat of government and largest town, and their regular
sessions were held in May and October. Providence and Warwick had each
a court of trials--Providence in September and Warwick in March. But
in these, as if in indication of their subordinate authority, neither
the Governor nor the Deputy-Governor had a seat, and the number of
assistants absolutely required to give validity to its acts was reduced
from six to three. To complete their organization twelve jurors were
added, six from each town. Their decision, however, was not final,
and the cases which they had tried could be carried by appeal to the
General Court. To quicken the tardy steps of justice any litigant
who was willing to bear the expense, might, with the sanction of the
Governor or Deputy-Governor, have a special court convened for the
immediate decision of his cause.
The grand and petty jurors were chosen from the four towns, five of
each from Newport, three from Portsmouth, and two from Providence and
Warwick respectively. The same superiority was accorded to Newport in
the apportionment of state officers, five of whom were required to live
there. In this, however, Providence outranks Portsmouth, having three
allotted to her for her portion, while Portsmouth had but two. The
duties of coroner were performed by the assistant "nearest the place
occasion shall present."
Another grave question met them on the threshold of their work of
organization. The charter left a doubt concerning the manner of
choosing the state magistrates. Should they be elected by the freemen
in town meeting, or by the General Assembly? The democratic instinct
prevailed, and the choice was left to the freemen.
There was a still graver question to be decided, requiring firmness,
self-control and skilled diplomacy. Rhode Island had never been looked
upon by Massachusetts with friendly eyes. That a banished man should
have become the founder of a new colony close upon her borders was
irritating to her pride. That his success as a colonizer should have
cut her off from the beautiful Narragansett Bay was humiliating to her
ambition of territorial aggrandizement. That a freedom of conscience
subversive of her theological dogmas should have been the fundamental
principle of the new government was irritating to her bigotry. Thus,
although she did not hesitate to avail herself of the good offices
of Roger Williams to avert a dangerous war, she did not scruple to
forbid the sale to citizens of Rhode Island of the powder and arms
which they needed for their own protection, and exclude them from the
league which the other colonies of New England had formed for their
common defence. When, in 1642, four of the principal inhabitants of
Pawtuxet factiously put themselves under her protection, she greedily
seized the opportunity of securing for herself a foothold in the
coveted territory. It was not till 1658 that this dangerous dispute
was settled and the perpetual menace of mutilation removed from the
northern district of the Colony soon to reappear in the southern. Amid
the fresh recollections of this contest, the General Assembly passed a
law forbidding, under the penalty of confiscation, the introduction of
a foreign authority within the limits of the Colony. Both Massachusetts
and Connecticut laid claim to Narragansett, a valuable tract in the
southern part of the Colony and controlling the communication with the
bay of that name. The claim of Rhode Island was founded upon purchase,
and although her physical inferiority left her no hope of success
except through an appeal to the King, she was none the less vigilant
in defending her rights. The necessity of this watchfulness was soon
made manifest, for scarce a year had passed from the passage of the
prohibitory law, when, in direct violation of its provisions, a company
of aliens purchased Quidneset and Namcook, two large and valuable
tracts on Narragansett Bay. It was like throwing down the gauntlet to
the little Colony, for it was only by supporting the pretensions of
Massachusetts or Connecticut that the purchasers could hope to make
their title good. An artful attempt was made to obtain the sanction of
Roger Williams's name by offering him, under the title of interpreter,
a liberal grant of land. But the loyal old man refused to connect
himself in any way with the illegal act, and warned the company of the
dangerous ground whereon they were treading.
The warning was not heeded, and Humphrey Atherton, John Winthrop and
their associates, completing their bargain with the Indians, claimed
the tracts as theirs by lawful purchase. New complications followed.
The very next year the Commissioners of the United Colonies, following
up their aggressive policy towards the Narragansetts, imposed upon the
feeble remnant of the once powerful tribe a heavy fine for alleged
injuries to the Mohegans, and compelled them to mortgage their whole
territory for the payment of it. Atherton paid the fine, and held that
his claim was strengthened by this act of unjustifiable violence.
For a time hopes were entertained of inducing the company to accept
the jurisdiction of Rhode Island, but they were futile. The attempt of
either party to exercise legal authority in the disputed territory was
a signal for the active intervention of the other. It was soon evident
that the decision must be referred to England. Fortunately for Rhode
Island, John Clarke was still there.
Agents from Connecticut, also, were there petitioning for a new
charter, and their petition was enforced by the wise and virtuous John
Winthrop. Court favor came to his aid, and he used it judiciously. The
venerable Lord Say and Seal lent him the influence of his name, and the
skillful negotiator dexterously reviving the memory of the intercourse
between his father and Charles the First, succeeded in touching for
a moment the callous heart of Charles II. In the season of that
intercourse Charles had given Winthrop a curious and valuable ring,
and now when the son of the subject came before the son of the King
as a suppliant for a charter for his distant home, he bore that ring
in his hand as a record of kind feelings on one side and reverential
observance on the other. The plea was successful, and, on the 30th of
May, 1662, a charter was granted. In this charter the eastern boundary
of Connecticut was extended to Narragansett River, and Narragansett
River it was claimed was Narragansett Bay.
Great was the indignation of Rhode Island when the tidings of this
arbitrary mutilation of her territory reached her. It was like
introducing a foreign jurisdiction into the heart of the Colony, and
stripping it by a stroke of the pen of some of the chief advantages
which it had promised itself from its long and painful labor of
colonization. There was but one hope left, and that lay in the wisdom
and firmness of John Clarke. The trust was well placed. Not for a
moment did the brave man lose heart or suffer himself to grow weary
in his difficult task. Of the details of his negotiations no accurate
record has been preserved, but we know that, possessing no means of
corruption, even if his noble nature could have stooped to it, he
placed his confidence in the justice of his cause. In negotiating for a
charter he had presented two elaborate petitions to the King, giving a
rapid sketch of the origin and principles of the Colony, and asking for
"a more absolute, ample, and free charter of civill incorporation," as
for men who "had it much on their hearts (if they may be permitted) to
hold a lively experiment, that a flourishing free state may stand, yea,
and best be maintained, and that among English spirits, with a full
liberty in religious concernments."
The question of a charter was for the King to decide, and we have
already seen how he decided it. But the question of boundaries was
within the competence of the agents of the two colonies. After much
discussion it was decided to refer it to arbitration. Four arbitrators
were chosen, and on the 7th of April, 1663, they rendered their award
in four articles, by one of which the Pawcatuck River was made the
eastern boundary of Connecticut. The Atherton company was left free to
decide under which of the two jurisdictions it would live.
As long as Winthrop remained, although Clarke had much to apprehend
from his open opposition, he had nothing to fear from secret intrigues
or willful misinterpretation. But not all the advocates of the Atherton
purchase were like John Winthrop. False claims will always find base
agents, and no sooner was Winthrop gone than one of these willing
instruments of wrong pressed eagerly forward to his loathsome office.
His name was John Scott, and the record of his meanness has been
preserved in his own hand. "Mr. Winthrop," begins his confidential
correspondence with Captain Hutchinson, the corresponding agent of the
company, "was very averse to my prosecuting your affairs, he having had
much trouble with Mr. Clarke whiles he remained in England; but as soon
as I received intelligence of his departure from the Downes, I took
into the society a Potent Gentleman and prepared a Petition against
Clarke, &c., as enemyes to the peace and well being of his Majestye's
good subjects, and doubt not effecting the premises in convenient
tyme, and in order to accomplish y^r businesse, I have bought of Mr.
Edwards a parcel of curiosityes to y^e value of sixty pounds; to
gratifye persons that are powerfull, that there may be a Letter filled
with Awthorising Expressions to the Collonyes of the Massachusetts and
Connecticut, that the proprietors of the Narraganset countrye, shall
not only live peaceably, but have satisfaction for Injuryes already
received by some of the saide Proprietors and the power y^t shall be
soe invested (viz) the Massachusetts and Connecticut by virtue of the
saide letter will joyntlye and severallye, have full power to do us
justice to all intents, as to our Narraganset concernes."
For a moment it seemed as though this vile intrigue were about to
succeed. A letter from the King to the United Colonies was obtained,
recommending the interests of the Atherton company to their protection.
John Scott's "curiosityes" had done their work. The "Potent Gentleman"
had not failed him. The little Colony lay unarmed at the feet of its
powerful enemies. But the triumph was short. John Clarke was carefully
bringing his negotiations for a new charter to a close. Surrounded by
bitter and unscrupulous adversaries he still kept his own counsel,
kept the object of his mission constantly in view, and, after much
weary waiting and watching, came out triumphant. The charter of
Charles the Second, as I have already stated, which so long served the
Colony as a constitution and exercised such a controlling influence
upon her development, passed the seals on the 8th of July, 1663. By
this charter the western boundary line was fixed at Pawcatuck River,
"any Grant or Claim in a late Grant to the Governor and Company of
_Connecticut_ Colony in _America_ to the contrary thereof in any wise
notwithstanding." Thus the Pawcatuck River was henceforth to be held
as the same with the Narragansett River, and the question of western
boundary decided in accordance with the agreement, which, "after much
debate," Clarke and Winthrop had both signed in the names of their
respective colonies. It is evident that there was much ignorance, and
no very firm principle of action with regard to the colonies in the
cabinet of the second Charles.
While these events were passing an important change took place in
the commercial medium of the country. When the colonists first began
to trade with the natives, they found them already advanced in their
buyings and sellings from the primitive barter of product for product
to the use of a fixed medium of exchange. This medium, indeed, was of
a purely conventional character. There were neither mines of gold, nor
mines of silver, nor mines of copper to perform the office of money.
But the waters of their rivers and bays yielded an abundant supply
of shells, and these they wrought with much ingenuity into beads;
the periwinkle furnishing the material for the lower values, six of
its white shells being held at an English penny, while the dark eye
of the quahog or round clam, smoothed by grinding, and polished and
drilled, was rated at twice the value of the white shell. Both were
known as wampum or peage. As money belts of wampum were counted by the
fathom, three hundred and sixty of the white passing for five shillings
sterling, and a fathom of the black being worth twice as much as a
fathom of the white. Like the metallic medium of other countries they
served also for personal decoration, supplying the Indian belles and
beaux with their necklaces and bracelets, and princes with the most
valued ornaments of their regalia. When used for this purpose they
were wrought into girdles, or worn as a scarf about the shoulders,
great pains being taken and not a little skill displayed in arranging
the colors in various figures. The mints in which this primitive money
was coined were on the sea-shore, where shells were found in great
abundance, and so well was this simple article adapted to the wants and
the tastes of the aborigines that it passed current six hundred miles
from the coast, and was used by the colonists in all their bargains
with the natives. But shells like metals and paper are subject to the
same inexorable laws of trade. When beaver skins became plenty in the
colonial market and wampum was made in larger quantities, it fell from
ten shillings a fathom to five, and the Indian hunter thought it hard
that an equal number of furs should bring him but half as much wampum
as before. Like all money, also, wampum was liable to be counterfeited,
and even in that rude commerce there were men who preferred the
ill-gotten gain of the counterfeiter to the fruit of honest industry.
Fortunately for the native he was quick in detecting the fraud, and
never failed to exact full compensation. But wampum, like the race for
whom it was made, was unable to hold its ground against the advancing
civilization. We have seen it reduced to half its original value by
overissues and the increasing supply of furs in the colonial market.
Gradually it began to disappear. Rhode Island continued to use it long
after it had ceased to be current in colonies where the intercourse
with Europe was more direct. Massachusetts had begun to coin silver in
1652, but Rhode Island continued to accept wampum as a legal tender
for ten years longer, when it reached its lowest point, and, like
the Continental money of a century later, was abolished by statute.
Thenceforth all taxes and costs of court were exacted in "current pay"
in sterling that is, or in New England coin of thirty shillings New
England to twenty-two shillings sixpence sterling.
Nothing has been said thus far of the measures taken by the young
Colony for the establishment of schools. Newport, though only in the
second year of her settlement, took the lead in 1640, by "calling Mr.
Robert Lenthall to keep a school for the learning of youth, and for his
encouragement there was granted to him and his heirs one hundred acres
of land, and four more for a house lot." In the same meeting it was
voted: "That one hundred acres should be laid forth and appropriated
for a school, for the encouragement of the poorer sort, to train up
their youth in learning, and Mr. Robert Lenthall, while he continues
to keep school, is to have the benefit thereof." The wise example was
followed by Providence in 1663, and at May town meeting a hundred acres
of upland and six acres of meadow were reserved for the support of a
school.
But in nothing perhaps does the character of the Colony appear to more
advantage than in the law of oaths. "Forasmuch," reads the statute,
"as the consciences of sundry men, truly conscionable, may scruple the
giving or the taking of an oath, and it would be no wise suitable to
the nature and constitution of our place, who profess ourselves to be
men of different consciences, and not one willing to force another,
to debar such as cannot do so, either from bearing office among us,
or from giving in testimony in a case depending; be it enacted by
the authority of this present Assembly, that a solemn profession or
testimony in a court of record, or before a judge of record, shall be
accounted throughout the whole colony, of as full force as an oath." So
strong was the hold which the principle of soul liberty had taken of
the public mind.
CHAPTER IX.
TERRITORY OF RHODE ISLAND IS INCREASED BY THE ADDITION OF BLOCK
ISLAND.--DISPUTES BETWEEN BLOCK ISLAND AND THE OTHER COLONIES
SETTLED BY ROYAL COMMAND.--STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE COLONY IN
1667.
The charter came at a fortunate moment, for petition and remonstrance
had reached their utmost, and it is difficult to see how the little
Colony could have preserved the integrity of its territory much longer
against two such powerful neighbors but for the intervention of an
authority that was recognized by all. The services of John Clarke
must be estimated by the imminence of the danger, and his skill by
the difficulty of the negotiation. Meanwhile the territories of Rhode
Island were enlarged in another direction.
Block Island has already been mentioned in connection with the Pequot
war. In 1658 it was granted by Massachusetts, in whose hands the war
had left it, to Governor John Endicott and three others, as a reward
for their public services. Endicott and his associates sold it to
Simon Ray and eight associates, who, in 1661, entered upon their work
of colonization by liquidating the Indian title with a reservation in
favor of the natives, and setting apart one-sixteenth of the lands
for the support of a minister forever. The new settlement had not
yet reached its third year when it passed under the jurisdiction of
Rhode Island, and, in the May session of the General Assembly for
1663, was summoned to appear at the bar of the house and be regularly
received into the Colony. At the appointed time three messengers
presented themselves, bringing the submission of the inhabitants to
"his Majesty's will," and a petition of householders for the freedom
of the island. Three select men were chosen to govern it with power
to "call town meetings," hear causes under forty shillings, and where
a greater amount was involved, grant appeals to the General Court of
Trials, and "issue warrants in criminal cases." Their representation in
the Assembly was fixed at two, and their attention was called to the
clause in the charter declaring freedom of conscience. The question
of a harbor for the encouragement of the fisheries soon attracted
the attention of the Assembly, and, as early as 1665, we find John
Clarke with the Governor and Deputy-Governor examining this important
subject on the spot. But it was no work for a feeble Colony, and it
was not till two hundred years later and under a rich and powerful
national government that it was begun. Meanwhile the population grew
and throve under colonial protection. Nine years after its first civil
organization Block Island was incorporated under the name of New
Shoreham, "as sign," say the petitioners, "of our unity and likeness
to many parts of our native country."
The conflict of patents did not end with the promulgation of the
second charter. Massachusetts and Connecticut still persisted in
their claims, and Rhode Island in her resistance. Fortunately for
her the final decision lay with the Crown, and, although both of
the intruding colonies made repeated attempts to set up governments
of their own within the limits of the disputed territory, they were
restrained from persistent violence by the knowledge that Rhode
Island claimed and was prepared to exercise the right of appeal. An
opportunity soon offered of making an important step towards decision.
Four Commissioners--Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, George
Cartwright and Samuel Maverick--were ordered to proceed to America,
reduce the Dutch provinces, and decide all questions of appeal,
jurisdiction and boundary between the colonies. On their arrival in
New York harbor, where they made the British fleet their headquarters,
Rhode Island sent a deputation of three, with John Clarke at their
head, to welcome the Royal Commissioners in the name of the Colony.
They set themselves promptly to their work. The first question that
came up for decision was the boundary line between Rhode Island
and Plymouth. This they were unable to settle, and reserved it for
reference to the King. Next came the vexed question of Narragansett.
The submission of the sachems was confirmed, an annual tribute of two
wolf-skins imposed, and the right to make war and sell land reserved
to the authorities set over them by the Crown. A new division of the
territory followed, all of the land west of the Bay, the southern half
of the present Kent County, being set apart as King's Province, under
the administration of the Governor and Council of Rhode Island, as
magistrates of King's Province. Last came the bitter Warwick question,
which had almost led to bloodshed. This was decided in favor of
Rhode Island, upon the ground that no colony had a right to exercise
jurisdiction beyond its chartered limits. It would have been well
for the three colonies if the dispute had ended here. But neither
Massachusetts nor Connecticut was satisfied. It was hard to give up the
beautiful Narragansett Bay, "the largest," say the Commissioners, "and
safest port in New England, nearest the sea and fittest for trade."
The Indian was fast disappearing, and sometimes under circumstances
which awaken a natural regret that where adverse civilizations met so
little could be done for the individual. The old Sachem Pumham still
clung to his home in the woodlands of Warwick Neck, encouraged, it was
believed, by the hope of support from Massachusetts. John Eliot, the
translator of the Bible, interceded for him. Roger Williams asked for
a little delay till the harvest was in. But twenty years experience
had shown that his residence there was incompatible with the peace
of the Colony. Sir Robert Carr, the Royal Commissioner, met Eliot's
intercession by sending him copies of all the papers relating to the
question, and so far satisfied the scruples of Williams as to secure
his hearty coöperation in the removal of this thorn from the side
of the struggling Colony. Thirty pounds were paid into the hands of
the old chief, a large sum for those days of general poverty, and he
removed forever beyond the limits of King's Province.
The Royal Commissioners on their arrival in Rhode Island had laid
before the Assembly five propositions as "the will and pleasure of the
King:"
"1st. That all householders inhabiting the Colony take the oath
of allegiance, and that the administration of justice be in his
Majesty's name."
This brought up the delicate question of oaths, which, recurring from
time to time, was gradually shaped by successive modifications so as to
meet the demands of government without infringing upon the principle of
soul-liberty.
"2d. That all men of competent estates and of civil conversation,
who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil magistrate, though of
different judgments, may be admitted to be freemen and have liberty
to chose and to be chosen, officers, both military and civil."
This was accepted and the mode of admitting freemen prescribed.
"3d. That all men and women of orthodox opinion, competent knowledge
and civil lives, who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil
magistrate and are not scandalous, may be admitted to the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper, and their children to Baptism, if they desire
it, either by admitting them into the congregations already gathered,
or permitting them to gather themselves into such congregations where
they may enjoy the benefit of the Sacraments, and that difference of
opinion may not break the bonds of peace and charity."
If we interpret the word orthodox according to the Rhode Island
standard of theological interpretation, this was already Rhode Island
doctrine and required no deliberation.
"4th. That all laws and expressions in laws derogatory to his
Majesty, if any such have been made in these late and troublesome
times, may be repealed, altered and taken off the files."
This, also, was accepted, and a revision of the laws ordered for that
purpose.
"5th. That the Colony be put in such a posture of defence that if
there should be any invasion upon this island, or elsewhere in this
Colony (which God forbid) you might in some measure be in readiness
to defend yourselves, or if need be to relieve your neighbors,
according to the power given you by the King in your charter and to
us in the King's commission and instructions."
This, also, struck a familiar cord. Provisions for self-defence had
already been made as circumstances called for them. A new militia law
was now passed, requiring six trainings a year under heavy penalties,
and allowing nine shillings a year for each enlisted soldier. Every man
was to keep on hand two pounds of powder and four of lead, and each
town was required to maintain a public magazine. To defray the expenses
of these magazines Newport was taxed fifty pounds, and the other three
towns twenty pounds each.
The Royal Commissioners were well satisfied with the conduct of
Rhode Island, and Rhode Island, surrounded by powerful enemies, had
every reason to be well satisfied with the Commissioners. Still
the encroachments and aggressions of Massachusetts and Connecticut
continued. As a prospective means of defence against them John Clarke
was again asked to carry the complaints of the suffering Colony to
England, and John Greene was chosen to accompany him. In 1672 a new
claimant appeared in the lists.
The Council of Plymouth had been lavish of its gifts of land, and in
its ignorance of American geography had formed a perplexing map of
conflicting claims. In one of its grants it had given the greater part
of Maine, together with Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Long Island and
the adjacent islands, to the Earl of Stirling. The Earl of Stirling
sold his grant to the Duke of York, already proprietor by royal gift of
the recently conquered province of New Netherlands. The term adjacent
islands would have included Acquidneck and the other islands of
Narragansett Bay. Prudence, one of the pleasantest and most valuable
of them, had been bought of the Indian proprietors by Roger Williams
and John Winthrop. In the course of time it passed by regular sale to
John Paine, a Boston merchant, who had won the favor of the Duke of
York by contributing liberally to the rebuilding of Fort James, in New
York harbor. Governor Lovelace, the Duke's attorney, felt that such
liberality was deserving of a signal reward. Paine was already the
owner of Prudence. Lovelace resolved to make it a free-manor by the
name of Toply manor, and confer the governership for life on Paine.
By a second grant the original quit-rent of two barrels of cider and
six pairs of capons was remitted, and this territory of seven miles in
length became an untaxed and independent government.
But Rhode Island was an uncongenial soil for feudal tenures. Paine
was arrested, indicted and convicted under the law of 1658 against
the introduction of a foreign jurisdiction, and Prudence without any
formal act of adjustment returned to its original position as a part of
Portsmouth.
Thus the Rhode Island Colony grew apace. From time to time questions of
practical government arose, to be worked out and solved by experience.
It was not easy to make citizens feel their duty to the State. More
than once the Assembly failed in attendance, to the serious detriment
of the public. Fines were imposed, and that some inducement to
greater regularity might be held out, a small pay of three shillings
a day, which was soon reduced to two, was attached to the function
of delegate. To facilitate the expression of opinion voting by proxy
was permitted, and to secure the election of the most acceptable
candidate it was enacted, "that whereas there may happen a division
in the vote soe that the greater half may not pitch decidedly on one
certaine person, yett the person which hath the most votes shall be
deemed lawfully chosen." The laws of the Colony had been the growth
of circumstances, expressing new wants and representing a progressive
society. Committees were appointed on several occasions to revise
and harmonize them. On the committee of October, 1664, we find Roger
Williams and John Clarke.
The progress of society has established a fundamental distinction
between legislative, executive and judicial powers, which was not known
to ancient publicists. The Court of Trials was composed of members of
the Assembly, and thus the whole body of law-makers was gradually led
to exercise judicial authority.
The Colony was poor, and the persecutions of Massachusetts and
Connecticut compelled it to incur expenses greatly beyond its means.
When Roger Williams went on his second mission to England he sold part
of his estates in order to raise the money for his expenses. When John
Clarke was sent to negotiate the second charter he was obliged to
burthen his estate with a mortgage. The whole sum due him by the Colony
was but three hundred and forty-three pounds, and yet so hard was it to
collect the tax by which this sum was to be paid that it was not until
twenty years after his death that the mortgage was lifted.
Internal dissensions and the alarm of foreign war troubled the Colony
in 1667. Two names long prominent in Rhode Island, Harris and Fenner,
appear at the head of two hostile factions in Providence and continue
for a while to disturb the public peace. England, whose wars now found
a reëcho in the colonies, was again at war with France and Holland.
Efficient measures were taken to put the Colony in a state of defence,
and thus new burthens were imposed. A council of war was organized
in each town. Ammunition was collected. Officers were commissioned.
Cannon were mounted at Newport. Cavalry corps were formed in the
towns. The Governor and Council met in frequent deliberations. The
Indians were disarmed and sent off the Island. A line of beacons was
established from Wonumytomoni Hill, near Newport, to Mooshausick
Hill, in Providence. Abundant proof was given of the energy and good
statesmanship of the Colony. But the day of real trial was not yet come.
The question of taxation was an early cause of difficulty. The poorer
towns felt themselves aggrieved, and often put insuperable obstacles
in the way of the collector. Even the tax for the payment of John
Clarke was disputed, and Roger Williams drew upon himself a severe
condemnation from Warwick by a letter wherein he urged its payment.
At last, in 1672, the Assembly took the matter seriously in hand and
passed a bill declaring, "that whoever opposed by word or deed, in town
meeting or elsewhere, any rate laid, or any other of the acts or orders
of the General Assembly should be bound over to the Court of Trials,
or imprisoned till it meet, at the discretion of the justice, for high
contempt and sedition; and if found guilty, should be fined, imprisoned
or whipped, as the court might adjudge."
It was not altogether without reason that this stringent act was
passed, for the aggressions of Connecticut and the alarm of an Indian
war made it necessary to strengthen as far as possible the hands of
government. But there was a danger in this legislative omnipotence
which the people quickly perceived, and the new Assembly of May undid
by a comprehensive repeal the work of its predecessor of April.
CHAPTER X.
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
I have now reached the story of the longest and bloodiest war which
the colonists had yet waged with the Indian. It is known in colonial
history as King Philip's war, and belongs more to the histories of
Massachusetts and Connecticut than to that of Rhode Island, although
two of its bloodiest battles were fought on Rhode Island soil. Like all
wars with barbarians it is filled with strange mixtures of barbarism
and heroism, the savage warrior often rising in the pursuit of his
ideal to a moral grandeur which his civilized antagonist failed to
attain. And although like the war with the Pequots it was fatal to
those who began it, it has left one of great names of Indian history,
and brought into play some of the greatest traits of Indian character.
First and most faithful of the allies of the English was Massasoit,
Sachem of the Wamponoags. A pestilence too malignant to be controlled
by the medical science of the natives had decimated his tribe and
exposed him to the ambition of the Narragansetts, his immediate
neighbors, a little before the arrival of the Pilgrims. Perceiving
only the present danger, he looked upon the advent of the white man
as a means of preserving his independence, and eagerly made a covenant
with him which he faithfully kept to the end of his life, (1661). At
his death his eldest son, Wamsutta, or Alexander as he was called by
the English, succeeded to his authority, but not to the confidence of
his allies. Suspicion arose; he was accused of plotting against the
colonists, and though an independent chief, summoned to appear at the
General Court at Plymouth. Disobeying the summons, he was threatened
with personal violence, and reluctantly yielding set forth with his
warriors and women, some eighty in all, under the escort of a small
body of troops commanded by Major Winslow. The indignity was too great
for the unfortunate chief. Winslow saw that he was sinking under
fatigue--for the weather was very hot--and wounded pride, for wrong was
hard to bear. "Take my horse," he said, touched with compassion. "No!"
replied the chief with a last touch of pride, "there are no horses for
my wife and the other women." When they reached Winslow's house, which
was on the way he sickened, and though allowed to turn back, quickly
died. Deep was the indignation of the Indians at this treatment of
their sachem, and even some of the colonists felt that they had gone
too far.
But there was one among them into whose breast the wrong sank deepest,
for it called him to avenge not only a chief but a brother. That
brother was known in colonial history as Philip of Pocanoket. The story
of Philip has been variously told, some looking upon him as a crafty
savage loving the wiles and cruelty of Indian warfare and fighting with
no other object than immediate success; others as an Indian patriot
contending for the independence of his country. In either case, if we
judge him by the standard of his own people, he was a great ruler in
peace and a valiant leader in war.
We are told that it was a sore grief to the young sachem to see the
white man daily taking a firmer hold of the soil, and the red man
melting before him. But how could the march of the invader be stayed?
The arrow was a feeble weapon with which to oppose the firelock, the
tomahawk even in the strongest hand was no match for the sabre. The
foresight, judgment, method and power of combination of the white man
enabled him to provide for the future while making wise provision for
the present. While he was well supplied with food, the Indian was
starving. While he was warmly clad, the Indian was exposed almost naked
to the rudest blasts of winter. Philip saw the danger and resolved to
face it.
His first step was to secure allies by winning over the neighboring
tribes. It was a broad field for diplomacy, wherein Indian not
Christian ethics prevailed, and was well suited to his bold and wily
nature. Yet with all his wiles he could not so completely cover his
track as not to excite the suspicions of the English. He was summoned
to Plymouth and closely questioned. But the hour for action was not yet
come and he succeeded in allaying suspicions by giving up his arms.
But treason beset his path. A "praying Indian," as the converts of
Eliot were called, who had lived some years with Philip as secretary
and counselor, betrayed the secret of the sachem's preparations. The
betrayal cost him his life but saved the Colony by compelling Philip to
begin his outbreak before his preparations were completed. It is said
that when he saw the necessity he cast himself upon the ground and wept
bitterly.
But there was no escaping it, and collecting his forces he fell upon
the settlements with fire and sword, and what was still more dreaded,
the scalping knife and tomahawk. The first to feel his fury was the
border town of Swanzey, where houses and barns were burnt and nine of
the inhabitants put to death and seven wounded. Succor came promptly
from Plymouth and Boston. The Indians fell back upon Mount Hope,
Philip's favorite seat. Mutilated corpses and burning dwellings marked
the track of the pursued. The pursuer looked round him in vain for an
enemy. A few dogs prowled round the deserted wigwams, but not an Indian
was to be seen.
And here comes into view one of the boldest leaders of the colonists
in their wars with the natives, Benjamin Church, of Plymouth, a man
skilled in all the arts of Indian warfare, and in whose ardent nature
a sound judgment and self-control were combined with intrepidity and
enterprise. He pressed close upon the track of the enemy, crossed the
bay to Aquidneck, and after a six hours' fight with a superior force
was compelled to take refuge on board a sloop just as his ammunition
began to fail.
The war was fairly begun, and for over a twelvemonth raged with various
fortunes but unabated fury. Plymouth and Massachusetts suffered most,
but it left bloody traces in Rhode Island also.
For unfortunately for Rhode Island, Philip's favorite seat was that
beautiful range of hills, some twelve miles long, which separates the
Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay from Narragansett Bay, thus bringing
him within the limits of the present Town of Bristol. Tradition
still points to a rock on the southernmost hill where the "noble
savage" loved to sit and gaze on the waters as they held their way to
the Atlantic, revolving, perhaps, in his embittered mind, a bloody
vengeance upon his arrogant foe. It was from Mount Hope that he set
forth to strike his first blow, and thither that he returned to fall by
the hand of a traitor. "But a small part of the domain of my ancestors
is left," he said to his friend, John Borden. "I am determined not to
live till I have no country."
Part only of the bloody record as I have already said belongs to Rhode
Island. In the modern Town of Tiverton, known in those earlier colonial
days as Pocasset, there was a swamp--seven miles in length--one of
those difficult spots wherein Indian warriors love to concentrate
their forces in the hour of danger. Here, amidst intricate paths and
trembling morasses Philip first awaited the assault of the enemy. The
colonists came up bravely to the charge, but were bravely repulsed
with the loss of sixteen men. Then they resolved to take possession
of the avenues to the swamp and starve the Indians into surrender.
But the wily Philip after standing a siege of thirteen days made good
his escape by night and took refuge on the Connecticut River, where
he was joined by the Nipmucks, a Massachusetts tribe which he had won
over to his fortunes. Surprises, pursuits, gallant stands, fearful
massacres follow. At Brookfield it is an ambush followed by a siege.
At Deerfield there was a battle in which the Indians were worsted,
then a second trial of strength in which the town was burnt. At Hadley
the enemy came while the inhabitants were in the meeting-house engaged
in their devotions. For a while the men, who had brought their arms
with them and were well trained to the use of them, thus held their
ground firmly. But the surprise had shaken their nerves, and they were
beginning to cast anxious glances around them, when suddenly in their
midst appeared a venerable man clad in the habiliments of another age
and with a sword in his hand. With a clear, firm voice he roused the
flagging courage of the villagers, reformed their ranks and led them
to the charge. A Roman would have taken him for one of the Dioscuri--a
Spaniard for St. Jago. What wonder that the Hadleyites thought him a
divine messenger, and if with such a proof of God's favor to inspirit
them, they sprang forward with dauntless hearts and drove their enemy
before them. When the victory was won, the same clear voice bade
them bow their heads in prayer, and when they raised them again the
mysterious speaker was gone. None but the village preacher knew that it
was Goffe, the regicide.
A surprise and massacre have left their name to Bloody Brook.
Springfield was burned. But at Hatfield Philip received a check, and
having laid waste the western frontier of Massachusetts, turned his
steps toward the land of the Narragansetts. For the success of the war
depended mainly upon the decision of that still powerful tribe. In the
beginning a doubtful treaty had been patched up between them and the
English. But their hearts were with their own race, and when Philip
came they resolved to cast in their fortunes with his. The colonists
prepared themselves sternly for the contest. Fifteen hundred men were
enlisted in Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut; a body of friendly
Indians joined them, and though it was mid-winter, thinking only of
the necessity of striking a decisive blow they began their march.
Volunteers from Rhode Island joined them on the way, but Rhode Island
as a colony was not consulted.
The Narragansetts were on their own ground and had chosen the strongest
point for their winter quarters. It was an island of between three and
four acres in the midst of a vast swamp in the southwestern part of the
State, three or four miles from the present village of Kingston. To the
trees and other natural defences the Indian chief had added palisades
and such appliances as his rude engineering suggested. Here he had
built his wigwams and stored his provisions, and prepared to pass the
winter.
Towards this fated spot at the dawn of a December Sabbath the little
army of Puritans took their way. The snow was falling fast and the
wind dashed it in their faces, but bated not their speed. By one they
were in front of the stronghold, and though weary with the long march
and faint with hunger they pressed eagerly forward. The only entrance
was over the trunk of a tree. The Indian guns and arrows covered every
foot of the way. The colonists undaunted rushed on--officers in the
van. First to feel the murderous Indian aim was Captain Johnson, of
Roxbury. Captain Davenport, of Boston, fell next, but before he fell
penetrated the enclosure. More than two hours the battle raged with
unabated fury. At one time the English made their way into the fort,
but the Indians rallied and forced them back again. But over-confident
in the natural strength of their fortress they had neglected to secure
with palisades a strip which they had thought sufficiently guarded by
a sheet of water. The English discovered it, and crossing took the
astonished natives in the rear. At the same time some one shouted,
"Fire their wigwams." The fatal flame caught eagerly the light boughs
and branches of which the frail tenements were made, and in a few
moments the fort was all ablaze. Imagination shrinks appalled from the
scene that followed. Night was coming on. The snow storm had set in
with fresh violence. A thousand Indian warriors lay dead or wounded
within the fort. Five hundred wigwams were burning within the same
narrow compass--consuming alike the bodies of the wounded and the
dead. The women and children, like their protectors, perished in the
flames. Eighty of the English, too, were killed--a hundred and fifty
were wounded. Had the wigwams been spared there would have been food
and shelter for the victors. But victors and vanquished were driven
out into the bleak night, weary and spent with long marching and
fasting--the Indian to crouch in an open cedar swamp not far from the
fort--the English to return to the spot from whence they had set out
in the morning for this dreadful victory--Smith's plantation, near the
present village of Wickford. Several of the wounded died by the way.
Even after this blow Philip succeeded in arousing the Maine and New
Hampshire tribes to his support, and the war still raged for a while
through the New England settlements. Rhode Island suffered severely.
Warwick was burned, and the cattle driven off. Tradition says that when
the enemy approached Providence, Roger Williams, now a very old man,
went out to meet them. "Massachusetts," he said, "can raise thousands
of men at this moment, and if you kill them, the King of England will
supply their places as fast as they fall." "Let them come," was the
reply, "we are ready for them. But as for you, brother Williams, you
are a good man; you have been kind to us many years; not a hair of your
head shall be touched." Fifty-four houses in the northern part of the
town were burned, but the fearless old man was not harmed.
Many of the colonists took refuge on Aquidneck, where the inhabitants
of Newport and Portsmouth received them with great kindness. To protect
the island a little flotilla of four boats, manned each by five or six
men, was kept sailing around it day and night. There was no rest for
old or young. April opened a brighter prospect. Canonchet, chief of
the Narragansetts was taken prisoner. A young Englishman attempted to
examine him. "You much child; no understand matters of war. Let your
brother or your chief come. Him I will answer," was his haughty reply.
He was offered his life if his tribe would submit, but refused it.
The offer was renewed and he calmly said, "Let me hear no more about
it." He was sent to Stonington, where a council of war condemned him to
death. "I like it well," said he; "I shall die before my heart is soft,
or I have said anything unworthy of myself." That as many as possible
of his own race should take part in his execution Pequots were employed
to shoot him, Mohegans to cut off his head and quarter him, and the
Niantics to burn his body. When all this had been done, his head was
sent to the Commissioners at Hartford as "a taken of love and loyalty."
Throughout the spring and early summer the war still raged with
unabated violence. The Rhode Island Assembly was so hard pushed that
it was compelled to repeal the law exempting Quakers from military
service. A few days before the capture of Canonchet he had surprised
a party of Plymouth men near Pawtuxet. A battle was fought in an open
cedar swamp in Warwick. But at last fortune seemed to turn towards
the English. Philip's allies began to fall from him. His wife and
children were taken prisoners. Captain Church with a chosen band was
on his trail. Hunted from lair to lair he sought refuge at Mount Hope.
A few followers still clung to his fortunes. His mind was harassed by
unpropitious dreams, and in his weariness his pursuers came upon him
unawares. As he rose to flee he was shot down by a renegade Indian. The
victors drew his body out of the swamp, cut off his head, and dividing
the trunk and limbs into four parts hung them upon four trees. The head
was sent to Plymouth where it was hung upon a gibbet. One hand was sent
to Boston where it was welcomed as a trophy, and the other was given to
the renegade who shot him, by whom it was exhibited for money. His son
was sold into West India servitude.
With the death of Philip the war ended, although there were occasional
collisions and bloodshed. For two members of the New England
confederacy it had been a war of desolation. Connecticut, the third,
escaped unharmed. Rhode Island, which had never been a member of it
and had never been consulted concerning the war, although some of its
leading incidents occurred within her borders, suffered most. Her
second town was burned, her plantations laid waste and the inhabitants
of her main-land driven for shelter to the island.
With the vanquished it went hard. Many were killed in battle, some were
shot in cold blood by the sentence of an English court-martial. Many
were sold into slavery--with this distinction in favor of Rhode Island,
that while the other colonies sold their prisoners into unqualified
servitude, she established for hers a system of apprenticeship by which
the prospect of ultimate freedom was opened to all.
CHAPTER XI.
INDIANS STILL TROUBLESOME.--CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.--TROUBLES
CONCERNING THE BOUNDARY LINES.
War was followed by pestilence, which moves so fatally in her train.
Of this pestilence we only know that it ran its deadly course in two
or three days, and left its traces in almost every family. Meanwhile
the legislature was sedulously repairing the breaches of the war.
Laws passed in order to meet an urgent want were repealed, and chief
among them as most repugnant to the tolerant spirit of the Colony
the law of military service. The farmers returned to their desolate
fields--citizens to the ruins of their hamlets. "Give us peace," they
may have said, "and we will efface the traces of these ruins."
But it was long before real peace returned. The Indians though subdued
were still turbulent. Active measures were required to prevent them
from passing on and off the Island at will, and building their wigwams
and mat-sheds on the commons and even on private lands. Rumsellers were
found ready to sell them rum, and at Providence parties were sent out
to scour the woods and guard against surprises. As an encouragement to
the men engaged in these duties their wounded were nursed at public
expense.
There was more serious danger from another quarter. Connecticut had
not renounced her designs against Rhode Island territory, nor was she
slow in declaring her intentions. The first step was an order of the
Council at Hartford forbidding every one, whether white man or Indian,
to occupy any lands in Narragansett without its consent. The Assembly
met this order by a counter prohibition. No jurisdiction was to be
exercised there but that of Rhode Island.
This declaration of claims was promptly followed by action. Three
planters who had returned to their plantations in Warwick were
seized by the Connecticut authorities and sent to Hartford. They
appealed to their own Governor, Governor Clarke for protection. One
of the most important measures of the Rhode Island government was
the reëstablishment of King's Province. Full power of protection was
conferred upon a court of justices to be held in Narragansett. No one
was allowed to enter the Province without permission from the Assembly.
Ten thousand acres of land were set apart for new settlers at the rate
of a hundred acres to each man--the new settlers to be approved by the
Assembly. Rhode Island threatened to appeal to the King. Connecticut
declared that she was ready to meet the appeal. Attempts at compromise
were made by both parties. Connecticut proposed to fix the line at
Coweset, the modern East Greenwich. Rhode Island offered to allow
Connecticut to dispose of half the unpurchased lands in the Province
if the settlers would accept the jurisdiction of Rhode Island. The
loss of King's Province would have imperilled the future independence
of Rhode Island, and therewith the great principle on which it was
founded. Connecticut could not renounce her last hope of securing a
part of Narragansett Bay. Neither offer was accepted, and it soon
became evident that no decision could be reached except by appeal to
the King. Peleg Sandford and Richard Bailey were chosen agents, and two
hundred and fifty pounds voted for their expenses. The money was to be
raised by the sale of ten thousand acres of lands in Narragansett at
the rate of a shilling an acre.
Meanwhile the Assembly was very active. A party change took place at
the election of 1677--Governor Arnold was chosen in place of Governor
Clarke. This was equivalent to a triumph of the war party. The militia
law was again revised, care still being taken to protect the rights
of conscience. How jealously these were guarded appears also in the
unwillingness to multiply oaths of office. Five years before an act had
been passed requiring deputies to take an engagement on entering upon
the duties of their office. This law met with great opposition at its
original passage, and its repeal was hailed with general satisfaction.
Every freeman, it was said, made an engagement of allegiance on
receiving the rights of citizenship. An oath is too solemn a thing to
be lightly taken--why should we use it? So reasoned those conscientious
men. By another act, also, they showed how fast they held to this
fundamental principle.
Another sect, the Sabbatarians or Seventh-Day Baptists, had taken
root and begun to flourish in the free air of Rhode Island. In 1667
they were sufficiently numerous to justify them in asking that market
day might be changed from Saturday, their Sabbath, to some other
day. Without breaking in upon an old custom by changing the day, the
Assembly added Thursday as another market day and thus quieted the
scruples of honest and useful citizens.
We have seen how promptly and firmly the Assembly met the encroachments
of Connecticut. Their remonstrances were followed up by spirited and
judicious action. The surest way to strengthen their hold upon the
disputed territory was by peopling it. Among the coves and inlets
which give such quiet beauty to Narragansett Bay there is none more
beautiful than that broad sheet of navigable water which still retains
in part its original name of Coweset. Here it was resolved to plant a
colony and build a town. Five hundred acres were set apart in lots on
the bay for house lots--four thousand five hundred in farms of ninety
acres, which were distributed among fifty men on condition of building
within a year and opening roads from the bay into the country. To
guard against rash speculation no colonist was to sell his land within
twenty-one years unless with the consent of the Assembly. Thus on the
verdant hill-side at whose foot a ripple from the Atlantic mingles with
the inland murmur of Mascachugh was built the pleasant hamlet of East
Greenwich.
Another bitter controversy arose concerning the limits and extent of
the original Providence and Pawtuxet purchase--a question of great
local interest, and which lost none of its heat from having for
opposite leaders Roger Williams and William Harris. Several difficult
questions were mixed up with it, greatly disturbing the harmony of
the northern section of the Colony. Williams had shown himself to
be an inaccurate conveyancer in the drafting of the original deed.
This was purely a question of title. A still more difficult one arose
when Warwick was colonized. Agents were sent to England to ask for
the appointment of commissioners to decide the controversies which
the local tribunals were unable to decide effectually. John Greene
and Randall Holden were the agents for Warwick; William Harris for
Pawtuxet. This William Harris, as we have already seen, was a bold
thinker and an energetic actor. He made several voyages to England in
defence of his party, and followed up with great energy every advantage
that he gained before the tribunals at home. On his last voyage he fell
into the hands of Barbary corsairs, and though ransomed after a year of
captivity died soon after his redemption. The controversy did not cease
with his death. Other voyages were made to England and other decisions
obtained. But it was not till many years later that the unwise contest
was settled. Then, in 1696, the line between Providence and Warwick
was settled by the Assembly, with the Pawtuxet River for boundary.
That between Providence and Pawtuxet was continued till 1712 and then
settled by compromise.
CHAPTER XII.
DEATH OF SEVERAL OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN.--CHANGES IN LEGISLATION.
The woes of Rhode Island begin anew. Scarcely had the war ceased when
Connecticut as we have already seen renewed her claim to Narragansett.
Massachusetts soon followed in the name of the Atherton company.
And presently Plymouth joined herself to the roll of Rhode Island's
enemies by advancing a claim to Aquidneck itself. Connecticut sought to
strengthen her pretensions by asserting that the disputed territory was
now hers by right of conquest. Thus far the sturdy little colony had
held its ground and grown and prospered in the midst of enemies. Would
she continue to hold it? Humanity itself was concerned in the answer,
for of all the powers and kingdoms of the earth she alone was founded
upon the principle of perfect toleration. The contest was a long and a
weary one, too long for the purpose of this volume, for it is a history
of seventy years of discussion and aggression, of bitter attack and
firm resistance, terminating at last in the triumph of the weak and
single-handed. Rhode Island not only preserved her original territory
but added to it from that of two of her enemies. I shall select a few
incidents to illustrate the progress of the contest.
It was to be waged for the most part by a new generation. The great
men of the foundation were passing away. John Clarke, who had thrown
the mild lustre of his purity over the first half of the life of the
Colony, died in 1676, leaving a deep longing, or rather a sore need of
his civil virtues and diplomatic skill. Samuel Gorton, whose tenacious
convictions made him stern and intolerant in public life though gentle
and attractive in private intercourse, and whose vigorous and subtle
intellect led him to rejoice in the bitterness of controversy as the
swift horse rejoices in the dust of the race-course, died the year
after. Roger Williams was spared a few years longer--bold, ardent,
disputatious, resolute, sincere and earnest to the last. But the young
of his middle age were growing old, and the companions of his active
years were falling around him. His colony had thriven and flourished.
The five men who followed him from Salem had become "a thousand or
twelve hundred men able to bear arms." In spite of the threatening of
the political horizon his strong faith told him that the being in whom
he had put his trust thus far would stand by him still. And thus he
laid his head upon his last pillow, a satisfied and happy man.
Another man of bold, original type--William Harris--had run his active
career, and died with his hands and heart still full of unfinished
work. We have seen to what length he carried his doctrine of individual
right to free action. We have seen him wage a bitter controversy with
Roger Williams. Time after time he crossed the Atlantic as agent of
the great boundary questions which fill so large a space in the Rhode
Island history of this period; the last time, and from which he was
never to return, as agent for Connecticut. A deep presentiment of
disaster seems to have filled his mind as he was preparing himself for
this voyage, and not satisfied with making his will he presented it
for probate with his own hands. The presentiment was well founded. On
the outward passage he was taken by a Barbary corsair and sold into
slavery. By the exertion of friends he was ransomed after a year's
captivity and made his way through Spain and France to England. But
the year of slavery had told hard upon him, and three days after his
arrival he died. It has been remarked by a profound thinker that while
Williams's more comprehensive mind could embrace both the practical
and ideal in their mutual relations, the moment that Harris touched
the ideal he became a radical. It does not seem to have struck his
cotemporaries as it does us to see him accepting the agency of
Connecticut in her controversy with Rhode Island. But he has a definite
place in Rhode Island history and did her good service through his long
and somewhat turbulent career.
William Coddington, who had been an eminent man in Massachusetts before
he became a very eminent man in Rhode Island, lived to take an active
part in the controversy, and died in 1678, while holding for the time
the office of Governor. His temporary usurpation had been forgiven and
forgotten, and men remembered only that he had sincerely renounced his
hostile designs and become a loyal and useful citizen.
Such were some of the men who bore the largest part in moulding the
original character of Rhode Island. Talent and character like theirs
was required to guide the little Colony through the dangers that
surrounded it. But before we return to the external history of these
days we will gather from the acts of the Assembly a few records of the
moral and intellectual life of the Colony and its progress to a higher
civilization.
The publicity of the laws is a question of deep interest in every stage
of society, but particularly interesting in small communities. In the
early days of Rhode Island they were published by beat of drum under
the seal of the Colony. The violation of a law found no excuse in the
plea of ignorance.
The sessions of the Assembly were held in a tavern or sometimes in a
private house, always beginning, as the Roman assemblies did, at a
very early hour. We have already seen that early attempts were made to
allure the members to their duty by payment. It was still some time
before this became a fixed law. In 1679 a resolution was passed for
paying the board and lodging of the members of the Assembly and of
the Court of Trials. In the May session of 1680 a definite sum was
fixed upon--seven shillings a week. The true nature of the reciprocal
obligation of the citizen and the State was not yet fully understood.
The frequent appeals to England which the aggressions of the other
New England colonies made necessary, made it also necessary to keep
resident agents at the English court. Thus the increased expenditure of
the Colony kept pace with the increase of her resources.
In 1678 a tax was laid which enables us to form a tolerably accurate
idea of the financial condition of the Colony. Its full amount was
three hundred pounds. "Of this sum Newport was assessed one hundred and
thirty-six pounds, Portsmouth sixty-eight, New Shoreham and Jamestown
twenty-nine each, Providence ten, Warwick eight, Kingston sixteen,
afterwards reduced to eight, East Greenwich and Westerly two each." As
the greater part of this tax was commutable, we are enabled to form a
pretty accurate idea of the price of living just after the war. "Fresh
pork was valued at twopence a pound, salted and well packed pork at
fifty shillings a barrel, fresh beef at twelve shillings a hundred
weight, packed beef in barrels thirty shillings a hundred, peas and
barley malt two and sixpence a bushel, corn and barley, two shillings,
washed wool sixpence a pound, and good firkin butter fivepence. The
quarter part of this tax was paid in wool at the rate of fivepence a
pound." If we compare these prices with those of 1670, we shall see
that war had proved here as everywhere a great scourge.
In the law by which this tax was levied we find a practical
illustration of the principle which less than a century later became
the fundamental principle of colonial resistance to the mother country.
None but a complete representation of all the towns could levy a tax,
or as it was formulated by James Otis--taxation without representation
is tyranny.
It is also worthy of observation that there was a tendency to extend
the usage of election to direct choice by vote of the freemen. The
office of major which at its first institution during Philip's war was
filled by vote of the militia, passed, in 1678, to the whole body of
freemen. The necessity of a distinction between martial and civil law
seems, also, to have made itself more sensibly felt at the same period,
and a permanent court-martial was formed for the trial of delinquent
soldiers. As the commercial spirit of the Colony increased the
necessity of a bankrupt law was felt, but on trial it was found to be
premature and repealed. An attempt was also made to avoid the conflict
of land titles in Narragansett, where the interest of townships as
well as of private individuals was involved. To correct this evil
which struck at the root of social organization the Assembly ordered
that the disputed tracts should be surveyed and plats made of them. For
the more efficacious protection of this fundamental interest it was
ordered that all who held by Indian titles "should present their deeds
to be passed on by the Assembly." Descending to minuter particulars,
we find a law against fast riding--first, in "the compact parts of
Newport," and not long after, of Providence, also. We find it also
ordered that a bell be provided and set up in some convenient place
for calling the Assembly and courts and council together. Of deeper
interest was the act appointing a committee to make a digest of the
laws, "that they may be putt in print." Only part, however, of this
resolution was carried out, and it was not till 1719 that the laws were
put into a permanent form.
Not the laws only but the language in which they were expressed
attracted attention. We now meet for the first time in the enacting
clause of a law, "and by the authority thereof be it ordained, enacted
and declared." Instead of executor administrator was written, "it being
in that case the more proper and usual term in the law." In one act we
find an instance of grim humor. The accounts of a general sergeant were
found to be in inextricable confusion. The auditing committee resolved
to call them square "and voted that by this act there is a full and
fynal issue of all differences relative to said accounts from the
beginninge of the world unto this present Assembly."
In some instances the public mind was not made up concerning a law, and
one Assembly would undo the work of its predecessor. One of the most
important acts of this class was an act denying the revisory power of
the Assembly over decisions of courts of trials. In the August session
of 1680, after two years of experiment, the act was repealed.
The existence of a law proves, also, the existence of an evil.
In the May session of 1679, we find an act for the protection of
servants, whom "sundry persons being evil-minded" were in the habit
of overtasking at home, and then hiring others to let out for work
on Sunday--thus infringing the law which practically made Sunday a
holiday. This is not a pleasant picture, but the action of the Assembly
forbidding the abuse shows that public opinion was sound. We find,
also, that then as now sailors were more or less at the mercy of sailor
landlords. The Assembly took up their defence. Those who trusted a
sailor for more than five shillings without an order from his captain
forfeited their claim. Another law bearing directly upon navigation
was passed in the May session of 1679. "The master of every vessel of
over twenty tons burthen was required to report himself to the head
officer of the town upon arrival and departure, and if over ten days
in port, then to set up notice in two public places in the town three
days before sailing." In this last act we see the influence of the
navigation act which was so long held to be the guardian genius of
England's commercial prosperity, and which was communicated to all the
colonies by royal edict in 1680.
And here, as illustrative of border life when Rhode Island was a border
colony, comes the story of John Clawson's curse. This John Clawson
was a hired servant of Roger Williams, who, at the instigation of a
desperate fellow by the name of Herendeen, was attacked in the night
from behind a thicket of barberry bushes, near the old north burial
ground by an Indian named Waumaion. The Indian, who was armed with a
broad axe, split open Clawson's chin at the first blow. The wound was
mortal, but the wounded man lived long enough to utter his curse--that
"Herendeen and his posterity might be marked with split chins and
haunted with barberry bushes" forever. The malediction, legend
says, was fulfilled, and the descendants of the murderer were still
distinguished in the last century by a furrowed chin, and fired up with
indignation at the mention of a barberry bush.
CHAPTER XIII.
COURTS AND ARMY STRENGTHENED.--COMMISSIONERS SENT FROM
ENGLAND.--CHARTER REVOKED.
Disputes of title fill, as we have seen, a full but monotonous chapter
in this part of our history. Among them was the dispute for Potowomut,
a neck of land on Coweset Bay which had been purchased of the Indians
by order of the Assembly as early as 1659. Bitter disputes soon
followed, Warwick claiming it, and individuals both English and Indians
disputing the claim. At last the question was disposed of, as was
supposed, finally, at a town meeting in 1680, in which it was divided
"into fifty equal lots or rights, and the names of the proprietors were
inserted on the records." But the very next year we meet it again as a
contest between Warwick and Kingston. At last the Assembly interposed,
forbidding all occupancy of the land till further orders, warning
off intruders, but permitting the Warwick men to mow and improve the
meadows as heretofore.
Among the questions brought before the Assembly in the time of these
disputes, was the question of the power of the Town Council to reject
or accept new citizens. The question was brought up by Providence and
decided in the affirmative. The form of application for leave to reside
has been preserved: "To y^e Towne mett this 15th of December 1680. My
request to y^e Towne is; that they woold grant the liberty to reside in
y^e Towne during the Townes Approbation, behaving myselfe as a civill
man ought to doe, Desireing not to putt y^e Towne to any charge by my
residing here; and for what y^e Towne shall cause farther to enquire of
me, I shall see I hope to give them a true and sober Answer thereunto.
Y^{or} friend and servant Tho. Waters."
One of the lessons of the war had been the importance of cavalry, and
in 1682 a company was raised in the main-land towns consisting of
thirty-six men, exclusive of officers. To put them on the same footing
with the infantry they were allowed the same privileges, and held to
the same obligation of exercising six days in the year. Not long after
the number of majors was doubled, and John Greene appointed for the
main-land and John Coggeshall for the island. Measures were also taken
to give greater efficiency to the courts, and it was decided that the
October sessions should be held in Providence and Warwick annually.
That there might be no delay in the execution of sentences, each of
these towns was required to furnish a cage and stocks. Thus surely but
gradually the resolute Colony went on in its work of organization. But
perilous days were at hand.
The appeals of the colonies to England had attracted her attention to
these distant domains, which but for that might long have continued
to grow and prosper in obscurity. But when called upon to grant
privileges she naturally began to examine into the nature of her
rights, and interpreted them not by the genius of the colonies, but by
the commercial interests of the mother country. The act of navigation,
which had its origin in English jealousy of Holland, bore hard from
the beginning on the commercial industry of the colonies. Although
first passed by the republican Parliament of 1651, it did not become
an efficient act until the first Parliament of Charles II. in 1660,
when it was formally proclaimed in all the colonies by beat of drum.
Custom-houses with all their parapheranalia followed close in its
track. The burthen was soon felt, and smuggling, the natural relief of
overtaxed commerce, became general. The bays and inlets of New England
afforded great facilities for illicit trade, and the public conscience
could not long resist the temptation. We shall see before another
century is over to what England's narrow policy led.
Questions relating to the colonies were generally referred to the
Board of Trade. In 1680 came a letter from the board containing
twenty-seven queries concerning Rhode Island. The agents in England
also went prepared to give all the information that was required for
the understanding of the claims and condition of the Colony. As long
as Charles, the grantor of the charter lived, there was nothing done to
excite alarm. But no sooner did his bigoted brother ascend the throne,
than it became evident that an entire change was to be made in colonial
policy. Rhode Island was quick to feel the blow. A commission of nine
was appointed to settle the vexed question of King's Province. Head of
the commission was the notorious Cranfield, who had made himself a bad
name by his tyrannical government of New Hampshire. Next came Randolph,
detested in Massachusetts for his oppressive administration of the acts
of trade. These names excited gloomy anticipations which were presently
fulfilled.
And here let us pause a moment to observe the exact situation of
Rhode Island at this critical emergency. Having had her origin in a
practical appeal from the intolerance of Massachusetts, she had never
been admitted to the confederation which gave unity and strength to
the other New England colonies. Her doctrine of soul-liberty was a
stench in their nostrils, and her possession of the broad and beautiful
Narragansett Bay so favorable for maritime and internal commerce,
was, as we have seen, a constant subject of bickering and envy.
Massachusetts laid claim to Pawtuxet and Warwick, and a Massachusetts
company to part of Narragansett; Connecticut to a large portion of the
remainder of Narragansett, Plymouth to Aquidneck and other islands
of the Bay. Little was left to Rhode Island but the plantations on
the Mooshausick. All of these claims were enforced by all the means
and arts within the command of the stronger colonies except actual
war, and resisted with admirable resolution and perseverance by the
weaker colony. We have seen how agents were sent to plead her cause at
the court of their common sovereign, how every attempt to establish
jurisdiction had been promptly resisted and every intrusion instantly
repelled. In the darkest hour she never lost heart nor bated one jot
her rights. But the darkest hour of all was at hand.
Cranfield and Randolph set themselves zealously to their congenial
task. The Assembly met for theirs. The Commissioners refused to
establish their position by showing their credentials. The Assembly
refused to recognize them officially without credentials. The rupture
was open and violent. The Assembly appointed new agents to repair to
court and lay the evidence in behalf of the Colony before the King. A
tax of four hundred pounds was imposed to meet their expenses. Much
importance was attached to an address to the King drawn up by Randall
Holden and John Greene. Meanwhile the Commissioners on their part were
not idle. Cranfield wrote to the Board of Trade that the colonies were
disloyal. "It never will be otherwise," he added, "till their charters
are broke and the college at Cambridge utterly extirpated, for from
thence these half-witted philosophers turn either Atheists or seditious
preachers." He was right, for it was at Cambridge that Otis and Quincy
and Warren and the two Adamses imbibed the principles which led to
independence.
It was in 1684, in the midst of these struggles, that a petition of the
Jews for protection was presented to the Assembly and granted--Rhode
Island remaining true to the last to the principle of her origin.
The decision of the Royal Commissioners was unfavorable to Rhode
Island, and it is hard to see how she could have escaped mutilation.
But she was menaced by a still greater danger. In 1684 Charles the
Second died, and his brother James ascended the throne, bringing with
him a narrow mind and a bad heart. To establish an arbitrary government
and restore the supremacy of the Romish Church were the cardinal points
of his policy. The American colonies afforded a favorable field for the
trial. It began by the revocation of their charters, and was speedily
followed up by putting the government of the New England colonies under
one head.
Rhode Island found herself where she stood at the beginning, a
government of towns. Her original four towns had united under one
government for self-defence, and now that they were arbitrarily
separated by a power too great to be resisted they naturally fell back
upon their original municipal institutions. This closing scene is
not without its dignity. The Assembly met at its accustomed time. The
Governor, Walter Clarke, solemnly called upon the freemen for counsel.
The whole question of dangers and difficulties was discussed, and
wisely preferring petition to resistance, it was resolved to address
a solemn appeal to the King for the preservation of their charter.
Then all returned to its original order. The freemen met and discussed
their town interests in their town meetings. Town officers elected
by their townsmen performed their accustomed duties. The tradesman
and the farmer went on in his chosen calling and the towns throve and
prospered, still looking with unwavering trust to a day of redemption.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHANGES IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT.--SIR EDMOND ANDROS APPOINTED
GOVERNOR.--HE OPPRESSES THE COLONISTS AND IS FINALLY DEPOSED.
Thus a provisional government took the place of the charter government
under which New England had grown so rapidly. A great and successful
experiment in political science was suddenly checked, and hopes which
had led so many devout and earnest men to renounce the conveniences of
home for the perils and discomforts of a wilderness were rudely crushed
at the very moment when they seemed nearest their fulfillment. The
same blow which fell upon Rhode Island fell with equal fatality upon
Massachusetts and Connecticut. The government by charter ceased. The
two most active agents of James in this remoulding of the government of
the colonies were Dudley, President of the Council, and Randolph, the
Secretary, whose despotic conduct in Boston has already been mentioned.
Here was a broader and more congenial field.
It was resolved as has been seen to address the King in behalf of the
Colony, and John Greene, venerable by years and illustrious by public
services, was appointed to carry the address to England and advocate
it as agent for the Colony. He had watched over the cradle of the
Colony--who so fit to stand by its grave.
Unfortunately, party had lost none of its virulence even in this
supreme hour, and a small minority of dissentients was found to the
sober and judicious conduct of the Assembly. Among them were members
of the Atherton company, and among their methods of attack were bitter
aspersions upon the personal character of the colonial agent. The
provisional government found enough to do in preparing the colonies
for their new life, and one of their earliest measures was a final
organization of King's Province. Among the changes that they made was
the changing of the names of its three towns. Kingston, the largest,
was called Rochester, Westerly, the next in size, became Haversham, and
East Greenwich, the smallest, took the name of Dedford. The western
boundary of Haversham was Pawcatuck River. Dedford was extended on the
north to Warwick, and enlarged by the peninsula of Potowomut. Part of
the actual settlers were living on land to which they had no legal
claim. Preëmption rights were granted them and time given them to
"arrange with the owners by rent or purchase."
At last, on the 20th of December, 1686, the Royal Governor, Sir Edmond
Andros, arrived in Boston. He came in a ship of the royal navy and
brought with him two companies of the royal army, the first regular
troops that had ever been seen in Massachusetts. He had already
been in the colonies and knew the spirits with whom he would have to
deal. Rhode Island, like her sisters, had everything to fear from his
arbitrary will. But she had treated him with respectful consideration
on his former visit, and was now treated by him with less than his
usual harshness.
He entered at once upon his welcome task, the transformation of a
constitutional government into a despotism. Massachusetts came first in
order, and the very first blow was a deadly one, an outrage upon her
convictions and a deep humiliation to her pride. Her Puritan theocracy,
which had penetrated every part of her civil polity, was overthrown,
and the service of the church of England was openly celebrated. In this
Rhode Island had no change to fear, for freedom of conscience was, till
other ends were accomplished, the doctrine of the King himself. In all
other things all the colonies fared alike.
We have seen how watchful Rhode Island was of the taxing power, and how
nearly she had reached the great fundamental principle that taxation
and representation go together. Andros sent out his tax-gatherers
without consulting the tax-payers. His object was to raise money,
no matter how. Farming the revenue, always a favorite device of
despotism, offered facilities which he promptly turned to account. The
augmentation of fees was an abundant source. Those of probate were
increased twenty-fold. Writs of intrusion opened another channel for
organized robbery. No one could tell how soon he might be compelled to
buy his farm over again. Even marriage afforded a field for the display
of arbitrary power. Necessity at first compelled the government to
recognize the validity of civil marriages. But as the transformation
of laws and usages progressed, no marriages were recognized as valid
which were not celebrated according to the rights of the Church of
England. To feel the odious tyranny of this law it should be remembered
that there was but one Episcopal clergyman in the Colony. Another
oppressive act was the introduction of passports, whether for the fees
they brought in or in order to throw obstacles in the way of a free
communication among the colonies, it would be difficult to tell.
Andros's commission gave him the power to appoint and remove his
counselors at will. The council consisted of nineteen members, five of
whom were from Rhode Island. One of them, John Greene, was absent on
his agency in England. Their first meeting was held at Boston. In this
the usual oaths of allegiance and office were taken, the two Quaker
members from Rhode Island being allowed to make their affirmation. All
officers in commission were continued in office during the Governor's
pleasure, and all laws that did not clash with the laws of England,
were retained. The first was the only full meeting of this impotent
board, which only met to confirm the resolves of an arbitrary Governor.
In substance Andros had his own way, though not without occasional
opposition and now and then humiliation. In Rhode Island the charter
was adroitly put out of his reach by Governor Clarke and not reproduced
till he had left Newport. In Connecticut it was hidden in the hollow of
an oak. The seal of Rhode Island was broken. The members of the council
were constantly changing, and few of them, according to Randolph, cared
for the King. "His Excellency has to do with a perverse people."
We meet some of the questions of our own day. Licenses for the sale
of liquor were granted in Newport, but no liquor could be sold in
King's Province. How well the prohibition was obeyed it is impossible
to say. Poor laws also appear in the guise of taxes for the support
of that perplexing part of the population. It would be tedious and
useless to follow the despotic Governor through all the changes of his
administration of two years and four months. Suffice it to say that he
had fully imbibed the spirit of his master, and did all that he could
to reduce the colonies to servitude. A few provisions, however, may be
mentioned as illustrating the condition of the country. With the growth
of the towns fires became sources of danger. To enforce watchfulness
the person in whose house a fire broke out was fined two and sixpence,
and for still greater security every householder was required to set
"a ladder reaching to the ridge pole, to every house that he owned."
Attention was called to the fishing in Pettaquamscot pond and an order
passed for encouraging it. A tax was laid for the extermination of
wolves, which seem still to have been very numerous.
In April, 1688, Andros's commission was enlarged so as to comprise New
York and the Jerseys, all under the general appellation of New England.
Enlarged powers and minute instructions accompanied the new commission,
and among the former was the subjection of the press to the will of the
Governor.
But another change was drawing nigh. There was nothing in common
between James the Second and the New England colonist, and Andros
represented his master too faithfully not to be bitterly hated. Even
Thanksgiving, that thoroughly New England festival, was neglected
when announced by his proclamation. Some spoke out their detestation
openly to his face. "I suppose," he said one morning to Dr. Hooker, the
great clerical wit of Hartford, "all the good people of Connecticut
are fasting and praying on my account." "Yes," replied the Doctor, "we
read, 'This kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.'"
Rhode Island suffered less at his hands than any other colony. The
enforced toleration which excited such strong feelings in Massachusetts
met with no opposition in a territory where Baptists and Quakers
and Puritans and Separatists worshipped according to their own
convictions. John Greene soon became aware that there was no prospect
of a return to the free life of the charter so long as James held the
throne. Therefore, without renouncing the hope of a better future,
he confined his negotiations for the present to questions of minor,
though important bearing. Chief among them was the putting an end to
the intrusions of the outside claimants to Narragansett. This brought
up all the unsettled claims which had been so pertinaciously enforced
and so firmly resisted. The Atherton claim was thrown out by the
Commissioners as extorted from the Indians by fear. The Connecticut
claim was repudiated upon grounds set forth in the Rhode Island
charter. Several individual titles, both Indian and English, were
considered, and after careful examination, the right of Rhode Island to
King's Province was confirmed for the third time--"against Connecticut
in point of jurisdiction, and against the so-called proprietors in
point of ownership." This report was met in England by a petition of
Lord Culpepper in behalf of the Atherton company for grants of land
not already occupied and the bass ponds, upon such quit rents as might
seem good to the King. The petition was granted in part and Andros
was intrusted to "assign them such lands as had not already been
occupied--at a quit rent of two and sixpence for every hundred acres."
Thus far Rhode Island has come off with honor in her contests with her
neighbors. There was one, however, in which she won no honor. A party
of unfortunate Huguenots had established themselves in King's Province,
forming a little settlement of their own and paying honestly for their
lands. But the French name was not loved in the colonies and their
Protestant neighbors persecuted them away. Traces of them may still be
found in the neighborhood where they settled, which bears to this day
the name of Frenchtown.
Meanwhile great changes were taking place in England, where James
was rapidly running his career of bigotry and oppression. Slow as
the communications between the mother country and her colonies were
there was still communication enough to enable the latter to form
some conception of the state of public feeling in the former. The new
government had never acquired any stability in New England. The Council
was constantly changing, and after the first meeting never all met
together again. The public mind was ripe for revolution, and when the
first tidings of the fall of James reached New England she was prepared
to accept them with all their consequences. Unfortunately for Andros he
was in Boston at this critical moment, and Boston was ready to act with
her wonted vigor. The Governor was summoned to surrender his authority,
and refusing, was thrown into prison. Massachusetts made haste to
reörganize her government, but her charter was gone.
CHAPTER XV.
CHARTER GOVERNMENT AGAIN RESUMED.--FRENCH WAR.--INTERNAL
IMPROVEMENTS.--CHARGES AGAINST THE COLONIES.
Rhode Island had never hated Andros as bitterly as the other colonies
had hated him, for the freedom of conscience which he endeavored to
force upon them was in her a fundamental principle. But she loved her
charter and rightly believed that it was the only sure pledge of her
liberties. Therefore, when Dudley, the Chief-Justice, undertook to
open his court, he was seized and put in jail. This was a bold casting
off of the new government. The next step was a cautious return to the
old. A letter from Newport came out calling upon the freemen of Rhode
Island to meet there "before the day of usual election by charter,"
to take counsel together concerning public affairs. When the day came
the freemen met, and doubtless with all their usual freedom of debate,
prepared a statement of their reasons for resuming their charter
government. Party lines were already sharply drawn. On one side were
the Royalists, led by the rich merchant, Francis Brinley, who opposed
the resumption of the charter, and called for a general government by
immediate appointment of the King. On the other were the Republicans,
stronger both by number and by fervor of opinion. Their boldness
secured the freedom of the Colony. In an address to "the present
supreme power of England," they gave their reasons for returning to
their charter, and asked to have their action approved. Deputy-Governor
Coggeshall, with several assistants, resumed their functions, but
Governor Clarke, whose characteristic trait was caution, declined and
the Colony was ten months without a governor.
Still, in May, all the old officers were reinstated and "all the laws
superseded in 1686" resumed their place on the schedule. "The charter
was produced in open Assembly" and then restored to Governor Clarke
for safe keeping. When the question of the legality of the resumption
of charter government came before the King, he approved it upon the
written opinion of the law officers of the crown that "the charter,
never having been revoked, but only suspended, still remained in full
force and effect." Heartily must Rhode Island and Connecticut have
rejoiced that theirs had been so successfully guarded. In May came
the welcome tidings that William and Mary had been acknowledged in
England. They were promptly and joyfully acknowledged in the colonies.
Dr. Increase Mather, a great name in Massachusetts, was in London on
behalf of the colonies when the revolution broke out. He obtained an
early audience of William and pleaded for the recall of Andros. The
recall was granted, and after ten months of confinement the crestfallen
Governor was sent to England for trial. But his conduct was viewed in
a different light in the mother country from what it had been in the
colonies. "The charges against him were dismissed by the royal order,
on the ground of insufficiency--and that he had done nothing which was
not fully justified by his instructions." As a compensation for his
long imprisonment, he was presently made Governor of Virginia.
In February, 1689-90, the Assembly met for the first time in four years
and entered upon the work of organization. Seventeen deputies, together
with the officers chosen in May, were present. Absentees were summoned.
Clarke refused to serve as Governor. Christopher Almy also declined.
The bold but aged Henry Bull was chosen in his stead. After some
hesitation Clarke gave up the charter and other official papers. Funds
which had been appropriated to the building of a Colony House were held
by Roger Goulding, who promptly paid them over. Andros had broken the
original colonial seal. A new seal, Hope with her anchor, was procured.
Rhode Island's exposed situation laid her open to attacks by sea, and
thus imposed the necessity of new expenses. War had broken out between
England and France, and the colonies were to come in for their share
of war's sufferings. Some fear was felt of the colony in Frenchtown,
and the few survivors of the unfortunate settlement were required to
repair to the office of John Greene, in Warwick, and take the oath of
allegiance to the King.
Thus the government was regularly organized and public business began
to move on in its accustomed track. At the May session of 1690 Governor
Bull declined a reelection, and John Easton was chosen in his place.
John Greene was chosen Deputy-Governor. One more was added to the list
of assistants, who thus became ten. Here ends the probation of Rhode
Island.
Poor and weak, through toil and sacrifice, in spite of internal
dissensions and external enmities, calumniated for the great truth
on which she was founded, coveted for the beautiful territory which
she had redeemed from the wilderness, she had solved the problem of
self-government and proved that the religious virtues may flourish
without the aid of civil authority. The struggle for existence is over.
She now enters through industry upon the path to wealth and culture.
The sessions of the Assembly had been held hitherto in taverns or
private houses. But now a proper edifice, the town house, is built for
public use and the public meetings are held in it. Thus far, also,
the governor, the deputy-governor and the assistants have received no
compensation for their services. They are henceforth exempted from the
Colony tax. War with the French and Indians was raging all along the
northern fr
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