WAR WITH SPAIN.—NEW TAXES LEVIED BY ENGLAND.—RELIGIOUS AWAKENING AMONG THE BAPTISTS.
Events were preparing a closer union of the colonies. England declared war against Spain—a war of commercial rivalry, for Spain was a maritime power of the first class, and claimed the right of search. England sent out her ships of war and privateers, and carried on a lucrative contraband trade among the Spanish islands and on the Spanish main. The colonies were called upon to furnish their part of men and munitions of war. Rhode Island sent out privateers and prepared to defend her harbors and coast. Fort George was put in fighting order and a garrison of fifty two men stationed there under Colonel John Cranston. New Shoreham was garrisoned and Block Island provided with six heavy guns. For the protection of the coast and shores of the bay seven watch-towers were erected and constant guard kept in them by night and by day. Five beacons were stationed between Block Island and Portsmouth to give warning of the first approach of danger, and the Colony’s war sloop, the Tartar, of a hundred and fifteen tons burthen held in readiness for instantservice. Newport merchants also entered actively into the game and sent out in the second year of the war five privateers manned by five hundred men.
A great expedition was preparing against the Spanish West Indies. Rhode Island’s contingent was two companies of a hundred men each. The Newport company was commanded by Captain Joseph Sheffield, the Providence company by Captain William Hopkins. The Colony was proud of its work and feasted both officers and men before they set sail to join the British squadron at New York and bear their part in the disastrous attempt upon Carthagena. Meanwhile it had proved its mettle by taking a French contraband schooner and carrying her into Newport for adjudication.
Rhode Island was loyal, loving the king and accepting the supremacy of Parliament. But she was quick to discriminate between usurpation, and legal authority. The northern colonies carried on a lucrative commerce with the West Indies and particularly with the French Islands. Upon this trade England had imposed a heavy tax under the title of molasses act and was preparing to increase it. The colonies protested. Newport dealt largely in the distilling of rum and was thus a great consumer of molasses. All looked alike to the trade with the islands for the means of paying for their importations from the mother country. But the objection did not stophere. Colonial development had reached the underlying principle of the revolution. Parliament taxed Englishmen as their representative. But by what right could an English Parliament tax Americans? Richard Partridge, the colonial agent, and a Quaker in faith, acting in the name of Rhode Island and other northern colonies, “strenuously opposed” the new restrictions, and the Assembly requested the Governor “to write to the neighboring governments, inviting them” to join in the opposition. Thus concerted action and the right of self-taxation begin to claim their legitimate place in colonial polity, and prepare the way for independence. In the midst of these agitations Governor John Wanton died. I have already spoken of him as of one of the great names of colonial history and happy as few public men are in the recognition of his deserts. He was elected Deputy-Governor five times in succession and Governor seven. Deputy-Governor Richard Ward was chosen to fill his place, and William Greene was promoted to the place of Deputy-Governor made vacant by the promotion of Richard Ward. Henceforth these two names become prominent in Rhode Island history.
Disease came with war. The small-pox broke out again. Portsmouth and Jamestown were compelled to call on the Assembly for aid and Dutch Island was used as quarantine ground. While the minds of the colonists were thus prepared for thoughts of suffering and death, George Whitefield came among them calling them to repentance and prayer. Crowds gathered round him to listen to his burning words, and all New England was filled with the fame of his eloquence. His disciples joined the Baptists who increased greatly in numbers and influence. Samuel Fothergill, also, the calm and persuasive Quaker, passed at this time a half year in Newport in the house of his brother-in-law, John Proud, and Quakerism throve under his gentle teaching as the Baptists throve under the fervid exhortations of Whitefield.
The war continued. Spain against whom it had been first directed formed an alliance with France, and the colonies were called upon for new exertions. Ten more cannon were mounted in Fort George which was enlarged to receive them. Ten new field-pieces were ordered. A brick magazine was built for the safe keeping of powder and the supply of military stores was increased in every county. To secure promptness of action the Governor and Council together with the field officers and captains were formed into a permanent council of war. By a former act of the Assembly the men were allowed to choose their own officers. This act was repealed and the right of choice vested in the Legislature where the charter placed it. The drill system was incomplete. A more thorough one was established and two more companies were raised in Newport. Inthe midst of these warlike preparations the rights of conscience were respected and those who were scrupulous about the shedding of blood were employed as scouts and guards, or required to furnish horses in case of sudden alarm, or do any other duty consistent with their religious scruples.
The House of Commons ever watchful over the interests of British commerce, began to look with suspicion on the frequent “emissions of paper currency in His Majesty’s colonies in America, in which Rhode Island has too large a share.” An address to the King was followed by instructions to the colonial governors from the Board of Trade to transmit to the home government “an account of the tenor and amount of the bills of credit” issued by each colony, the times when they fell due, the number actually outstanding and their value in “money of Great Britain, both at the time such bills were issued and at the time of preparing the account.” The Governor’s opinion was also required upon the still more difficult subject of “sinking and discharging all such bills of credit.”
Governor Ward replied on the part of Rhode Island by an elaborate history of the colonial currency and an able exposition of the causes and necessities from which it arose. Unfortunately these necessities still existed, and without heeding the warning implied by the action of the House of Commons the Assembly “created a new bank of twenty thousand pounds for ten years at fourper cent.” The paper issued under this act was called the new tenor, because unlike the earlier issues the bills bore on their faces the exact amount of gold and silver they were supposed to represent. Silver on the new tenor notes was rated at six shillings and ninepence sterling, gold at five pounds an ounce, and thus the value of a new tenor bill was four times that of an old tenor bill. The seeds of bankruptcy were thickly sown in both.
The question of the eastern boundary line, one of the bitterest of the many disputes with Massachusetts, had after several vain attempts to come to an amicable agreement, been referred, in 1741, to a royal commission. With the decision of this commission neither party was altogether satisfied, Massachusetts claiming a great deal and Rhode Island something more than it awarded them. Both parties appealed. But the commission adhered to its decision, and the line fixed by it continued to be the boundary between the two colonies till after the adoption of the Federal constitution.
PROGRESS OF THE WAR WITH THE FRENCH.—CHANGE IN THE JURISDICTION OF THE COURTS.—SENSE OF COMMON INTEREST DEVELOPING AMONG THE COLONISTS.—LOUISBURG CAPTURED.
War still continued to give its stern coloring to legislation. The Tartar was held ready for instant service. The Governor and his council were vested with the power of laying an embargo upon outward bound vessels. Speculation turned seaward, and the money which in peace would have been employed in building up commerce and manufactures was spent upon privateers.
Still the interests of peace were not altogether neglected. The productive enterprise which was to raise Rhode Island so high in the list of manufacturing states, was already awakened, and as early as 1741 James Greene and his associates petitioned the Assembly for permission to build a dam across the south branch of Pawtuxet river and lay the foundation of those iron works which in the sequel became so celebrated throughout the colonies. Population was increasing. The large townships became too large for the demands of local government and were divided. ThusGreenwich, carrying out the suggestions of its position, was divided into East and West. About the same time Warwick was divided and a new township set out under the name of Coventry. In the next year North Kingstown was divided and the Town of Exeter incorporated, and a year later the country district of Newport, which was separated from the town by thick woods, was incorporated as Middletown. The territorial struggle was nearly over and Rhode Island was settling down into its permanent proportions. The schedules still continue to record the progress of organization as experience called for new changes. The office of attorney-general was abolished and a King’s attorney for every county appointed instead. A Court of Equity composed of five judges, annually elected by the Assembly, was formed to try all causes of appeal in personal actions from the Superior Court to the General Assembly—a course which “by long experience had been found prejudicial.” To draw closer the ties of loyalty a form of prayer for the royal family was sent from England to be read in every religious assembly throughout the colonies as a part of public worship.
The dissensions with Connecticut concerning the western boundary had taken a new form. The line, as the reader will remember, had been drawn and marked by competent authority. A committee appointed by Connecticut displaced the bound at the southwest corner of Warwick.The Rhode Island Assembly sent surveyors to examine the ground and restore the line. This outrage was repeated twice.
The history of the war does not belong to the history of Rhode Island, although the spirit engendered by it led to the formation of some military institutions. Among these was the Newport Artillery, which was chartered in 1741, and is still one of the best disciplined corps in the State.
I have spoken of the substitution of King’s attorneys to attorneys-general. It was made in the hope of enforcing the payment of interest bonds. But after a short trial the original form was resumed. The root of the evil was too deep. Another of the chronic evils of paper money vexed the Colony sorely. Counterfeit bills followed close upon the issue of genuine bills, and the Colony was flooded with bad money.
The Court of Equity was not continued long, and many other changes of brief duration were made in various branches of government. But what deserves especial mention is the instinctive perception with which Rhode Island detected the slightest invasion of her chartered rights and the courage with which she defended them. The clerkship of the naval office in Newport was claimed by one Leonard Lockman in virtue of a royal commission. The claim was referred to a committee which reported “that His Majesty was mistaken in said grant” which belonged tothe Governor, who alone was responsible for the conduct of that officer. The question of custom fees and vice-admiralty fees was brought forward about the same time, and “the undoubted right of the General Assembly to state the fees of all officers and courts within the Colony” boldly asserted.
The expenses of the war still increased, straining the resources of the Colony to the utmost. Questions of organization were still rising, but the question of finance was the most difficult of all. New bills were issued with reckless profusion, and various devices adopted for the relief of the exchequer. Several bounties, and among them the bounties on hemp and oil, were withdrawn. The tonnage duty upon all vessels entering the Colony was revived. The lottery so wisely condemned in 1733 was legalized in 1744. Weybosset bridge was built by lottery.
The great military event of the campaign of 1745 was the capture of Louisburg by colonial troops. In this gallant feat of arms which fills so bright a page of colonial annals Rhode Island bore her part—especially through the Tartar, which, supported by two other war sloops, defeated at Famme Goose Bay a flotilla which was advancing with large reinforcements to the relief of the enemy. Captain Fones, who commanded the Tartar in this memorable campaign, has not received the honorable mention to which he was entitled for his gallantry and skill.
New exertions were required for securing Louisburg, and the colonies were again called upon to furnish men and supplies. In this also Rhode Island bore her part, propping as best she might her tottering treasury and using impressment for raising men. When the war was over England acknowledged her services by special grants.
In this year Rhode Island lost one of her faithful sons, Colonel John Cranston, son of the popular Governor, and commander of her forces at the capture of Port Royal. Towards the close of the year another great loss, though of another kind, fell upon the Colony. Two new privateers, mounting twenty-two guns each, with crews of over two hundred men went to sea the day before Christmas in a gale of wind and were never heard of again. Privateers held a place in war then which they do not hold now, and there was bitter sorrowing in more than two hundred households when the months passed away and no tidings of husband or father or brother came.
The success of the expedition against Louisburg increased the desire to carry the war into Canada. Commissioners from the colonies were invited to meet and take council together concerning the common interest. Here we meet for the first time the names of Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery, whose names stand side by side on the Declaration of Independence, which is already drawing nigh. The sense of common interest and mutual dependence gradually gainsground. Every exertion was made to call out the strength of the Colony. Popular feeling went with government and strengthened its hand for the great contest. Canada and Indian warfare were inseparably connected in the minds of the people, who, to rid themselves of the dreaded enemy submitted cheerfully to what they would otherwise have resisted as tyranny. Impressment was authorized by the Assembly.
In the midst of these efforts depreciation was undermining the strength and corrupting the moral sense of the community. The property tax of freemen had doubled. Bribery and fraudulent voting gained ground, and an attempt was again made to meet them by increasing the severity of the law. Every voter and every officer was required to declare under oath that he had neither taken nor offered a bribe; and a single fraudulent vote was sufficient to invalidate an election. The evidence of the briber held good against the bribed; and that the law might not be forgotten it was ordered to be “read in town meeting at every semi-annual election for five years and the name of every transgressor stricken from the roll of freemen.”
Again, the vacillation of the ministry defeated the expedition against Canada. Then came tidings of a great French armada which was coming to the conquest of New England. Great was the alarm of the colonies. But help came from another quarter. Disease and tempest scatteredand infected the hostile fleet. One commander died. His successor committed suicide, and the shattered remnants of the unfortunate armada had hard work to make their way back to the French coast.
Before the tidings of this disaster could reach New England it had been resolved to send reinforcements to the succor of Annapolis Royal, the supposed point of attack. The Rhode Island troops sailed early in November. The Massachusetts troops soon followed. Both were overtaken by heavy gales which cast some of them ashore at Mt. Desert. Some, like their adversaries, the French, were crippled by disease and a few made their way to the nearest port. Winter set in and the campaign of 1746 closed in gloom.
This was the year in which the royal decree concerning the eastern boundary was enforced. Rhode Island gained by it a large accession of territory—the towns of Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren and Cumberland, which were incorporated and brought under the control of Rhode Island laws. Thus ten new deputies were added to the colonial representation. Thus, also, a revision of the judicial and military system of the Colony became necessary, and a new court was established under the title of Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery, and consisting of a chief-justice and four associate justices annually chosen by the Assembly. The judicial powers of the assistantsor upper House of Assembly ceased, though they still continued to act as a court of probate. Two militia companies were formed in Tiverton and one in each of the other new towns.
The previous history of the new towns belongs to Massachusetts and Plymouth. Their annexation to Rhode Island brought her an increase of about four thousand inhabitants, well trained most of them in the tenets of religious freedom.
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.
The war was almost over, although privateers still endangered maritime commerce. First an armistice was agreed upon for four months and then peace was signed at Aix la Chapelle, on the 30th of April, 1748. It was a welcome peace although the war had brought lessons with it which were never forgotten. The men who had fought at Louisburg were looked upon as veterans, and when the final struggle came brought experience to the service of the revolting colonies. Parliament, well aware of the readiness with which the colonies had contributed to the support of the war both by men and by money, made them a grant of eight hundred thousand pounds as an indemnity. Rhode Island’s share for the expedition against Cape Breton was six thousand three hundred and twenty-two pounds twelve shillings and tenpence; for the expedition against Canada, ten thousand one hundred and forty-four pounds nine shillings and sixpence. But deductions were afterwards made in a caviling spirit which excited bitter feelings. Still more irritating to colonial pride was the article restoring to France her conquered territories, for among them was Louisburg. Of the right of search, the original cause of the war, no mention was made, a precedent not forgotten in the war of 1812. Now was the time to heal the wound which paper money had inflicted upon the commerce of the country. Hutchinson, an aspiring young statesman of Massachusetts, formed a plan for sinking the paper money and restoring specie payment by means of this grant. Massachusetts after a long discussion, wisely adopted Hutchinson’s plan. Rhode Island and Connecticut rejected it. Rhode Island presently felt the consequences of her error by the loss of her West India trade.
The records of the labors of peace again fill the schedules. Charlestown was divided into two towns and the name of Richmond given to the portion north of Pawcatuck river. The communications between the different parts of the Colony were carefully watched over. There were already nineteen ferries when peace returned, and of these thirteen served to keep up the connection with the seat of government.
The year before the peace the first public library in the Colony, the Redwood Library, was founded. It was fruit of the good tree planted by Berkeley. In 1754 Providence followed the noble example and founded the Providence Library Association. In the following year we find another attempt to enforce a moral law by legislative enactment. The act against swearing was revised, and a fine of five shillings or three hours in the stocks imposed as a penalty for every offence.
The increase of population called for a revision of the statute of legal residence. “New comers were required to give a month’s notice of intention to become residents, after which if they remained one year without being warned to leave they were admitted as lawful inhabitants of the town.” A freehold estate of thirty pounds sterling also gave a legal residence. “Apprentices having served their time in any town, might elect their residence there, or return to the place of their birth. Paupers not having acquired a legal settlement might be removed by the councils on complaint of the overseer of the poor, to the place of their last legal residence or to that of their birth.” So careful was the watch kept over the conditions and privileges of citizenship. The Board of Trade called for a new census. “The population was found to consist of thirty-four thousand one hundred and twenty-eight souls, of whom twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty were whites, the remainder blacks and Indians. Newport contained forty-six hundred and forty souls, Providence thirty-four hundred and fifty-two.”
The lottery had taken a strong hold upon theinnate love of chance. The two first lotteries had been applied to public improvements. The third was formed for the relief of an insolvent debtor. Henceforth we meet it as a common relief in business misfortunes and a natural assistant in new enterprises.
The winter of 1748–49 was made memorable in Rhode Island annals by the death of John Callender, her first historian and pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newport. Among the public works of the year which the growing commerce of the Colony called for, was a light-house at the south end of Conanicut, still known as Beaver Tail Light.
Depreciation began to make itself deeply felt as the interests of English commerce became more and more interwoven with those of colonial commerce. Their raw products were the only articles that the colonies could give in exchange for English manufactures. Their West India trade was their only source of coin. Colonial bills out of the colonies were worthless. The subject was brought before the House of Commons, which called for a full and accurate statement of the condition of the currency. A committee was appointed by the Assembly to prepare the statement, and Partridge the colonial agent directed to present and support it. By this report it was shown that three hundred and twelve thousand three hundred pounds in bills of credit, emitted to supply the treasury since May, 1710, of whichone hundred and seventy-seven thousand had been burned at various times and one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds were still outstanding, amounting in all in sterling money to about thirty-six thousand pounds.
An interesting incident of this year was the organization of a Moravian mission.
The statute book records several new criminal statutes. It is an illustration of domestic relations that the first divorce was granted by the Assembly in 1754—more than a hundred years after the foundation of the Colony. And it may be taken as proof of the feelings of the Colony towards England, that a large number of English statutes were transferred to the colonial statute book. New precautions against fire were taken in Newport by the formation of firewards, and a fire engine was sent for from England. Providence soon followed the example. Another step was taken towards a satisfactory distribution of the territory by forming East and West Greenwich, Coventry and Warwick into a new county under the name of Kent County, with East Greenwich for its county town. The new county was required to build a court house at its own expense, which was partly done by lottery. Four years later another town was formed from Providence County and incorporated under the name of Cranston. In spite of the increased depreciation of the currency the Colony continued to grow in numbers and strength. Seventeen hundred andfifty-two was made memorable both in England and her colonies by the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Henceforth the new year begins on the first of January instead of the twenty-fifth of March.
But the great event of the year was the decision of the lawsuit for the possession of the glebe lands in Narragansett, a suit of nearly thirty years standing, and which after passing through many phases was decided in favor of the Congregationalists against the Episcopalians, upon the ground that “by the Rhode Island charter all denominations were orthodox, and that a majority of the grantors when the deed took effect were Presbyterians or Congregationalists.”
Meanwhile paper money was doing its bad work. The calendar of private petitions bears sad witness to the evil. Bankruptcy became frequent, and among the bankrupts of those days of gloom was Joseph Whipple, the Deputy-Governor, who, surrendering all his property to his creditors was relieved by a special act of insolvency. The spirit of enterprise though dulled, was not crushed.
The first recorded patent was granted in 1753. Parliament had passed an act to encourage the making of potash in the colonies, and Moses Lopez took out a patent for making it for ten years by a process known only to himself. The next year a similar patent was granted to James Rogers for the manufacture of pearl-ash. Theindustrial instinct which was to receive in the sequel so great a development, was already girding itself up for the trial. The spirit of association, also, was awakening. A society of sea-captains was incorporated for mutual assistance under the name of the Fellowship Club. From this grew the Newport Marine Society.
A new war was at hand, a war known to our childhood as the old French war, and the last waged by France and England for the dominion of North America. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had left the door wide open for new claims, and these soon led to a new war. Here again Rhode Island displayed great energy, sending Stephen Hopkins and Martin Howard, Jr., to represent her as Commissioners at the Albany Congress of 1754, in which Franklin brought forward his plan for developing by union the resources of the colonies, she took promptly the steps necessary for her own defence and complied cheerfully with the requisitions of the English commanders. In this as in former wars she sent out her privateers to harass the enemy’s commerce. But her part in the contest was a limited one. Her troops went as contingents not as armies. She had no generals to give their names to great victories, and when peace returned her soldiers and sailors returned cheerfully to the duties and avocations of common life.
The annexation of the eastern towns in 1757 marks an important period in the history ofRhode Island. With two unfriendly neighbors on each side she had been compelled to contend inch by inch for her territory. All the obstacles which impede development had accumulated in her path. All the dangers which menace the existence of feeble colonies had beset her. She had faced them all, she had overcome them all. A great principle lay at the root of her civilization, and humanity itself was inseparably connected with her success.
From the annexation of the eastern towns in 1757 to the peace of Paris in 1763, all the leading events were more or less connected with the war. Privateering took the place of commerce. Taxes were levied to build and arm forts and raise and equip soldiers, not to erect churches and court houses and libraries and schools.
The war was lingering but decisive. It gave England one brilliant victory and one illustrious name—the Heights of Abraham, and Wolf—to the colonies the lesson so valuable a few years later that English troops might be driven where colonists held their ground, and the name of Washington. Recorded in European history as the seven years war, for the colonies it was a war of nine years, hostilities having begun two years before war was declared. Nowhere is man’s place in history more distinctly marked than in this war, which till the right man came was a succession of blunders and defeats. With William Pitt came victory.
While the war was still confined to the colonies a large number of French residents had been thrown into jail as prisoners of war. What was their legal position? The question was brought before the Assembly by a petition for release, which was so far granted as to authorize their transportation to some neutral port, and so far rejected as to still subject them to the laws of war.
We have seen how watchful the home government was to enforce the laws of trade. But with all its watchfulness smuggling still prevailed in every colony. New orders came from the King directing the Assembly to “pass effectual laws for prohibiting all trade and commerce with the French, and for preventing the exportation of provisions of all kinds to any of their islands or colonies.” The Assembly passed the necessary acts. But too many and too powerful interests were involved to admit of their rigorous execution.
To this period belongs the bitterest party contest in the annals of Rhode Island, generally known as the Ward and Hopkins contest. Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins were the foremost Rhode Islanders of their time; both men of self-acquired culture and both illustrious by public services. Hopkins was the elder of the two, being born at Scituate on the 7th of March, 1717. Ward was his junior by eighteen years. Both were farmers and merchants, and both sincerely devoted to the interests of their native Colony. But as to what those interests were they differed widely, and their difference soon took the form of town and country parties. Newport was the leading town of the Colony, not only in commercial enterprise but in intellectual culture. Berkeley had not left his foot-prints there in vain. This seat of Rhode Island culture was best represented by Samuel Ward. The name of Hopkins stood for the country. The distribution of taxes was one of the questions at issue. Paper money was another. By degrees all questions of public policy were classed under the one or the other of these two leading names. There were sharp contests at the polls, painful severings of social ties and all the bitterness which partisanship gives to political discussion. At last the aid of the law was invoked and Hopkins sued Ward for slander. It is a singular illustration of the altered relations between Rhode Island and Massachusetts that in order to obtain an impartial jury the trial should have taken place at Worcester. Ward was acquitted and Hopkins condemned to pay the costs. In a few years the party contest gave way to the graver contest of the Revolution wherein the two leaders took their seats side by side in Congress Hall.
Among the events of domestic interest which belong to this period was the burning of the Providence Court House—not so much for the loss of the building as for that of the Providence Library which was kept in one of its rooms. Thewant of a public library was keenly felt, and when a lottery was granted for rebuilding the court house, half of its proceeds were set apart for the library. Rhode Island already felt the importance of libraries and schools. She will persevere in this course till it secures her a comprehensive school system and an admirable university.
The theatre found less favor, although its founder, David Douglass, brought with him the recommendation of the Governor and Council of Virginia. His first application for a licence in Newport failed; a second was more successful; and this pioneer of the American stage drew for a while good houses. He moved to Providence and built a permanent theatre. Many came from Boston to seek an enjoyment which they could not find at home. But the current soon turned. The Bostonians met with a cold reception, and the short-lived pleasure was condemned as a nuisance.
A newspaper was a want more generally acknowledged. Hitherto there had been none in the Colony. But in the summer of 1758 theNewport Mercurywas established, and has held its ground with varying fortunes to our own day. Four years later William Goddard established in Providence theProvidence Gazette and Country Journal. Among its first contributors was Governor Hopkins, who began for it his “Account of Providence,” but called to other subjects by the excitement of the times he never went beyond the first chapter. Enough, however, was published to call out several insulting letters from Massachusetts.
Times were daily becoming more and more critical. The Board of Trade insisted upon the rigorous enforcement of the navigation act. The colonial governments passed the necessary laws but could not enforce them. It was then that writs of assistance were first called for, and from this call arose that trial so celebrated in colonial annals, the first mutterings of the tempest which was at hand. James Otis became a familiar name throughout the colonies.
For thirty-four years the Quaker diplomatist, Richard Partridge, had faithfully and skillfully served Rhode Island as her agent in London. In 1759 mindful to the last of the interests of the Colony, he wrote on his death bed to recommend a brother Quaker, Joseph Sherwood, for his successor.
In this same year freemasonry was introduced, a charter was granted by the Assembly with permission to raise twenty-four hundred dollars by lottery for building a hall in Newport.
We have seen how early attention was called to the subject of fires. In 1759 the immediate action at fires was placed under the direction of five presidents of firewards, three of whom were elected at annual town meetings with authority to blow up buildings if necessary in order “to stop the progress of the flames.” These details though minute, serve to show how far our fatherscarried their ideas of the powers and duties of government.
The increase of population called for a new division of territory. In 1757 Westerly was divided and its northern portion incorporated under the name of Hopkinton, a choice of name which shows that in that legislature the Hopkins party was in the majority. Two years later the new town of Johnston was formed out of Providence and named after the attorney-general.
RETROSPECT.—ENCROACHMENTS OF ENGLAND.—RESISTANCE TO THE REVENUE LAWS.—STAMP ACT.—SECOND CONGRESS OF COLONIES MET IN NEW YORK.—EDUCATIONAL INTEREST.
Thus far we have traced the progress of Rhode Island, step by step from the first small settlement on the banks of the Mooshausick to the flourishing Colony, which, by its firmness and perseverance had made it mistress of the shores and islands of Narragansett Bay. We have seen it taking for its corner stone a vital principle of human society, unrecognized as yet by the most advanced civilization. We have seen this principle and society with it constantly endangered by misinterpretations, and the little Colony brought more than once to the brink of the precipice by the malignity of implacable enemies. We have seen it gradually growing in strength and enlightenment, drawing abundant harvests from a niggard soil, spreading its ships of commerce over distant seas and protecting its coasts by its own ships of war. We have seen it working out its civil organization by patient experiment, making laws and unmaking them as they met or failed to meet the want for which they were made. And now we shall see her strong by virtue, resolute by conviction and rich by intelligent industry, gird herself up for the contest which was to decide forever the relations of the British colonies of North America to their mother country. But before we enter upon this part of our subject let us pause a moment and consider somewhat more closely our new starting point.
The society which Roger Williams brought with him to the banks of the Mooshausick was a morally constituted society, in which all the questions of moral law had been studied and discussed as revealed in the Scriptures. It was not till their numbers increased and their wants with them that the idea of law took root amongst them and they became a legally constituted society. Their laws arose from their necessities and followed the development of their legal sense. They felt the want and strove by experiment to discover the remedy. Successful experiment became law and the statute book the record of the progress of civilization.
To this statute book, therefore, we must go for our knowledge of colonial life in all its relations. It defines the condition of the individual and the qualifications, the rights and the duties of the citizen. It defines the powers and prerogatives of government, and assigns to each department its limits and its sphere. Its enumeration of crime is the key to the moral sense of the community, and its provisions for the moral and intellectual training of the citizen show how far it has comprehended the reciprocal obligations and true nature of the ties which bind the citizen to his commonwealth.
Following this guide we find that Rhode Island has worked out her problem of self-government and soul liberty, framing for herself a pure democracy and surrounding it with all the provisions required for protection against foreign violence and internal dissension. After many trials she has organized a judiciary system adequate to the protection of person and property and the prompt administration of justice. She has cultivated the sense of right and wrong and made careful provision for the enforcement of contracts and the punishment of crimes. She has opened highways, established ferries and built bridges. She has favored navigation by the institution of judicious harbor laws. She has provided for the extermination of wolves and foxes by the offer of liberal bounties, and for the protection of fish and deer by stringent laws. She has broached the difficult subject of public charities and made a beginning of provision for the poor and the insane. She has initiated a system of public schools and founded a college which in the course of half a century becomes a university. She has opened her doors wide for different creeds, and required only that they all should be equally free.
Her relations with the mother country had taken their coloring from the attitude of self-defence which she was compelled to maintaintowards the adjacent colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, which were eager to divide her territory between them. Against their long persecutions her last appeal was to the King, and she made it without humbling herself, for her enemy was at her own door and of her own household.
From the beginning of her civil life she had been contemptuously refused admission to the league from which Massachusetts and Connecticut derived the strength that made them bold both for aggression and for defence. More than once she seemed to be upon the point of being crushed, but of yielding—never. Hence in her relations with the mother country she never assumed the defiant attitude which her stronger sisters assumed and which at an early day awakened suspicions of their loyalty. Rhode Island was loyal as it behooved her to be; but she never carried her loyalty so far as to imperil the rights guaranteed to her by her charter.
We enter upon a new period of colonial history. The contest with France was over. The contest with England was beginning. For England, not satisfied with the advantage which she had derived from her colonies by constitutional means, resolved to deprive them of the protection which the constitution accorded to the humblest subject of the crown. They would gladly have contributed their portion to the expenses of the war and taxed themselves to pay it. But English constitutional law had prescribed the forms and conditionswith which taxes could be raised, and colonial constitutional law taught that representation was an essential condition of taxation. This led to the stamp act and that train of disasters so fatal to English supremacy.
Equally fatal was the ill-timed jealousy with which she sought to fetter the commerce and check the manufacturing spirit of the colonists. It was from their commerce with the French islands that they drew not only many articles which habit had made essential to their comfort, but the greater part of their hard money. To England they sent their raw material, and receiving it back in the shape of manufactured goods paid liberally for the English labor and skill. England’s best customers were her colonies.
War had been a severe school in which much needed lessons had been learned. Farmers and mechanics had learned to be soldiers and bear the hardships of a soldier’s life. Taxes had increased and legislation had been compelled to busy itself largely with questions of military organization, with the building of forts, the raising of recruits, the providing of supplies. Maritime enterprise had lost none of its ardor, but had encountered sore rebuffs. From the port of Providence alone forty nine vessels richly laden had fallen into the hands of the enemy. On the land, also, many valuable lives had been lost and many industrious hands taken from the tilling of the soil to waste their strength in the barren offices ofwar. The time when these lessons would be turned to account was drawing nigh.
Meanwhile internal improvements continued to receive the attention of the legislature. Church’s Harbor was made safer for fishermen by the erection of a breakwater. Providence Cove was the seat of a prosperous trade, and especially of shipbuilding. To facilitate the communication with the water below a draw was opened in Weybosset bridge.
The cancer of paper money was still eating into the vitals of the community, in spite of the legislative palliatives which were from time to time fruitlessly applied to it. Party spirit also had reached its fullest development, and the two rival factions of Ward and Hopkins continued to hate each other bitterly and fight each other obstinately at the polls. These were minor evils. But in the great northwest new war clouds were gathering under the influence of the mighty Pontiac, its king and lord. Parliament prepared for the outbreak, and voted an appropriation of a hundred and thirty-three thousand pounds and an army of ten thousand men for the defence of the American colonies. The regulars were sent against the Indians and parts of the provincials were distributed through the frontier garrisons. The Rhode Islanders were stationed at Fort Stanwix. We are spared the story of the war of Pontiac. It belongs to the frontier and is in no way connected with Rhode Island history. Another contest on which hung the fate of all the colonies is already begun.
I have often spoken of the Board of Trade and the jealous scrutiny with which it watched the growth of the colonies. Too short-sighted to see that their prosperity was intimately connected with the prosperity of the mother country, the ministry by advice of the Board of Trade drew tight the bands of commerce and encumbered the communications of the two countries with dangerous restraints. Trade had increased, but the revenue had not increased in its natural proportion. The form of the evil was smuggling, but its root was the imposition of oppressive duties. Walpole alone had seen forty years before that the surest way to enlarge the revenue was to make the importation of the raw material and the exportation of the manufactured goods as easy as possible. But Walpole stood alone in his wisdom. An attempt was made to enforce the acts of trade. New officers were appointed, a ship of war was stationed in Newport harbor during the winter of 1763 and the noisome tribe of revenue officers stimulated to zealous exertion.
In 1739 a heavy blow had been dealt the commercial and manufacturing industry of the colonies by the molasses and sugar act, imposing a duty on those articles which looked very much like taxation. The colonists looked anxiously to 1764 when the odious act would expire by limitation. But when the time came it was promptlyrenewed and extended to other articles of domestic consumption. And now was first heard the ominous words stamp act and committees of correspondence. By the stamp act no legal or commercial act was valid unless it was written on stamped paper. The price of this paper was fixed by government and a body of agents appointed to carry on the sale. Thus every transaction in which there was a legal form became tributary to government. In what does this differ from taxation without representation? asked the colonists. But so little did government comprehend the real nature of what it was doing that instead of foreseeing the collision of the two constitutions Parliament assumed by a formal vote the right to tax the colonies. All that remonstrance could gain was a postponement of the stamp act till some more acceptable form of impost could be devised. Even the colonial agents in London failed to see that a radical change in the relations of the two countries was at hand. “The sun of liberty is set,” wrote Franklin from London to Charles Thompson at Philadelphia. “The Americans must light the candles of industry and economy.”
“They will light a very different kind of candle,” was the reply.
The spirit of resistance gained strength daily. Massachusetts took the lead in recommending the call of a Congress of Delegates to meet at New York and take counsel concerning the conditionof the country. Rhode Island followed close in her footsteps. In Virginia Patrick Henry brought forward a series of resolutions which going directly to the fundamental principles of constitutional taxation found adherents everywhere. In Providence theGazettereappeared in an extra number with “vox populi vox Dei” for superscription, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty,” for motto. Augustus Johnston, the attorney-general, was appointed stamp distributor, but refused to “execute his office against the will of our sovereign Lord the People.”
In Newport riots took place and popular feeling manifested itself with extreme violence. The effigies of three obnoxious citizens were kept hanging on a gallows in front of the court house through the day, and in the evening cut down and burned in the presence of a great crowd. Next morning the violence of the mob increased, the obnoxious three and equally obnoxious revenue officers were compelled to take refuge on board the Cygnet sloop-of-war that was lying in the harbor.
Meanwhile a calm, firm voice came from the soberer and more thoughtful citizens assembled in town meeting, instructing their deputies to give their “utmost attention to those important objects, the court of admiralty and the act for levying stamp duties.” ... “It is for liberty, that liberty for which our fathers fought,that liberty which is dearer to a generous mind than life itself that we now contend.”
The day for the enforcement of the stamp act came. But the Congress at New York and the town meetings and assemblies of the different colonies had done their work thoroughly. In a session of the Assembly held at East Greenwich, Rhode Island declared her intention to assert her “rights and privileges with becoming freedom and spirit, ... and to express these sentiments in the strongest manner.” Six energetic resolutions were passed pointing unequivocally at independence if grievances were not redressed. The grave duty of representing her in the New York Congress was entrusted to Henry Ward, colonial secretary, and Metcalf Bowler. Governor Ward, Governor Fitch, of Connecticut, and the Royal Governors were called upon to make oath that they would support the obnoxious act. Samuel Ward alone refused.
The fatal day came, and with its inauspicious dawn legal life ceased. Ships lay idle at the wharves for want of clearance. Merchants could not fill an invoice, the officers of the law could not enforce its decrees. Men and women could not marry or be given in marriage. Civil life was paralyzed in all its functions. Whither will this lead us? was the question that rose to every lip. It was soon evident that the colonies were terribly in earnest. They would rely upon personal honesty and do without stamps. Mobs and riots showedto what lengths the heated popular mind was prepared to go. Engagements to suspend all commercial intercourse with England and employ their means in fostering their own manufactures and productions manifested an intelligent union of purpose which could not be mistaken. Of the stamp distributors some resigned, some refused to act. Throughout the whole country, in town and village not a stamp was to be found, not an agent dared to receive or sell the hateful ware. England bowed to the blast and repealed the act, but as if to leave the way open for future taxation coupled the appeal with an act declaring that Parliament had a right “to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.” The wound was salved over, not healed.
There were other subjects of collision. We have seen that British ships of war visiting Newport harbor were sometimes welcomed. Sometimes, however, they were held to strict account for their conduct. Lieutenant Hill, of the schooner St. John, was fired into from Fort George for some unrecorded offence. In the following year the Maidstone roused the indignation of the inhabitants by impressing seamen openly in the harbor. Even market boats were stopped and their men taken violently from them. A ship from the coast was boarded as she entered the harbor and her crew impressed. Popular forbearance could go no further. In the evening a mob of sailors five hundred strong seized one of the Maidstone’sboats and burned it on the common. The way was opening for the burning of the Gaspee.
Meanwhile there were great rejoicings over the repeal of the stamp act. Very soon men will begin to look closely to the act that was tacked to it—the declaratory act.
The great step towards securing the concurrent action of the colonies in their resistance was taken. On the 7th of October, 1765, the second colonial Congress met in New York, and after a three weeks earnest discussion sent forth an address to the King, an address to the people, and a memorial to both houses of Parliament, claiming that as Englishmen they could not be taxed without their own consent or deprived of the right of trial by jury. It was soon made evident that the country would stand by them. Associations were formed under the name of “Sons of Liberty.” Rhode Island went a step further, and formed associations of the “Daughters of Liberty.” Hitherto the correspondence with the colonies had been conducted by the Board of Trade. But as the dispute assumed a more definite shape, the infatuated King, who was resolutely persisting in his unconstitutional scheme of personal government, gave orders that the colonial dispatches should be addressed to him.
It has been seen that Parliament had resolved to indemnify the colonies for their expenses during the late war. Several payments for this purpose had already been made. But after the stampact riots the balance though voted was withheld under the pretext that the sufferers by those riots should first be indemnified for their losses. As the Colony had exerted itself beyond its strength to bear its part in the war, this withholding of its just compensation was felt to be a great wrong. When the day for summing up her share in the common grievances came, Rhode Island did not forget this wrong.
Taxes continued to excite bitter complaints, and though called for to meet the daily wants of government, were not collected without great difficulty. In 1767 this dissatisfaction reached its height, unseating Governor Ward and working a complete political revolution. A new valuation of ratable property was made to serve as the basis of a just taxation, but was opposed as favoring trade at the expense of the landholders.
Among the laws demanded by the growing trade was an act fixing interest at six per cent., and making contracts for higher rates usury to be punished by the forfeiture of principal and interest. The true nature of money loans was not yet understood. Among the important civil acts of this period was the completion of an elaborate digest of the laws, two hundred copies of which were printed and distributed among the people.
We have seen that early attention was given to education, and schools opened in Newport, Portsmouth and Providence. In 1766 a grammarschool was founded in Exeter upon a gift of five hundred acres of land made seventy years before by Samuel Sewall, of Boston, one of the original purchasers of Pettaquamscot. But more important still was the effort that was made about the same time for the establishment of free schools in Providence to be supported by taxation. Like all such movements it met with most opposition where such schools were most needed, among the poor. In part, however, it was successful, a brick school-house was built and the supervision of all the schools given to a committee of nine, composed in part of the town council.
The foundation of a university, chiefly in order to secure for Baptists the same educational advantages that were enjoyed by other denominations, also belongs to this period. Foremost among its founders was the Rev. Morgan Edwards, and among its benefactors John Brown, of Providence, in record of whose liberality it was removed from Warren, its first seat, to Providence, and its name changed from Rhode Island College to Brown University. Four denominations were represented in its corporation, but a large majority reserved to its founders, the Baptists. Religious tests were forbidden by charter, but the president was required to be a Baptist. Its property and all those connected officially with it were exempted from taxation.
To the ecclesiastical history of this period belongs the Warren Association of Baptist Churches.The pen also claims its part in the discussion of rights, and among the causes of the rupture we must count the “Farmer’s Letters,” among its instruments committees of correspondence.
Among the things effecting the material interests of the Colony was the discovery of a new bed of iron ore on the Pawtuxet River, in Cranston. In the preparations which were immediately made for working it, the rights of the fish, which had so often been the subject of legislation, were not forgotten.
TRANSIT OF VENUS.—A STRONG DISLIKE TO ENGLAND MORE OPENLY EXPRESSED.—NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT.—INTRODUCTION OF SLAVES PROHIBITED.—CAPTURE OF THE GASPEE.
The feud of the two parties which had so long divided the Colony ceased at the approach of danger from abroad. A new Governor was elected, Josias Lyndon, and a new Deputy-Governor, Nicholas Cooke, whose name meets us so honorably during the first years of the war, now close at hand. For Ward and Hopkins a broader field of honorable rivalry was opening, and we shall soon see them working earnestly together in the Congress of the Declaration.
England had grown very angry over the attempts of the colonies to organize a system of concerted action. But the times were full of lessons, and the chiefest and most heeded among them was the lesson of union. The Parliament of 1761 was as blind as its predecessors had been, and came together firmly resolved to chastise the Americans into obedience. Where both sides were equally suspicious and equally embittered positive collision could not long be avoided. The first occurred in Newport harbor between threemidshipmen of the Senegal man-of-war which was lying in the harbor, and some of the citizens. A citizen, Henry Sparker, was run through the body by an officer named Thomas Careless. Careless was indicted for murder, but acquitted on trial by the Superior Court on the plea of self-defence. Collisions occurred at Boston, all of which served to fan the flame of discontent. To hasten the crisis a regiment supported by a naval force was sent to overawe the rebellious town.
At the June session of the General Assembly (1758) an address was voted to John Dickinson for his “Letters of a Farmer.” In closing it they “hope that the conduct of the colonies on this occasion will be peaceable, prudent, firm and joint.” Resistance was becoming a familiar idea, and one of the most significant ways of expressing it was by liberty trees. A large elm in front of Olney’s tavern, in Providence, was dedicated in the presence of an enthusiastic crowd, and an oration embodying the popular sentiment pronounced by Silas Downer.
In the September session several important State papers were prepared, and the withholding of the war money complained of as a great injustice. Still in the midst of this growing disloyalty the King was always spoken of with affection and respect.
While attention was thus anxiously directed to England, purely domestic interests were not forgotten. The deputy-governor’s salary wasfixed at fifteen pounds, half that of the governor. An educational society was incorporated at Providence under the name of Whipple Hall. Laws relative to real estate were passed, making it liable for debt after the death of the holder. School and church lands were exempted from taxation, and Trinity Church, in Newport, was incorporated, the first incorporation of a church in Rhode Island. An act was passed, also, wherein the old policy of protecting the river fish was changed, and the Scituate Furnace Company allowed to keep up the dam in the spring. In a previous year a general estimate of ratable estates had been ordered. In 1769 it was reported and found to amount to two million one hundred and eleven thousand two hundred and ninety-five pounds ten shillings and sevenpence, or seven million thirty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars, at the current value of lawful money, six shillings to a dollar, which was made by statute the basis of taxation.
This was the year of the transit of Venus, to which astronomers were looking forward with deep interest. In this band of observers Rhode Island was represented by Governor Hopkins and other unprofessional scientists in Providence, and by Ezra Stiles of Newport—and here we again meet the name of Abraham Redwood, who was never either governor or deputy-governor, but still lives in fresh remembrance as founder of the Redwood Library. He furnished the instrumentsfor the Newport observation. The local memory of this event is still preserved in Providence by the name of the street in which the observatory stood. The latitude of Providence was found to be 41°, 50′, 41″; its longitude 71°, 16′ west from Greenwich.
Meanwhile the current was daily sitting more decidedly towards armed resistance. Opinions which four years before had been cautiously whispered in corners, now formed the chief topic of declamation in every private and public gathering. Virginia passed unanimously another series of resolutions more decided than the first, and sent copies of them to every colonial assembly. Rhode Island thanked her through the Governor. The Wilkes riots in London strengthened the hands of the opposition, and Lord Hillsborough gave assurance at a meeting of several colonial agents that the idea of drawing a revenue from America had been given up, and the offensive revenue act would in all but the tax on tea be repealed. Ministers failed to see that it was an inherent right, not a sum of money for which the colonists were contending. And in this contention they were prepared to go all lengths.
There was smuggling it was true, and thereby a constant loss to the revenue, but the method of enforcing the revenue laws was vexatious and intolerable to a free people. The officers employed in collecting the revenue belonged to a class immemoriably odious, and even where thecollection was entrusted to officers of the Royal Navy it was conducted with an insolence and disregard of the rights and feelings of the colonists which made it doubly odious. Things had already reached the pass at which compromises become impossible. Either the King or the people must yield. Fortunately for mankind victory was where the young fresh life lay, with the colonists.
Among those who had made themselves most offensive in their endeavors to suppress the contraband trade was Captain William Reid, of the armed sloop Liberty, which was cruising in quest of smugglers in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. Under the pretext of putting down illicit trade he had sorely annoyed legitimate commerce. After bearing with his annoyances till they could be borne no longer, the people of Newport seized his vessel, scuttled and sank her, cut down her mast and burnt her boat. This was the first overt act of the War of Independence. Proclamations were issued and rewards offered, but the offenders were never detected. Another wrong inflicted by the revenue officers was in claiming higher fees than were allowed by law. After bearing this also till their patience gave out, the merchants of Newport banded together to resist the imposition.
The question of renewing the non-importation agreement came up for decision. New York, which on this occasion had taken the lead, wasfor extending them “indefinitely until every portion of the revenue act shall be repealed.” Boston followed the example. In Providence and throughout the country opinion was divided, but after much discussion nearly all concurred in admitting everything but tea, and Newport brought down the indignation of the other colonies upon her by admitting prohibited articles.
In these same days the chronicle records a murrain among the cattle and hydrophobia among the dogs. From the first, relief was sought by forbidding the exportation of cattle from the island, from the last by giving general leave to kill all dogs running at large. These acts were to hold good for four months.
This was the period of Newport’s greatest prosperity. Her population was over eleven thousand. She had seventeen manufactories of sperm oil and candles, five rope-walks, three sugar refineries, one brewery and twenty-two distilleries of rum, an article which in those days was deemed essential to the health of the sailor and the soldier, and all hard working men. Her foreign commerce found employment for nearly two hundred ships, her domestic trade for between three and four hundred coasting craft. A regular line of packets kept open her communications with London for passengers and mails. Her society had never lost the intellectual impulse given it by Berkeley. Ezra Stiles, the most learned American of his day, filled one of herpulpits, Samuel Hopkins, the founder of a new school of theology, another. A public library, which still bears the name of its founder, furnished the means of literary recreation and research. She would gladly have drawn Rhode Island College to herself also, but though great efforts were made to bring this about Providence made the better offer and obtained the preference.
While this question was still under discussion the first Commencement came round. Seven young men, clad like their officers in the products of American looms, presented themselves for graduation. It was a holiday in which all citizens could heartily unite, for it was the only one which brought them together in the gratification of a common pride. Commencement Day and Election Day continued to be the gathering days of the Colony long after the Colony had become a State.
The greater part of the slaves of the Colony were in Newport, and special laws were enacted concerning their general treatment and their manumission. In the autumn session of 1770 these laws were revised, and a bill introduced prohibiting their further importation. Unfortunately this movement went no farther. The evil had struck too deep.
There was a lull in the storm. Even men not used to indulge vain hopes began to think that the cloud which had so long darkened the horizon might pass away. The revenue acts werestill the chief obstacles to harmony. Smugglers were as bold and as successful as ever. But nothing occurred in 1771 to show that the final rupture was so near. Rhode Island’s peculiar grievance was the old war debt. To make one more effort, Henry Marchant, the new attorney-general, was directed to join Sherwood in enforcing the claim. Another old question was also revived, that of the northern boundary. Among the acts of the Assembly was a new bankrupt law. The evils of a paper currency still continued to bear their fruit.
But one of the most dangerous movements of this year was a claim advanced by Governor Hutchinson to the command of the Rhode Island forts and militia. This claim Rhode Island had contested when advanced by former governors, nor was she disposed to yield to it now. Still less was she disposed to accept a proposal which at this time came from Bristol under the signature, “A Friend to Property,” to divide Rhode Island between Massachusetts and Connecticut, or ask that she should be made a royal government upon the ground that “an elective legislature must always be a source of disorder and corruption” in a small state.
That Rhode Island was not disorderly nor corrupt was proved by the conduct of her courts. A merchant of Wrentham named David Hill was detected by the New York Committee of Inspection “in selling goods included in the non-importation agreements.” By the persuasion of the committee he was prevailed upon “to deposit his goods with a merchant till the revenue acts should be repealed.” But the suspicions of the people were excited, and they seized the goods and destroyed them. Hill finding in Rhode Island “property belonging to some of the committee,” sued them in the Rhode Island courts, asserting that in giving up his goods he had acted upon compulsion. The sympathies of the courts and the people were against him. But, guided by the law and the evidence the Court of Common Pleas awarded him heavy damages and the Superior Court confirmed the award. In the next year when a new election came round and the voice of the people was heard, they also confirmed it by reëlecting the same men for judges. These righteous judges were Stephen Hopkins, James Helme, Benoni Hall, Metcalf Bowler and Stephen Potter.
While these things were a doing the insolence of the officials employed in enforcing the revenue laws reached its highest point. The suppression of smuggling in Narragansett Bay was entrusted to Lieutenant Duddingston, of the Royal Navy, with two armed vessels—the Gaspee, a schooner of eight guns, and the Beaver. Not contented with performing the duties of his office, still vexatious even when considerately executed, he multiplied its annoyances by a thousand acts of petty tyranny. He stopped vessels of everykind without discrimination—ships just from sea, and market boats on their way to Providence and Newport with their perishable freights, and to increase the indignity refused to show his commission or the authority by which he acted. Admiral Montague, who commanded on the station, justified him in his oppression. Complaints were sent to England, but the day of complaint was past.
On the 8th of June the sloop Hannah, Benjamin Lindsey, master, arrived at Newport from New York, and having reported at the custom house set sail the next day for Providence. No sooner was she seen from the deck of the Gaspee than the watchful servant of the King gave chase, and venturing too near a point which ran out from the right bank of the river took ground. Captain Lindsey kept on his course with the welcome tidings that the common enemy was at bay. At the beat of the drum the exasperated citizens came crowding to the gathering place, James Sabin’s house in South Main Street. Eight long boats with five oars each were manned. Powder was prepared and bullets run, and when night set in with its friendly shades the resolute band set forth on its mission of vengeance.
It was long after midnight when they came within sight of the doomed vessel hard set in the sand, and heard the first hoarse challenge of the guard. Without heeding it they dashed forward and as a second challenge came were at herside. Duddingston sprang upon the gunwale—he had no time to dress, no time to arm himself or call his men to quarters—but as he stood full in view his figure caught the eye of Joseph Bucklin who was standing on one of the main thwarts. “Eph.,” said Bucklin to Ephraim Bowen, who was sitting on the thwart on which Bucklin was standing and who lived to tell the story in his eighty-sixth year, “reach me your gun, I can kill that fellow.” As Eph. was reaching him the gun, Whipple, one of the leaders was beginning to answer Duddingston’s hail:—“I am the sheriff of the County of Kent, God damn you,”—but while he was yet speaking Bucklin fired and Duddingston fell, wounded in the stomach. The surprise was complete. The crew with their wounded commander were sent ashore and the vessel burned to the water’s edge.
Who were these bold men? Everybody in Providence knew; but although large rewards were offered for their detection and a special tribunal formed to try them, nobody was ever found to bear witness against them. So deep were the feelings that prepared the way for the separation from England.