USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A discourse delivered at Providence, August 5, l836 : in commemoration of the first settlement of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Being the second centennial anniversary of the settlement of Providence > Part 5
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stitutions, &c. as they, or the greater part of them shall by free consent agree unto."
The Charter of 1663, gave power to the Governor and Company, " from time to time, to make, ordain, constitute or repeal such laws, statutes, or- ders and ordinances, forms and ceremonies of government and magistracy, as to them shall seem meet ; not repugnant to the laws of England."
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mouth, also, sent one of their magistrates to Rhode-Island, forbidding the exercise of any authority there, claiming it to be within their jurisdiction ; and efforts were made in England, by the influence of these colonies, to procure the recall of the charter. These meas. ures of their neighbors, had, no doubt, a tendency to prevent the Nar- ragansett colonies from organizing a government immediately, under their charter ; it was not until the 19th of May, 1647, that the in- habitants met, at Portsmouth, and agreed on a form of government, and chose their magistrates. Warwick was then admitted into the association with the same privileges as Providence. The chief ma- gistrate was styled President, the first political President, it has been said, in America, and there were four assistants appointed, one from cach town. John Coggeshall was chosen President ; Roger Wil- liams, Assistant for Providence ; John Sanford, Assistant for Ports- mouth ; William Coddington, Assistant for Newport ; and Randall Holden, Assistant for Warwick. At this time a body of laws was agreed upon, and the laws of Oleron adopted for the benefit of the seamen on the island. A form of engagement was adopted, for all the inhabitants to subscribe, by which they pledged themselves to each other to maintain with their " utmost estates and strength," the liberties granted them by their charter, and the authority thereof, therein declaring their form of government to be "democratical ; that is to say, a government held by the free and voluntary consent of all, or a greater part of the free inhabitants."
They enacted a body of laws ; after the preamble to the same, follows, what we should now call, a bill of rights, and some constitu- tional provisions ; but there was no provision in regard to the rights of conscience ; then comes the civil and criminal code, and some constitutional provisions ; but they contain nothing respecting relig- ion. To the whole is added the following declaration : " These 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 the whole colony ; 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. And let the lambs of the Most High walk, in this colony, without molestation, in the name of Jehovah, their God, for ever and ever."
Those who examine this political and civil code, will find abun- dant reason to respect and admire the wisdom, piety, and liberality
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of the fathers of this colony. They left the towns to take care of their particular concerns, exercising over them an executive, judicial and legislative power, very similar to that which our general gov- ernment exercises over the States. They established a General Court of trials for the whole colony, to be holden by the President and Assistants. The civil jurisdiction of this Court extended to matters of difference between town and town; or between parties dwelling in two towns more remote ; to cases of the arrest of a man belonging to a neighbor colony ; and to cases of great importance, such as the common-council either of the town or towns should judge too weighty for a more private determining." We perceive, in most of these provisions, a strong analogy, and no doubt for the same reasons, to the Judicial power which by the Constitution is vested in the Courts of the United States.
A system so well adapted to preserve peace, at home and abroad, to prevent collisions among towns, to secure the administration of justice among themselves, and to the satisfaction of their neighbors, ought to have been attended with lasting and happy effects.
The future historian of Rhode-Island will find that her troubles are not yet ended. Massachusetts and Plymouth persevered in their claims of jurisdiction, and the union which had been perfected in so much wisdom, was, in a few years, broken by an act of one of the principal men of the island, in violation of his engagement to maintain the charter, which he must have taken and subscribed, as an inhab- itant and as an officer ; having been chosen, at the first election, an Assistant under it. We refer to William Coddington, and to what was called Coddington's obstruction. The reasons for this act of his, rest now in conjecture ; and those which have been assigned to excuse or justify him, do neither. If trouble and divisions existed in the colony, this was not the way to remedy, but to increase them; and it is not the part of a good citizen, on account of his private grievances, to conspire against the established government, which he has solemnly engaged to support. But whatever were the reasons, the fact cannot be denied, that in the year 1650, this gen- tleman went to England, and, early in the next year, returned with a Commission, dated April 3d, 1651, appointing him Governor for life* of Rhode-Island, and the islands in the Narragansett Bay, with a Council of six to be appointed by himself. Thus was a monarchy,
* Letter from Roger Williams to Mr. John Winthrop. Knowles, p. 242.
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in fact, introduced into this portion of the colony, in place of a de. mocracy, established by the act of the people.
Portsmouth and Newport deemed it their duty to submit to Cod- dington's government, how willingly will soon appear. Providence and Warwick continued united under the charter.
In October of this year (1651) nearly all the free inhabitants of Newport, and forty-one of Portsmouth, appointed Mr. Clark, their agent, to go to England, to procure the repeal of Mr. Coddington's commission. Mr. Clark sailed for England the next month, with Roger Williams, who had been induced, by the solicitations of Pro- vidence and Warwick, to join Mr. Clark, in attempting to remove this obstruction. They sailed from Boston, after Mr. Williams had surmounted the obstructions that were there raised to his passage.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Clark, having safely arrived in England, in the spring of 1652, joined in a petition to the Council of State, praying that Mr. Coddington's Commission might be annulled, which was finally accomplished, after much opposition from various quar- ters, in October, 1652, and letters from the Council of State, to that effect, were sent to the Colony, and also confirming the Charter, by Mr. William Dyrc.
On the arrival of Mr. Dyre, a new difficulty occurred as to whom the letters should be delivered. Providence and Warwick, claim- ing to be the government, under the charter, required they should be delivered to them. Mr. Dyre thought otherwise, and called, by his own authority, a meeting of the free inhabitants at Portsmouth, declaring that he should deliver the letters to those who should then and there assemble. The freemen of Providence and Warwick did not attend this meeting. It was attended by those of the island, who received the letters and orders of the Council, and organized a gov- ernment, Providence and Warwick still continuing their government, so that, in fact, there were two governments in the colony claiming under the same charter. Things continued in this state from March, 1652, until August, 1654. In this interval however, viz : in May, 1653, the towns on the island granted commissions to Mr. William Dyre, and Captain Jolin Underhill, to cruise against the Dutch ; Eng- land and Holland being then at war. This gave great offence to Providence and Warwick, and in June following, they passed an order, that all who owned these commisions should have no. liberty to act in the government, until they gave satisfaction to Providence
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and Warwick. They sent a remonstrance to Newport and Ports- mouth, setting forth at length their objections to their proceedings, and deprecating the consequences of the commissions they had issued, saying " they may set all New-England on fire, the event of war being various and uncertain."
Mr. Williams, hearing of the divisions in the colony, hastened home. He brought with him letters to the colony from Sir Henry Vane, reproving them for their dissensions, and suggesting a mode by which an union might be effected. Mr. Williams also, on his arrival, wrote a letter to Providence for the same purpose. By his influence, and the respect paid to the advice of their noble and con- stant friend, the mode which Sir Henry Vane advised was adopted, and a meeting of commissioners from all the towns was holden at Warwick, August 31, 1654, when articles of reunion were agreed upon, and the government under the charter, as at first, reorgan- ized, and an election ordered, at which Roger Williams was chosen President.
Mr. Williams, as President of the Colony, wrote a letter to the government of Massachusetts, complaining of the licentiousness and anarchy which prevailed among those in this colony over whom they pretended to have jurisdiction. " The Indians (said he) which pretend your name at Warwick and Pawtuxet, (yet live as barbar- ously if not more so than any in the whole colony,) please you to know their insolences upon ourselves and cattle are insufferable by English spirits." He adds : "Concerning four families at Paw- tuxet, may it please you to remember the two controversies they have long (under your name) maintained with us, to the constant obstructing of all order and authority amongst us. To obey his Highness's authority in this charter, they say they dare not for your sakes, though they live not by your laws, nor by your common charges nor ours, but evade both under color of your authority. Be pleased to consider how unsuitable it is for yourselves to be the obstructors of all orderly proceedings amongst us ; for I humbly appeal to your own wisdom and experience, how unlikely it is for a people to be compelled to order and common charges when oth- ers, in their bosoms, are by such seeming partiality exempted from both."
We thus see that Massachusetts was one cause of those dissen- tions and divisions, in this colony, with which she was so ready to
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reproach us, and to attribute to the too great liberty of conscience allowed among us. In this letter also there was the following ap- peal : "I pray your equal and favorable reflection upon that your law which prohibits us to buy of you all means of our necessary defence of our lives and families, (yea in this most bloody and mas- sacreing time). We are informed that tickets have rarely been denied to any English of the country, yea, the barbarians (though notorious in lies) if they profess subjection, they are furnished ; only ourselves, by former and latter denial, seem to be devoted to the Indian shambles and massacres."*
Mr. Williams having written again to the Governor of Massa- chusetts, was encouraged by him to come to their Assembly at Boston, which he did, and addressed them in a manner which pro- duced the effect he desired.
Mr. Williams was chosen President again in 1756, and the diffi- culties with the Pawtuxet men were settled by arbitration, as pro- posed by Massachusetts, who relinquished all claim to authority over them, and they were admitted as freemen of this colony.
In 1657, the Commissioners of the United Colonies, being in- formed (as they say) " that divers Quakers had arrived at Rhode- Island, and were entertained there, which they apprehended might prove dangerous to the colonies," wrote to the Governor of this colony, requesting that those that had been received might be re- moved, and their coming in future prohibited ; and to enforce their request, intimated that otherwise they might be compelled, to pre- serve themselves from the contagion of such a pest, to discontinue intercourse and trade with this colony. An answer to this letter was returned by the President, Benedict Arnold, and the four As- sistants, in which they say: "And as concerning these Quakers (so called) which are now among us, we have no law among us where- by to punish any for only declaring by words, &c. their minds and understanding concerning the things and ways of God as to salva- tion and an eternal condition," and then suggest that persecution only tended to increase the sect, and that they delighted to be per- secuted by civil powers, that by their patient sufferings they might gain adherents. In regard to their fear of contagion, they suggested there was less reason to apprehend danger, as they sent them out
* Knowles, 286.
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of the country as soon as they came among them. They state, however, their determination to lay this matter before the next General Assembly, expressing a desire that all honest and fair commerce with them might be preserved.
This letter from the United Colonies was laid before the General Court of Commissioners for the colony ; they wrote, in reply, stating the freedom enjoyed here, as in the letter of the President and As- sistants, and gave notice of their intention to write to their agent, in England, that he might present the matter unto the supreme author- ity, to crave their advice how they should conduct in respect to these people, without infringing on the freedom of conscience.
The letter written to Mr. John Clarke, the agent, from the Court of Commissioners, shows how the threat contained in the letter from the United Colonies, was understood and appreciated. They say : " There is one clause of this letter, which plainly implies a threat, though covertly expressed, as their manner is, which we take to be this, that as themselves (as we conceive) have been much awed in point of their continued subjection to the state of England, lest in case they should decline, England might prohibit all trade with them, both in point of exportation, and importation of any commodities, which were an host sufficiently prevalent to subdue New-England, as not being able to subsist. Even so they seem secretly to threat- en us, by cutting us off from all commerce and trade with them, and thereby to disable us of any comfortable subsistence, being that the concourse of shipping, and so of all kinds of commodities, is univer- sally conversant amongst themselves, as also knowing that our- selves are not in a capacity to send out shipping of ourselves," &c. They then request their agent, that, as in their letter to the United Colonies, they stated their intention to ask the advice of his high- ness and honorable council, that he "would have an eye and ear open" (to use their words) " in case our adversaries should seek to undermine us in our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our case in such sorte as we may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's consciences, so long as human orders in point of civility are not corrupted and violated, which our neighbors about us do freequently practice, whereof many of us have large experience, and do judge it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty."
There is no part of our early history which is more honorable to the fathers of this colony than this. It exhibits their wisdom, libe-
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rality and firmness, in strong contrast with the spirit and conduct of the United Colonies. Here was a test of their principles ; they were tempted ; they were threatened ; but, though poor and weak, they resisted the temptation, and, at the hazard of losing the com- forts of life, clung to their principles ; and for whom ? not for those who had become members of their body politic, or for whose doc. trines they had any attachment, but for a new sect, that was then every where spoken against! If it should be thought, as has been sometimes suggested, that the liberty of conscience here allowed, proceeded from the circumstances of the colony, rather than from principle, let this correspondence be perused, and such suggestions will be silenced forever.
In looking over the list of Commissioners, six from each town, that formed the Court which gave these instructions to their agent, we find the names of Roger Williams, from Providence, Obadiah Holmes, from Newport, and Samuel Gorton, of Warwick. Well might they say in speaking of the practice of their neighbors, " whereof many of us have large experience." And the agent, to whom they were writing, might have spoken of his own experience in this respect, he having been with Holmes in the same condemna- tion, fine, and imprisonment, though he was delivered from the cruel scourge by the ability and kindness of his friends.
The restoration of Charles II., in 1660, caused the inhabitants of this colony to fear that those rights which they had obtained from the Parliament, when at war with the father, would not be respect- ed by the son. And they had reason to apprehend that what they had gained so much by the influence of Sir Henry Vane, might be taken from them by a government which brought him to the scaf- fold. They had reason also to expect, that the same exertions which had been made by their neighbors to produce the recall of their Charter, would now be repeated, and with more success. They therefore adopted all those measures which prudence required, to guard against this calamity, to procure the favor of their new king, and a confirmation of their privileges. The king was pro- claimed at Warwick, in October, 1660, where the Assembly sat immediately after the news of the restoration arrived here, and the proclamation was "solemnized" by military parade and festivity, and ordered to be thus solemnized, on the 24th of that month, in the same manner, in every town in the colony. A new commission
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was issued to Mr. John Clarke, who was still in England, appointing him their agent for the preservation of their chartered rights and liberties. Three, from each town, were appointed a Committee to draw up an humble petition to his majesty ; to correspond with their agent, and to do what seemed to them best to accomplish their wishes in this respect, and the sum of three hundred pounds was raised and placed at their disposal.
This Committee were for Providence, William Field, Roger Williams, and Zach. Roads; for Portsmouth, William Baulston, John Roome, and John Porter; for Newport, William Brenton, Benedict Arnold, and Joseph Torrey ; and for Warwick, John Greene, John Weeks, and Samuel Gorton, Senior.
Fortunately for the colony, the new king was disposed, from dis- position and policy, to forget past animosities, and unite in himself the affection of all parties. And fortunately, also, about the time when the new Charter was granted, the king, from a desire to serve the Roman Catholics, to whom he was secretly attached, had, with his brother, the Duke of York, formed a plan, on pretence of easing the Protestant dissenters, for introducing a general toleration, that the Catholics might enjoy the free exercise of their religion, at least in private houses.
This plan was defeated by the intolerance of Parliament ; but it would naturally render the king well disposed to grant the same toleration in the plantations, where the Catholics might resort, and, no doubt, well disposed him towards this little colony, which had ยท anticipated his wishes, and served to counteract the adverse influence of our neighobrs, whose policy was so different.
The new Charter was granted on the 8th July, 1663, and was received in November, 1663, by the Court of Commissioners at Newport, " at a very great meeting and assembly of the freemen of the colony," says the record, and read in presence of all, and held up to the view of all, "with his majesty's royal stampe, and the royal seal." Thanks to the king-thanks to Lord Chancellor Clarendon-and thanks and a gratuity of one hundred pounds to Mr. Clarke, their agent, were unanimously voted; and a gratuity of twenty-five pounds, besides his expenses from Boston, to Captain George Baxter, the bearer of the Charter, and the reader of it to the people on this occasion.
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This Charter contained the clause in relation to liberty in relig. ious concernments, which has been so often repeated, and deservedly admired."
The letters of Mr. Clarke which were also read to the people on this occasion, have unfortunately not been preserved. They no doubt contained valuable information in reference to the history of the charter.
This charter remodelled the government ; changed the name of the chief magistrate from President to Governor ; created a Deputy. Governor; increased the Assistants to ten, and vested the legisla- tive power in these and the deputies from the towns, to be called the General Assembly. The power to initiate laws, or to approve them, when proposed by the Court of Commissioners, was previ- ously vested in the towns, and exercised in their several town-meet- ings. The number of Deputies, for each town, was also fixed, which now constitutes one of the odious features of this Charter, to those who have found how difficult it is to obtain rights which are derived from a higher authority.
The next day after the Charter was received, the old govern- ment surrendered to the new.
The name of the colony was changed by this Charter. Rhode- Island, then containing more than two thirds of the freemen, gave the principal name to the State, and Newport became the capital.
In May, 1664, the General Assembly passed the following reso- lution : " At present this General Assembly judgeth it their duty to signifye his Majestys gracious pleasure vouchsafed in those words to us verbatim (viz) that no person within the said colonie at any time hereafter shall be any ways molested, punished, disquieted or called in question, for any differences of opinion in matters of relig. ion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of the sayd colony."
Here was no exception as to Catholics, though Chalmers in his political annals of Rhode-Island, speaking of the acts of the Assem. bly in 1663, has represented the law regulating the admission of freemen as containing such an exception, and says-" a persecu- tion was immediately commenced against the Roman Catholics, who were deprived of the rights of citizens, and of the liberties of Eng- lishmen, though they might have pleaded their chartered privi- leges." The falsity of this charge has been made manifest, by a
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true son of Rhode-Island,* for a long time our Secretary of State, and with an ability which has caused many regrets that he has not written our history.
At the Assembly in May, 1664, the voting by proxy was author- ized, and a plurality of votes rendered sufficient for an election.
The joy that was occasioned in the colony on the reception of the Charter, was soon damped by the proceedings of the King's Commissioners, Nichols, Carr, Cartright, and Maverick, in reference to the Narragansett country. These gentlemen arrived at Boston, in July, 1664, to manage the war against the Dutch at Manhados, and settle the differences in the colonies. Manhados, since called New-York, surrendered in August of that year, and Col. Nichols remained there as Governor. The other Commissioners, in 1665, met at Warwick, to examine the claims of all persons to the Nar- ragansett country. They rejected all claims founded on Indian grants and mortgages, and, in consequence of the submission to the King of the Narragansett Sachems in 1664, to escape from the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and more formally acknowledged in 1663, they decided that the right of jurisdiction and property be- longed to the King, saving the rights of the natives, and created it a royal province by the name of King's Province. They constitu- ted the Chief Magistrate and Assistants of Rhode Island justices of the peace within the province, to do what they thought best for the peace and safety of said province. A portion of their decision was probably more agreeable to Rhode-Island, viz : " 'That no colony hath any just right to dispose of any lands conquered from the na- tives, unless both the cause of that conquest be just, and the lands lye within those bounds, which the King, by his Charter, hath given it, nor to exercise any authority beyond those bounds."+
In 1665, on motion of Portsmouth and Warwick, it was deter- mined that the Governor, Deputy-Governor and Assistants, should sit apart from the Deputies, and form two legislative branches, with equal and concurrent powers ; this was reconsidered in the follow- ing year, and they continued to form one branch until 1696, when they were again separated, and have remained as they now are.
* Hon. Samuel Eddy. See App. E.
+ Declaration touching the Pequod country, April 4, 1665. Documents from Massachusetts records in manuscript, transcribed for the R. I. Hist. Society. Vol. 1, p. 247.
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In 1671, Mr. John Clark was again sent to England, as agent for the colony, to endeavor to terminate the controversy with Connecti- cut about our western boundary, and the jurisdiction which she claimed within the Narragansett territory. This controversy lasted for more than sixty years from its commencement, and was the source of much trouble to the government and inhabitants of both colonies. It was ultimately decided in 1728, by the King in Council, and the boundaries settled by the commissioners of both colonies.
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