USA > Rhode Island > A short history of Rhode Island > Part 2
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1774. General Gage entered Boston as Governor, 215
Sympathy of Rhode Island for Boston; East Greenwich the first to open a subscription, . 215 Hopkins and Ward elected delegates to Con- gress, . 216
1774. Congress met in Philadelphia ; adopted a declar- ation of rights; recommended the formation of an American Association, 217
Distribution of arms,
. 218
Exportation of sheep stopped; manufacture of fire-arms begun, . . 219
Tea burnt at Providence, 219
Troops started for Boston, 219
Army of Observation formed with Nathanael Greene, commander, . 220
Rhode Island troops on Jamaica Plains, 221
Articles of war passed, . 221
Capture of a British vessel by Captain Abraham Whipple, . . 221
Rhode Island Navy founded, 222
William Goddard's postal system went into operation, 222
Colony put upon a war footing,
. 223
Bristol bombarded and the coast of Rhode Island plundered, . 224
Part of the debt of Rhode Island assumed by Congress as a war debt, . 225
Rhode Island in the expedition against Quebec, 226 Depredation of the British squadron, . 226
Battle on Prudence Island, 227
Evacuation of Boston, . 228
Death of Samuel Ward, .
228
The Assembly of Rhode Island renounced their allegiance to the British Crown, 228
xxiii
ANALYTICAL TABLE.
CHAPTER XXV.
RHODE ISLAND BLOCKADED .- DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE INDORSED BY THE ASSEMBLY. - NEW TROOPS RAISED .- FRENCH ALLIANCE .- UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO DRIVE THE BRITISH FROM RHODE ISLAND.
Page.
Islands and waters of Rhode Island taken pos- session of by the British, . . 229
Quota of Rhode Island, 230
Inoculation introduced, . 231
Treatment of Tories 231
Declaration of Independence indorsed by the Assembly, 232
Rhode Island's part in the Continental Navy, 232
Convention of Eastern States to form a con- certed plan of action, .
233
Financial troubles, 234
Regiment of negroes raised, 234
1778.
Tidings of the French alliance received, . 235
Expedition against Bristol and Warren,
235
Attempt to drive the British from Rhode Island rendered unsuccessful by a terrible storm, and jealousy among the officers of the French fleet, 236
CHAPTER XXVI.
ACTS OF THE BRITISH TROOPS .- DISTRESS IN RHODE ISLAND .- EVACUATION OF NEWPORT .- REPUDIATION .- END OF THE WAR.
Disappointment of the Americans, . 241
Wanton destruction of life and property by the British, . . 241
Pigot galley captured by 'Talbot, . 242
Scarcity of food in Rhode Island, . 242
Steuben's tactics introduced into the army, . 244
Difficulty in raising money, 244
British left Newport. . 245
Town records carried off by the British, 246
Repudiation of debt, . 247
Rhode Island's quota, 248
xxiv
ANALYTICAL TABLE.
Page.
Preparations for quartering and feeding the troops, 249
An English fleet of sixteen ships menaced the Rhode Island coast, 250
Assembly met at Newport ; the first time in four years, 250
1781. End of the war, 251
The federation completed,
251
CHAPTER XXVII.
ARTS OF PEACE RESUMED .- DOCTRINE OF STATE RIGHTS.
Name of King's County changed to Washington, 252 New census taken. 253
Question of State Rights raised, . 253
1782. Nicholas Cooke died, 254
Armed resistance to the collection of taxes, . 254
Troubles arising from financial embarrassment, 255
1783. Acts of the Assembly, 256
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DEPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY .- INTRODUCTION OF THE SPINNING-JENNY. - BITTER OPPOSITION TO THE FEDERAL UNION. - RHODE ISLAND FINALLY ACCEPTS THE CONSTI- TUTION.
Desperate attempt to float a new issue of paper
money, 257
Forcing acts declared unconstitutional, . 258
First spinning-jenny made in the United States, 259 Bill passed to pay five shillings in the pound for paper money, 260
Refusal of Rhode Island to send delegates to the Federal Convention, 261
Proposed United States Constitution printed, 261 Acceptance of the Constitution by various states, 261 State of manufactures, . 262 1790. Rhode Island declared her adhesion to the Union, 264
ANALYTICAL TABLE. XXV
4
CHAPTER XXIX.
MODE OF LIFE IN OUR FOREFATHERS' DAYS.
Page.
Early condition of the land, . . 265
Agriculture the principal pursuit of the early settlers, . 266
Early traveling, 267
Early means of education, . 267
Amusements,
268
CHAPTER XXX.
COMMERCIAL GROWTH AND PROSPERITY OF RHODE ISLAND.
Rhode Island wiser on account of her previous struggles for self-government, . 270
Commercial condition of Rhode Island, 271
Trade with East Indies commenced, . 271
1790.
First cotton factory went into operation, 273
1799. Free school system established, . . 273
1819. Providence Institution for Savings founded, 274
Canal from the Providence River to the north line of the state projected and failed, 274
1801. Great fire in Providence, 274
Visit of Washington to Rhode Island, 275
1832. Providence made a city. . 275
Rhode Island in the War of 1812, 276
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE DORR REBELLION.
The Right of Suffrage becomes the question of Rhode Island's politics, . 277
Inequality of representation, 278
No relief obtainable from the Assembly, . 278
Formation of Suffrage Associations, 279
Peoples' Constitution, so called, voted for, . 279
1842. Thomas Wilson Dorr elected Governor under it, 280 Conflict between the old and new government, . 280 Attempt of the Dorr government to organize and seize the arsenal both failures, . . 281
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ANALYTICAL TABLE
End of the War,
Page.
281
Dorr tried for treason and sentenced to imprison- ment for life ; afterwards restored to his politi- cal and civil rights, . 281
New Constitution adopted,
282
Freedom of thought and speech the foundation of Rhode Island's prosperity, . 228
CHAPTER XXXII.
LIFE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION .- THE WAR OF THE REBELLION .- THE CENTENARY.
Life under the Constitution, . . 283
The War of the Rebellion, 283
Rhode Island's quota, . 284
The Centennial Exposition,
285
APPENDIX.
King Charles' Charter, . 291
Present State Constitution, 301
Copy of the Dorr Constitution, . 317
State seal, 333
Governors of Rhode Island, .
. 334
Deputy-Governors of Rhode Island, 337
Members of the Continental Congress, . 339
Towns, date of incorporation, &c.,
340
Population from 1708 to 1875, . 345
State valuation, 348
The Corliss Engine at the Centennial Exposition, 349
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A Short History of Rhode Island.
CHAPTER I.
CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND PLY- MOUTH COLONIES .- ARRIVAL AND BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
THE nations of antiquity, unable to discover their real origin, found a secret gratification in tracing it to the Gods. Thus a religious senti- ment was connected with the foundation of states, and the building of the city walls was consecrated by religious rites. The Christian middle ages preserved the spirit of Pagan antiquity, and every city celebrated with solemn rites the day of its patron saint. The colonies, which, in the natural progress of their development, became the United States of America, traced their history, by authen- tic documents, to the first Christian cultivators of the soil ; and in New England the religious idea lay at the root of their foundation and develop- ment. In Plymouth it took the form of separat- ism, or a simple severance from the Church of England. In Massachusetts Bay it aimed at the establishment of a theocracy, and the enforcement of a rigorous uniformity of creed and discipline.
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HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
From the resistance to this uniformity came Rhode Island and the doctrine of soul liberty.
On the 5th of February, 1631, the ship Lyon, with twenty passengers and a large cargo of pro- visions, came to anchor in Nantaskett roads. On the 8th she reached Boston, and the 9th, which had been set apart as a day of fasting and prayer - for the little Colony, sorely stricken by famine, was made a day of thanksgiving and praise for its sudden deliverance. Among those who, on that day, first united their prayers with the prayers of the elder colonists, was the young colonist, Roger Williams.
Little is known of the early history of Roger Williams, except that he was born in Wales, about 1606; attracted, early in life, the attention of Sir Edward Coke by his skill in taking down in short hand, sermons, and speeches in the Star Chamber ; was sent by the great lawyer to Sutton Hospital, now known as the Charter House, with its fresh memories of Coleridge and Charles Lamb; went thence in the regular time to Oxford ; took orders in the Church of England, and finally em- braced the doctrine of the Puritans. Besides Latin and Greek, which formed the principal objects of an University course, he acquired a competent knowledge of Hebrew and several modern lan- guages, for the study of which he seemed to have had a peculiar facility. His industry and attain- ments soon won him a high place in the esteem of his religious brethren, and although described by
3
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
one who knew him as "passionate and precipi- tate," he gained and preserved the respect of some of the most eminent among his theological oppo- nents. The key to his life may be found in the simple fact that he possessed an active and pro- gressive mind in an age wherein thought in- stantly became profession, and profession passed promptly into action.
When this "godly and zealous young min- ister" landed in Boston, he found the territory which has long been known as Massachusetts in the possession of two distinct colonies, the Colony of Plymouth, founded in 1620, by the followers of John Robinson, of Leyden, and known as the colony of separatists, or men who had separated from the Church of England, but were willing to grant to others the same freedom of opinion which they claimed for themselves ; and the Col- ony of Massachusetts Bay, founded ten years later by a band of intelligent Puritans, many of them men of position and fortune, who, alarmed by the variety of new opinions and doctrines which seemed to menace a total subversion of what they regarded as religion, had resolved to establish a new dwelling place in a new world, with the Old and New Testament for statute book and constitution. Building upon this foun- dation the clergy naturally became their guides and counselors in all things, and the control of the law, which was but another name for the con- trol of the Bible, extended to all the acts of life,
4
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
penetrating to the domestic fireside, and holding every member of the community to a rigid ac- countability for speech as well as action. Ask- ing for no exemption from the rigorous applica- tion of Bible precept for themselves, they granted none to others, and looked upon the advocate of any interpretation but theirs as a rebel to God and an enemy to their peace.
It was to this iron-bound colony that Roger Williams brought his restless, vigorous and fear- less spirit. Disagreements soon arose and sus- picions were awakened. He claimed a freedom of speech irreconcilable with the fundamental principles of their government ; and they a power over opinion irreconcilable with freedom of thought. Neither of them could look upon his own position from the other's point of view. Both were equally sincere. And much as we may now condemn the treatment which Williams received at the hands of the colonial government of Mas- sachusetts Bay, its charter and its religious tenets justified it in treating him as an intruder.
The first public expression of the hostility he was to encounter came from the magistrates of Boston within two months after his arrival, and, on the very day on which the church of Salem had installed him as assistant to their aged pastor, Mr. Skelton. The magistrates were a powerful body, and before autumn he found his situation so uncomfortable that he removed to Plymouth, where the rights of individual opinion were held
5
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
in respect, if not fully acknowledged. Here, while assiduously engaged in the functions of his holy office, he was brought into direct contact with several of the most powerful chiefs of the neighboring tribes of Indians, and among them of Massasoit and Miantonomi, who were to exer- cise so controlling an influence over his fortunes. His fervent spirit caught eagerly at the prospect of bringing them under Christian influences, and his natural taste for the study of languages served to lighten the labor of preparation. "God was pleased," he wrote many years afterwards, "to give me a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy holes, even while I lived at Plymouth and Salem, to gain their tongue; my soul's desire was to do the natives good."
This was apparently the calmest period of his stormy career. It was at Plymouth that his first child, a daughter, was born. But although he soon made many friends, and had the satisfaction of knowing that his labors were successful, his thoughts still turned towards Salem, and, receiv- ing an invitation to resume his place as assistant of Mr. Skelton, whose health was on the wane, he returned thither after an absence of two years. Some of the members of his church had become so attached to him that they followed him to the sister colony.
And now came suspicions which quickly rip- ened into controversies, and before another two years were over led to what he regarded as
6
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
persecution, but what the rulers of the Bay Colony held to be the fulfillment of the obligation which they had assumed in adopting the whole Bible as their rule of life. In 1635 he was banished from the colony by a solemn sentence of the Gen- eral Court, for teaching :
"1st. That we have not our land by Pattent from the King, but that the natives are the true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such receiving it by Pattent.
2d. That it is not lawful to call a wicked per- son to swear, to pray, as being actions of God's worship.
3d. That it is not lawful to heare any of the Ministers of the Parish Assemblies in England.
4th. That the civil magistrates power extends only to the Bodies and Goods and outward state of man."
For us who read these charges with the light of two more centuries of progress upon them, it seems strange that neither the General Court nor Williams himself should have perceived that the only one wherein civilization was interested was that to which they have assigned the least con- spicuous place.
CHAPTER II.
SUFFERINGS OF ROGER WILLIAMS IN THE WILDERNESS .- FOUNDS A SETTLEMENT ON THE SEEKONK RIVER .- IS AD- VISED TO DEPART .- SEEKS OUT A NEW PLACE. WHICH HE CALLS PROVIDENCE.
WHEN the sentence of banishment was first pronounced against the future founder of Rhode Island, his health was so feeble that it was re- solved to suspend the execution of it till spring. This, however, was soon found to be impractica- ble, for the affection and confidence which he had inspired presently found open expression, and friends began to gather around him in his own house to listen to his teaching. Lack of energy was not a defect of the government of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and learning that rumors of a new colony to be founded on Narragansett Bay were already afloat, it resolved to send the supposed leader of the unwelcome enterprise back to England. A warrant, therefore, was given to Captain Underhill, a man of doubtful character in the employment of the Colony, with orders to proceed directly to Salem, put the of- fender on board his pinnace, and convey him to a ship that lay in Boston harbor ready to sail for England with the first fair wind. When the
8 |
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
pinnace reached Salem, he found only the wife and infant children of the banished man, and a people deeply grieved for the loss of their pastor. Williams was gone, and whither no one could say.
And whither, indeed, could he go? The thin and scattered settlements of the northern colonies were bounded seaward by a tempestuous ocean, and inland by a thick belt of primeval forest, whose depths civilized man had never penetrated. If he escaped the wild beasts that prowled in their recesses, could he hope to escape the wilder savage, who claimed the forest for his hunting grounds ? "I was sorely tossed," Williams writes in after years, "for fourteen weeks in a bitter winter-season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." The brave man's earnest mind bore up the frail and suffering body.
And now he began to reap the fruit of his kind treatment of the natives, and the pains which he had taken to learn their language. "These ravens fed me in the wilderness," he wrote, with a touching application of Scripture narrative. They gave him the shelter of their squalid wig- wams, and shared with him their winter store. The great chief Massasoit opened his door to him, and, when spring came, gave him a tract of land on the Seekonk River, where he "pitched and began to build and plant." Here he was soon joined by some friends from Salem, who had resolved to cast in their lot with his. But the seed which they planted had already begun to send up its
9
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
early shoots, when a letter from his "ancient friend, the Governor of Plymouth," came, to "lovingly advise him" that he was "fallen into the edge of their bounds ; " that they were "loth to displease the Bay," and that if he would "remove but to the other side of the water," he would have "the country before [him] and might be as free as themselves," and they "should be loving neighbors together." Wil- liams accepted the friendly counsel, and, taking five companions with him, set out in a canoe to follow the downward course of the Seekonk and find a spot whereon he might plant and build in safety. As the little boat came under the shade of the western bank of the pleasant stream, a small party of Indians was seen watching them from a large flat rock that rose a few feet above
the water's edge. "Wha-cheer, netop ?- Wha- cheer ?- how are you, friend ?" they cried ; and Williams accepting the friendly salutation as a favorable omen, turned the prow of his canoe to the shore. Tradition calls the spot where he landed, Slate Rock, and the name of Wha-cheer square has been given in advance to the land around it. What was said or done at that first interview has not been recorded, but the part- ing was as friendly as the meeting, and Williams resuming his course, soon found himself at the junction of the Seekonk and Mooshausick. Two points mark the intermingling of the two streams, and in those days the waters must have spread
10
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
their broad bosom like a lake, and gleamed and danced within their fringe of primeval forest. Williams, following, perhaps, the counsel of the Indians, turned northward and held his way between the narrowing banks of the Mooshausick, till he espied, at the foot of a hill which rose shaggy with trees and precipitate from its eastern shore, the flash and sparkling of a spring. Here he landed, and, recalling his trials and the mighty hand that had sustained him through them all, called the place Providence.
CHAPTER III.
WILLIAMS OBTAINS A GRANT OF LAND AND FOUNDS A COLONY. -FORM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONY .- WILLIAMS GOES TO ENGLAND TO OBTAIN A ROYAL CHARTER.
THE territory which now forms the State of Rhode Island, with the exception of Bristol County, in which lay Mount Hope, the seat of Massasoit, chief of the Wamponoags, was held by the Narragansetts, a tribe skilled in the Indian art of making wampum, the Indian money, and the art common to most barbarous nations of making rude vessels in clay and stone. They had once been very powerful, and could still bring four or five thousand braves to the war- path. Their language was substantially the same with that of the other New England tribes, and was understood by the natives of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. With this language Roger Williams had early made himself familiar.
It was labor well bestowed, and he was to reap the reward of it in his day of tribulation. The chiefs of the Narragansetts when he came among them were Canonicus, an "old prince, most shy of the English to his latest breath," and his nephew, Miantonomi. Their usual residence was on the beautiful Island of Conanicut ; and
12
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
when Williams first came he found them at feud with his other friend, Ossameguin, or Massasoit, Sachem of the Wamponoags. His first care was to reconcile these chiefs, "traveling between them three to pacify, to satisfy all these and their dependent spirits of (his) honest intention to live peaceably by them." The well founded distrust of the English which Canonicus cherished to the end of his life did not extend to Williams, to whom he made a grant of land between the Moos- hausick and the Wanasquatucket ; confirming it two years later by a deed bearing the marks of the two Narragansett chiefs. This land Wil- liams divided with twelve of his companions, reserving for them and himself the right of ex- tending the grant "to such others as the major part of us shall admit to the same fellowship of vote with us." It was a broad foundation, and he soon found himself in the midst of a flourish- ing colony.
The proprietors, dividing their lands into two parts, "the grand purchase of Providence," and the "Pawtuxet purchase," made an assignment of lots to other colonists, and entered resolutely upon the task of bringing the soil under cultiva- tion. The possession of property naturally leads to the making of laws, and the new colonists had not been together long before they felt the want of a government. The form which it first assumed amongst them was that of a democratic municipality, wherein the "masters of families"
13
.
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
incorporated themselves into a town, and trans- acted their public business in town meeting. The colonists of Plymouth had formed their social compact in the cabin of the Mayflower. The colonists of Providence formed theirs on the banks of the Mooshausick. "We, whose names are hereunder," it reads, "desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good for the body, in an orderly way, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, mas- ters of families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and such others as they shall admit unto them only in civil things."
Never before, since the establishment of Chris- tianity, has the separation of Church from State been definitely marked out by this limitation of the authority of the magistrate to civil things ; and never, perhaps, in the whole course of his- tory, was a fundamental principle so vigorously observed. Massachusetts looked upon the ex- periment with jealousy and distrust, and when ignorant or restless men confounded the right of individual opinion in religious matters with a right of independent action in civil matters, those who had condemned Roger Williams to banish- ment, eagerly proclaimed that no well ordered government could exist in connection with liberty of conscience. Many grave discussions were held, and many curious questions arose before the
14
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
distinction between liberty and license became thoroughly interwoven with daily life ; but only one passage of this singular chapter has been preserved, and, as if to leave no doubt concerning the spirit which led to its preservation, the nar- rator begins with these ominous words : "At Providence, also, the Devil was not idle."
The wife of Joshua Verin was a great admirer of Williams's preaching, and claimed the right of going to hear him oftener than suited the wishes of her husband. Did she, in following the dictates of her conscience, which bade her go to a meeting which harmonized with her feelings, violate the injunction of Scripture which bids wives obey their husbands ? Or did he, in exer- cising his acknowledged control as a husband, trench upon her right of conscience in religious concerns ? It was a delicate question ; but after long deliberation and many prayers, the claims of conscience prevailed, and "it was agreed that Joshua Verin, upon the breach of a covenant for restraining of the libertie of conscience, shall be withheld from the libertie of voting till he shall declare the contrarie"-a sentence from which it appears that the right of suffrage was regarded as a conceded privilege, not a natural right.
Questions of jurisdiction also arose. Massa- chusetts could not bring herself to look upon her sister with a friendly eye, and Plymouth was soon to be merged in Massachusetts. It was easy to foresee that there would be bickerings and jeal-
15
HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND.
ousies, if not open contention between them. Still the little Colony grew apace. The first church was founded in 1639. To meet the wants of an increased population the government was changed, and five disposers or selectmen charged with the principal functions of administration, subject, however, to the superior authority of monthly town meetings ; so early and so nat- urally did municipal institutions take root in Eng- lish colonies. A vital point was yet untouched. Williams, indeed, held that the Indians, as orig- inal occupants of the soil, were the only legal owners of it, and carrying his principle into all his dealings with the natives, bought of them the land on which he planted his Colony. The
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