USA > Rhode Island > A short history of Rhode Island > Part 7
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The frequent appeals to England which the aggressions of the other New England colonies made necessary, made it also necessary to keep resident agents at the English court. Thus the increased expenditure of the Colony kept pace with the increase of her resources.
In 1678 a tax was laid which enables us to form a tolerably accurate idea of the financial condition of the Colony. Its full amount was three hun- dred pounds. "Of this sum Newport was as- sessed one hundred and thirty-six pounds, Ports- mouth sixty-eight, New Shoreham and James- town twenty-nine each, Providence ten, Warwick eight, Kingston sixteen, afterwards reduced to eight, East Greenwich and Westerly two each." As the greater part of this tax was commutable, we are enabled to form a pretty accurate idea of the price of living just after the war. "Fresh pork was valued at twopence a pound, salted and well packed pork at fifty shillings a barrel, fresh beef at twelve shillings a hundred weight, packed beef in barrels thirty shillings a hundred, peas and barley malt two and sixpence a bushel,
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corn and barley, two shillings, washed wool six- pence a pound, and good firkin butter fivepence. The quarter part of this tax was paid in wool at the rate of fivepence a pound." If we compare these prices with those of 1670, we shall see that war had proved here as everywhere a great scourge.
In the law by which this tax was levied we find a practical illustration of the principle which less than a century later became the fundamental principle of colonial resistance to the mother country. None but a complete representation of all the towns could levy a tax, or as it was formulated by James Otis-taxation without rep- resentation is tyranny.
It is also worthy of observation that there was a tendency to extend the usage of election to direct choice by vote of the freemen. The office of major which at its first institution during Philip's war was filled by vote of the militia, passed, in 1678, to the whole body of freemen. The necessity of a distinction between martial and civil law seems, also, to have made itself more sensibly felt at the same period, and a per- manent court-martial was formed for the trial of
delinquent soldiers. As the commercial spirit of the Colony increased the necessity of a bankrupt law was felt, but on trial it was found to be pre- mature and repealed. An attempt was also made to avoid the conflict of land titles in Nar- ragansett, where the interest of townships as well
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as of private individuals was involved. To correct this evil which struck at the root of social organi- zation the Assembly ordered that the disputed tracts should be surveyed and plats made of them. For the more efficacious protection of this fundamental interest it was ordered that all who held by Indian titles "should present their deeds to be passed on by the Assembly." De- scending to minuter particulars, we find a law against fast riding-first, in "the compact parts of Newport," and not long after, of Providence, also. We find it also ordered that a bell be pro- vided and set up in some convenient place for calling the Assembly and courts and council to- gether. Of deeper interest was the act appoint- ing a committee to make a digest of the laws, " that they may be putt in print." Only part, however, of this resolution was carried out, and it was not till 1719 that the laws were put into a permanent form.
Not the laws only but the language in which they were expressed attracted attention. We now meet for the first time in the enacting clause of a law, "and by the authority thereof be it ordained, enacted and declared." Instead of ex- ecutor administrator was written, "it being in that case the more proper and usual term in the law." In one act we find an instance of grim humor. The accounts of a general sergeant were found to be in inextricable confusion. The audit- ing committee resolved to call them square "and
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voted that by this act there is a full and fynal issue of all differences relative to said accounts from the beginninge of the world unto this present Assembly."
In some instances the public mind was not made up concerning a law, and one Assembly would undo the work of its predecessor. One of the most important acts of this class was an act denying the revisory power of the Assembly over decisions of courts of trials. In the August ses- sion of 1680, after two years of experiment, the act was repealed.
The existence of a law proves, also, the exist- ence of an evil. In the May session of 1679, we find an act for the protection of servants, whom "sundry persons being evil-minded" were in the habit of overtasking at home, and then hiring others to let out for work on Sunday-thus in- fringing the law which practically made Sunday a holiday. This is not a pleasant picture, but the action of the Assembly forbidding the abuse shows that public opinion was sound. We find, also, that then as now sailors were more or less at the mercy of sailor landlords. The Assembly took up their defence. Those who trusted a sailor for more than five shillings without an order from his captain forfeited their claim. Another law bearing directly upon navigation was passed in the May session of 1679. "The master of every vessel of over twenty tons bur- then was required to report himself to the head
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officer of the town upon arrival and departure, and if over ten days in port, then to set up notice in two public places in the town three days be- fore sailing." In this last act we see the in- fluence of the navigation act which was so long held to be the guardian genius of England's com- mercial prosperity, and which was communicated to all the colonies by royal edict in 1680.
And here, as illustrative of border life when Rhode Island was a border colony, comes the story of John Clawson's curse. This John Claw- son was a hired servant of Roger Williams, who, at the instigation of a desperate fellow by the name of Herendeen, was attacked in the night from behind a thicket of barberry bushes, near the old north burial ground by an Indian named Waumaion. The Indian, who was armed with a broad axe, split open Clawson's chin at the first blow. The wound was mortal, but the wounded man lived long enough to utter his curse-that "Herendeen and his posterity might be marked with split chins and haunted with barberry bushes " forever. The malediction, legend says, was fulfilled, and the descendants of the murderer were still distinguished in the last century by a furrowed chin, and fired up with indignation at the mention of a barberry bush.
CHAPTER XIII.
COURTS AND ARMY STRENGTHENED .- COMMISSIONERS SENT FROM ENGLAND .- CHARTER REVOKED.
DISPUTES of title fill, as we have seen, a full but monotonous chapter in this part of our his- tory. Among them was the dispute for Poto- womut, a neck of land on Coweset Bay which had been purchased of the Indians by order of the Assembly as early as 1659. Bitter disputes soon followed, Warwick claiming it, and individuals both English and Indians disputing the claim. At last the question was disposed of, as was sup- posed, finally, at a town meeting in 1680, in which it was divided "into fifty equal lots or rights, and the names of the proprietors were inserted on the records." But the very next year we meet it again as a contest between Warwick and Kingston. At last the Assembly interposed, forbidding all occupancy of the land till further orders, warning off intruders, but permitting the Warwick men to mow and improve the meadows as heretofore.
Among the questions brought before the As- sembly in the time of these disputes, was the question of the power of the Town Council to reject or accept new citizens. The question was
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brought up by Providence and decided in the affirmative. The form of application for leave to reside has been preserved : "To ye Towne mett this 15th of December 1680. My request to ye Towne is ; that they woold grant the liberty to reside in ye Towne during the Townes Appro- bation, behaving myselfe as a civill man ought to doe, Desireing not to putt ye Towne to any charge by my residing here; and for what ye Towne shall cause farther to enquire of me, I shall see I hope to give them a true and sober Answer thereunto. Yor friend and servant Tho. Waters."
One of the lessons of the war had been the im- portance of cavalry, and in 1682 a company was raised in the main-land towns consisting of thirty-six men, exclusive of officers. To put them on the same footing with the infantry they were allowed the same privileges, and held to the same obligation of exercising six days in the year. Not long after the number of majors was doubled, and John Greene appointed for the main-land and John Coggeshall for the island. Measures were also taken to give greater efficiency to the courts, and it was decided that the October ses- sions should be held in Providence and Warwick annually. That there might be no delay in the execution of sentences, each of these towns was required to furnish a cage and stocks. Thus surely but gradually the resolute Colony went on in its work of organization. But perilous days were at hand.
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The appeals of the colonies to England had attracted her attention to these distant domains, which but for that might long have continued to grow and prosper in obscurity. But when called upon to grant privileges she naturally began to examine into the nature of her rights, and inter- preted them not by the genius of the colonies, but by the commercial interests of the mother country. The act of navigation, which had its origin in English jealousy of Holland, bore hard from the beginning on the commercial industry of the colonies. Although first passed by the republican Parliament of 1651, it did not become an efficient act until the first Parliament of Charles II. in 1660, when it was formally pro- claimed in all the colonies by beat of drum. Custom - houses with all their parapheranalia followed close in its track. The burthen was soon felt, and smuggling, the natural relief of overtaxed commerce, became general. The bays and inlets of New England afforded great facili- ties for illicit trade, and the public conscience could not long resist the temptation, We shall see before another century is over to what Eng- land's narrow policy led.
Questions relating to the colonies were gen- erally referred to the Board of Trade. In 1680 came a letter from the board containing twenty- seven queries concerning Rhode Island. The agents in England also went prepared to give all the information that was required for the under-
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standing of the claims and condition of the Col- ony. As long as Charles, the grantor of the charter lived, there was nothing done to excite alarm. But no sooner did his bigoted brother ascend the throne, than it became evident that an entire change was to be made in colonial policy. Rhode Island was quick to feel the blow. A commission of nine was appointed to settle the vexed question of King's Province. Head of the commission was the notorious Cranfield, who had made himself a bad name by his tyrannical gov- ernment of New Hampshire. Next came Ran- dolph, detested in Massachusetts for his oppres- sive administration of the acts of trade. These names excited gloomy anticipations which were presently fulfilled.
And here let us pause a moment to observe the exact situation of Rhode Island at this critical emergency. Having had her origin in a practical appeal from the intolerance of Massachusetts, she had never been admitted to the confederation which gave unity and strength to the other New England colonies. Her doctrine of soul-liberty was a stench in their nostrils, and her possession of the broad and beautiful Narragansett Bay so favorable for maritime and internal commerce, was, as we have seen, a constant subject of bicker- ing and envy. Massachusetts laid claim to Paw- tuxet and Warwick, and a Massachusetts com- pany to part of Narragansett; Connecticut to a large portion of the remainder of Narragansett,
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Plymouth to Aquidneck and other islands of the Bay. Little was left to Rhode Island but the plantations on the Mooshausick. All of these claims were enforced by all the means and arts within the command of the stronger colonies except actual war, and resisted with admirable resolution and perseverance by the weaker colony. We have seen how agents were sent to plead her cause at the court of their common sovereign, how every attempt to establish jurisdiction had been promptly resisted and every intrusion in- stantly repelled. In the darkest hour she never lost heart nor bated one jot her rights. But the darkest hour of all was at hand.
Cranfield and Randolph set themselves zeal- ously to their congenial task. The Assembly met for theirs. The Commissioners refused to establish their position by showing their creden- tials. The Assembly refused to recognize them officially without credentials. The rupture was open and violent. The Assembly appointed new agents to repair to court and lay the evidence in behalf of the Colony before the King. A tax of four hundred pounds was imposed to meet their expenses. Much importance was attached to an address to the King drawn up by Randall Holden and John Greene. Meanwhile the Commissioners on their part were not idle. Cranfield wrote to the Board of Trade that the colonies were dis- loyal. "It never will be otherwise," he added, "till their charters are broke and the college at
7
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Cambridge utterly extirpated, for from thence these half-witted philosophers turn either Athe- ists or seditious preachers." He was right, for it was at Cambridge that Otis and Quincy and Warren and the two Adamses imbibed the prin- ciples which led to independence.
It was in 1684, in the midst of these struggles, that a petition of the Jews for protection was presented to the Assembly and granted-Rhode Island remaining true to the last to the principle of her origin.
The decision of the Royal Commissioners was unfavorable to Rhode Island, and it is hard to see how she could have escaped mutilation. But she was menaced by a still greater danger. In 1684 Charles the Second died, and his brother James ascended the throne, bringing with him a narrow mind and a bad heart. To establish an arbitrary government and restore the supremacy of the Romish Church were the cardinal points of his policy. The American colonies afforded a favorable field for the trial. It began by the revocation of their charters, and was speedily fol- lowed up by putting the government of the New England colonies under one head.
Rhode Island found herself where she stood at the beginning, a government of towns. Her original four towns had united under one govern- ment for self-defence, and now that they were' arbitrarily separated by a power too great to be resisted they naturally fell back upon their orig-
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inal municipal institutions. This closing scene is not without its dignity. The Assembly met at its accustomed time. The Governor, Walter Clarke, solemnly called upon the freemen for counsel. The whole question of dangers and difficulties was discussed, and wisely preferring petition to resistance, it was resolved to address a solemn appeal to the King for the preservation of their charter. Then all returned to its original order. The freemen met and discussed their town interests in their town meetings. Town officers elected by their townsmen performed their accustomed duties. The tradesman and the farmer went on in his chosen calling and the towns throve and prospered, still looking with unwavering trust to a day of redemption.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHANGES IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT .- SIR EDMOND ANDROS APPOINTED GOVERNOR .- HE OPPRESSES THE COLONISTS AND IS FINALLY DEPOSED.
THUS a provisional government took the place of the charter government under which New England had grown so rapidly. A great and successful experiment in political science was suddenly checked, and hopes which had led so many devout and earnest men to renounce the conveniences of home for the perils and discom- forts of a wilderness were rudely crushed at the very moment when they seemed nearest their ful- fillment. The same blow which fell upon Rhode Island fell with equal fatality upon Massachu- setts and Connecticut. The government by char- ter ceased. The two most active agents of James in this remoulding of the government of the colonies were Dudley, President of the Council, and Randolph, the Secretary, whose despotic con- duct in Boston has already been mentioned. Here' was a broader and more congenial field.
It was resolved as has been seen to address the King in behalf of the Colony, and John Greene, venerable by years and illustrious by public services, was appointed to carry the address to
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England and advocate it as agent for the Colony. He had watched over the cradle of the Colony- who so fit to stand by its grave.
Unfortunately, party had lost none of its viru- lence even in this supreme hour, and a small minority of dissentients was found to the sober and judicious conduct of the Assembly. Among them were members of the Atherton company, and among their methods of attack were bitter asper- sions upon the personal character of the colonial agent. The provisional government found enough to do in preparing the colonies for their new life, and one of their earliest measures was a final organization of King's Province. Among the changes that they made was the changing of the names of its three towns. Kingston, the largest, was called Rochester, Westerly, the next in size, became Haversham, and East Greenwich, the smallest, took the name of Dedford. The western boundary of Haversham was Pawcatuck River. Dedford was extended on the north to Warwick, and enlarged by the peninsula of Potowomut. Part of the actual settlers were living on land to which they had no legal claim. Preëmption rights were granted them and time given them to "arrange with the owners by rent or purchase."
At last, on the 20th of December, 1686, the Royal Governor, Sir Edmond Andros, arrived in Boston. He came in a ship of the royal navy and brought with him two companies of the royal army, the first regular troops that had ever been
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seen in Massachusetts. He had already been in the colonies and knew the spirits with whom he would have to deal. Rhode Island, like her sis- ters, had everything to fear from his abitrary will. But she had treated him with respectful consideration on his former visit, and was now treated by him with less than his usual harshness.
He entered at once upon his welcome task, the transformation of a constitutional government into a despotism. Massachusetts came first in order, and the very first blow was a deadly one, an outrage upon her convictions and a deep humiliation to her pride. Her Puritan theocracy, which had penetrated every part of her civil polity, was overthrown, and the service of the church of England was openly celebrated. In this Rhode Island had no change to fear, for freedom of conscience was, till other ends were accomplished, the doctrine of the King himself. In all other things all the colonies fared alike.
We have seen how watchful Rhode Island was of the taxing power, and how nearly she had reached the great fundamental principle that taxation and representation go together. Andros sent out his tax-gatherers without consulting the tax-payers. His object was to raise money, no matter how. Farming the revenue, always a favorite device of despotism, offered facilities which he promptly turned to account. The aug- mentation of fees was an abundant source. Those of probate were increased twenty-fold. Writs of
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intrusion opened another channel for organized robbery. No one could tell how soon he might be compelled to buy his farm over again. Even marriage afforded a field for the display of arbi- trary power. Necessity at first compelled the government to recognize the validity of civil mar- riages. But as the transformation of laws and usages progressed, no marriages were recognized as valid which were not celebrated according to the rights of the Church of England. To feel the odious tyranny of this law it should be remembered that there was but one Episcopal clergyman in the Colony. Another oppressive act was the in- troduction of passports, whether for the fees they brought in or in order to throw obstacles in the way of a free communication among the colonies, it would be difficult to tell.
Andros's commission gave him the power to appoint and remove his counselors at will. The council consisted of nineteen members, five of whom were from Rhode Island. One of them, John Greene, was absent on his agency in Eng- land. Their first meeting was held at Boston. In this the usual oaths of allegiance and office were taken, the two Quaker members from Rhode Island being allowed to make their affirmation. All officers in commission were continued in office during the Governor's pleasure, and all laws that did not clash with the laws of England, were re- tained. The first was the only full meeting of this impotent board, which only met to confirm the resolves of an arbitrary Governor.
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In substance Andros had his own way, though not without occasional opposition and now and then humiliation. In Rhode Island the charter was adroitly put out of his reach by Governor Clarke and not reproduced till he had left New- port. In Connecticut it was hidden in the hollow of an oak. The seal of Rhode Island was broken. The members of the council were constantly changing, and few of them, according to Ran- dolph, cared for the King. "His Excellency has to do with a perverse people."
We meet some of the questions of our own day. Licenses for the sale of liquor were granted in Newport, but no liquor could be sold in King's Province. How well the prohibition was obeyed it is impossible to say. Poor laws also appear in the guise of taxes for the support of that per- plexing part of the population. It would be tedious and useless to follow the despotic Gover- nor through all the changes of his administration of two years and four months. Suffice it to say that he had fully imbibed the spirit of his master, and did all that he could to reduce the colonies to servitude. A few provisions, however, may be mentioned as illustrating the condition of the country. With the growth of the towns fires became sources of danger. To enforce watchful- ness the person in whose house a fire broke out was fined two and sixpence, and for still greater security every householder was required to set "a ladder reaching to the ridge pole, to every
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house that he owned." Attention was called to the fishing in Pettaquamscot pond and an order passed for encouraging it. A tax was laid for the extermination of wolves, which seem still to have been very numerous.
In April, 1688, Andros's commission was en- larged so as to comprise New York and the Jer- seys, all under the general appellation of New England. Enlarged powers and minute instruc- tions accompanied the new commission, and among the former was the subjection of the press to the will of the Governor.
But another change was drawing nigh. There was nothing in common between James the Second and the New England colonist, and An- dros represented his master too faithfully not to be bitterly hated. Even Thanksgiving, that thoroughly New England festival, was neglected when announced by his proclamation. Some spoke out their detestation openly to his face. "I suppose," he said one morning to Dr. Hooker, the great clerical wit of Hartford, "all the good people of Connecticut are fasting and praying on my account." "Yes," replied the Doctor, "we read, 'This kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.' "
Rhode Island suffered less at his hands than any other colony. The enforced toleration which excited such strong feelings in Massachusetts met with no opposition in a territory where Bap- tists and Quakers and Puritans and Separatists
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worshipped according to their own convictions. John Greene soon became aware that there was no prospect of a return to the free life of the charter so long as James held the throne. Therefore, without renouncing the hope of a better future, he confined his negotiations for the present to questions of minor, though important bearing. Chief among them was the putting an end to the intrusions of the outside claimants to Narragan- sett. This brought up all the unsettled claims. which had been so pertinaciously enforced and so firmly resisted. The Atherton claim was thrown out by the Commissioners as extorted from the Indians by fear. The Connecticut claim was re- pudiated upon grounds set forth in the Rhode Island charter. Several individual titles, both Indian and English, were considered, and after careful examination, the right of Rhode Island to King's Province was confirmed for the third time-"against Connecticut in point of jurisdic- tion, and against the so-called proprietors in point of ownership." This report was met in England. by a petition of Lord Culpepper in behalf of the Atherton company for grants of land not already occupied and the bass ponds, upon such quit rents as might seem good to the King. The petition was granted in part and Andros was intrusted to " assign them such lands as had not already been occupied-at a quit rent of two and sixpence for every hundred acres."
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