USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 40
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The next day the French officers decided to return to New- port to repair the damages maintained by "Le Conquerant " and "l'Ardent." The French had the honors of this action, but the English attained the object for which they sailed. The superior sailing qualities of the British vessels were again ap- parent. The French and English admiralties were alike dis- satisfied. Des Touches was pensioned but not promoted. Ar- buthnot was censured and ordered home. Congress was more generous, and though sadly disappointed at the failure of the expedition, warmly commended the French commanders for their zeal and Des Touches for his gallantry. The French vessels were safe in Newport harbor on the afternoon of the 26th of March.
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THE MARCH OF THE FRENCH, 1781 .- The month of April was without incident. The officers in their diaries notice the delightful weather. News from France and of the prospect of reinforcements were eagerly looked for. The French officers interested themselves in the establishment of a Masonic lodge over which M. de Jansecourt presided and initiations were freqnent. On the Sth of May the " Concorde" arrived in Bos- ton with the Count de Barras, chef d'escadre, appointed to succeed de Ternay as admiral. The same frigate brought back the Vicomte de Rochambeau from his mission and Baron Cromot du Bourg, who joined Rochambeau's staff, to whose full and intelligent diary historians are indebted for many details of the subsequent movements.
The Vicomte brought word also of the sailing from Brest on the 22d of March of the Count de Grasse with a strong squadron convoying fifteen transports laden with supplies and having on board two companies of artillery and five hundred men to fill up the regiments, moreover all restrictions were removed and full power was given to Rochambeau to act as he chose. He gave orders for instant preparation. The light artillery and heavy equipments were already in Providence. Five hundred of the land force were put on board the ships of war which were ordered to sea to meet the incoming convoy. The officers and men were in joy at the prospect of a campaign. Even the most sensible, unaware of the secrets of the commander, were judging his inaction with no lenient thought. The French dis- patches rendering an interview with Washington necessary, a meeting was, at the request of Rochambeau, had at Wethers. field near Hartford on the 21st of May. Rochambeau was ac- companied by the Chevalier de Chastellux. Admiral de Barras, at the point of departure was detained by the appearance of the British fleet off Block Island in force.
A plan of summer campaign being agreed upon Rocham- bean returned to Newport on the 26th of May, and the order of march was arranged. At a council of war . held on board the admiral's ship on the 6th of June it was decided that on the departure of the troops only a small guard should be left to hold the town, and that the fleet which it had been proposed to take to Boston should remain at the Newport anchorage. On the 7th of June Admiral de Barras gave a grand farewell dinner on board the "Duc de Burgogne. There were sixty people present, among whom were many
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·Newport ladies. The quarter deck was canopied with sails and a handsome hall arranged. The Duc de Lauzun, gayest of the gay, was present, just returned from an interview with Washington on points of military detail. On the 9th marching orders were issued and the next morning the first division, Bourbonnais and Royal deux Ponts, moved from Newport under command of Baron de Vioménil. They reached Providence in the evening too late to mark ont a camp and were lodged by the town anthorities in some empty houses.
The next day the regiment of Deux Ponts went into camp on the heights, and the brigades of Soissonnais and Saintonge, which arrived the same day, took posts on their left. All the heavy artillery was left on the batteries at Newport. The troops left behind were four hundred recruits just arrived from France, a few pieces of artillery and a thousand local militia. The whole, under command of M. de Choisy, brigadier of the forces, an officer of experience and of approved courage. The commissary general, M. Blanchard, who succeeded M. de Corny on his return to France in February, was sent forward of the army to arrange its supplies. On the 11th of June M. de Rochambean and his entire staff passed through Providence to the camp. The army Jay in camp for eight days while transporta- tion was being provided. The arrival in Boston of the " Sagit- taire," and in convoy, fifteen ships, with six hundred and ninety recruits, and money for the land and naval forces, en- abled Rochambean to close his preparations to his entire satis- faction. On the 16th of June the Baron de Viomenil held a general review, and the army moved in the following order : On the 18th the Bourbonnais, under Rochambeau and de Chas- tellux ; the 19th the Royal Denx Ponts, under the Baron de Vioménil ; the 20th the Soissonnais, under the Count de Vio- menil ; the 21st the Saintonge, under the Count de Custine, successively left the camp and moved by easy marches to the appointed rendezvous in the county of Westchester, New York, preserving between the corps the distance of a day's march. Lauzun's dragoons moved, by roads between the line of march and the sea, to cover the flank. The Count de Dumas preceded the columns to point out the camps and positions to be successively occupied. Here they must be left on that bril- liant movement through the American states to the junction with de Grasse in the Chesapeake bay, and the capture of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown.
CHAPTER VIIL.
NEWPORT IN THE WARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
BY JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS.
War with England, 1812 .- The Dorr War, 1842 .- The War of the Rebellion, 1861-5.
T HE acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, the transfer during the Napoleonic war of a large share of the carrying trade of the world to the American flag and the general prosperity of the new nation in the early years of the century aroused the jealonsy of Great Britain who, in her lust for maritime dominion, had not yet learned that her true inter- est was in peace with the growing republic of her blood and origin. Relying upon her vast naval armament, the mistress of the seas confined her hostility to deliberate aggressions on commerce, the searching of American ships, the impressing American seamen and an occasional questionable capture of some peaceful American trader. To these acts the United States government replied with a resolution suspending all im- portations from Great Britain until "equitable and satisfactory arrangements were made :" in fact, by a declaration of non- intercourse. The first open act on the part of England was the capture of the American frigate " Chesapeake" by a British man-of-war, the "Leopard" in June, 1807, the American com- mander having refused to surrender sundry enumerated men claimed by the British commander as deserters. The British government disavowed the act but English vessels still hovered about the American coast.
The British administration continued a war in disguise and by an Order in Council in November, 1807, shut all the ports of Europe to American trade, thins destroying the advantage the United States enjoyed as a neutral power in the hostilities then raging abroad. This policy, ostensibly in response to Na-
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poleon's Berlin decree of a similar nature against British com- merce, was in reality aimed at the United States and was an- swered as soon as announced by the passage of an act of embargo by the American congress in December, 1807. The embargo act was a renewal of the old policy which had so signally failed in 1774. More strictly enforced by the federal government, it acted with great inequality, bore with severity upon the East- ern states and cansed more suffering at home than in Great Britain. The strain was great and invasions were soon the rule rather than the exception. Meanwhile France took as little note of the interests of the United States as Great Britain, and congress resolved in November, 1808, to shut out the ships and merchandize of both countries alike from the ports of the United States and to prepare for defense. But the powers of enforce- ment conferred on the executive were at variance with the spirit of American institutions and aroused intense opposition in New England. In this opposition Rhode Island shared. The en- bargo act bore heavily upon the West India trade, always a principal part of her commerce.
The political tension was too strong to be endured, and con- gress in March, 1809, repealed the act as to all nations except France and Great Britain, and to either or both of these nations should they revoke or modify their edicts. Hopes were enter- tained of a modification by England, but these were dashed by a disavowal of the expressions of their minister by the British gov- ernment and a proclamation by President Madison, renewing the act of non-intercourse in August. " Free Trade and Sailors' rights" became the general cry, and the drift was daily toward a declaration of war. This feeling was aggravated by the im- pressment of a man from an American brig by an English man- of-war off Sandy Hook in May, 1811. Commodore Rodgers, hearing of this ontrage, set sail on the "President," forty-four guns, and overhauling a British man-of-war, the " Little Belt," eigliteen guns, and being fired upon, returned the fire and badly crippled her. This affair was smoothed over by diplo- macy, but no excuse could blot out the fact that nine hundred American vessels had been captured by British cruisers since 1803. A want of good faith of the British officers in their deal ings with the hostile Indian tribes on the frontier aggravated the hostile feeling.
War was formally declared against Great Britain by act of
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congress on the 17th of June, 1812. The proclamation of Pres- ident Madison followed on the 19th, and on the 26th of the same month congress authorized the issue of letters of marque. And now, in addition to her loss of commerce, Rhode Island, and especially Newport, was in alarm at her inadequate defense. At first the eastern ports profitted somewhat by the declaration of hostilities. The British government, from motives of policy, confined the blockade to the southern coast and later to the port of New York. This course naturally diverted the neutral trade to Newport and the ports to the eastward. But this was but a temporary exemption, and the town was in constant alarm of a hostile visit. The records were taken to Sonth Kingstown, on the mainland, where they remained till the peace. The banks removed their specie, and a memorial was addressed to the general government setting forth the exposed situation of the town and asking for protection.
In December Captain Decatur, in the "United States," brought in the British frigate " Macedonia," to Newport har- bor as a prize. In 1813 Captain Oliver H. Perry, a native of Rhode Island, and a resident of Newport from early childhood, left the town with a detachment of seamen from the federal gun boats in the harbor to take command of the American squadron on Lake Erie. He found the squadron in embryo state, and with the aid of his carpenters and artificers, hurriedly completed it, and in September achieved the victory which made his name famous. Among the citizens of Newport engaged in this action under Perry's command as officers were: A. Perry, Daniel Turner, William V. Taylor, Thomas Brownell, Thomas Almy, Thomas Breeze, Peleg Dunham, Stephen Champlin ; among the petty officers and men were : Cornells, Southwicks, Codding- tons, Lawtons, Peckhams and other familiar names. Four of the nine commanders hailed from Newport : Perry on the " Lawrence," Turner on the "Caledonia," Champlin on the "Scorpion," Almy on the " Somers." The commodore's fight- ing burger is preserved in the hall of the Naval academy. It bears on a blue ground the famons legend (Lawrence's dying words) which became the password to victory, "Don't give up the ship." In October, 1813, the revenue cutter, "Vigilant," under the command of Captain John Cahoone, with a volunteer crew from Newport and seamen from the gunboats, went out
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in pursuit of a British privateer, the " Dart," which was hov- ering about the coast, and brought her in as a prize.
Newport still maintained her old reputation as a privateer port; the "Providence," of eight guns, manned chiefly by her citizens, was exceptionally successful, capturing many valuable prizes and repeating the old feat of surprising New Providence, where her captain and officers held the fort for three days, Feasted at the expense of the British commander, and after spiking its guns sailed ont of the port in safety. John Trevett was lientenant commanding, Peleg Ilall the sailing master, on this occasion. The crew consisted of twenty-eight men. The British blockaders were active on the coast, and the Newport militia were occasionally called out to save from capture the vessels which, attempting to run the blockade, were driven on shore. In June, 1814, the general assembly authorized the town councils of the seaports to remove the shipping lying at their wharves, and Newport took advantage of this permission. The coast defenses were everywhere inadequate to protection, and Mr. Jefferson's famous gunboats could not be relied upon to resist a serious attack of the British men-of-war. But the American marine was not idle in this maritime guerrilla contest. The underwriters of Glasgow disclosed in 1814 that "in the short space of twenty-four months above eight hundred vessels had been captured by a power whose maritime strength had been hitherto held in contempt."
In July the Newport artillery company, one hundred and fifty strong, under command of Colonel Benjamin Fry, was posted at Fort Green, at the north end of Washington street on the point, by order of the United States. The grounds were put in admirable order by the command. In Angust the Brit- ish captured Washington and burned the public buildings. On Christmas day the treaty of peace was signed at Ghent; a fort- night later the battle of New Orleans avenged the vandalism of the burning of the Capitol. Americans may feel a grim satis- faction that no cable dispatches averted hostilities before this humiliating disaster to the British arms.
THE DORR WAR, 1842 .- The charter of King Charles the Sec- ond (1663) was still at the time of the American revolution the only written fundamental law of the state of Rhode Island. It prescribed no other qualification for a freeman or voter than his admission by those who were already freemen. This right
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of admission carried with it the right to those already freemen to prescribe some uniform qualification to new members of the " body politie." The greater part of the colonies, either dur- ing the revolution or at its close. not only threw off their alle- giance to the crown from which they held their charters, but adopted new constitutions. This Rhode Island did not do, but continued under her old colonial charter as to form, changing only her title, and under this form of government she was ad- mitted without protest or question to the federal union in 1790. That this form of government was republican in the largest sense of the word, and in the meaning aseribed to it before the more exact definition which it took from the French revolution, cannot be denied; but the denial or restriction of the right of franchise was soon felt to be a grievance, and that portion of the people of the state who were deprived of what they held to be their "natural rights" grew restless. In 1811 a bill to extend the suffrage was introduced into the state senate by the republican party, who entertained the new theory of natural right which Jefferson brought with him on his return from France. The bill passed the senate, but the federal party regaining political ascendancy, it was defeated in the house at the next session.
In 1824 a convention was held under the authority of the general assembly, which framed a written constitution of state government. The delegates to this convention were elected after the old manner by the freemen, which included only free- holders and their eldest sons. For one hundred and fifty years the apportionment of representatives for the several counties had not been changed, while there had been great changes in the population of the counties. In the colonial period Newport, the seat of greatest population, had six representatives; Provi- dence, a small community, four. In 1824 the population of Providence was double that of Newport and the ratio of other counties had shifted in as great degree, yet the apportionment remained the same. All this the new constitution changed, re- placing it with a numerical basis for representation but retain- ing the freehold qualification and its concomitant real estate ownership. The constitution was rejected by a large majority in a small general vote. Newport rejected it by five hundred and thirty-one votes to live. Providence accepted it by six
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hundred and fifty-three votes to twenty-six. For the next five years the agitation went steadily on.
In 1829 numerons memorials were presented to the legislature on the subject, when the committee to which they were referred reported them back with an adverse recommendation. By the consent of the assembly the petitioners were granted leave to withdraw their memorials. Thus summarily disposed of in 1829, the suffrage question came upagain after the presidential election in 1832; but this time not in the separate action of a few scattered memorialists, but by an organized party move- ment in which some of the lawyers of the state joined. Among them was Thomas W. Dorr of Providence. The new organiza- tion took the name of the constitutional party. Their first at- tempt was to call a state convention. In this they were success- fnl. Their plan was recommended to the people, but an appeal through the ballot box at this time failed. In 1837 it only drew out seven hundred votes, other major considerations determin- ing the fate of the candidates. The party was disbanded. Mean- while the general assembly had by an overwhelming vote set its face against any amendments to the restrictive system. A convention was called but after sundry sessions fell to pieces without delinite action; nearly one-quarter of the towns not being even represented.
In 1840 the subject was renewed and an association was formed which, in full public meeting at Providence, adopted a consti- tution. They styled themselves the " Rhode Island Suffrage Association," and confined their numbers to "native white male citizens of the United States resident in Rhode Island." In the spring of 1841 auxiliary societies were formed in various parts of the state; in May at Newport when a committee was appointed to prepare for a constitutional convention. A mass convention met at Providence in July and directed the state committee to call such convention. Meanwhile and before this Providence meeting of July, the general assembly ordered the calling of a convention to amend the charter or frame a consti- tution for the state. The people's convention invited election of delegates on the 28th of August. The assembly fixed the day for the election under their call for the 31st of August.
The assembly convention was ordered to meet on the 2d of November; the people's convention on the 16th of November. The assembly convention met and adjonrned to the 14th of
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February, 1842. The people's convention met on the 16th of November, matured a constitution and gave it out to be voted on December 24th, 1841. They met again on the 12th of Jan- mary, 1842, and declared their constitution adopted. Meanwhile the landholders' convention, as the body called by the general assembly was styled, met at Providence on the day assigned, and after preparing a draft which was printed and distributed, adjourned till February. There was some disposition shown to extend the suffrage but the influence of the southern part of the state, which, as has been seen, had superior representation though inferior numbers, was against any radical change. In February the landholders' convention, who had meanwhile felt the pulse of the state in the vote on the people's constitution, completed their own revision of the constitution and proposed an extension of the right of suffrage to every American born resident who had reached the age of twenty-one. It was ordered to be voted on by the people in March, 1842.
The leaders of the people's constitutional party claimed that their constitution was now the law of the land. This was the view taken by Thomas W. Dorr, who advised abstention from voting on that submitted by the assembly or landholders' con- vention, but the majority were of opinion that the true way was to defeat it at the polls. This was done, the new instru- ment being rejected by a majority of seven hundred votes. The suffrage party now resolved to establish the people's constitu- tion, to use the language of their resolutions, " by all necessary means." Their flag bore the inscription "The Constitution is adopted and shall be maintained." A military enrollment was begun and independent companies organized, who drilled and marched about the streets of Providence. Quite a number of the chartered companies joined in the movement. But the Landholders' or Law and Order party, as they styled them- selves, did not yet believe any collision would occur. The gen- eral assembly, on the rejection by the people of the constitution submitted under their authority, intended, it is said, to have summoned a second convention, but the suffrage party declar- ing that they would yield no point in controversy, it did not carry out this intention, but called on the governor to issue a proclamation warning the "good people " not to countenance the attempt to set up a new government, and passed a restrain- ing act which their opponents denounced as the "Algerine
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law." It was defined as "an act in relation to offences against the Sovereign power of the State."
An extra session of the assembly was held, at which a bill providing for an extension of the suffrage was promptly reject- ed. On the 18th of April. 1842, elections were held under the provision of the people's constitution, and the military were re- quested by their leaders to appear in Providence and install the new government. Alarmed at these movements, Samuel Ward King, the governor of the state, made by commission a requisi- tion for aid on the president of the United States. John Tyler, but was answered on the 11th of April that the subject was one of municipal regulation with which the general government had nothing to do, and that he could not furnish aid before some overt act had been committed. Thrown on his own resources, bnt with this contingent promise of ultimate assistance, Gover- nor King summoned the general assembly to meet at Provi- dence April 25th, 1842. Meanwhile the elections were held on the 15th of April under the people's constitution and Thomas Wilson Dorr was chosen governor. A full senate and nearly a full house had been chosen in defiance of the restrictions of the Algerine law. The regular annual election under the old char- ter was held on the 19th of April, when Governor King was re- elected by a large majority as also a full senate in support of the existing government. The house of representatives, with the exception of six who were friends of Dorr, adhered to the established order.
On the 3d of May the officers elected under the people's con- stitution assembled in Providence to organize a state govern- ment. Refused the state house, they met in an unfinished building to which, escorted by military, Mr. Dorr and other members of the government elect marched in procession. The business of the day was transacted without disturbance from within or without. The people's general assembly, as it was called, adjourned on the 5th of May, after two days session, to assemble at Providence again on the 4th of July, 1842. Governor Dorr sent in a message with a proposal to seize the state house. But his assembly thought discretion the better part of valour and confined themselves to resolutions informing the president of the United States and the governors of the several states of the establishment of the new government. The Algerine law was repealed and at the close of the session a resolution was
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adopted to demand the public records, the funds and the prop- erty of the state.
The assembly elected by the legal freemen met at Newport May 4th. It was resolved that the emergency named by the president of the United States had arrived and the promised aid was called for. Some military arrangements were made and . the assembly adjourned to wait the return of the commissioners sent to the president. Demonstrations were now made. On the departure of Governor King and part of the assembly from Newport to Providence the Newport artillery, more than eighty strong, and three hundred citizens unarmed, escorted the gov- ernor to the steamboat. At Providence the governor was re- ceived by the light infantry and other military organizations. Rumors were floating of an intention to seize the governor. This was not attempted but on the other hand quite a number of arrests were made of men prominent in the people's party. No attempt was made to arrest Mr. Dorr. The Providence Daily Express, Dorr's organ, on the 10th of May issued a "particular notice " headed, "The People of Rhode Island to arms," but the courage of the editor stopped here, for the particular notice is only a list of persons arrested under the Algerine law and its only malignity was the giving the names of the informers and of the committing justices. The letter of the president in an- swer to the requisition of Governor King was what might have been expected of a John Tyler. He declined to interfere until after a collision. Mr. Dorr had meanwhile left the state, and with his friends had interviews with the president at Washing- ton. In his absence both sides armed and prepared for the col- lision which now seemed inevitable. A public meeting was held by Dorr's friends at Providence on the State House Parade May 12th, which declared that no compromise would be accepted.
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