USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 25
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288
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VIII. APP.
if he had him elsewhere he would beate out his braynes, as also call- ing him rogue.
B.
"Item-for his employing an agent to write to the Massachusetts, thereby going about to inthrall the liberties of the town, contrary to the privileges of the town, and to the great indignity of the Honorable State of England who granted the sayd privaledges to us.
"It is ordered that another be immediately chose for Assistant to supply John Warner's place while (until ?) the next choice."
Mr. John Smith was chosen Assistant in place of Warner. At the annual town meeting on 7th June it was
" Ordered, that the answer read by Mr. S. Gorton in the town meeting, to the motions of the Town of Providence with respect to John Warner, be forthwith drawn forth and signed by the Clarke and sent to the Town of Providence forthwith.
"Ordered, that the declaration that hath been drawn up in the town concerning John Warner and the Dutchmen, which hath been sent to the Bay, as also to Providence, that a copy of it be drawn forth and signed by the Clarke and sent to Mr. Roger Williams, and or- dered that Mr. Samuel Gorton is to write a letter to Mr. Roger Wil- liams in the Town's behalf, to give him information concerning the town and Colonies proceedings with John Warner and his wife."
The only notice taken of the case by the General Assembly was on the 19th May, when the matter was left to the decision of the Court of Trials in these words, "It is agreed that the case of Priscilla Warner, now depending in the General Court of Trialls, shall there be issued."
At a town meeting on the 22d June it was ordered,
"That the house and land of John Warner situate and being in the sayd town be attached forthwith upon suspicion of unsufferable treacherie against the town, to the forfeiture of the sayd house and land, and that notice may be given him of the attachment thereof that so hee by himself or aturney may answer at the next court of Trials to be held in Warwick the 3d Tuesday in August next ensuing the date hereof. It is also ordered that all persons are hereby prohibited from laying any claim or title unto it, or any part thereof by bargain and sale or otherwise untill he hath answered the law and be cleered by order of the Court held as aforesayd, but remains in the hand and custody of the town in the mean time.
" Ordered, that the Sergeant shall have a copie of this order and set it up upon the door of the house.
" Ordered, that if hereafter John Warner or any for him shall sell that house and land abovesayd, any part or parcel of it, to any but such as shall subscribe to our order it shall as before be wholly forfeit to the town."
289
PROCEEDINGS IN THE CASE OF JOHN WARNER.
On the 5th of July the property was released, under protest, as follows :-
" Ordered by the town of Warwick that the house and land of John Warner, situated in the sayd Town of Warwick, being of late atached upon suspicion of the breach of the grand law of the Town, be resigned up to the said John Warner again.
" We whose names are here underwritten being unsatisfied with 'the above voate upon the resigning of the abovesayed house of John Warner which was atached upon suspicion of the breach of the grand law of the Town, do hereby enter our protest against the act, as wit- ness our hands.
Randal Houlden, John Wickes, Samuel Gorton,
John Greene, Jun., Robert Potter."
Thirty-one years later, June 26th, 1683, he was divorced from his wife upon her petition, on the ground of infidelity, and of personal .violence towards her, and at the same session was expelled from the General Assembly as he had before been from town offices, in terms as follows :-
. "Voted : Whereas, Mr. John Warner was by the town of Warwick chosen to be a Deputy in this Assembly, and being from time to time called, and not in Courte appearing, and there haveing been presented to this Assembly such complaints against him, that the Assembly doe judge, and are well satisfied, he is an unfitt person to serve as a Dep- uty ; and therefore see cause to expel him from acting in this present Assembly as a Deputy."
VOL. 1-19
CHAP. VIII.
APP. B.
290
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAPTER IX.
1663-1675.
FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE ROYAL CHARTER, NOVEMBER, 1663, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF KING PHILIP'S WAR, JUNE, 1675.
CHAP. IX.
THE restoration of the Stuarts, annulling the acts of the Long Parliament, compelled Rhode Island to seek a renewal of her privileges by another charter. It was at an auspicious moment, when Charles II. was yet but recently seated upon his throne, that the talent and energy of Dr. Clarke obtained this instrument. It confirmed every thing that the previous patent had given, and vested even greater powers in the people. Under it the State was an absolute sovereignty with powers to make its own laws, religious freedom was guaranteed, and no oath of alle- giance was required. Rhode Island became in fact, and almost in name, an independent State from that day.
There are three points in this charter deserving of special attention, which distinguish it from all other royal patents that have ever been granted. To mention these in the order in which they occur, the first is the acknowl- edgment of the Indian titles to the soil. Among the reasons assigned for granting the charter is this, that the petitioners "are seized and possessed by purchase and consent of the said natives to their full content, of such lands, islands," &c., and farther on, in the enumeration
291
THE CHARTER ACKNOWLEDGES INDIAN TITLES.
CHAP. IX
of powers granted, the inhabitants are permitted " to di- rect, rule, order and dispose of all other matters and things, and particularly that which relates to the making of purchases of the native Indians." These paragraphs would appear unimportant, if they did not concede a prin- ciple for which the founders of Rhode Island had con- tended from the beginning, and which was not incorpo- rated in any other charter. Possession by right of dis- covery was a European doctrine coeval with the days of Columbus and de Gama. First exercised by the Su- preme Pontiff, who claimed the exclusive right, as God's Vicegerent, to the temporal control of all newly-discov- ered countries, it was soon adopted by the maritime pow- ers as a part of the royal prerogative. Overlooking that principle of justice which establishes propriety in the original possessor, the sovereigns of Europe did not hesi- tate to assert their claim over both Americas. The rights of the aborigines, heathens and barbarians as they were, presented no obstacles to these enlightened and Christian legislators. Their heathenism was handed over to the tender mercies of the church, their barbarism to the civ- ilizing agency of gunpowder and steel. Although the method of administration was more summary in the Span- ish and Portuguese possessions, the principle, in its broad- est extent, was recognized by the British crown, though rarely acted upon by the English colonists. Against the abstract right, as well as the positive abuse of these pre- tensions, the settlement of Rhode Island was the first solemn protest. Mercy and justice combined to raise the voice of indignant rebuke against the wholesale assump- tion of territorial rights, urged by the Council of Ply- mouth under their patent from King James. For the bold denunciation of those words of the patent in which the King, as the "Sovereign Lord" of this continent, grants by his "special grace, mere motion and certain knowledge," a large portion of America, reaching from
292
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. the Atlantic to the Pacific, to the Council of Plymouth, Roger Williams was twice subjected to the censure of the authorities of Massachusetts. This principle was the only one, save that of " soul liberty," which Roger Wil- liams initiated in Massachusetts, of the many factious proceedings that later writers, following Hubbard, have laid to his charge. Upon this point, the exclusive right of the aborigines to their native soil, Mr. Williams was decided, and his views were maintained by those who fol- lowed him to Rhode Island. They were set forth by Dr. Clarke in his addresses to the King, and thus became em- bodied in the Royal charter. The operation of the thing was the reverse in this State from what it was elsewhere. The other colonies claimed the soil by virtue of grants from the King, and confirmed their titles by purchase from the Indians, or by conquest. Here the paramount title was held to be in the aborigines, and the right, first obtained from them by purchase, was only confirmed by patent from the crown.
The second remarkable point in this charter is the am- ple protection which it .extends to the rights of conscience. So full and absolute is this guarantee, and so different from the prevailing spirit of the age, that the principle it embodies has come to be considered, not only as the pecu- liar honor of Rhode Island, but as being the sole distin- guishing feature of her history. It declares "that noe person within the sayd colonye, at any tyme hereafter, shall bee any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference in opinione in mat- ters of religion which doe not actually disturb the civill peace of our sayd colonye ; but that all and everye per- son and persons may, from tyme to tyme, and at all tymes hereafter, freelye and fullye have and enjoye his and theire owne judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract of lande hereafter mentioned ; they behaving themselves peaceablie and
293
ALLOWS LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE AND IS REPUBLICAN.
quietlie, and not using this libertie to lycentiousnesse and profanenesse, nor to the civil injurye or outward disturb- ance of others." It should be remembered that the laws of England rigidly required uniformity in religious belief. Church and State were essential portions of each other. This grant therefore repealed the laws of England, so far as Rhode Island was concerned, by excepting her front their operation, and left the people of this colony precisely where the parliamentary patent, by its significant silence on this subject, had left them. It was a signal triumph for what is now recognized as the fundamental principle in ethics, in religion, and in politics.1
The remaining point to be noticed as distinguishing *this charter from all others that have emanated from the throne of a monarch, is its purely republican character. When the colony was organized under the previous pa- tent, the Assembly declared " that the form of government established in Providence Plantations is Democratical, that is to say, a government held by the free and volun- tary consent of all, or the greater part of the free inhabit- ants." This was a novel doctrine, at least in the history of the modern world, and although it was sanctioned by the charter of a republican parliament, it could hardly be expected to pass the scals of a Royal Council. Yet it did so pass, and in almost the same terms in which it had be- fore been secured. After conferring power to elect their own officers and to make their own laws, "as to them shall seem meet for the good and welfare of the said Com- pany," it requires only that such laws " bee not contrarie and repugnant unto, but as near as may bee, agrecable to
1 It is worthy of notice that Charles II., in his famous letter to the Com- mons, known as the " Declaration," from Breda, April 4-14, 1660, promises religious freedom to his subjects, in the event of his restoration, in precisely the language used in the charter of Rhode Island, " that no man shall be dis- quieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of' religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom." Echard's Ilist, of England, ii. 897 ; Rapin book, 22d vol. xi. p. 180, where the declaration is cited in full.
CHAP IX.
294
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. 1X. the laws of this our Realme of England," and adds the same qualifying and practically annulling words, " consid- ering the nature and constitution of the place and people there." The extent of the powers conferred by this charter is indeed surprising. The military arm, always relied upon as the distinctive barrier of the throne, is for- mally and fully surrendered to the people, in this instru- ment, even to the extreme point of declaring martial law -a grant which, in repeated cases, the government of Rhode Island successfully defended, in later years, against the threats and the arguments of the royal governors of New England.
Thus it was that Rhode Island continued, as she had begun, an independent State, through all the vicissitudes of the Mother country, and was unaffected, save at one brief interval, by the changes that swept over the neigh- boring colonies. With this charter, serving as the basis of government rather than prescribing its form, the State led the way in the final struggle for national independ- ence.
Under it Rhode Island, as being no less truly than professedly republican, adopted the Constitution of the United States and was received into the American Union. So far as this charter was concerned, a single provision, fixing the apportionment of representatives for the several towns, which time had rendered unjust in its operation, and which, it was contended, could not be remedied other- wise than by an alteration of the organic law, led to its abrogation in 1843, at which time this venerable instru- ment was the oldest constitutional charter in the world. For one hundred and eighty years it had been regarded as the shield of popular freedom against Royal prerogative or Federal encroachment. It was the last remaining beacon planted by the Republicans of the seventeenth century, and so firmly that the war of the Revolution had not
295
BOUNDARY DISPUTE WITH CONNECTICUT.
changed its position, for they both rested upon the same CHAP. foundation-the inherent right of self-government. IX.
The Government was vested in a Governor, Deputy Governor, and ten Assistants, named in the charter, with a House of Deputies, six from Newport, four cach from Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick, and two from every other town. The former were to be chosen annual- ly at Newport on the first Wednesday of May, the latter by their respective towns. The whole legislative body was called the General Assembly, and was to meet twice a year, in May and October, but they could alter the time and place of meeting at will. Benedict Arnold was ap- pointed the first Governor, and William Brenton, Deputy Governor. '
In view no doubt of the acts of non-intercourse exist- ing against Rhode Island in the neighboring colonies, the charter specially required that the people of this colony should be permitted to pass unmolested through the adja- cent provinces, and an appeal to the King was guaranteed in case of further disputes. In all cases the charter was to be construed most favorably for the benefit of the grantees. The boundary lines were minutely defined. They are those which, after more than a century of con- test with the adjoining colonies, were finally established in accordance with the charter, and exist at this day.
The western boundary was the source of immediate and violent dispute, prolonging instead of quieting the difficul- ties already commenced. The charter of Connecticut bore date fifteen months anterior to that of Rhode Island, and bounded that colony on Narraganset Bay. The peo- ple of Rhode Island, upon the first notice of this legalized robbery of so large a portion of their territory, charged those of Connecticut with underhand dealing in the
1 The Assistants were William Balston, John Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William Ffeild, and Joseph Clarke.
296
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. means employed to obtain that result, and maintained IX. that upon a proper representation of the facts the obnox- ious portions would be revoked-and so indeed it proved. The Rhode Island charter, referring in terms to that of Connecticut, and expressly limiting the territory therein conveyed in accordance with the claims of Rhode Island, designated the Pawcatuck river as her western boundary, " any graunt, or clause in a late graunt, to the Governor and Company of Connecticut Colony, in America, to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding; the afore- sayd Pawcatuck river haveing byn yeilded, after much de- bate, for the fixed and certain boundes between these our sayd Colonies, by the agents thereof ; who have alsoe agreed, that the sayd Pawcatuck river shall bee alsoe call- ed alias Narraganset river; and, to prevent other disputes, that otherwise might arise thereby, forever hereafter shall be construed, deemed and taken to bee the Narraganset river in our late graunt to Connecticut Colony mentioned as the easterly bounds of that Collony." Nothing could be more explicit than this recital, yet it did not suffice to settle the difficulty. The agreement made by the two agents, Gov. Winthrop and Dr. Clarke on the part of their respective colonies, was disowned by Connecticut, on the ground that their agent had no longer any authority to act for the colony, his commission having expired, as they said, upon the completion of his labors in obtaining the charter.1 Even if this were so, we do not see how that ob- jection could set aside a Royal grant. It could only affect the force of a statement in the charter which is simply explanatory and altogether secondary to the main question at issue. Of the fact of the agreement there is no denial. Of its binding effect upon the two colonies there might be a question if the plenary powers of the Connecticut agent had ceased, as was asserted, when his charter passed the
1 See Report of the Royal Commissioners, October, 1683, in 1 M. H. C., v. 238.
297
THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CLARKE AND WINTHROP.
seals. But the validity of the grant itself is untouched by the error or the accuracy of one of the reasons therein assigned for making it.
CHAP. IX. 1663.
This agreement was the result of arbitration. The points of difference being submitted to five referees were decided by them in four articles. The first fixed Pawca- tuck river as the boundary and named it Narraganset. The second gave the Quinnebaug tract to Connecticut. The third allowed the inhabitants around Smith's trading house, being the Atherton company, to choose to which of the two colonies they would submit ; and the fourth declared that the rights of property should be maintained through the colonies. To these four proposals the two agents as- sented, as a final issue of their differences. The second and fourth are unimportant, the other two include the whole real matter in dispute.1 We cannot understand how any such agreement could of itself bind either colony. If Winthrop exceeded his powers, as charged by Connecti- cut, in giving up territory, Clarke equally exceeded his in yielding jurisdiction over a purchase made in violation of the laws of Rhode Island ; for the desire of the Atherton men to submit to Connecticut was well known, and the giving them this choice was nothing less than abandoning all control over their lands. It was in fact admitting a foreign colony into the heart of the State ; an evil from which Rhode Island had already suffered too much in the case of Pawtuxet. But Rhode Island did not set up the plea that her agent had exceeded his powers. She stood on the terms of her charter in the question of boundary, and in that of jurisdiction she adopted conciliatory meas- ures towards the people of Narraganset.
We have already seen abundant reasons why the New England league should sympathize with Connecticut in
1 The agreement is printed in 1 M. II. C., v. 248, where it is dated 17th April, and in R. I. Col. Rec., i. 518, with the correct date, 7th April, follow- ing the copy preserved in the British State Paper Office. New England pa- pers, vol. 3, p. 90.
. April 7.
298
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. this new occasion of dispute. The fact that their writ- ers have steadily endeavored to defend the claim of Con- 1663. necticut against the rights of Rhode Island, confirmed by the King, and to uphold the conduct of Winthrop at the expense of Dr. Clarke, while Rhode Island has to this day silently submitted to the imputations cast upon her agent, conscious of his rectitude, yet careless to preserve his name unsullied, has wrought great injustice to one whose charac- ter and whose talents appear more exalted the more closely they are examined. That foreign historians, seeking to give an impartial account of this transaction, should have been misled by the only authorities within their reach, and thus unwittingly have attached an unmerited stigma to the name of John Clarke, is natural and perhaps inevitable.1 But that New England authors should attempt to honor Winthrop by disgracing Clarke does wrong to both, and is alike ungenerous and unjust. Between these two great men there appears to have existed a cordial friendship, which was not broken even by the delicate position into which they were thrown by the singular conduct of Con- necticut colony. It is true that Winthrop in his letters complained that Clarke had not obtained his charter sooner, and that he had done him wrong in opposing the Connec- ticut charter after its confirmation, thereby hindering his re- turn ; and in the same letter he sends a kind message to his Rhode Island friends, declaring that he had no intent to injure them, but only " to render a service to their old charter," as well as to the people of Narraganset .? The geography of New England was but little understood, in the minutiæ of courses and distances, even by its inhabi- tants, at that time, and the reply to that letter, written by the people of Narraganset, as the Atherton settlers were
1 For a refutation of the charges brought by Grahame and endorsed by Quincy against Clarke, and for an examination into the reliability of Chal- mers, see Appendix C.
" This letter is No. 47 of the 22d vol. of the Trumbull MSS. in the ar- chives of the Mass. Hist. Soc. See Appendix D., No. II.
299
THE TRADUCERS OF CLARKE EXPOSED.
now called, shows a singular misconception on this point either in their minds or in that of Winthrop. It would seem as if Winthrop had first, in obedience to instructions from Connecticut, bounded that colony on Narraganset bay ; that, upon being convinced by Clarke of the injustice thereby done to Rhode Island, he agreed to the adjustment mentioned in the Rhode Island charter, and that thus, while trying to discharge his duty as the agent of one and the friend of the other, he deeply offended both, through want of exact knowledge of the position and limits of the disputed territory.1 To retort upon Winthrop the charges that his defenders have made against Clarke, would be to pervert the truth of history, as has been steadily done by those who, anxious to shield their own infamy, or ignorant of the secret history of this transaction, have sought to cast upon Clarke the stigma of " underhand dealing" that at- taches to themselves, or have blindly copied the falsehoods of his enemies. Where this disgrace properly belongs, and how, and why it was shifted upon the shoulders of Clarke, will now be shown. The Atherton company who, it will be remembered, had bought lands in Narraganset contrary to the law of Rhode Island, and who had constantly re- fused every overture made by the Assembly for their legal and proper settlement in the State, being composed of res- idents of the other colonies, and of whom Winthrop him- self was one, were earnest in their desire to be placed under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. They maintained a constant correspondence with Winthrop during his mission at London ; the burden of which was that he should so establish the boundary of Connecticut as to accomplish their purpose. They also had a special agent of their own in London, one John Scot, whose incautious pen has furnished the evidence of his own infamy, and of that of his employers, while it pays a tacit tribute to the
' The reasons that lead to this conclusion would be tedious to embody in the text, and will best appear by perusing the letters inserted in Appendix D.
CHAP. IX. 1663. April.
300
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. 1663. June 21.
July
S.
purity of Winthrop. It was he who obtained the famous letter from the King to the United Colonies, committing to them the protection of the Atherton Company against the claims of Rhode Island,1 after Winthrop had embarked for America, and only seventeen days before the final pas- sage of the Rhode Island charter which effectually repeals the powers conferred in that letter. It seemed unaccount- able that so soon after an agreement had been made by which the controversy was supposed to be settled, and one of the agents had embarked for home, a royal letter should appear, virtually repealing the substance of the agreement, and that in less than three weeks from the date of the let- ter a royal act of the most solemn nature, an absolute charter, should issue, making special mention of the said agreement, and practically annulling the royal letter. There was a confusion of dates, a confounding of powers, and a manifest contradiction of purposes about all this, which indicated underhand dealing somewhere. Winthrop had left England almost immediately after signing the agreement. He, then, was clear of suspicion. Clarke re- mained. That circumstance aided the plan of the con- spirators to divert suspicion from themselves to him. The letter of June was triumphantly exhibited as proof of the real intentions of the King, and the fact that its tenor was contradicted by the charter of July was held up as proof of baseness on the part of the agent of Rhode Island.
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