USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 31
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The challenge was sent, through some friends of Fox, to Deputy Governor Cranston, to be delivered by him to the Quaker apostle. Several days elapsed before Crans- ton received it, and meanwhile Fox had left the island. Just before his departure he wrote a singular paper to Thomas Olney, jr., and John Whipple, jr., at Providence, known as "George Fox's instructions to his friends," which was answered with unseemly severity, the follow- ing year, by Olney, in a lengthy article entitled " Ambi- tion anatomised." Fox's departure excited a suspicion that the challenge was purposely retained until he had gone away, which gave rise to an unbecoming pun by Williams about " George Fox's slily departing."
The most remarkable incident connected with this controversy was that Mr. Williams, then seventy-three years of age, rowed himself in a boat from Providence to Newport to engage in it. The effort occupied an entire day. He reached his destination near midnight before the appointed morning. The discussion was held in the Quaker meeting-house and lasted three days. His oppo- nents were three of the disciples of Fox, before named. Burnyeat and Stubbs were able and learned men, and all of them were well trained in the school of polemic divin- ity. Williams' brother Robert, then a teacher in New- port, offered to aid him in the discussion, but was pre- vented by his opponents. The first seven propositions being concluded, the debate was resumed at Providence by Edmundson and Stubbs, but continued only one day.
CHAP IX. 1672. July.
26. 25.
Ang. 8.
9 to 12.
17.
362
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. That no immediate good resulted from the discussion, or that there was more of human frailty than of Christian 1672. meekness displayed in the mode of conducting it, is not Aug. surprising. But the object of Williams was attained in opposing what he held to be error, while defending the principles upon which that error was tolerated, as being a matter beyond the pale of human legislation.1
July.
A most unexpected invasion of the rights of Rhode Island occurred at this time. Among the many worth- less grants with which the Council of Plymouth overlaid their boundless dominion, was one to the Earl of Stirling, that embraced a large part of Maine, and included also Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Long Island, with the adjacent islands. This right he afterwards sold to James, Duke of York, brother and successor of Charles II., on whom the King, in his reckless bestowal of empire in the new world, likewise conferred a large portion of the re- cent conquests from the Dutch, including the present State called after his title. Prudence Island, originally purchased by Roger Williams and Gov. Winthrop, sen., had long since passed out of their hands, and was now the property of John Paine, a merchant of Boston. He had contributed liberally to rebuild fort James, at New York, and now received from Gov. Lovelace, as attorney of the Duke of York, a grant of Prudence island, to be held as a free manor, by the name of Sophy Manor, for an annual quit-rent of two barrels of cider and six pairs of capons. The following week the grant was confirmed,
25.
Aug. 1. 1 We have before had occasion to refer the reader to dull treatises upon doctrinal theology, where he may verify, if he chooses, the statements of the text. There are many authorities whence the above account is derived, which the theological student or the devout antiquary can consult for the de- tails of this famous dispute. Williams' own account is in a book of over 300 pages, entitled " George Fox digged out of his Burrowes." The opposite side is given in " A New England Firebrand Quenched," written by Fox and Burnyeat in reply to the foregoing. See also "A Journal of the Life, &c., of William Edmundson," London, 1713 ; " The Truth Exalted; " Burnyeat's Memoirs, London, 1691 . and Knowles' Roger Williams, pp. 336-40.
363
PRUDENCE ISLAND INDEPENDENT.
and Paine was made Governor for life, with a Council to CHIAP. IX. be chosen from the inhabitants of the island, of whom there were now a considerable number, and Courts for the 1672. trial of small causes were established, larger ones to be Aug. tried at the New York assizes. The seventh article of the constitution of government contained in this grant asserted the principle of religious freedom, as then under- stood abroad, limiting it to Christians, and requiring dis- senters to aid in support of the church established by the authorities of the place. On account of further pay- ments made by Paine towards fort James he was relieved from quit-rent, and the island was released from all taxes. The estate was held by him in fee simple, and was now an absolutely independent government, the smallest in America. A few days later Paine's commission as Gov- ernor for life of Sophy Manor was confirmed. It will be seen that this act of Lovelace was a great stretch of the 7. Stirling grant, and might with equal justice have in- cluded Acquednick, as the Plymouth Council patents were long anterior to the first charter of Providence Plan- tations. Prudence island had pertained to Portsmouth since the first settlement of Acquednick.
This act of intrusion aroused the spirit of the colony. Paine was at once arrested and thrown into prison, as ap- pears from the acts of the Council of New York, but was discharged on bail. He wrote a long letter to Lovelace, giving an account of the conflict of patents in Rhode Is- land, and of his own difficulties from that source. At the Court of Trials he was indicted, under the law of 1658, for attempting to bring in a foreign jurisdiction, and found guilty. The pleadings are preserved among the records of New York. The matter was finally settled, as many other difficulties were in those times, by tacit consent, without any formal act of adjustment, and Pru- dence island quietly relapsed from the condition of inde-
Sept. 6.
9.
Oet. 23.
364
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. pendent sovereignty to its early dependence on the town of Portsmouth.
IX. 1672. Oct.
16.
Certain men in Westerly petitioned the Assembly at Hartford to be incorporated as a distinct plantation, and to be released from fines incurred and from taxes for one year. To this it was answered, that, being a part of Stonington, the first request could not be granted, but that the fines should be remitted, and also the colony tax, but not the town rate or the minister's dues.
Nov.
6.
The General Assembly incorporated Block Island, and at the request of the inhabitants named it New Shore- ham, "as signs of our unity and likeness to many parts of our native country." The freemen were authorized to choose two Wardens, who should have the power of Jus- tices of the Peace, and to add three other good men to compose the town Council, who were to hold quarterly meetings, to see that a registry of births, marriages and deaths was kept by the Clerk, and to conduct the trial of causes under five pounds. The town was to send two Deputies to the Assembly, which had not been done since the year the island was annexed to the colony, and was not done for some years after this time. New Shoreham thus became the sixth town received into the colony, and was in reality at this time the fifth, since the controversy with Connecticut had practically withdrawn Westerly from all participation in colonial affairs.
The care of our ancestors to prevent any important act from becoming a law, without a fair expression of the will of the people, has been often illustrated in the course of this work. The neglect of deputies to attend the General Assembly led to further legislation on this sub- ject. As the charter vested the full powers of the As- sembly in the Governor and Council in cases of invasion, it was enacted, that in sudden emergencies of this sort the acts of the Assembly should be binding although but few deputies were present ; but as the bill of rights of
365
PROCEEDINGS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
third Charles I., protected the subject from any tax not CHAP. levied by consent of Parliament, it was declared that no IX. 1672. Nov. 6. rate should be assessed upon the colony without a full representation from all the towns ; neither could any act affecting the King's honor, or the people's liberties, be valid unless a majority of the deputies were present. The pay of the deputies was reduced to two shillings a day, and the fine for absence from any Assembly was laid at twenty shillings, or double that amount if a quorum was not present. The deputies were also, for the first time, required to take an engagement, to be administered by the Governor, upon entering on the duties of their office. This was an innovation that met with strenuous opposi- tion from the mainland towns. The owners of the Ath- erton purchase petitioned for relief from the law by which their land was forfeited. Their prayer was granted, by a repeal of the act so far as it applied to their direct pur- chase. Their title was confirmed, with a proviso that no lawful complainant should be debarred from his right of action by any thing contained in the said act of confirma- tion.
It would seem that the separate powers of the magis- trates were not distinctly defined or well understood, for a censure was passed upon John Greene, Assistant of Warwick, for having granted, by his own authority, a bill of divorce. This proceeding was sharply reproved by the Assembly, as being a usurpation of judicial power in su- perseding the action of the Court of Trials. The town 1672-3. of Warwick declared the divorce to be legal, and pro- Jan. 23. tested against this censure upon their leader, and also against the acts in favor of the Atherton company, and that requiring the engagement to be taken by the depu- ties, as being repugnant to the accepted law of the col- ony. A remonstrance prepared by the clerk was adopted at a special town meeting, and copies were ordered to be sent to the other towns and to the General Assembly. 25.
366
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. May 7. When this body met, the Warwick deputies refused to take the engagement, although all the others conformed 1673. to the new law. Governor Easton was re-elected. For the office of deputy Governor, four persons were successively chosen and declined, until William Coddington accepted. This was the first public office he had held since the usur- pation, except that once he had been a deputy, and then an Assistant from Newport.1 Richard Smith was again chosen an Assistant, but declined, having then in view the acceptance of an appointment from Connecticut. The change in the list of Assistants was as great as it had been at the former election, but three of the old set remaining. William Harris having cleared himself of the charges against him, and given satisfaction to the Court, was again elected an Assistant. Of the old deputies less than one- half were returned. The general officers remained nearly as before. The only act, worthy of notice, was the appoint- ment of a committee to consult with all the chief sachems upon some means for preventing the excess of drunkenness, to which the Indians were addicted.
15.
The Connecticut Assembly again appointed resident magistrates in Kings Province, and made Richard Smith president of the court thus erected.
July 30. Aug. 13.
The capture of New York by a Dutch fleet, caused a special session of the General Assembly, to provide against an expected assault upon this colony. A pension act was passed for the relief of those who might be wounded in the war, or of the families of the slain, who were to apply to the general Treasurer for necessary support, and if they failed to obtain it from him, they were to have an action of debt against him, to be prosecuted in their behalf, by the proper officers, free of charge. An exemption act was likewise passed in favor of those whose consciences were opposed to war. A very long and curious preamble recites the scriptural and other arguments against war, by reason
1 In 1666 he was deputy, and in 1667 an assistant.
367
EXEMPTION ACT .- SUNDAY LAW .- INDIAN JURY.
of which the Quakers were excused, with a proviso requir- ing them to do civil duty, in removing the sick and aged, and valuable property, out of harm's way, in keeping watch, although without arms, and in performing any other duty of a civil nature that might be required by the magis- trates. At the next session, these acts were confirmed, and a lengthy statute against selling liquor to the Indians, was passed. The committee on this subject had consulted with the sachems, at whose request heavy penalties were imposed upon Indians found drunk, as well as on the deal- ers who made them so. A Sunday law was enacted to re- strain gaming and tippling on that day, but with careful reservations, for the liberty of conscience, that the act should not be construed as enforcing attendance upon, or absence from religious services. The quaintness of many of these early statutes is not more remarkable than the ear- nestness with which they insist that nothing therein con- tained shall be construed as permitting any violation of the fundamental principles of the colony. The preambles to the exemption act, and to the Sunday law, are striking ex- amples of this watchfulness.
The last two had been extra meetings of the Assembly. These, although of frequent occurrence, never superseded the regular sessions prescribed in the charter, although but a few weeks, or even days, sometimes intervened. An In- dian being about to be tried for the murder of another, the Assembly ordered that one-half the jury should be com- posed of Indians, and that Indian testimony might be re- ceived in such cases, which was not allowed when English- men were the sole parties. The accounts of John Clarke had not yet been settled. Four hundred and fifty pounds was claimed by him, as still due from the colony. Wil- liam Harris was empowered to negotiate with Dr. Clarke, in writing, upon this matter, to examine the items of the claim, and to report to a future Assembly.
At the next general election, William Coddington was
CHAP. IX. 1673.
Sept. 3.
Oct. 29.
368
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX.
chosen Governor and John Easton deputy Governor. The
1674. May 6.
offices of Treasurer and Attorney General were united in Peter Easton, the late Treasurer, his brother, the late At- torney, being now deputy Governor. The Assistants re- mained nearly the same. The deputies were always chang- ing more or less. The office was esteemed a burden, which but few would assume for more than one or two sessions as required by law.
The people of Narraganset felt the want of certainty in their condition of Government, and desired the Assembly to settle this point, for which purpose a committee was ap- pointed. It was quite common for the Assembly to take a recess of several days, in which the Court of Trials was held. This was now done, and at the remeeting, the difficulties which the conflict of jurisdiction caused in the business of the Courts, led to the passage of an act, by which any per- son summoned as a witness was freed from liability to ar- rest, during his attendance on the court.
18.
20.
22.
June 12.
Oct. 8.
28.
The events of this year were few and unimportant. The news of peace between England and Holland removed the chief source of solicitude to the colonists. The Con- necticut Assembly confirmed the Massachusetts grants of land in Westerly to Harvard college, and to divers individ- uals, and also, upon petition of Wickford men, established a Court there, and soon proclaimed the same in due form at that place, and afterwards appointed a Court to meet at Stonington, in behalf of the people of Narraganset, which was never held.1 These demonstrations were lightly regarded, and were effectually met by the Governor and council, who proceeded to Narraganset, and established the township of Kingston ; which act was approved by the Assembly, and Kingston was incorporated as the seventh town of the colony, upon the same terms with New Shore- ham. The excise of liquors which, by an old law, pertained to each town, was now ordered to go into the general treas-
1 Conn. Col. Rec., ii. 227, 231, 246.
369
MASSACRE AT SWANZEY.
ury, and was to be farmed out to an officer engaged for CHAP. the purpose, who might regulate the quantity to be used. IX. The probate of wills, which heretofore had been in the head 1674. officer of the town, was at this session vested in the town councils.
At the next general election, the same officers were 1675. continued with uncommon unanimity. The only subject May 5. of interest that was acted upon, was that of weights and measures. These were ordered to be procured of the Eng- lish standard, and one man in cach town was to inspect and to scal with an anchor, all that were in use, in confor- mity therewith.
The quiet that, for the past few months, had every where prevailed, was not unlike that ominous calm which, in the natural world, so often precedes some fearful con- vulsion of the elements. Slowly, but surely, for many years, the storm of Indian war had been gathering. At times the clouds had loomed above the horizon, and the mutterings of discontent had warned the colonists, as the rumbling of distant thunder forctells the approaching tempest. We have seen how active preparations were made at such times to avert the danger, and with apparent success. But the clouds were only broken, not dispersed. An unusual period of peace had lulled to fancied security the unsuspecting English ; but this time had been em- ployed by the great leader of the native tribes in perfect- ing his secret plans. The moment had now arrived when the terrible truth should be revealed. The massacre at Swanzey startled all New England with the fearful ven- geance that for years had been brooding in the dark mind of Philip of Pokanoket.
Three men, remarkable in the history of Rhode Island as pioneers of the infant settlements, passed away as the clouds of war arose to threaten the destruction of their life labors. William Blackstone deceased ' but a few days be-
1 May 26th, 1675, ante, chap. iv.
VOL. I .- 24
June.
370
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. fore his dwelling, on the banks of the Seekonk, was de- IX. 1675. June. stroyed by the savages. John Weeks, one of the founders of Warwick, was butchered by the Indians at the com- mencement of hostilities, and Governor Nicolas Easton died soon after at Newport. He was indeed a pioneer. In the spring of 1634 ' he landed in New England with his two sons, Peter and John, and the following spring they commenced the settlement of Agawam, or Newberry. Three years later, they built the first English house in Hampton, whence they removed to Pocasset, in consequence of the Antinomian controversy, the same year. The next spring they went to Newport, and there again erected the first European dwelling, and in 1663, they built the first windmill on the island .? Governor Easton was several times chosen an Assistant, and was for two years, prior to the usurpation of Coddington, President of the colony un- der the first patent, and again for the two years previous to his death, he was elected Governor under the second charter. His sons became equally distinguished, and to one of them, John, now deputy Governor of the colony, we are indebted for an authentic history of the war which we are about to narrate.
APPENDIX C.
ERRORS OF GRAHAME AND CHALMERS.
Grahame in his History of North America, vol. i. p. 373, edition 1833, says :-
" The colony of Rhode Island had received the tidings of the res- toration with much real or apparent satisfaction. It was hoped that
May 14th, 1634.
2 These facts are chiefly taken from marginal notes in the handwriting of Peter Easton, in an old copy of Morton's Memorial, now owned by his de- scendant, J. Alfred Hazard, Esq., of Newport.
APP. C.
371
ERRORS OF GRAHAME AND CHALMERS.
the suspension of its charter by the Long Parliament would more than compensate the demerit of having accepted a charter from such authority ; and that its exclusion from the confederacy of which Mas- sachusetts was the head, would operate as a recommendation to royal favor. The King was early proclaimed ; and one Clarke was soon af- ter sent as deputy from the colony to England, in order to carry the dutiful respects of the inhabitants to the foot of the throne, and to solicit a new charter in their favor. Clarke conducted his negotiation with a baseness that rendered the success of it dearly bought. He not only vaunted the loyalty of the inhabitants of Rhode Island, while the only proof he could give of it was, that they had bestowed the name of Kings Province on a territory which they had acquired from the Indians; but meeting this year the deputies of Massachu- setts at the Court, he publicly challenged them to mention any one act of duty or loyalty shown by their constituents to the present King or his father, from their first establishment in New England. Yet the inhabitants of Rhode Island had taken a patent from the Long Parlia- ment in the commencement of its struggle with Charles II., while Massachusetts had declined to do so when the Parliament was at the height of its power and success."
In the London edition, 1836, p. 315, some slight ver- bal alterations appear in the above passages, which do not affect their purport. In the revised American edition the word " baseness" is changed to the expression " supple- ness of adroit servility," which is equally inaccurate and unjust. The harsh charge here laid upon Dr. Clarke was rebutted by Mr. Bancroft in a note to chap. xi. vol. ii. p. 64, edit. 1837, of his History of the United States, wherein he says : "the charge of baseness is Grahame's own invention," an expression, perhaps, in itself too se- vere to apply to the learned and friendly Briton, whom Mr. Bancroft in the same note says, "is usually very can- did in his judgments," since the accusation of " baseness " was not invented by Grahame, but was evidently the result of his misapprehension of the authority he cites-the partisan historian Chalmers. After the emendation ap- peared in the revised edition, Mr. Bancroft, in 1841, soft- cned the charge of invention to that of "unwarranted mis- apprehension," in which he is fully sustained by the facts.
CHAP. IX. APP. C.
.
372
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IX. APP. C.
This note occasioned a prolonged controversy between Mr. Bancroft and Mr. Quincy, the American editor of Gra- hame's history, upon the merits of which we do not pro- pose to touch, only so far as injustice has been done therein to Rhode Island, in the attempt to display the superior honesty and candor of the Massachusetts agents at the expense of Clarke. The passages in Chalmers' Political Annals, Book I. chap. xi. p. 273, 274-6, cited by Gra- hame, as his authority for the above quoted remarks on Rhode Island, read as follows. After referring to the ex- clusion of Rhode Island from the New England league, owing to the dislike felt in Massachusetts for her liberal principles, he says :-
" Necessity therefore obliged them to provide for their security by other means. They cultivated the friendship of the neighboring sa- chems with the greatest success ; whereby they acquired considerable influence over their minds, which was of considerable importance. And that ascendancy they employed, during the year 1644, to procure from the chiefs of the Narragansets a formal surrender of their coun- try, which was afterwards called the Kings Province, to Charles I., in right of his crown, in consideration of that protection which the unhappy monarch then wanted for himself. Yet no measure could be more offensive to Massachusetts, or could provoke more her resent- ment ; because it was equally inconsistent with her usual practice and present views of acquiring the subjection of the same territory to her- self. The deputies of these plantations boasted to Charles II. of the merits of this transaction, and at the same time ' challenged the agents of Boston to display any one act of duty or loyalty shown by their constituents to Charles I. or to the present King, from their first es- tablishment in New England.' The challenge thus confidently given was not accepted." p. 273. "That event [the Restoration] gave great satisfaction to these plantations, because they hoped to be re- lieved from that constant dread of Massachusetts which had so long afflicted them. And they immediately proclaimed Charles II., because they wished for protection, and intended soon to beg for favors. They not long after sent Clarke as their agent to the Court of that mon- arch, to solicit for a patent, which was deemed in New England so essential to real jurisdiction. And in September, 1662, he obtained the object of his prayers. Yet, owing to the opposition of Connecti- cut, the present charter was not finally passed till July, 1663."
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