USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 36
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1 A copy of this warrant is in "Letters and Papers, 1632-1678," No. iii. p. 161, in the Mass. Hist. Soc.
421
LAW OF THE SUCCESSION OF RACES.
be determined by finite minds. What we see daily oc- CHAP. X.
curring in our own and in other lands, where a higher type of civilization is steadily and rapidly supplanting a 1676. grosser and weaker barbarism, may serve to show the op- eration of a law that seems to have existed since the formation of man. Wherever the arts, the customs, or the religion of a superior race is brought in contact with an inferior, the latter perishes. As geological science teaches that successive eras in the material history of our globe have produced steadily progressive forms of animal life, adapted to each new change, so the law of progress in the human family seems to be that a race which has expanded to its utmost, filling the position that nature assigned it, when brought in contact with a superior type of humanity, must gradually but certainly disappear. The Caucasian is the highest type of mankind, and wherever it has appeared the inferior races have been subdued or annihilated. The degree of resistance which the inferior race opposes to this positive law is propor- tioned to its approach to, or its remoteness from, the in- tellectual scope of the Caucasian. The changes that his- tory presents in the different nations of the white race, by conquest or assimilation, prove nothing against the general law. Like modifies but cannot destroy like. The different nations of the same type are improved by the mixture of their elements. The history of Europe estab- lishes this fact. It matters not whether the Anglo-Nor- man or Saxon race is superior to all others of the Cau- casian type, as some have claimed, or not. The question is higher and deeper than that ; it is one of races, not of nations.
It is a singular fact that the Indians, who before the coming of the English were very prolific, soon ceased to be so. Sterility became the rule and not the exception. As the natural proclivity of mankind is to evil rather than to good, the inferior race rapidly adopted the vices,
422
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. X. while it rejected the religion, and but slowly apprehended the arts and sciences of the white man. The Indians 1676. had attained their culminating point in mental and phys- ical progress. Their intellectual powers admitted of no higher development, and hence they were doomed, by this inevitable law of Nature, to annihilation. They had ful- filled their destiny, and this continent was to be given up to a higher type of humanity. Thus has it been in every portion of the world where the white race has extended.
We do not present this as an excuse for the wrongs inflicted upon the aborigines by our ancestors, and con- tinued upon their feeble remnants at this day by our- selves ; but we do say, that this extinction of races is something in the Providence of God which we cannot avert if we would, and that everywhere the introduction of the arts, religion, and commerce of Caucasian civiliza- tion has been attended with the same results. Centuries may be required to accomplish the end, according as the field of operation is extensive or limited, and as the influ- ence exerted by the new race is concentrated or scattered ; but the result is the same. From one cause and another, some apparent and others not, the inferior race will grad- ually die out. So has it been on the Atlantic coast, and thus is it progressing to the Pacific. War does not do it ; the prevalence of new vices cannot fully account for it ; famine and pestilence contribute but little in the aggre- gate towards it, for all of these evils exist as actively, or more so, among the dominant race. The law that gov- erns it appears to be that which we have stated, and which a recent writer thus announces, "that the organi- zation God has created for one species of development is radically unfitted to receive another." 1 That "other"
1 Confessions of an Inquirer, by J. J. Jarves, Part I., p. 192. The writer regrets that his limits do not permit him to expand this subject, but only to throw out thus briefly a view which is the result of some reflection upon the most interesting problem of human history. The curious reader will find a
423
CONNECTICUT RENEWS THE CLAIM TO KINGS PROVINCE.
has now been for two centuries at work upon this conti- nent, and before its resistless advance the Indian-dis- appears. It is the fiat of the Almighty.
The General Assembly discharged Capt. Fenner and the King's garrison at Providence from further service. They also provided that all Indians who should come upon any islands in the bay, must have written authority therefor from the committee appointed to dispose of In- dians, without which they would be liable to be sold into service as captives. The law of May, compelling every man to bear arms, was repealed, and that of 1673, ex- empting those who were conscientiously opposed to war from so doing, was re-enacted. Scarcely had the Indian war closed before the Connecticut colony renewed their claims to the Narraganset country. The council at Hart- ford, in addition to the words of their charter, now as- sumed to hold the Kings Province by right of conquest. The vigor with which they had prosecuted the war con- trasted with the comparative inaction of Rhode Island, and to those who overlook the difference in their respective positions during this struggle, the claim appears reasona- ble. Connecticut had suffered nothing upon her own soil by hostile tribes. The Indians within her borders were friendly to the English, as the Narragansets had al- ways been to Rhode Island, until exasperated by the wan- ton destruction of their stronghold by the United Colo- nies. She was thus enabled to send her troops abroad, and to render invaluable services to her more distressed neighbors, while Rhode Island, the most exposed of the
similar train of thought elaborated in chapter xxi. of the work above cited, which will richly repay the perusal. The observations of what is termed the American school of ethnologists, so far as they incidentally touch upon this branch of the subject, go to confirm the view here laid down, and that, too, altogether independent of the question mainly involved in their works, whether the Mosaic account of the creation is to be received in its literal signification. See Types of Mankind, Philadelphia, 1854. Indigenous Races of the Earth, Philadelphia, 1857.
CHAP. X. 1676. Oct. 26.
27.
Aug. 23.
424
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. colonies, doing what she could to protect herself, and ren- X. dering efficient and acknowledged aid to the others, in 1676. supplies and men, according to her means, was now re- quired to pay the penalty of her weakness, by surrender- ing the fairest portion of her domain. The council or- dered that all persons, English or Indian, who had any rights in Narraganset, should apply to them for leave to occupy the same, and whoever should do otherwise would be dealt with severely. The Assembly took this mat- ter in hand as the first business of the session, and sent a letter to Connecticut remonstrating in strong terms Oct. against the act of her council, and protesting also against 25. the policy and conduct of the late war, as well as the in- justice of depriving her citizens of their property because they had been compelled to abandon it temporarily. 27. They also set up a prohibition in Narraganset, forbidding any one to exercise jurisdiction there, or to dispose of lands except by authority of Rhode Island.
A fatal epidemic prevailed on the island at this time, so sudden in its effect, that two or three days sufficed to destroy the victim, and so general, that but few families escaped without the loss of some of their number.1 Among the deaths that occasioned business for the As- sembly was that of James Rogers, who had been longer and more steadily in public office than any other man in the colony, having been elected for twenty successive years, the first three as general solicitor, and the last eigh- teen as general sergeant-for one year he filled both offi- ces. Thomas Fry was chosen as his successor.
1 See A Journal of the Life, &c., of William Edmundson. London, 1713. After his first visit to Rhode Island, before referred to, in 1672, he returned to Ireland. In 1675 he made another missionary tour to the West Indies, and thence came to Rhode Island, made a journey to the eastward, and re- turned to Rhode Island at the close of the war, where he remained some time. He describes this pestilence, and was himself taken sick with it at Walter Newberry's house in Newport, but does not give the name of the dis- ease.
425
SALE OF INDIANS.
A curious original document exists, showing the results CHAP. of the sale of the first company of Indians on account of the townsmen of Providence. It is a receipt to the com- mittee of sale, appointed by the August town-meeting, signed by those who were entitled to the proceeds, and showing the share of each man, thus far received, to be sixteen shillings and four pence half penny.1 The In- dians caused trouble by erecting their wigwams and mat sheds on the commons of the island and on private lands, where they became disorderly and drunken. Armed In- dians also passed on and off the island without the re- quired certificate. The governor and council ordered these wigwams to be removed, all liquors found therein 22. to be seized and the bottles broken, and any armed In- dian found without a proper passport to be brought before the magistrates. That the natives were not yet entirely peaceable, appears from the proceedings of a town-meet- ing at Providence, where a constant watch and ward March was maintained, and armed bands or scouting parties, were ordered to scour the woods, and provision was made 4. in favor of those who might be wounded on these expedi- tions. This precaution was often taken in later times whenever any alarm existed, and was required by the ex- posed situation of the town.
Peace being restored and planting time at hand, the people of Warwick and Narraganset returned to their now desolate plantations. But the latter were not per- mitted to rest in quietness. Three of their number were April seized by Capt. Denison and carried prisoners to Hart- 1677. ford .? They immediately informed Gov. Clarke of the
1 The committee of sale were Arthur Fenner, William Hopkins, and John Whipple, jr. Foster Papers, vol. i. MSS.
" Thomas Gould, James Reynolds, and Henry Tibbitts. Gould afterwards compounded with Connecticut, and on 14th May petitioned for himself and others for leave to replant in Narraganset, acknowledging the authority of Connecticut. Conn. Col. Rec., ii. 540, note.
X. 1676-7. Jan. 1.
426
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. outrage, soliciting protection. The council promised re- X. 1677. May 2. lief, and also wrote to Connecticut, the same day, de- manding their release, and threatening to make reprisals in case it was refused. This was the first business that occupied the new General Assembly.
At the election Benedict Arnold was chosen governor, in place of Walter Clarke, and Major John Cranston was continued as deputy governor. The Assembly confirmed the positions taken by the council in their letters to the Narraganset men and to Connecticut, and took measures for the re-settlement of Kings Province. A court of Jus- tices was appointed to be held in Narraganset, with full powers to protect the settlers from the acts of the Con- necticut officers. Ten thousand acres of land, to be equally divided among one hundred men, were appropri- ated for new settlers who should be approved by the As- sembly, and all persons were forbidden to enter within the province except by authority of the Court. They also addressed another letter to Connecticut, reiterating their right to Narraganset, and declaring their intention to ap- peal to the King if these molestations were continued.
The election of Gov. Arnold was a triumph of the war party in Rhode Island. The militia law was now thoroughly revised ; but lest it should be considered as intrenching upon the rights of the Quakers, the preamble and the concluding proviso recited the necessity of mili- tary defence, and carefully proclaimed, in the words of the charter, the freedom of conscience. It was ordered to be published by beat of drum in all the towns of the colony. The King's garrison, as it was called, in Provi- dence, which had been discharged in October, was re-es- tablished in the very words of the act by which it was first organized. The forms of engagement of officers, and of reciprocal engagement of the colony were redrafted, to be employed the next year, and an engagement to be at once administered to constables, who heretofore had never
427
A COMPROMISE PROPOSED.
been formally qualified, was adopted. That Sabbatarian views were already maintained in the colony is shown by a petition presented at this time to change the market 1677 day, which heretofore had been Saturday only. The As- May 2. sembly saw no sufficient reason to alter the day, but or- dered that a market should likewise be kept in Newport on Thursday of each week. This and all other acts of the Assembly were " published in the town of Newport by beat of drum, under the seal of the colony, by the clerk of the Assembly." An adjournment was taken to allow time for a reply to be received from Connecticut, upon the most important business of the session.
The Assembly at Hartford, acting upon a petition of John Saffin in behalf of the Atherton claimants, ap- pointed a committee to meet at Narraganset in June to lay out lands, and also encouraged the Wickford planters to return under their auspices. They replied to the two letters from Rhode Island, asserting their claims to juris- diction, and acquiescing in the appeal to the King, but proposing, in a postscript, by way of compromise, that Cowesett, now East Greenwich, should be the boundary between the two colonies. This reply not being satisfac- tory, the General Assembly appointed Peleg Sandford and Richard Baily as agents of the colony, to proceed to Eng- land, and voted the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds for their outfit. A letter was sent, notifying Connecticut that Rhode Island would proceed at once to settle and govern Narraganset, and also offering to that colony one- half of all the unpurchased lands in the disputed territo- ry, to be at their disposal, provided the settlers thereupon should submit to the government of Rhode Island. This was a futile attempt at compromise, suggested no doubt by the proposal made " for peace sake" by Connecticut. The Assembly then adjourned to the time appointed by Connecticut for the meeting of her committee in Narra- ganset. Upon reassembling, steps were taken to raise
CHAP. X.
10.
24.
June 11.
428
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
1677. June 11. 16.
CHAP. X. money in Newport and Portsmouth for the expenses of the agents to be sent to England. The sums raised were to be credited to account of the appropriation of ten thousand acres in Narraganset, at the rate of one shilling an acre. The Connecticut committee met on the same day in Narraganset, examined the country, and reported to their government concerning the quality and ownership of the lands. The proceedings of the Court of Justices 15. held by Rhode Island are not preserved, although, upon its rising, the Assembly was again convened by warrant of the Governor, and ordered that the transactions of that 20. Court should be a part of the public records. The coun- cil of Connecticut replied, rejecting the offer of land, and renewing their proposal to make Cowesett the boundary between the two charters.
At the fall session of the Assembly the law requiring . deputies to take an engagement on entering upon the du- ties of their office, was repealed. It had been just five years in operation, was stoutly opposed, especially by the mainland towns, at the time of its passage, and had caused much hard feeling ever since. There seems to us no valid reason for all this, but the cause assigned for the repeal was that, as every freeman had already engaged true allegiance to the King and colony upon his admission, it was unnecessary to repeat the ceremony upon his tak- ing office. This shows a degree of respect for the nature of an oath or engagement, more creditable to the morals of our ancestors, than is the constant and frivolous admin- istration of oaths, in judicial and commercial affairs at this day, to ourselves. A tract of five thousand acres of land in Narraganset was laid out in two parts, one of five hundred acres on the bay, for house lots, and the remain- der in farms of ninety acres each, and distributed among fifty men, who were now incorporated as the town of East Greenwich. The parties were to build upon their lots within one year or lose the land, and no one was to sell
27. Oct. 31.
429
DEATH OF GORTON.
his land within twenty-one years, unless by consent of the Assembly, on pain of forfeiture. They were also to lay out convenient roads from the bay up into the country.
CHAP. X. 1677.
The death of Samuel Gorton, the founder of War .. wick, which occurred at this time, should not be passed over in silence. He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. His career furnishes an apt illustration of the radicalism in action, which may spring from ultra conservatism in theory. The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, be- cause it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power-the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect, and the strength of an ungoverned passion. But when this point was conceded, by the securing of a patent, no man was more submissive to delegated law. His astuteness of mind and his Bibli- cal learning made him a formidable opponent of the Pu- ritan hierarchy, while his ardent love of liberty, when it was once guaranteed, caused him to embrace with fervor the principles that gave origin to Rhode Island. He lived to "a great age." The time of his birth is not certainly known, and the precise day of his death is equally ob- scure. "The exact spot," says his biographer, " where his ashes repose, is marked by no pious stone or monu- mental marble. Yet, if without other honors, may it at least ever be their privilege to sleep beneath the green sward of a free State ! "1
A combination of local disputes, relating in the first instance to proprietary rights, then involving questions of boundary between Providence and Pawtuxet, and finally extending beyond the present county of Provi- dence, had commenced almost with the first settlement of
1 He died between 27th Nov. and 10th Dec., 1677. Mackie's Life of Gor- ton, chap. viii. in Sparks' Am. Biog., vol. xv. pp. 378, 380.
430
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. X. the town, and now assumed a magnitude and importance that bring them within the legitimate province of State 1677. history. The details of these disputes are prolix and un- interesting. A survey of their chief points is all that we propose in this place.1 They originated in a differ- ence of construction put upon the deeds of Canonicus and Miantinomi to Roger Williams, and which was further complicated by a memorandum, added the following year, confirming the same. The last clause in the deed con- tained the words of disputed interpretation, " we do freely give unto him all that land from those rivers,2 reaching to Pawtuxet river, as also the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river," which the confirmation made still more inexact by the words, "up the streams of Paw- tucket and Pawtuxet without limits, we might have for our use of cattle." Hence arose a question, in after years, whether the tract whose limits, in the confirmation clause, were thus general and undefined, formed a part of the purchase, or whether it was merely a grant of the right of pasturage to the head waters of the two last-named rivers, with the fee still reserved in the grantors. It was a question of no importance at first, but when the town increased it gave rise to bitter dissensions, one party main- taining the former view, at the head of whom was Wil- liam Harris, while the other, with Roger Williams as its leader, sustained the rights of the Indians. Williams had made the original purchase for himself, before the settlement of the town, and two years later drew this deed or memorandum, which does no credit to his legal acquirements. He however must have known better than any one else what it did mean ; but a party already ex- isted against him who pressed their views with unneces- sary asperity. When the Legislature, or " Court of Com-
1 The reader will find a more full account of these divisions and disputes than is here given, in Judge Staples' Annals of Providence, chap. x.
2 Mooshansick and Wanasquatucket.
431
PROVIDENCE AND PAWTUXET BOUNDARY DISPUTE.
missioners," as it was styled under the old patent, author- CHAP. X. ized the town to buy off the Indians, and to add three thousand acres to their territory by purchase from the sa- 1677. chems,' the town negotiated with the natives to obtain their removal, and in that year took three deeds, from the successors of Canonicus and Miantinomi, more clearly de- fining the disputed western boundary of the colony .? The two parties viewed these conveyances in different lights ; one considered them as simple confirmations of the origi- nal grant, the other as a new purchase. If they were only confirmations the whole tract belonged to the origi- nal proprietors of Providence, who were the owners of what was called, in the division of lands into two parts, 3 " the Pawtuxet purchase." But if these were in fact new purchases, the fee vested equally in those members of the corporation who had been admitted since the first grand division of lands. It is readily seen how important it was to each party that the settlement of this question should be in its favor. Again, whichever way this dispute of title might be settled, the deeds were so vague, and the rights exercised under them were so varied and un- limited, that nothing definite could be agreed upon as to the limits of the first grand division-where " the grand purchase of Providence " ended and "the Pawtuxet pur- chase " began. An attempt had been early made to de- termine this boundary,4 but the line had never been run out, nor could it be, owing to the vagueness of the deed,
1 May, 1659, ante, chap. viii.
2 The first of these was given by Cawjaniquante, brother of Miantinomi, May 29th, 1659. It confirmed the old grant and defined it as extending from Fox's hill; twenty miles in a straight line up between Pawtucket and l'aw- tuxet rivers. His son acknowledged the deed 28th April following. The other two deeds, from resident sachems of the same family, were given 13th August and 1st December, confirming the first one, and granting the lands in fce simple, but with less exactness of boundary. All three deeds are printed in Staples' Annals, p. 567-70.
3 Made Oct. 8th, 1638, ante ch. iv.
4 July 27th, 1640, ante ch. iv.
432
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. X. both as to the nature and the limits of the rights con- veyed in the concluding clause. To restore peace among 1677. the distracted townsmen Roger Williams made a proposi- tion 1 for a new purchase from the Indians, and a separate settlement in the disputed territory. This was rejected by Thomas Olney, William Harris, and Arthur Fenner, in behalf of the town .? A majority of the town having decided 3 that the later deeds were simply confirmatory, the Pawtuxet purchasers paid one-quarter of the cost,4 and the town limits were agreed to be at a point twenty miles west of Fox hill. A committee of three from each place was named to run the line 5 between Providence and Pawtuxet, and seven years afterward they made a partial report covering less ground than was claimed by the Paw- tuxet men, having ceased their surveys westward at a point afterwards known as "the seven mile line." Mean- while William Harris made a voyage to England, to ob- tain justice from the King, but with no definite results.6
The disputes between Providence and Pawtuxet re- lated solely to title, the whole tract being within the township of Providence ; but soon after the purchase of Warwick questions involving both title and jurisdiction arose, the former between the purchasers of Warwick and of Pawtuxet, the latter between the towns of Providence and Warwick. The Pawtuxet men were thus placed, as it were, between two fires. Legal measures were early resorted to by the conflicting claimants for title. Nu-
1 27th Oct., 1660. 2 29th Oct., 1660. 3 March, 1660.
4 The one-quarter paid to the Indians by the Pawtuxet purchasers for these confirmation deeds amounted to twelve pounds one shilling and eight pence, as appears by an agreement of a joint committee of the two parties, composed of Roger Williams, Richard Waterman, Z. Rhodes, John Brown, James Allen, and William Harris, in August, 1663. See MSS. papers ot William Harris, in possession of W. J. Harris, Esq.
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