USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Smithfield > History of the town of Smithfield [R.I.] from its organization, in 1730-1, to its division, in 1871 > Part 2
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SMITHFIELD.
upon special occasions there was a lack of energy in the government ; special ability and determination were needed, not only for special occasions but for the better ordering and carrying out of the general and growing affairs of the town. How cautiously and considerately the change was made is apparent from the terms of the compact. Satisfied that some portion of the sovereign power must be delegated, the inhabitants parted with it charily, and hedged about the authority of their representatives, forms, and the frequent recurrence of elections in a way to prevent its abuse as much as possible. It was an endeavor to infuse into the government more certainty and security of operation, at the same time retaining individual liberty, and the right of ap- peal to the whole body.
This characteristic and important document provides : For the partition of the lands; and that the disposal of the lands belonging to Providence as distinguished from Pawtuxet shall be in the whole inhabitants by the choice of five men for general disposal; that townsmen shall be re- ceived after six days' notice; that the five disposers have the disposal also of the town's stock and all general things, and that an appeal shall lie from the disposers to the general town meeting. That as formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so still to hold forth, liberty of conscience. That differences and offences should be disposed of by arbitration. But "all the whole inhabitants" should combine to assist any man in the pursuit of any party delinquent. That every man should have a deed of his lands. That the five disposers meet monthly "upon general things," and be chosen every quarter. That the general town meeting be held every quarter. As moderate as was the delegation of power to the disposers in point of time, it will be noticed that the pure democracy resumed its authority every three months; and that no man could be received without notice to the inhabitants, And also that the liberty of conscience
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was reiterated. The jealousy of delegated power could hardly further go, nor have we, nor has the world up to this day progressed beyond, nay ! we have not come up to the judicious, judicial and inexpensive method of determining disputes initiated by our ancestors in 1640.
On the 14th day of March, 1644, Roger Williams ob- tained from the committee of the English Parliament, "The Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England." By the charter full power was con- ferred upon the Plantations "to rule themselves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said tract of land, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent of all or the greatest part of them shall be found most serviceable in their estates and condition ; and to that end, to make and ordain such civil laws and con- stitutions, and to inflict such punishments upon transgres- sors, and for execution thereof so to place and displace officers of justice as they or the greatest part of them shall by free consent agree unto ; Provided, nevertheless, that the said laws, constitutions and punishments for the civil gov- ernment of the said plantations, be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the nature and constitution of the place will admit." Hitherto the three colonies of Provi- dence, Acquedneck and Warwick had been entirely inde- pendent of each other. Isolated from the neighboring colonies in sentiment, and not united with each other in alliance against the Indians; without authoritative govern- ment as against the jurisdictional demands of the Massachu- setts and Plymouth colonies, threatened on the one side by the Puritans, and on the other by the Indians, the charter of 1644 came to unite, to strengthen, to encourage and to dignify the Providence Plantations.
This charter emanated from an authority which none of the New England colonies could dispute; it was full and free; it ratified the "soul-liberty" of the people; it per- 2
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mitted all reasonable and desirable freedom in legislation, in that the laws were not to be restricted to the rigid rules of the laws of England, but were to be made to conform to the " nature and constitution " of the country, the times, the cir- cumstances and purposes of the incorporators and their fel- lows and successors. Roger Williams arrived in Boston with this charter on the 17th of September, 1644, and traversing the same parts through which he had first reached the shores of the Seekonk, he was met by the inhabitants of Providence in fourteen canoes, and escorted across the river amid the acclamations and rejoicings of a community which recognized in him its founder, administrator and most potent preserver and benefactor. A few years before Roger Wil- liams had crossed that water with the five whom he had brought out of pity for their destitute condition. Then he was an exile; now he brought the charter of a State. Then he was welcomed only by the aborigines; now he was re- ceived by friends who appreciated his capacity and his good- ness. Then he left civilization for the companionship of the Indians; now he returns to home, to a peaceable and orderly government, to the delights of civil and religious labor and advancement. Then he came as a solitary and dependent man; now he comes bearing the seal, and under the protec- tion of the flag of England.
Notwithstanding the rejoicings at the reception in the fall of that year of the colony charter of 1644, for various rea- sons the government was not organized under it until May, 1647. On the 18th of that month not only the committees appointed by the towns of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick, but a majority of the inhabitants of the said towns met at Portsmouth. It was in fact a meeting of the corporators to accept the charter, and to frame a govern- ment for the colony. They appointed a General Assembly of the whole colony to be holden annually, "if wind and weather hinder not," on the Tuesday after the 15th of May,
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at which the General Officers of the colony were to be chosen. These officers were a President, one Assistant for each town, a General Recorder, a Public Treasurer, and a General Sergeant; afterwards a General Attorney and a General Solicitor were added. Such of the colony as could not attend the General Assembly, had the right to send their votes for these officers by some other persons ; hence the origin of the terms prox, and proxy votes, as ap- plied to mode of voting for State officers in Rhode Island, prior to the adoption of the Constitution. Each town had the nomination of one person for each of the offices of President, Recorder, Treasurer and Sergeant, and of two persons for each Assistant, from whom the election was to be made. The President and Assistants, composed the Gen- eral Court of trials. They had jurisdiction over all aggra- vated offences, and in such matters as should be, by the town courts, referred to them as too weighty for themselves to determine, and also, of all disputes between different towns, or between citizens of different towns and strangers. They had two sessions each year. All questions of fact were determined by a jury of twelve men. The town courts had exclusive original jurisdiction over all causes between their own citizens. The President was Conservator of the Peace throughout the colony, and the Assistants in
their respective towns. All legislative power was ultimately in the people, in General Assembly. Laws might be origi- nated in the town, or in the General Assembly, but it was only by a vote of the majority of the electors of the colony that they were enacted into law to hold until the next Gen- eral Assembly. It was declared in the code of laws which had been drawn up and sent to the several towns for exam- ination, before the meeting of this General Assembly, and which was by it adopted, that: "The form of Government established in Providence Plantations is Democratical, that is to say, a government held by the free and voluntary con-
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sent of all or the greater part of the free inhabitants." The code contains nothing concerning religion. The first com- pact of the inhabitants of Providence concerning govern- ment was in, and as to "civil things only ; " the charter was silent as to religion, and this, the first code of laws enacted for the colony by its reticence permitted and guaranteed the largest liberty of conscience in religious matters. It was, indeed, expressive silence.
In 1650 it was "ordered that the Representatives Court, shall always consist of six discreet, able men, chosen out of each town, for the transacting of the affairs of the common- wealth." They were empowered to pass laws, which were to be sent to each town within six days, there to be con- sidered and canvassed within three days. Those persons who disapproved of the proposed laws were to send their votes to the General Recorder within ten days, and unless it appeared that a majority of the freemen of the colony dis- approved them, they remained in force as enacted by the Representatives. This was a marked improvement upon the laws of 1647 in that it stimulated the General Assembly to initiate laws for the general good, required only dissen- tients, in the towns, to vote and rendered more permanent the legislation of the colony.
At a special General Assembly holden in Warwick, in March, 1649, a charter was granted to the town of Provi- dence. This charter gave the town the same freedom and powers within its own jurisdiction as the colonial charter had bestowed upon the colony.
In the summer of 1651, William Coddington returned from England, bringing with him a commission from the Council of State, signed by John Bradshaw, constituting him Governor of the Islands of Rhode Island and Canoni- cutt during his life. The colonial government under the charter was thus annihilated. The alarm in Providence and Warwick was almost equalled by the consternation on the
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islands. The only power left the people of Portsmouth and Newport was that they might appoint a council of six men to be approved by Coddington. In one word Coddington was appointed Dictator for life. John Clark was sent by the island towns, and Roger Williams by the towns of Provi- dence and Warwick, to England to procure the abrogation of the authority granted to Coddington, and to attend to the interests of the colony. In the meantime the Court of Commissioners, being the committees of Providence and Warwick, met at Providence and determined to continue under the charter, making laws and choosing officers as before. And this was the technical and sensible course, for although the colonial government as under the charter was destroyed, the power given to Coddington by the Council of State did not repeal the charter so far as it related to, and affected Providence and Warwick.
And yet when in 1652, William Dyre arrived from Eng- land with the repeal of Coddington's authority, and wrote to the towns of Providence and Warwick, naming a day when he would meet all the freemen who chose to appear at Portsmouth, the committees of the towns of Providence and Warwick, although they carried a letter from the Commis- sioners of the towns to Portsmouth, would not agree that the General Assembly to hear the orders of Council should meet at Portsmouth. They insisted that the mainland towns were the Providence Plantations; that their charter had never been vacated. The island towns declared that as they formed the larger part of the colony, and had the greater interest in the matter, the Assembly should meet there. Both parties were right, and both were wrong. The mainland towns were the survivors under the charter; if it was to be revived in full they were certainly entitled to take precedence in the proceedings. On the other hand the allegation of the greater importance of Newport and Ports- mouth was true. Both parties were wrong in permitting a
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mere matter of etiquette to prevent for a moment the reun- ion of the colony, and in postponing for an indefinite time the progress which could only be made by a common effort, and mutual good offices. It was only in May, 1654, that the General Assembly resumed its full and former functions. Only one General Assembly was held in that year, and in appearance and in form the colony was again one and united.
In September, 1658, Richard Cromwell succeeded to the supreme authority in England, as Lord Protector, upon the death of his father, Oliver Cromwell; and in May, 1659, the General Assembly addressed a letter to: "The most Serene and Illustrious, His Highness, the most renowned Richard, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging," asking a confirmation of their charter. It was never pre- sented, as the Protector had resigned his power before it reached England. On the 8th day of June, 1660, Charles the Second entered London. The restoration was complete in form and in substance. The entry of the King into his kingdom was a triumphant one, all classes joining in receiv- ing him as the guarantor of peace and order. Upon the receipt of this news a special session of the General Assem- bly was called to meet at Warwick. His Majesty's letter to Parliament, his declaration and proclamation were read and entered upon the records. The King was formally pro- claimed the next morning in the presence of the General Assembly ; it was ordered that all legal process should issue in his name, and a commission was sent to John Clarke, in London, confirming his position as agent for the colony, and desiring him to obtain a confirmation of the charter from the Crown.
From this time until 1663, the colony was, legally speak . ing, a law unto itself. The restoration of Charles technically abrogated the authority of the Parliamentary charter. Amid disputes, and dangers; the confusion of land titles, and the
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aggressions of the neighboring colonies, the inhabitants of the Providence Plantations waited in doubt for a conclusive letter from their agent. For twenty years the inhabitants had recognized as their sovereign authority a power which by the restoration of Charles was declared to be a rebellious, illegal and void power. The Parliament and Cromwell had not been treated as a government de facto in the sense in which one government accepts the actual government of another nation ; they had been appealed to, and their action asked as though they were de jure the sovereign power. The Plantations were in bad odor with their neighbors, and their neighbors were strong. Both Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed jurisdiction in Rhode Island ter- ritory, and Massachusetts was well known and had great influence in England. The liberty of Rhode Island, the Puritans deemed licentiousness. The principles upon which her government was founded were in utter opposition to the monarchical theories of England as well as to the doctrine of the divine right of Kings, of Charles Stuart. Her very freedom in religious matters made her the oppro- brium of the other colonies, as it would have astonished and dismayed the church and sectarists of England. And Mr. Clarke, in his addresses to King Charles asserted that the people of Rhode Island "have it much in their hearts, if they may be permitted to hold forth a lively experiment, that a flourishing civil state may stand, yea, and be best maintained, and that among English spirits, with full liberty in religious concernments." A potent argument one would think to address to the Merry Monarch !
The long continued efforts of Clarke were at last success- ful. In November, 1663, the General Court of Commission- ers-the General Assembly, met at Newport, for the last time under the Parliamentary patent to receive the Royal Charter of Charles II. Then ended the government of the colony under the charter of the Council of State. There was
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no longer the incorporation of Providence Plantations. The charter of 1644, had nevertheless been of inestimable service. It had bestowed upon an aggregation of individuals a polit- ical existence ; it had thrown over and around them in their direst need the protection of a powerful nation; it had con- solidated the Rhode Island colonies in a degree which en- abled them to make progress in order and in security. It did not meet all the necessities of the case, any more than did the Confederation of the States fulfill the functions of the national Constitution, but it was a step in the right direction, and an immense gain over the hitherto almost anarchic condition of the towns as to their relations with each other. Less than thirty years have elapsed since Roger Williams first set foot upon Rhode Island soil; a large terri- tory, including one of the fairest islands of the sea has been acquired ; government has been established; the six have grown into a goodly number ; there are villages, and plenty, and liberty, and an independence of spirit which has de- scended in direct line, and ample vigor to our own times. Already self-government was the proved rule as well as theory ; already every principle of liberty regulated by law had been enunciated; already the towns were the schools of statesmanship, and already the Rhode Island character had assumed the traits of energy, activity, openness of speech and a self esteem which at once and equally ignored inter- ference on the part of others, and bowed to the dictates of conscience.
This charter of King Charles was all that could have been desired. Under it the State was an absolute sov- ereignty. No oath of allegiance was required. Religious freedom was guaranteed. The title of the Indians to the soil was recognized, as Roger Williams and his fellow towns- men had always recognized it. It declares "that noe per- son within sayd colonye, at any tyme hereafter, shall bee any wise molested, punished, disquited, or called in ques-
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tion, for any difference in opinione in matters of religion which doe not actually disturb the civill peace of our sayd colonye." This charter of, and from a monarch who be- lieved in his divine right to govern, was expressly republi- can in its character. Under this charter the people of Rhode Island lived and prospered for one hundred and eighty years. When it was abrogated in 1843, it was the oldest constitutional charter in the world. It survived the Stuart dynasty. It remained intact through the Revolution-
ary war. It sufficed when, and after the State entered the
Union. During its existence the commonwealth grew in population, in wealth, in influence in a degree which equal- led the firmness with which it maintained its original and distinctive principles. Now for the first time the Assistants were invested with legislative power by the charter, and acted conjointly with the deputies. Upon a question arising whether under the terms of the charter the State Magis- trates, or Council, should be elected by the freemen in town meeting, or by the General Assembly, it was decided that the right of electing these officers should vest in the free- men. Here we see the old and ineradicable opposition to the delegation of power, unless in case of overpowering necessity.
The name of " Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," with the word "Hope " above the anchor, was adopted, or rather continued, upon the seal of the colony. In 1664 it was provided that a plurality vote should elect the general officers. The General Assembly exercised judicial as well as legislative powers, and as under the first patent the Pres- ident and assistants were executive officers. By the royal charter the governor and council became ex officio legislators in common with the deputies, and all alike exercised judicial powers. They met together as one House of Assembly. It is proper to notice also, that as late as 1672, there was a prevalent feeling that the acts of a given Assembly were not 3
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binding beyond the next session. And at the May session of this year a striking example of popular mutability of sen- timent was afforded by the repeal of every act passed at the preceding April session. For an account of the Indian war initiated by the neighboring colonies, and from which Rhode Island suffered so much the reader is referred to the history of the State. Suffice it to say that the Indians burned the town of Providence, and spared Roger Williams. In 1682, it was decided by the General Assembly that the town councils might reject any person as an inhabitant of the town, who should fail to give bonds satisfactory to a majority of the council; and if any one being warned by the council to leave the town, should fail to do so, a warrant for his re- moval might be issued to the constable, and in case of his return to the town he should be subject to fine or whipping.
The claims of the Connecticut and Plymouth colonies to the soil and jurisdiction of portions of Rhode Island at length culminated in the appointment of a commission by King Charles, for examining and enquiring into the claims and titles to the King's Province, or Narragansett Country. The summons of the commission included in the subject of their inquiry the territory between the rivers of Providence and Pauquatuck, the islands of Prudence, Cannonicut, Pa- tience, or any other island which were or were reputed to have belonged to the Narragansett Country. There seems to have been little question made save as to the Province ; and the jurisdiction of this was bestowed upon Connecticut, and the "propriety of the soil " to the Atherton Company. The death of Charles II., and the proclamation of his brother James II. were inauspicious events for Rhode Island. Other claimants to the Narragansett Country laid their claims be. fore the Crown, and they were referred to the Board of Trade. The settlers were uneasy and belligerent. A crisis was at hand. A quo warranto was issued against Rhode Island as against other colonies, for the purpose of revoking
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its charter. Two days later a President and Council were appointed to govern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and King's Province. Upon the arrival of the quo warranto, the General Assembly being met, and a large number of persons present it was determined not to stand suit with the King, but to proceed by humble address to his Majesty, asking a continuance of their charter privileges.
Dudley, the new Governor, or President of the Council created a provisional government, to continue only till the plan of consolidating all New England under one royal gov- ernor could be perfected. This was done by the appoint- ment of Sir Edmund Andros, formerly governor of New York, to the supreme authority by royal commission. Andros was authorized to demand the surrender of the charter, and to take the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- tions under his government. And the power given him was almost absolute. By letter from Boston, dated Decem- ber, 1686, he appointed Walter Clark, Jo. Sanford, John Coggeshall, Walter Newbury, John Greene, Richard Arnold, and John Albrough, to be members of his Council. The colonial government was subverted. A second time had the charter of her liberties been taken from Rhode Island. She was now reduced to a mere province in the broad domin- ion of the Captain General, and Governor in Chief of New England. She returned to her system of town government. The last act of the General Assembly had been to provide that it "should be lawful for the freemen of each town in this colony to meet together and appoint five, or more or fewer, days in the year for their assembling together, as the freemen of each town shall conclude to be convenient, for the managing the affairs of their respective towns." Inas- much as Andros and his Council had full legislative, judicial and executive authority, the legal value of this last act of the General Assembly is much more questionable than is the patriotic spirit which prompted it.
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Upon receiving the news of the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England, in 1689, a letter cautiously worded was sent from Newport among the people recom- mending them to assemble there, "before the day of annual election by charter," to consult what course should be adopted. The freemen of the colony assembled and put forth a declaration of their reasons for resuming the charter government. But, although the government was reorgan- ized it remained for ten months without an acknowledged governor. Walter Clarke was too cautious to accept the office in the uncertain condition of public affairs. This act of resumption was afterward sanctioned by the crown.
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