USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101
86
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
complete. In its achievements the General Court of Providence Plantations for 1647 has seldom been equalled, and scarcely, if ever, excelled. But the difficulties that beset this unpre- cedented program for democracy were not yet all of the past. Democracy is the most diffi- cult and complex form of government; the immediate future held fresh difficulties in store for the Democratical colony incorporated at Portsmouth.
WEAKNESS OF CONFEDERACY-The second general court of election, held at Providence on May 16, 1648, was prophetic of the storm that was gathering and soon to burst. Of the officers declared elected by the votes of those present and by proxy, only two were present and took the engagement prescribed. William Coddington had been elected as President. Against him charges were pending, and he, with William Balston, who had been elected as Assistant from Portsmouth and who also was absent, were suspended for failure to present themselves and clear themselves of the accusations against them. Under an order that in the event of the death or absence of the President, the Assistant elected for the same town from which the President was chosen should become Acting President, Jeremy Clarke, who had been elected as Assistant from Newport and also as Treasurer, for the time being held three offices. Roger Williams, elected as Assistant from Providence, was absent. He had recently removed to his trading post near Wickford, and was endeavoring there to recoup the economic losses he had incurred earlier in his unselfish and self-sacrificing devotion to the common welfare. He had not received the £ 100 voted at Newport the year before to reimburse him for his expenses in England. Philip Sherman of Portsmouth, elected as General Recorder, and Alexander Partridge of Newport, elected as General Sergeant, also were absent and not engaged. William Dyer, clerk of the General Court, and previously General Recorder, was continued in the latter office temporarily. Except Jeremy Clarke, all officers chosen from Newport and Portsmouth were not in attendance. Their absence did not interfere with the meeting of the General Court. For its sessions Nicholas Easton of Newport, served as Mod- erator and William Dyer of Newport, as Clerk. It was ordered that six men from each town should be chosen to remain after the election for the business of the General Court, others to tarry as they saw fit. From the circumstances it appeared that there was dissension on the island; the party that in Newport and Portsmouth apparently was stronger in the general election did not attend the meeting of the General Court. Some who did not agree with them attended the session at Providence. John Clarke, Jeremy Clarke, William Dyer and Nicholas Easton, who had been of Coddington's associates in the exodus from Ports- mouth to Newport in 1639, were arrayed against him in 1648. They were appointed a com- mittee to formulate the charges against Coddington and Balston and others, possibly. The nature of the charges was not disclosed by the record; it may be that Coddington's treason- able conspiracy to detach the island from the colony and annex it to Massachusetts or Plym- outh had been disclosed.
At this meeting of the General Court the concluding clause in the engagement for offi- cers "according to the best of your understanding" was interpreted as meaning "that they are not or shall not vary from the letter of their commissions by any equivocal expositions." The corresponding clauses in modern engagements read "faithfully and impartially and to the best of my ability." It is possible that the charges against Coddington, who had been elected as Assistant at Newport, arose from a heterodox interpretation of his duty under the clause "according to the best of your understanding." Provision for filling vacant offices by suc- cession was made in the instances of the President, General Recorder and General Sergeant. Towns were ordered to call town meetings for the election of town officers within ten days, and freemen were named in each town except Providence to call the meetings. The laws adopted in 1647 were continued without amendment to the end of the next session of the General Court or until repealed. The colony requested permission to use the Newport prison
87
ORGANIZING A DEMOCRACY
as a colony prison. Attention was given to correspondence with Massachusetts. Rules of order for the General Court were adopted as follows :
The moderator shall cause the clerk of the assembly to call the names of the assembly.
The moderator shall appoint every man to take his place.
All matters presented to the assembly's consideration shall be presented in writing by bill.
Each bill shall be fairly discussed, and if by the major vote of the assembly it shall be put to a committee to draw up an order, 'which being concluded by the vote, shall stand for an order throughout the whole colony.
The moderator shall put all matters to vote.
Every man shall have liberty to speak freely to any matter propounded yet but once, unless it be by leave from the moderator.
He that stands up first uncovered shall speak first to the cause.
The moderator by the vote of the assembly shall adjourn or dissolve the court, and not without, at his great peril.
He that shall return not to his place at the time appointed shall forfeit sixpence.
They that whisper or disturb the court, or useth nipping terms shall forfeit sixpence for every fault.
Conjecture as to the cause of the dissension brewing in the colony is almost idle in view of the silence of the record. Coddington and Partridge in September, 1648, sent a written petition to the commissioners for the United Colonies, as follows: "That we, the islanders of Rhode Island, may be received into combination with all the united colonies of New Eng- land in a prime and perpetual league of friendship and amity ; of offence and defence, mutual advice and succor upon all just occasions for our mutual safety and welfare, and for preserv- ing peace amongst ourselves, and preventing as much as may be all occasions of war and difference, and to this our motion we have the consent of the major part of the island." The petitioners were advised to submit to the jurisdiction of Plymouth. In January, 1648-1649, Coddington and his daughter sailed for England, the former to return later with a commission as Governor for life.
At a special General Assembly at Warwick in March, 1649, Roger Williams was elected as Deputy President in succession to Coddington, and town charters were granted to the four towns. Of the business transacted no record has been preserved; the information indicated above was derived from other sources. Roger Williams presided as moderator at the General Court held at Warwick on May 22, 1649. Officers were elected for the year and engaged. The General Court by committee investigated certain proxy votes, and the court adopted an order that "for the prevention of corruption of votes for the future that this clause be added to the former order made concerning votes, viz .: 'That none shall bring any votes but such as they receive from the voters' hands, and that all votes presented shall be filed by the Recorder in the presence of the Assembly during the time of the court.'" Unfortunately for the curious there were no daily newspapers in 1649, from the columns of which one might read a complete disclosure of the nature of the corruption practiced in proxy voting. Other business of a general nature established fines for failure to accept office after election, and for substitution for the person elected by the person having the next highest number of votes ; ordered towns to provide jails; ordered town magistrates to sit with general officers as part of the panel in trial courts; and directed correspondence with the Pawtuxet men about their subjection to the colony.
The fourth general court of election, held at Newport, May 23, 1650, elected officers, all of whom were engaged. The General Treasurer reported no receipts during the year, and no balance in the treasury. A new office, that of Attorney General, was created and filled. The difficulty of maintaining a quorum was indicated by the vote that if six men from each town had assembled, a majority still remaining might proceed with business, and by another authorizing a delegation of less than six appearing from any town to fill the town's quota by selection from other freemen present. The assembly asserted its prerogative to be
88
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
"a judge of its own membership" by an order that it had power to suspend and replace any member tried and found not to be a "fit member." Various measures tending to put the colony in a posture of preparedness for defence were taken, including direction to towns to maintain public stores of powder and shot and muskets. Forecasting the modern comity that accords full faith and credit "in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state," the General Court ordered execution on a judgment given by a Massa- chusetts court. Most important, as it indicated a change from direct government by assem- bly of the freemen to representative government, this General Court ordered each town there- after to elect six men as members of a representative assembly "to have the full power of the General Assembly." An order adopted, "that this present election shall stand and be authentic, notwithstanding all obstruction against it," suggests the possibility of irregularity, or knowledge of Coddington's errand to England and a determination to resist usurpation.
REFERENDUM REPLACES INITIATIVE-The first representative assembly met on October 26, 1650, and repealed the provision for popular initiative adopted by the General Assembly of 1647. Instead it provided for legislation by the representative assembly subject to rejec- tion or confirmation by popular referendum. Laws enacted by the assembly were to be certi- fied by copies sent to the towns, and read in the towns in meetings called for the purpose ; and "if any freeman shall mislike any law then made, they shall send their votes with their names fixed thereto unto the General Recorder within ten days after the reading of these laws and no longer. And if it appears that the major vote within that time prefixed shall come in and declare it to be a nullity, then shall the Recorder signify it to the President, and the President shall forthwith signify to the towns that such or such laws is a null, and the silence to the rest shall be taken for approbation and confirmation of the laws made." The representative court was definitely ordered to "consist of six discreet, able men, and chosen out of each town for the transacting of the affairs of the commonwealth." The quorum was established as thirteen of the twenty-four. Banishment of freemen from the colony was forbidden. Cause for divorce was limited to adultery, and then only on complaint of the injured party. Roger Williams was requested to go to England, with a promise of payment of the £ 100 pounds voted in 1647 and still unpaid in 1650, and an additional £ 100, with William Balston, John Clarke and John Warner as alternates, any two to go. John Clarke went with Roger Williams. The reason for sending Roger Williams on this mission was the wish to obtain a confirmation of the Parliamentary Patent, a measure made necessary by the aggressive meddling policy pursued by Massachusetts and Plymouth .*
THE WRECK OF THE CONFEDERACY-The storm portended had burst, the fate of the colony of Providence Plantations hung in balance, and the crisis called for prompt and vigor- ous action. The organization of a government under the Charter of 1644 had been delayed for three years, partly by international dissension and partly by interference from without. When in 1647 a union was achieved, it was harmonious only temporarily; within a year harmony had given way to discord that threatened the destruction of the government. The patience and good judgment of earnest supporters of the "lively experiment" in democracy bridged the chasm that yawned as most of the officers elected in 1648 neglected to qualify ; the situation was vastly more difficult in 1650. In the course of three years from 1647 to 1650 the initial venture with pure democracy resting upon an assembly of all the freemen annually in general court, which was both elective and parliamentary, with popular initiative and popular referendum both in complete operation, had been modified. The general assem- bly had been replaced by a representative assembly; the popular initiative had been aban- doned, and the referendum had been retained in the form of a popular veto upon acts of the representative assembly. Though these changes conformed theoretically to a progressively
*Chapter V.
89
ORGANIZING A DEMOCRACY
evolutionary series, they made possible the destruction of the General Court and the dissolu- tion of the union of settlements under the colonial charter. The General Court was helpless when it faced after 1650 a situation that had been remedied easily in 1648. While freemen attended the General Court at discretion as members of a popular assembly, the freemen present from each town being recognized as the town's representatives, there need be no failure to hold a general court while any reasonable number of colony-minded freemen assembled. Thus the situation in 1648, when, with one exception the officers elected from Newport and Portsmouth were not in attendance and did not qualify, was adjusted, there being enough freemen from Newport present at the session at Providence to elect both Moderator and Clerk from Newport and give the General Court a Newport complexion, in spite of the disaffection of many residents of the island. But when, after 1650, the General Court consisted of six freemen from each town, chosen in town meeting as the town's repre- sentatives, and thirteen present were necessary to make a legal quorum, it lay within the power of two of the four towns to paralyze the General Court by refusing or neglecting to choose and send delegations. Newport and Portsmouth did not send representatives in 1651. This defect in the representative assembly is characteristic of confederacies. The Confedera- tion that fought the Revolutionary War through to a finish was destroyed ultimately by the indifference of the member states, and their failure to elect delegates to Congress; the union purported to be perpetual. It lies within the power of the states of the Federal Union to destroy Congress, first, by failure to elect Senators and Representatives, and the Union itself eventually, by destroying Congress. Only an ardent love for the Union resting upon vigor- ous national patriotism saved the United States from division in the war between the states. In 1650 there was no similar ardent love for the colony wherewith to save Providence Plan- tations. The General Court of October 20, 1650, marked the end of the first union between the town settlements of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick. The union was not to be reestablished until 1654, when Roger Williams was elected as President.
CODDINGTON USURPATION -- William Coddington was not first citizen of the Island of Rhode Island in 1647, for the first time since the original settlement had been made at Pocas- set in 1638. He had been elected as Judge, the highest office, under the compact signed before the settlement, and continued to hold that office at Newport after the exodus in 1639, and until in 1640 Pocasset and Newport reunited, and Coddington was elected as Governor of the island. In 1647 John Coggeshall of Newport, was elected President of the Colony of Provi- dence Plantations, with Coddington as Assistant from Newport. Although Coddington was elected as President in 1648, charges were pending against him and he did not qualify by engagement. He had been seeking alliance or union with Massachusetts or Plymouth; his purpose was not announced when he sailed for England in January, 1649. Two years later, on April 3, 1651, he obtained from the Council of State a commission as proprietary governor of the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut for life. In the interval between the granting of the Patent for Providence Plantations and the issuing of Coddington's commission, King Charles I had been beheaded, the House of Lords had been abolished, the Commonwealth had been established, and the Council of State had become the executive administrative agency in England. Perhaps the incongruity of Coddington's commission and the Parliamentary Pat- ent may be explained as arising from the confusion attending rapid changes in the government of England; perhaps the almost utter ignorance in England of American geography may excuse an oversight in the failure to identify the island of Rhode Island with the island of Aquidneck mentioned in the earlier Parliamentary Patent; certainly Coddington was not innocent of misinterpretation. It was alleged by his contemporaries, and probably was true, that in England he claimed the island of Rhode Island by right of discovery and purchase from the Indians. The original deed from Miantonomah and Canonicus had named "Wil- liam Coddington and his friends," and of this deed Coddington always had maintained pos-
90
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
session. News of his purpose reached Newport, even before it was certain that he had been successful, and this aroused some of the island people to the urgent need for action. How- ever much they might dislike association with the northern settlements, that was vastly prefer- able to the loss of liberty under a proprietary governor, practically a monarch. Forty-one inhabitants of Portsmouth and sixty-five of Newport urged John Clarke to go to England to obtain an annulment of Coddington's commission. For once north and south felt somewhat the enthusiasm of a mutual interest and common enterprise. Providence and Warwick were raising money to hasten the departure of Roger Williams on his mission for confirmation of the Parliamentary Patent; Newport was interested in the annulment of Coddington's com- mission. William Arnold of Pawtuxet, claiming subjection to Massachusetts, lost no time in informing the authorities there of the popularity of the subscription in Warwick and Providence, of £ 100 quickly raised in Warwick, and generous contributions by Providence freemen. Roger Williams and John Clarke sailed from Boston for England late in 1651, after experiencing some difficulty in obtaining permission to pass through Massachusetts, Williams because of the edict of banishment of 1635, and Clarke because he was persona non grata after the episode of his arrest with Crandall and Holmes in 1651 .* They presented a joint petition to the Council of State, which was referred on April 8, 1652, to the committee on foreign affairs. An order permitting the colony to proceed under the charter, pending a decision, was entered, the news of this preliminary victory being conveyed in a letter from Roger Williams, which was received in September. On October 2, 1652, the Council annulled Coddington's commission. Roger Williams and John Clarke remained in England. William Dyer brought the good news to the colony.
While Newport and Portsmouth interposed no violent obstruction to the government set up by Coddington, the latter found the situation there not altogether to his liking. Perhaps the most able and influential men on the island had united in the petition for annulment of Coddington's commission carried to England by John Clarke. These avoided open conflict with the proprietary Governor, but he knew full well their opinions and appreciated their resentment. That he undertook to mollify them appears in his written acknowledgment under date of April 14, 1652, that he was not the sole purchaser of the island, but only one of eighteen purchasers with equal right, and his promise to deliver the original Indian deeds. The acknowledgment was recorded at Portsmouth, April 7, 1673, and supplemented by another statement at Newport, September 27, 1677, and recorded February II, 1705. When news of the annulment of his commission reached America, Newport and Portsmouth resumed popular government of the island and conducted negotiations with Providence and Warwick which resulted ultimately in the complete renewal of colonial government in 1654. The bit- terness so relentlessly continued by Massachusetts against those who resisted her government was not characteristic of Rhode Island. The records from time to time indicate the return to office of men against whom charges were preferred, some of whom had been convicted. In the instance of Coddington, he was returned by Newport as a freeman with the list for 1655; he was one of the commissioners for Newport attending the colony court in 1656; he was formally forgiven on March 17, 1656, by the court of commissioners, who ordered a letter sent to John Clarke in England declaring their "good desires and apprehensions con- ceived from Mr. Coddington's demonstrations of good affection to the government, as also of our own satisfaction generally in the colony." The letter went on to recite a wish that the government in England might abate further proceedings against Coddington, "since the evils ensued upon the distraction of those troublesome times are removed from us, and breaches amongst us are partly composed, and in a way of composing to the good and comfort of all parts of the colony and the establishing of peace and love among us." Coddington had merited hanging for treason ; yet Rhode Island pardoned him. Roger Williams was modera-
*Chapter V.
91
ORGANIZING A DEMOCRACY
tor. The spirit that had guided him, following persecution and banishment by Massachu- setts, to plead her cause in the council of hostile Indians,* was still alive in Rhode Island ; and with it a marvellous respect for the opinions of a man, that could concede to Coddington, even after treason, a pardon and expression of love. Of this page in the history of the colony Rhode Islanders may well be proud. Twice under the Charter of 1663 Rhode Island elected William Coddington to be Governor. He died in office as Governor on November 1, 1678.
There was no May meeting of the general court of election in 1651. Coddington's com- mission was effective, and no representatives were elected in Newport or Portsmouth. On November 4, 1651, six freemen from each of Providence and Warwick, calling themselves commissioners rather than representatives, met as a joint committee and adopted a resolution that, whereas, the Governor, Nicholas Easton of Newport, "hath of late deserted his office, and he, together with the two towns upon Rhode Island, viz .: Portsmouth and Newport, have declined and fallen off from that established order of civil government and incorpora- tion amongst us, by means of a commission presented upon said island by Mr. William Cod- dington, we, the rest of the towns of the said jurisdiction, are thereupon constrained to declare ourselves . . . . embodied and incorporated as before." No colony officers were chosen at the November meeting. Samuel Gorton presided as moderator, and John Greene, Jr., was clerk. The reorganization contemplated an assembly consisting of six freemen chosen in each town. A letter was sent to Philip Sherman of Portsmouth, late General Recorder, demanding of him surrender of the colony records in his possession. Orders regulating pleading and procedure in trial courts, and defining the jurisdiction of town courts and colony court were entered.
A general court of election was held at Warwick, May 18, 1652, with Samuel Gorton as moderator. A President, one Assistant each for Providence and Warwick, General Recorder, Treasurer and Sergeant were elected. The session continued three days, the busi- ness being principally a revision of practice and procedure in trial courts. The Dutch resi- dents were forbidden to trade with the Indians, and one of the first laws forbidding slavery was enacted. Negro slavery and white binding to service were limited to ten years, except in the instance of persons under fourteen years of age, when slavery or bondage ended at age twenty-four. In October, 1652, it was ordered that no "foreigners, Dutch, French or any other nation shall be received as a free inhabitant in any of the towns" or permitted to trade with the Indians without the general consent of the colony. Slander, oral detraction or defamation, was defined as a tort, for which a civil action for damages might be maintained ; it was not made a crime, a course that would have sustained a public prosecution. The Assembly spent six days late in December, 1652, trying Hugh Bewitt, the first colony Attor- ney General, then an Assistant from Providence, who was accused of high treason against the power and authority of England, but found the evidence against him not sufficient to war- rant conviction. At the same time, on the objection of Warwick, it retracted so much of a letter sent to Roger Williams as suggested that he have himself appointed Governor for a year following his return from England, while a reorganization was undertaken. Providence Plantations did not wish a dictator, much as it was troubled with solving the perplexing prob- lems of democracy. The last day of this session fell on Christmas Day; there was no adjournment, however, the holiday notwithstanding. Similarly the session of the General Assembly that ordered a convention to consider ratification of the Constitution of the United States ended on a Sunday; the absence of a member, who was a clergyman, on that day produced the tie, which was broken by an affirmative vote by the Governor.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.