USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 18
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The charter then made certain petitioners "and all such others as now are, or hereafter shall be, admitted and made free of the company and society of our colony of Providence Plantations, . . . . a body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of the Gov- ernor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America." The Charter granted complete, corporate powers, authorized a common seal, and outlined a form of government thus: "There shall be one Governor, one
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Deputy-Governor and ten Assistants, to be from time to time, constituted, elected and chosen, out of the freemen of the said company, for the time being, in such manner and form as is hereafter in these presents expressed, which said officers shall apply themselves to take care for the best disposing and ordering of the general business and affairs of . the planta- tions thereof, and the government of the people there. And, .... we do .... appoint Benedict Arnold to be the first and present Governor of the said company, and . . . William Brenton to be the Deputy-Governor, and . ... William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, to be the ten present Assistants of the said company, to continue in the said several offices, respectively, until the first Wednesday which shall be in the month of May now next coming." The Governor, and in his absence the Deputy- Governor, was authorized to call the company together from time to time to conduct the business and affairs of the company. Semi-annual meetings were ordered, thus: "Forever hereafter, twice in every year, that is to say, on every first Wednesday in the month of May, and on every last Wednesday in October, or oftener, in case it shall be requisite, the Assist- ants and such of the freemen of the said company, not exceeding six persons for Newport, four persons for each of the respective towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick, and two persons for each other place, town or city, who shall be, from time to time, thereunto elected or deputed by the major part of the freemen of the respective towns or places for which they shall be so elected or deputed, shall have a general meeting or assembly, then and there to consult, advise and determine, in and about the affairs and business of the said company and plantations."
The meeting of Governor, Deputy Governor, Assistants and freemen was designated "the General Assembly," with power and authority (1) to change the time and place of meetings; (2) to admit freemen; (3) to elect and commission officers; (4) to make laws, statutes, orders and ordinances, "so as such laws . be not contrary and repugnant unto, but as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of . . . . England, considering the nature and constitution of the place and people there"; (5) to erect courts of justice; (6) to regulate and order the way of elections to office; (7) to prescribe the boundaries of towns or cities ; (8) to establish penalties for crimes and misdemeanors; (9) to regulate trade with the Indians; ( 10) to establish, regulate and arm the militia. The Charter ordered an annual elec- tion to be held at Newport on the first Wednesday in May, officers to be engaged by "oath or otherwise." The company was permitted to invade the Indian country, if need be, lying within the boundaries of the colony, but not to invade the Indians lying outside; reciprocally other colonies were forbidden to invade the Indians in Rhode Island, without the knowledge and consent of Rhode Island.
The Charter preserved fishery rights for all English subjects along the coast, granted permission for emigration from England and other parts of the dominion of the King to Rhode Island, established reciprocal commercial relations between Rhode Island and the remainder of the kingdom, and granted to all subjects living and their children born in Rhode Island "all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects within any of the dominions." The boundaries described conflicted with claims of neighboring colonies,* and were a source of controversy for many years. The territory was granted to the Governor and company "to be holden of us, our heirs and successors as of the manor of East Greenwich, in our county of Kent, in free and common socage, and not in capite nor by knight service; yielding and paying therefor . ... only the fifth part of all the ore or gold or silver" found. Kent was the most favored county in the kingdom, and tenure by free and common socage was the most liberal and most honored relation between King and subject known to English law, still feudal with respect to landholding. It was practically free tenancy at fixed rent, requiring no other
*Chapter V.
OLD STATE HOUSE AT KINGSTON
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service, and the rent in the instance of Rhode Island was one-fifth of precious metals that might be found. To remedy the difficulties arising from the disposition of Massachusetts to forbid certain Rhode Island people who had incurred the displeasure of the Puritan colony from passing through, the Charter made it lawful for Rhode Islanders "without let or moles- tation, to pass and repass, with freedom, into and through the rest of the English colonies, upon their lawful and civil occasions," and to engage in commerce with the inhabitants of other colonies.
The Charter established a republic, with a Governor and other general officers elected by the people; and a system of courts and justices created by the General Assembly. Thus the three major agencies for government-the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, although not separated in Rhode Island under the Charter-originated with the people. The lawmaking power was restricted only by the provision that legislation must not be repugnant to English law, but this restriction was minimized by the provision that permitted adaptation to the place and condition. The lawmaking power might be construed as unrestricted even- tually. The Charter granted and guaranteed and safeguarded the dearest liberty of the people of Rhode Island-soul liberty and freedom to worship God according to conscience. Small wonder that the general court of commissioners on November 24, 1663, after ordering that "the letters with the broad seal thereto affixed be taken forth and read by Captain George Baxter* in the audience and view of all the people, which was accordingly done, and the said letters, with his majesty's royal stamp, and the broad seal, with much gravity held up on high, and presented to the perfect view of the people," voted "the most humble thanks of this colony unto our gracious sovereign Lord, King Charles II of England, for the high and inestimable, yea, incomparable grace and favor unto the colony." Governor Endicott and the Council of Massachusetts had been invited to attend the joyful session of November 24, 1663, with a view to initiating better relations between the colonies, but declined the invitation. On Novem- ber 25 the officers named in the new Charter, for the most part, were formally engaged, and the court of commissioners, the last under the Patent of Providence Plantations, after pass- ing a few necessary orders to continue matters pending, adjourned sine die and forever.
REORGANIZATION UNDER CHARTER-The first meeting of the General Assembly under the Charter of 1663 was held at Newport, March 1, 1664. Provision was made for courts, as required in the Charter. The referendum law was repealed with others inconsistent with the Charter, but the bulk of the laws enacted under the Patent for Providence Plantations were continued. Doubt having been suggested as to whether or not the Charter limited suf- frage in the election of general officers to the deputies chosen by the towns, it was voted that "the freemen have liberty, as many of them as please, to take notice of the time and place of the said election in May next, and be personally there present, to vote in the choice of election of the said chief officers." This order was confirmed at the election meeting in May, and the question of proxy voting was referred to a committee for consideration.
ELECTION MACHINERY -- Proxy voting was authorized by the October Assembly in 1664, thus: "That each freeman desiring to vote by proxies shall subscribe their names on the outside and deliver his votes sealed up into the hands of a magistrate, in the face of a town meeting lawfully called and notice given for that purpose . ... which said votes shall be by such whom the General Assembly shall appoint opened and delivered forth as the respective choice of the several officers shall require; provided that this order shall no way prejudice or discourage any who desire to be personally present." Through the proxy law the Assembly had made a near approach to the modern type of general election conducted in town and district meetings, with an official count by the state returning board. The colony seal adopted under the Patent was continued in March, 1664, but replaced in May, 1664, by
*Captain Baxter brought the Charter from England.
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a new seal described thus: "That the seal, with the motto 'Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,' with the word 'Hope' over the head of the anchor, is the present seal of the colony." Block Island had been included in the colony by the Charter; no objections on the part of the inhabitants being interposed, the island was admitted, freemen were received, and, in 1672, a town under the name New Shoreham was incorporated as the sixth town, West- erly having been incorporated in 1669. The twelve general officers, Governor, Deputy Gov- ernor, and ten Assistants, were apportioned to the towns, five to Newport, three to Provi- dence, and two each to Portsmouth and Warwick. The first election meeting of the General Assembly under the Charter was held May 4, 1664, one hundred twelve years to a day earlier than May 4, 1776, when Rhode Island declared independence. A considerable part of the business of early meetings of the General Assembly related to boundaries and disputes as to the Narragansett country .*
The Assembly in 1664 judged it "their duty to signify his majesty's gracious pleasure vouchsafed in these words to us, verbatim, vis .: 'That no person within the said colony at any time hereafter shall be in anyways molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any difference of opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of the said colony.'" A form of engagement for officers "to execute your commission, charge and office, according to the best of your skill and knowledge without partiality or affection to any, and according to the laws already established, or to be established in this colony : This engagement you make and engage to observe under the penalty of perjury," was prescribed.
DEVELOPMENT OF BICAMERAL ASSEMBLY-So early as 1664 the question as to whether the General Assembly created by the Charter was unicameral or bicameral was raised. "There having been a long agitation about the motion whether the magistrates shall sit by themselves and the deputies by themselves, it was resolved to remit the further agitation to the next General Assembly." In 1665 the question was again postponed, and in May, 1666, it was voted that the magistrates should sit by themselves and the deputies by themselves, and "that each house so sitting have equal power and privilege in the proposing, composing and propa- gating any act, order and law in General Assembly; and that neither house in General Assem- bly shall have power without the concurrence of the major part of the other house to make any law or order to be accounted as an act of the General Assembly." In September, 1666, the question was reopened, and postponed for further consideration to October, 1666, when it was voted that the General Assembly continue to sit as one house. On May 7, 1668, the Deputies attending a session of the General Assembly, upon motion made after organization had been completed, were permitted to withdraw for one-half hour "to consider of such affairs as they may think fit to propose for the well being of the colony"; and on the same day it was voted that "for the future the like liberty is, and shall be allowed to the Deputies if they or the major part of them shall desire it, and that in the time of their absence no act shall pass as a law." The Deputies had achieved the right to meet apart and to take council by themselves. The General Assembly continued to be unicameral, nevertheless, since action must still be taken by the body, with general officers and Deputies sitting together. The withdrawal of the Deputies permitted a caucus and agreement for concerted action if desirable.
A question essentially similar to that involving unicameral or bicameral organization was agitated in 1672. The Charter had described the General Assembly as consisting of general officers and freemen, and the quorum as consisting of "the Governor or Deputy Gov- ernor and six of the Assistants, at least to be seven." In 1672 an act, citing this provision, continued : "His majesty's wisdom doubtless deeming a major part of the people's repre- sentatives would not be wanting in such needful matters, but forasmuch as oft experience
*Chapter V.
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proves the want of such number of Deputies, viz .: the major part in said assembly." The act of 1672 provided that seven of the general officers and so many of the Deputies, "although there should happen not to be a major part of the Deputies," might act for the colony in emergencies, but :
Forasmuch as by the good old laws of our native country as expressed in the Petition of Rights of third of Charles First, that the subjects of his majesty's realm of England have inherited this freedom, that they should not contribute to any tax, but such as were by common consent in Parliament;
And forasmuch as the House of Commons is the people's representatives there, and the Deputies the representatives of the freemen here: Therefore, for the preventing of great and eminent dangers of pretended debts, which by some men's subtlety and others' simplicity, this colony may unjustly and undoubt- edly incur, be it enacted . . that no tax rate from henceforth shall be made, laid or levied on the inhabitants of this colony without the consent of the Deputies present pertaining to the whole colony, as there must be a major part of the Assistants (by the Charter ) nor any way bring the colony in debt by any means.
And forasmuch, as there may be great and many weighty matters respecting the King's honor here, and his subjects' greatest liberties undermined [and] subverted, by subtlety for some men's sinister ends, who most pretend the people's profit thereby, but that there may be the better observation of such designs, be it enacted . . . that in all weighty matters, wherein the King's honor is most concerned, and the people's ancient rights and liberties most jeopardized for want of mature council, that then and at all such times and upon all such occasions, the Assembly shall be the major part of the Deputies belonging to the whole colony, as there must be the major part of the Assistants (by the Charter). But otherwise, such said act (if made without the major part of the Deputies present) shall be void and of no effect.
Substantially the act required (1) the consent of the Deputies present to any proposi- tion involving a tax, and (2) a quorum consisting of a majority of the general officers and a majority of the Deputies for measures other than those clearly necessitated by emergency. The incorporation of Westerly, 1669, and of New Shoreham, 1672, had increased the number of Deputies to twenty-two, the general officers remaining at twelve. The act of 1672 appar- ently urged the right of the Deputies as representatives of the freemen; on tax measures they must be polled separately. Eventually the general officers would face a situation in which, if the General Assembly remained one body, they would be outvoted decisively by the Deputies. Separation would strengthen the general officers by permitting a majority of them to veto action of a majority of the Deputies; and vice versa. Exactly the same general causes that produced a separation of Parliament in 1341 into a House of Commons and a House of Lords, produced on May 6, 1696, a separation of the Rhode Island General Assembly into two houses, one consisting of the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants, and the other the Deputies as representatives of the freemen in the towns.
A ROYAL COMMISSION VISITED RHODE ISLAND-King Charles, in 1664, appointed a royal commission to investigate and report upon conditions in America, besides adjusting matters of controversy there that had been neglected during the distractions ensuing in England on revolution and Restoration. The commissioners confirmed for the time being the rights of Rhode Island settlers east of the Pawcatuck River in Westerly ; designated the Narragansett country, a matter of dispute because of apparent conflict in the Rhode Island and Connecticut Charters, as the King's Province, and placed it under the administration of Rhode Island; and left the eastern boundary problem in status quo with Plymouth in possession .* Two of the commissioners, who passed through Rhode Island on a journey from New York to Boston, were entertained royally in the Rhode Island fashion that later served the colony well on several occasions. On coming to Rhode Island the commissioners made five propositions on behalf of his majesty, which with modifications acceptable to both the General Assembly and the commissioners, were ratified as follows :
*Chapter V.
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I. "That all householders inhabiting this colony take the oath of allegiance, and the administration of justice be in his majesty's name." The General Assembly answered that the administration of justice already was in the King's name, and, in view of the colony attitude in opposition to oaths, ordered an engagement as follows: "You, A. B., solemnly and sincerely engage true and faithful allegiance unto his majesty Charles II, King of Eng- land, his heirs and successors, to bear and do obedience unto the laws established, from time to time in this jurisdiction, according to the privilege by his said majesty granted, in religious and civil concernments to this colony in the Charter ; which said engagement you make under the peril and penalty of perjury." There was so much objection to this form of engagement "as too much touching on the conscience . . whether it happen for want of understand- ing the scope of the terms, or by indeed seeing somewhat that is inconsistent with religious concernments," that the General Assembly in 1666, "being (as far as they can justify them- selves therein) really willing to indulge men's consciences," ordered that those who pre- ferred to do so might choose the oath of allegiance required in England, "but if any profess that there are some words in either which in conscience they cannot condescend to say or use" such person may "in words significant there declare his allegiance and submission to his majesty's government" and may "profess seriously that they resolve and engage to yield obedience." Such concession to the common man's opinions is possible only in a democracy.
2. "That all men of competent estates and civil conversation who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil magistrates, though of differing judgments, may be admitted to be free- men, and have liberty to choose and to be chosen officers, both civil and military." The Gen- eral Assembly agreed to admit all who desired freemanship, upon request and suitable proof of qualifications. This agreement between the General Assembly and the King's commis- sioners is construed by some as the precedent for the property qualification for suffrage in Rhode Island. If the commissioners' proposition may be interpreted as a suggestion that suffrage should be restricted to "men of competent estates," then the assumption is justified in view of the nineteenth and twentieth century construction of the property qualification as a restriction upon suffrage. But the commissioners' proposition lends itself more readily to interpretation as a suggestion that freemanship ought to be bestowed reasonably upon all persons who might qualify, and not withheld arbitrarily, which was possible and permissible under the practice prevailing in the seventeenth century. From the point of view suggested by the latter assumption, the order of May, 1665, was not tantamount to the establishing of a property qualification, so much as an acquiescence to a request by the King's commissioners that the colony assume a more liberal attitude. In 1670 it was enacted that towns might elect to freemanship persons capable of public service, "although such person or persons may desire not to be made a freeman or freemen." There were slackers in the seventeenth cen- tury, as there are in the twentieth century persons who fail to qualify for suffrage, or, if qualified, neglect to vote.
3. "That all men and women of orthodox opinion, competent knowledge and civil lives, who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil magistrate, and are not scandalous, may be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and their children to Baptism, if they desire it; either by admitting them into the congregations already gathered, or permitting them to gather themselves into congregations where they may enjoy the benefits of the sacraments, and that difference in opinion may not break the bonds of peace and charity." This proposal was made on behalf of communicants of the Church of England, who experienced little of tolerance in strictly Calvinistic colonies. It was not needed in Rhode Island, and the General Assembly very graciously declared, in answer to the commissioners, that the proposal con- formed to Rhode Island's long established opinion and practice, thus: "As it has been a principle held forth and maintained in this colony from the very beginning thereof, so it is much on their hearts to preserve the same liberty to all persons within this colony forever, as
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to the worship of God, therein taking care for the preservation of civil government to the doing of justice, and preserving each other proprieties from wrong and violence of others."
4. "That all laws and expressions in laws derogatory to his majesty, if any such have been made in these late troublous times, may be repealed, altered, and taken off." The only matters of this sort in Rhode Island were in the nature of expressions of gratefulness to the officers for the time being in control of the English government. The General Assembly assured the commissioners that the laws had been carefully revised after acceptance of the King's Charter. Pages were cut out of certain town record books for this reason.
5. "That this colony be put in such a posture of defence, that if there should be any invasion upon this island or elsewhere in this colony (which God forbid) you may in some measure be in a readiness to defend yourselves; or if need be, to relieve your neighbors according to the power given you by the King in your Charter and to us in this commission and instruction." The General Assembly ordered a thorough organization of the militia, magazines for storing ammunition, and supplies of ammunition and arms.
The report of the commissioners to his majesty was very favorable to Rhode Island, including these comments additional to a record of decisions :
This colony (which now admits all religions, even Quakers and Generalists) was begun by such as the Massachusetts would not suffer to live among them, and is generally hated by the other colonies, who endeavored several ways to suppress them. .
The Narragansett Bay is the largest and safest port in New England, nearest the sea, and fittest for trade.
This colony hath two scattered towns upon Rhode Island, two upon the mainland, and four small villages.
Here only yet is limestone found, and here only the Governor and magistrates serve the public at their own charges. In this colony is the greatest number of Indians, yet they never had anything allowed toward the civilizing and converting of the Indian. And in this colony they have the greatest plains, but no place of strength fortified, though many places capable of fortification.
In this province also is the best English grass, and most sheep, the ground very fruitful; ewes bring ordinarily two lambs; corn yields eighty for one, and in some places they have had corn twenty-six years together without manuring.
In this province only they have not any places set apart for the worship of God, there being so many subdivided sects, they cannot agree to meet together in one place; but according to their several judgments, they sometimes associate in one house, sometimes in another.
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