USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 19
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
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS-In 1666 the General Assembly addressed a petition to the King, requesting English aid in fortifying Narragansett Bay; encouragement for commerce by "some ease in some measure as to taxes upon that which is imported or exported, though but for some years"; aid for schools to be maintained among the Indians; and action favorable to Rhode Island with reference to the disposition of the King's Province. The second request" suggested the device familiar to the period of building up commerce by maintaining an occa- sional free port. In 1665 the General Assembly appointed the Governor, the Deputy Gov- ernor and John Clarke to visit Block Island "to see and judge whether there be a possibility to make a harbor, and what conveniences there may be to give encouragement for a trade of fishery."
The colony was very much concerned with the matter of revenues. There was no instance of a colony tax actually enforced before 1663. The money raised to send Roger Williams and John Clarke to England following the Coddington commission had been col- lected principally as contributions. Difficulty was experienced in collecting the money to cover expenses and the additional grant promised John Clarke on his return after having obtained the Charter. John Clarke, as Roger Williams had been before, was reduced to straitened circumstances, and was constrained to mortgage his estate. One reason for the financial difficulty was the want of a satisfactory medium of exchange. Indian wampum,
104
RHODE ISLAND -- THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
which had served reasonably the needs of the colony in trade with the Indians and amongst themselves, because it was accepted by the Indians in further trade, fell constantly in pur- chasing value, and eventually failed as a suitable currency. In the instance of general taxes the amount to be raised was apportioned to the several towns. There was almost continual bickering over the apportionments on the part of towns which complained that their shares were excessive. In some instances towns failed altogether to raise the quotas assigned; in other instances, because of the indifference of town officers, colony officers were directed to assist in collecting. The colony treasury, as a rule, was so bare of ready funds that fre- quently small sums needed immediately to pay the expenses of messengers and agents entrusted with colony business were raised by contributions of the general officers and Depu- ties gathered in General Assembly. When John Clarke was threatened with loss of his prop- erty through foreclosure of the mortgage which he had given to cover indebtedness incurred while he was agent in England for the colony, money to pay the mortgage was borrowed in part to persuade the mortgagee to wait for the balance, the colony guaranteed payment, and thereafter encountered difficulty in raising the money. General officers were paid no salaries; the fees collected in court in some part compensated them for expenses and services. Deputies could scarcely afford to serve. In 1666 an order was entered for the payment of Deputies attending the General Assembly, because their failure "hath not only exposed the colony to reproach and contempt among our neighbors, but hath extremely hazarded the loss of our Charter." Fines for failure to accept office after election, and for failure to attend sessions of Assembly and court were levied.
DISCORD IN PROVIDENCE-In Providence quarrels with reference to land had begun within a short time after the founding of the settlement. These disputes concerned originally three general issues : (1) The boundaries in the original deed to Roger Williams ; (2) the extent of the grant of the Pawtuxet lands, and (3) the boundary line between the original grant and the Pawtuxet grant. William Harris, one of the companions of Roger Williams, appears to have been the first to oppose the liberal disposition of the latter (I) toward the Indians with reference to a construction of the deeds which saved the Indian interest, and (2) toward the later settlers with reference to granting them land for home lots and pasturage at low prices. Harris was aggressive; perhaps some of the charges made against him by his con- temporaries, including forgery of documents, deceit and trickery, swashbuckling turbulence and challenges to duels with guns or swords, etc., were not true, or were exaggerated. He was thoroughly disliked by many; and, yet, the fact that he was elected and reelected to public office indicates that he must have had a host of followers. He had strong support by Quakers. His frequent appearance in the courts of the colony eventually brought censure and a request that he undertake to reach agreements in controversies rather than plague the judges with them, the court "being wearied with the incessant clamors and complaints." The discord in Providence reached the General Assembly as a parliamentary body in 1667, when eight presented themselves as Deputies to fill the four seats allotted to Providence, with cre- dentials signed by two freemen, each claiming to be the town clerk. It appeared that on the day of election of Deputies William Harris, an Assistant, had refused the votes of certain freemen because they had not previously taken the engagement of allegiance to his majesty. Arthur Fenner, also an Assistant, thereupon administered the engagement, and as moderator presided over a meeting of the "major part of the freemen assembled." Harris charged Fenner in the General Assembly with having led a riot. The General Assembly exonerated Fenner and seated the delegation elected by the majority of the freemen. The Assembly sent a letter to Providence, explanatory of its decision, and requesting "a neighborly compli- ance" in spite of "what difference had formerly been." The Assembly did not censure Har- ris for his part in the meeting at Providence, because he claimed to have been acting under a misconception of the law. Nevertheless, for calling a session of the General Assembly to
105
ORGANIZING A DEMOCRACY
try the charge of riot brought by him against Fenner, Harris was fined £ 50 to cover expenses and inconvenience, and discharged from his office as Assistant, "there being many grievous complaints against him not possible to be remitted so long as he continued in the office of an Assistant, he being very apt to take advantages against the members of this corporation, and to act in a deceitful manner, as will appear in the records of this colony." Against the fine and expulsion of Harris, William Carpenter and Benjamin Smith, both Assistants, protested. All three, Harris, Carpenter and Smith, were reelected as Assistants in 1668, and the fine against Harris was remitted, on the advice of counsel, as a conflict with the laws of England. The conflict in Providence continued. In 1669 John Clarke was instructed to undertake to quiet the trouble there. Later in the same year two sets of Deputies were returned by Provi- dence, carrying credentials issued by two claiming to be town clerk. Neither delegation was seated, but the General Assembly sent John Easton, Joshua Coggeshall, John Coggeshall, William Vahan, and John Sanders to Providence, with instructions to call a meeting of the freemen and attempt to adjust differences, and if that could be accomplished, to call a special election meeting. Though no report of the committee has been found, it appears that the mis- sion was not successful. A letter from Providence addressed to the March meeting of the General Assembly at Newport reported riot and violence. Thereupon four were sent to ascertain "how many and who they are of the town of Providence that are free inhabitants of the colony and have or do take the engagement to be true subjects to the King," and to con- duct an election meeting. In May, 1670, Providence was represented by Deputies, and there being a question as to which of Arthur Fenner or William Harris had been elected as Assist- ant, Roger Williams was chosen by the Assembly. In 1671, William Harris was elected Gen- eral Solicitor. In 1672, he was arrested on a charge of treason preferred by Roger Williams, and was committed to prison without bail. He had become a Quaker, and was promptly released by the incoming Quaker administration in 1672. In the controversy with Connecticut over the western boundary line of Rhode Island* Harris took the part of Connecticut, although continuing to hold office in Rhode Island. In 1680, sailing for England, he was captured by pirates, and died shortly after reaching England. While the followers of Roger Williams , and Arthur Fenner were victorious, so far as relations with the General Assembly were con- cerned, the Harris principles of expansion prevailed in Providence. It was inevitable that they should, in view of the increasing population, the demand for land, and the narrow boundaries prescribed by the Indian deeds as interpreted by Roger Williams. The settlement spread out, passing the older boundary lines, as new land was taken up by freeholders. Eventually the western line was run twenty miles from the river.
POPULAR GOVERNMENT IN PRACTICE-The General Assembly opened at least each annual election session with the reading of the Charter, and continued to protect and guar- antee liberty of conscience and freedom of opinion. In April, 1672, a penalty was ordered for persons found guilty of opposing the collection of taxes, or criticising the Charter, laws or General Assembly. But this assertion of "lese majesty" was short lived; in May, 1672, the earlier act was repealed as "seeming to the infringing of the liberties of the people of this colony, and setting up an arbitrary power, which is contrary to the laws of England and the fundamental laws of this colony from the very first settling thereof." In 1673 conscientious objectors were excused from military service, including training with the militia, but holden to service in removing non-combatants and property from danger. In May, 1676, the exemp- tion was repealed. The repealing statute was repealed and the exemption restored in Octo- ber, 1676. In the following year the exemption was once more repealed, the General Assem- bly then restating carefully its position as to freedom of conscience, thus: "This Assembly do hereby declare that it is their full and unanimous resolution to maintain a full liberty in religious concernments relating to the worship of God, and that no person inhabiting within
*Chapter V.
106
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
this jurisdiction shall be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any differences of opinion in matters of religion, who do not actually disturb the civic peace of the colony." The colony apparently had learned a lesson from unpreparedness in King Philip's War. Reciting again the doctrine of liberty of conscience, the General Assembly in 1673, made Sunday a holiday "not to propagate any worship, but as to preventing debase- ness," and forbade the sale of liquor on Sunday. In 1677, on petition from Sabbatarians "that the market may be removed or changed from being on the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, it not being consistent to their opinion to be then kept," the General Assembly "not finding it necessary to remove or change the said market, held on Saturday, do see cause and order that a market may likewise be kept on every Thursday." The form of engagement for general officers adopted in 1677 follows: "You . . do solemnly engage true alle- giance unto his majesty, . ... to bear, and in your said office equal justice and right to do unto all persons, both poor and rich within this jurisdiction, to the utmost of your skill and ability, without partiality, according to the laws established in this said jurisdiction, accord- ing to the Charter, as well in matters military as civil. And this engagement you make and. give upon the peril of the penalty of perjury." The colony was generous. It remitted for- feitures freely, and in the instance of crimes carrying capital punishment as well as escheat, it restored the estate to the families if it appeared that they were without means. Although the incidents of King Philip's War affected opinion with reference to the Indians, and brought all Indians under suspicion, no harsh measures beyond careful watching and punishment for proved offences were undertaken. When Indians were on trial in the colony court juries were drawn to include six Indians and six white men. Indian slavery was forbidden; Indian bondmen were limited to nine years' service. In relations with the sachems extreme care was taken not to offend the dignity of the latter.
In 1677, the colony undertook to promote the establishment of a new town, the seventh, to be located at East Greenwich, in the Narragansett country. To encourage settlement town lots of ten acres each were offered to fifty freemen, with right to ninety acres west of the compact village.
The government in 1677 was republican as it conformed to the principle of representa- tion, but democratic in fact as it emphasized the right of the freemen to veto the acts of the General Assembly by reversing party control through the ballot box. If and when the General Assembly ventured to enact a measure distasteful to the freemen, the General Assembly following the next election lost no time in repealing the obnoxious law. The offi- cers included a Governor, Deputy Governor, ten Assistants, and other general officers, all elected in General Assembly by the freemen, those who found it inconvenient to attend the election meeting at Newport sending in their ballots by proxy. The ballots were deposited "in a hat" and counted in the presence of the Assembly. The parliamentary General Assem- bly exercising legislative powers included the Governor and Deputy Governor, the Assistants, of whom six must be present to make the quorum; and Deputies elected by the freemen in the towns. By statute it had been established that the quorum for all laws except emergency measures must include either the Governor or Deputy Governor, six Assistants and a majority of the Deputies. Tax measures were invalid unless voted by a majority of the Deputies present. Local courts were organized in the towns, but matters of weight were tried in judi- cial colony courts consisting of members of the General Assembly. There was no separation of powers. Indeed the frequent meetings of the General Assembly were necessitated by the combination of executive, legislative and judicial powers in one agency; and the business included executive orders, laws, and the entry of judicial decisions. The annual election meeting of the General Assembly was held at Newport on the first Wednesday in May, and other meetings of the General Assembly were held in October and at other times by adjourn- ment or on the call of the Governor, as the nature of the business from time to time indi-
107
ORGANIZING A DEMOCRACY
cated convenience. The meetings were held usually in private houses or taverns; the record of an election meeting refers to the use of the kitchen as a place for counting ballots. The General Assembly was closely in contact with the people. For many reasons it was fortunate that the men who were prominent in the original settlements for the most part lived through the first forty years of the colony's history, were almost continuously in public service through office holding, and adhered very rigidly to the fundamental principles early established.
A SUMMARY-"This little commonwealth, whose area is 1085 square miles, is of all the American states that which has furnished the most abundant analogies to the republics of antiquity and which best deserves to have its annals treated of by a philosophical historian," wrote Bryce in "The American Commonwealth." There is scarcely a period of forty years in history that equals in variety of experience and that will repay so well earnest examination by students of democracy as will the story of Rhode's Island political development from 1636 to 1677. In 1636, town government in fortnightly town meeting by mutual agreement was begun in Providence. Mutual agreement yielded to majority rule, in civil matters only, and, as attendance on town meeting became onerous, administration by agents and compulsory arbitration were set up, both subject to examination by the freemen in quarterly meeting. In 1638 a government by judge and elders, resembling Old Testament Hebrew practice, was established at Pocasset. Within two years two political governments had emerged from this, and a state government styled a democracy had superseded both. In 1642 Rhode Island, then consisting of four towns, all carrying on government based on compacts, was constrained principally by the necessity for defence against neighbors, to seek a charter. Rampant indi- vidualism, strong local community interests, and jealousy, perhaps, delayed a satisfactory organization under the Charter for ten years after the granting of it. Meanwhile Rhode Island experienced most of the difficulties that beset confederacies, including the conflicting aspirations of rival governments. When in 1663 a royal Charter, notable for its extreme liberality, was obtained, Rhode Island persisted in working out its own experience very much in its own way under an assumption that the Charter authorized the utmost freedom. Through all the vicissitudes that beset the small colony, in spite of the persistent interference of neighbors, undaunted by persecution, Rhode Island adhered consistently to the original principles of freedom of opinion, liberty of conscience and faith in the common citizen.
Initiative and referendum, popular election of officers, proxy voting to accommodate electors remote from the polling place, representative government in popular general assem- bly, the problem of dual constituencies in a legislative body, the reconciliation of individual right with community necessity-all of these and other problems were faced, and solutions were attempted. That the colony government continued to be weak; that jealous neighbor- ing communities sat hungrily waiting to divide the spoils of dismemberment when the "lively experiment" resulted in the destruction that was predicted by those to whom it was not given to understand the travail of democracy ; that sometimes even good democrats of the type of Roger Williams and John Clarke despaired; all of these, and other things that indicate that turbulence, violence and even riot were occasionally substituted for what should have been harmony, peace and good will, were true. In the weakness of authority lay the salvation of this venture in democracy ; the merit of the "lively experiment" lay principally in the fact that there was no authority that could suppress this exuberant venture in a freedom never before known in man's history. In an age when mankind suffered because of strength of government, when the individual was helpless, when in neighboring colonies, called free, tyranny was practiced, there was one place where the citizen was exalted, and that was Rhode Island. If for no other reason than recognition of an ancient and honorable period in its history, Rhode Island is justified in keeping the heroic figure of the Independent Man on the pinnacle of the State House, and in preserving the inscription that circles the marble
108
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
dome: "Rara temporum felicitas ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet." The noble Roman Tacitus who penned this significant expression, "for the times an unusual hap- piness, that one may say what he thinks and think what he pleases," would have found an unusual happiness had the opportunity been given him to write the history of democracy in Rhode Island, particularly in the period from 1636 to 1677.
CHAPTER VII. EARLY INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL LIFE.
OGER WILLIAMS reached Providence in a canoe; by what method of traveling he reached the easterly bank of the Seekonk River, the seat of his tentative set- tlement, after the winter escape from Salem, is not known. Nor is it known where he obtained the canoe, or the tools with which he began to build a house and plant in the spring of 1636 before he was requested by Plymouth to move on. From the Puritans of his day and generation Roger Williams differed in other respects than religion and politics; unlike most of them he did not write a diary and leave to posterity a meticulously detailed story of his life. That he had no Conestoga wagon, the covered vehicle of the immigrant trains in the western movement across the prairies, is certain. He carried so little food that he was constrained to resort to the wigwams of friendly Indians. From the latter, possibly, he obtained the canoe and tools, as well as corn and beans for planting ; though there is the probability also that he was able to purchase tools from John Oldham or some other of the English traders who followed the shore line bartering English goods for Indian peltry. The Indians had recognized the superiority of English tools to their own rude stone implements, and had been supplied with them since the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, if not before. It is possible also that some of the early companions and followers of Roger Williams reached Providence by water, or traveled part of the dis- tance in trading vessels; and that Mrs. Roger Williams, with her two children, one an infant born in the winter of 1635, did not make the journey overland, although Mrs. Thomas Hooker, an invalid, accompanied her husband on the long trek from Massachusetts Bay to the valley of the Connecticut River. In the absence of diary or other statement by Roger Williams or his companions, much is left for imagination, although there are certain facts, among them that the settlement was made in the wilderness, and that tools were absolutely necessary, that may not be evaded.
The first Aquidneck settlers left Massachusetts Bay under more favoring circumstances. Their departure was not hurried as had been that of Roger Williams. In the narrative by John Clarke, "Ill News from New England," it is related that they engaged a vessel whereby to set forth to accomplish their purpose of establishing a new settlement beyond the limits of any patent. The Puritan exodus from England in 1630 and following years had been well organized, and the Aquidneck group, including several wealthy families, could and did profit from earlier experiences. With a vessel of the type commonly in use in transatlantic voyag- ing, passengers, furniture, tools, stores of food, and even livestock, could be carried. The short passage from Massachusetts Bay to Narragansett Bay could be made in so brief time that several trips might be made. There is no reason for believing that the settlers at Pocas- set or Newport suffered serious hardship. No doubt the general freedom from care of the kind that must have obsessed the Providence planters in the early days contributed to the comparative ease with which the Aquidneck settlers accomplished the establishment of a government, and conducted the business affairs of the two towns.
The first houses erected by Roger Williams and his companions probably were log cabins, with rough stone chimneys, thatched roofs, and walls of logs, axe hewn to flatness on two sides, and mortised at the ends by halving. Whether or not the Aquidneck settlers built log houses is not known; they may have transported lumber from Massachusetts Bay, as Richard Smith did from Taunton when he built his trading house near Wickford in 1641. The houses built in Providence in later years, when sawed timber and lumber were available, were mod-
IIO
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
est in proportions and unpretentious in design, probably with only one general room for all purposes in the earliest instances. Later houses were of one, one-and-one-half, and two stories ; in the latter the lower chamber, or living room, and the upper chamber, or sleeping room, both were heated by open fireplaces. Lean-to additions were constructed as more rooms were needed. The practice of enlarging dwellings by building ells was established at an early date in New England. Probably the earliest island houses were little more pretentious, although the Henry Bull house, a large two-story structure, so well constructed that it sur- vived the stress of weather for two centuries, was imposing. William Coddington had built the first brick house in Boston. He and some others of the island men were wealthy, and could well afford good houses. Sawed lumber, of local manufacture, was available at New- port so early as January, 1639-1640, when an order was issued by the court, before which Ralph Earle and Mr. Wilbore, his partner, had been haled for felling timber without license, fixing prices for sawed boards, half-inch boards and clapboards.
One of the marvels of the twentieth century has been the amount of antique furniture alleged to have reached America in the "Mayflower." Perhaps the island settlers were not so badly off for furniture, because of their control of a vessel, as were the Providence plant- ers. Chairs, as indicated by inventories of probated estates, were scarce in Rhode Island in early days. Stools, benches, and settles served the purpose of chairs; these could be made from boards hewn or sawed from the wood of primæval forests, without involving the time and careful workmanship required to construct a chair. Silver was almost unknown; pewter was the colonial metal for tableware. Crockery was minutely described and counted piece by piece in probate inventories in such manner as to indicate a value established by scarcity.
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.