USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 40
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While the colonial period ended chronologically on May 4, 1776, when Rhode Island declared independence, the impending Revolution and the nature of relations with the mother country changed so radically at the end of the French and Indian War as to suggest that as probably a more accurate time for closing a chapter dealing with Rhode Island as a rising colonial commonwealth. Very fortunately a splendid résumé of economic and political con- ditions has been preserved in the "Remonstrance of the Colony of Rhode Island to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations" adopted in General Assembly on January 24, 1764, at South Kingstown, extracts from which follow :
The colony of Rhode Island includes not a much larger extent of territory than about thirty miles square; and of this a great part is a barren soil not worth the expense of cultivation; the number of souls in it amount to 48,000, of which the two seaport towns of Newport and Providence contain nearly one-third. The colony hath no staple commodity for exportation, and does not raise provisions sufficient for its own consumption ; yet, the goodness of its harbors, and its convenient situation for trade, agreeing with the spirit and industry of the people, hath in some measure supplied the deficiency of its natural produce and provided the means of subsistence to its inhabitants.
By a moderate calculation the quantity of British manufactures and other goods of every kind imported from Great Britain, and annually consumed in this colony, amount at least to £120,000 sterling, part of which is imported directly into the colony; but as remittances are more easily made to the neighboring provinces of the Massachusetts Bay, Pennsylvania and New York than to Great Britain, a considerable part
*A troup of players had been well received in Newport a short time earlier.
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is purchased from them. This sum of £120,000 sterling may be considered as a debt due from the colony, the payment of which is the great object of every branch of commerce, carried on by its inhabitants, and exercises the skill and invention of every trader. The only articles produced in the colony suitable for remittance to Europe consist of some flaxseed and oil, and some few ships built for sale; the whole amounting to about £5,000 sterling per annum. The other articles furnished by the colony for exportation are some lumber, cheese and horses; the whole amount of all which together bears but a very inconsiderable proportion of the debt contracted for British goods. It can, therefore, be nothing but commerce which enables us to pay it. As there is no commodity raised in the colony suitable for the European market but the few articles aforementioned; and as the other goods raised for exportation will answer at no other market but in the West Indies, it necessarily follows that the trade thither must be the foundation of all our commerce; and it is undoubtedly true that solely from the prosecution of this trade with the other branches that are pursued in consequence of it, arises the ability to pay for such quantities of British goods.
It appears from the custom house books in Newport that from January, 1763, to January, 1764, there were 184 sail of vessels bound on foreign voyages, that is, to Europe, Africa and the West Indies; and 352 sail of vessels employed in the coasting trade, that is, between Georgia and Newfoundland, inclusive, which, with the fishing vessels, are navigated by at least 2200 seamen .* Of these foreign vessels about 150 are annually employed in the West India trade, which import into this colony annually about 14,000 hogs- heads of molasses, whereof, a quantity not exceeding 2500 hogsheads come from all the English islands together. It is this quantity of molasses which serves as the engine in the hands of the merchant to effect the great purpose of paying for British manufacture; for part of it is exported to the Massachusetts Bay, to New York and Pennsylvania, to pay for British goods, for provisions and for many articles which compose our West India cargoes; and part to the other colonies, southward of these last mentioned, for such commodities as serve for a remittance immediately to Europe, such as rice, naval stores, etc., or such as are necessary to enable us to carry on our commerce ; the remainder (besides what is consumed by the inhabitants) is distilled into rum and exported to the coast of Africa; nor will this trade to Africa appear to be of little consequence, if the following account of it be considered.
Formerly the negroes upon the coast were supplied with large quantities of French brandies; but in the year 1723 some merchants from this colony first introduced the use of rum there, which, from small beginnings, soon increased to the consumption of several thousand hogsheads yearly; by which the French are deprived of the sale of an equal amount of brandy. . . . This little colony, only, for more than thirty years past, have annually sent about eighteen sail of vessels to the coast, which have carried about 1800 hogsheads of rum, together with a small quantity of provisions and some other articles, which have been sold for slaves, gold dust, elephants' teeth, camwood, etc. The slaves have been sold in the English islands, in Carolina and Virginia, for bills of exchange, and the other articles have been sent to Europe; and by this trade alone, remittances have been made from this colony to Great Britain to the value of about £40,000 yearly. . . . The remonstrance continued with a discussion of the necessity for retaining the trade with the West India islands.
This colony, by the misfortunes it suffered in trade during the late war, but above all by the great expenses they were at . . . . is greatly reduced in its circumstances, and now actually labors under a debt, contracted solely by carrying on the war, of near f70,000 sterling, for which it annually pays a large interest. . . . There are upwards of thirty distil houses (erected at a vast expense ; the principal materials of which are imported from Great Britain) constantly employed in making rum from molasses. This distillery is the main hinge upon which the trade of the colony turns, and many persons depend immediately upon it for a subsistence. These distil houses, for want of molasses, must be shut up, to the ruin of many families, and of our trade in general. . . . Two-thirds of our vessels will become useless and perish upon our hands; our mechanics and those who depend upon the merchant for employment, must seek for subsistence elsewhere.
The remonstrance was argumentative and the economic information in it was marshalled to support the plea for abating English legislation that would interfere with the molasses and sugar trade. Yet the essential facts, as facts apart from their setting in the argument, were impressive. Rhode Island had developed the resources of Narragansett Bay and its harbors, and had constructed a colonial commonwealth resting upon commerce, because the soil of the colony promised little that might be made to yield an abundant prosperity either through agri-
*A relief fund for poor sailors, maintained by assessments, was established in 1730. The Fellowship Club, a fraternal, beneficial association for ship officers, was established in 1754.
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culture or mining. Out of the search for favorable carrying trade had developed a three-profit voyage --- to Africa with rum to be exchanged for slaves; to the West Indies with slaves to be exchanged for molasses; home to Rhode Island with molasses to be manufactured into rum. Rum, slaves and molasses-these three had helped to build a commonwealth. Around the dis- tillery of rum had grown up other industries, including the making of casks and barrels. The shipyards were busy with the building of vessels to maintain the fleets engaged in foreign commerce, in coastwise commerce, and in the fishery. The ships carried 2200 seamen; the allied industries must have given employment to thousands of others. The leading men of the
colonies were able, educated and cultured. One who reads the correspondence of colonial officers in the eighteenth century, particularly in comparison with the letters of earlier officers, cannot fail to be impressed by the progress achieved, and by the conciseness and accuracy of expression, and clearness and directness of style that marked the later period. Newport had already experienced its golden age before the Revolution. Each of Newport and Providence had its library of well-selected literature, and each supported a weekly newspaper. Rhode Island College, later to be known internationally as Brown University, was chartered in 1764 with an impressive list of distinguished citizens of Rhode Island as incorporators. There were still two principal classes of men in Rhode Island-farmers and sailors. The farmers were rugged, resourceful and independent men who had conquered an almost hostile soil and made it produce. The sailors were rugged, resourceful and independent men who had mastered the sea and made it bosom argosies laden with the wealth of Africa and West India. These were the men who fashioned a colonial commonwealth, conceived in democracy; these were the men who would defend democracy and save it for mankind.
CHAPTER XI. THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION.
HE ink with which the Treaty of Paris had been signed had scarcely been sanded ere that discord appeared between England and her American colonies that had been foreseen by French and other statesmen of the period. Joseph Sherwood, Rhode Island's agent in England, under date of August 4, 1763, suggested Eng- land's purpose to impose the maintenance of a standing army upon the colonies, writing: "It is rumored here, and I believe upon good foundation, that the government will expect a number of troops (some say 10,000) to be kept on foot and at the sole expense of the American provinces, for their own preservation and safeguard, in order to prevent encroach- ments and hostilities." The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, in October, com- plained that the revenue failed to defray a fourth part of the expense of collecting it, and com- manded "suppression of the clandestine and prohibited trade with foreign nations." The cus- toms service was strengthened by the appointment of new and also additional officers. For these the General Assembly established a table of fees in October. Admiral Colvill, command- ing his majesty's fleet, stationed the "Squirrel," ship, in Newport harbor "for the encourage- ment of fair trade by the prevention of smuggling." The General Assembly on January 24, 1764, directed Governor Hopkins to send to England, addressed to Sherwood, copies of a remonstrance* against renewal of the sugar act, which had expired by limitation at the end of thirty years. The remonstrance, drafted by Governor Hopkins, reviewed the economic situa- tion of the colony, and undertook to prove that a free trade in sugar would be advantageous to Rhode Island by maintaining a profitable trade, and to England as a prosperous Rhode Island would become a better market for English goods, and if harmful to anybody, harmful only to the French, by reason of losing the brandy trade in Africa. Parliament revived the sugar act, but reduced the duty from sixpence to threepence. Imposts on other articles, including coffee, wines, and spice, were ordered. Export of iron and lumber except to England was forbidden.
The legislation of 1764 included also an announcement of the stamp act, which required the placing of a revenue stamp upon every piece of vellum, parchment and paper used for commercial and legal purposes, including court processes; upon playing cards, dice, news- papers, pamphlets, advertisements, almanacs, calendars, apprenticeship agreements, and docu- ments in any language other than English. The preamble declared the purpose of the stamp act to be "the raising of a revenue for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting and securing his majesty's dominions in America." The stamp act was not to be put into effect immediately ; an opportunity was to be given for Americans to choose another form of taxa- tion. The form of taxation was of much less importance to them than the fact of taxation. Stamp taxes have become familiar in America as devices for raising revenue. America in 1764 was opposed to any taxation by England, and the stamp act immediately aroused a storm of protest in America. America interpreted the tax policy as a device for transferring to America part of the burden of an English national debt that had been accumulated principally through European wars. The spoils of conquest, the territory acquired from France and Spain under the Treaty of Paris, alone should compensate England for war expenditures in America. The Earl of Halifax, in August, 1764, requested the Governor to transmit without delay "a list of all instruments made use of in public transactions, law proceedings. grants, conveyances, securities of land or money within your government."
*Chapter X.
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The General Assembly, in July, appointed Governor Hopkins, Daniel Jencks and Nich- olas Brown a "committee of correspondence" to "confer and consult with any committee or committees that are or shall be appointed by any of the British colonies upon the continent of North America, and to agree with them upon such measures as shall appear to them necessary and proper to procure a repeal of the . ... sugar act .... and also the act .... for levying several duties in the colony, or in procuring the duties in the last mentioned act to be lessened; also to prevent the levying a stamp duty upon the North American colonies . . . . and, generally, for the prevention of all such taxes, duties or impositions that may be proposed to be assessed upon the colonists which may be inconsistent with their rights and privileges as British subjects." In October, Governor Hopkins, Nicholas Tillinghast, Joseph Lippitt, Joshua Babcock, Daniel Jencks, John Cole and Nicholas Brown were appointed a committee "to prepare an address to his majesty for a redress of our grievances in respect to the duties, impositions, etc., already laid and proposed to be laid on this colony." Rumor that a petition had been sent to England praying "his majesty to vacate the Charter of this colony," resulted in a resolution that the colony agent in London be instructed "to use his utmost effort to pre- vent the evil intended by the said petitioners ; and also, as soon as possible, to transmit a copy of the said petition, with the names of the subscribers, to the Governor and Company of this colony." The agent reported later that the petition, if sent to England, had not been presented.
"RIGHTS OF COLONIES EXAMINED"-Governor Hopkins in a message to the Assembly at the opening of the November session, said: "The burdens put on the trade of the northern colonies by a late act of Parliament are already severely felt ; the stamp duties intended to be laid upon them will be a still heavier burden; and the plan formed by the British ministry to raise as much money in America as hath been expended for its defense, must complete our ruin. To all this let me add the information I have received that a petition is already sent to England by a considerable number of the inhabitants of this colony, full of complaints against it, praying that our Charter may be taken away and a new form of government introduced. These are certainly matters of the utmost importance to your constituents; and as such will, I hope, be seriously considered by you; every remedy that is possible properly applied and, should slavery become the portion of the unhappy people, let no part of their misfortune be chargeable on any neglect or inattention of their representatives." Governor Hopkins in his final plea, beginning "should slavery become the portion of the unhappy people," had struck once more the note sounded by Governor Cranston in the address in which he was accused by Bellemont of insinuating that his majesty's government was "little better than bondage and slavery." The General Assembly adopted the address to his majesty prepared by its commit- tee, and also requested Governor Hopkins "to correct the piece lying before this Assembly entitled 'The Rights of Colonies Examined,'" and directed a committee "to view the said per- formance after it shall be completed" and "if they shall approve the same," to send two fair copies to the colony agent "to be by him but in print, and to make use of the same in conjunc- tion with the other agents, as they shall think will be most for the advantage of the colonies." The address to the King, written by Governor Hopkins and his associates, was dignified and respectful, but lacked altogether the fawning attitude assumed in communications to his maj- esty earlier than 1750. It asserted a contract as the basis for the relations between the col- onists and the King, thus: "Before their departure, the terms they removed upon, and the relation they should stand in to the mother country, in their emigrant state, were settled. They were to remain subject to the King, and dependent on the kingdom of England; in return, they were to receive protection, and enjoy all the privileges of freeborn Englishmen." The address complained to the King that "the restraints and burdens laid on the trade of these colonies by a late act of Parliament are such, as if continued, must ruin it," and instanced the
HOPE STREET, BRISTOL
HARDWARE
MAIN STREET. LOOKING SOUTH, WARREN
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sugar act as a measure that would destroy utterly the most important commerce of Rhode Island. Furthermore, "the extensive powers given by the same act to the courts of vice- admiralty in America have a tendency in a great measure to deprive the colonies of that darling privilege, trials by juries, the unalienable birthright of every Englishman." The stamp act was characterized as tending "to deprive us of our just and long enjoyed rights. We have hitherto possessed, as we thought, according to right, equal freedom with your majesty's subjects in Britain, whose essential privilege it is to be governed only by laws to which themselves have some way consented, and not to be compelled to part with their property but as it is called for by authority of such laws." The address predicted that the withdrawal of money by taxation would "totally deprive" the people "of the means of paying their debts to, and continuing their trade with, Great Britain, and leave the people here poor and miserable." "Our ancestors," the address continued, "being loyal and dutiful subjects, removed and planted here under a royal promise, that, observing and fulfilling the conditions enjoined them, they and their chil- dren after them forever, should hold and enjoy equal rights, privileges and immunities with their fellow subjects in Britain. These conditions have been faithfully kept by this colony. We do, therefore, most humbly beseech your majesty that our freedom and all our just rights may be continued to us inviolate." The final prediction, "whatever may be determined con- cerning them, the Governor and Company of Rhode Island will ever unalterably remain your majesty's most loyal, most dutiful and most obedient subjects" was destined not to be fulfilled literally. Twelve years later, Stephen Hopkins and his associates were as staunch and daring rebels as they had been "dutiful and most obedient subjects" in 1764. The address was sig- nificant, however, because it stated concisely exactly the issues involved in the Revolution, restated in the Rhode Island Declaration of Independence of May 4, 1776, and the American Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, that is to say, a relation between colony and King resting upon contract, and a violation of the contract by the King and his ministers.
"The Rights of Colonies Examined" was a finely reasoned exposition of the situation confronting the colonies and the government of England, the appeal of a free and liberty-loving people against the curtailment of their liberties and the inauguration of a tyranny. The theme was epic and the treatment was masterful; the logic was reinforced by citation of historic episodes. "Liberty is the greatest blessing that men enjoy, and slavery the heaviest curse that human nature is capable of"-this opening sentence struck the keynote.
The British constitution, "the best that ever existed among men, will be confessed by all to be founded on compact, and established by consent of the people. By this most beneficial compact British subjects are to be governed only agreeably to laws to which themselves have some way consented ; and are not to be compelled to part with their property but as it is called for by the authority of such laws. The former is truly liberty; the latter is truly to be pos- sessed of property, and to have something that may be called one's own. On the contrary, those who are governed at the will of another, or of others, and whose property may be taken from them by taxes, or otherwise, without their consent, and against their will, are in the miserable condition of slaves." Passing immediately to a consideration of the question, "whether the British American colonies on the continent are justly entitled to like privileges and freedom as their fellow subjects in Great Britain," Hopkins cited, first, the emigration from England under charters granted by King Charles I as establishing these privileges and freedom by contract; secondly, abundantly from the history of colonies, Greek, Roman, French and Spanish, to prove that colonials universally had "equal liberty and freedom with their fellow subjects" in the mother country; thirdly, the British practice theretofore of treat- ing the "colonies as possessed of these rights" and "as their dependent, though free, condition required." After 150 years "the scene seems to be unhappily changing. The British ministry, whether induced by a jealousy of the colonies, by false information, or by some alteration in
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the system of political government, we have no information; whatever hath been the motive, this we are sure of, the Parliament in their last session, passed an act limiting, restricting and burdening the trade of these colonies much more than had ever been done before; as also for greatly enlarging the power and jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty in the colonies; and also a resolution that it might be necessary to establish stamp duties, and other internal taxes, to be collected with them." Hopkins conceded that "there are many things of a more general nature, quite out of reach of" the colonial "legislatures, which it is necessary should be regu- lated, ordered and governed. One of this kind is the commerce of the whole British empire, taken collectively, and that of each kingdom and colony in it, as it makes a part of the whole," and that "the Parliament of Great Britain, that grand and august legislative body, must, from the nature of their authority, and the necessity of the thing, be justly vested with this power." He waived the question of colonial representation in Parliament, as possibly not "consistent with their distant and dependent state" or not "to their advantage," and asserted that the col- onies "ought in justice, and for the very evident good of the whole commonwealth, to have notice of every new measure about to be pursued, and new act that is about to be passed, by which their rights, liberties or interests will be affected; they ought to have such notice, that they may appear and be heard by their agents, by counsel, or written representation, or by some other equitable and efficient way. . .. Had the colonies been fully heard before the late act had been passed, no reasonable man can suppose it ever would have passed at all; for what good reason can possibly be given for making a law to cramp the trade and ruin the interests of many of the colonies, and at the same time, lessen in a prodigious manner the consumption of the British manufactures in them?" Hopkins then undertook to prove that the enforcement of the sugar act would destroy Rhode Island's most profitable commerce and industry; that the restriction of export of lumber to England only would destroy the profit of exporting flax- seed to Ireland ; that the new jurisdiction conferred upon admiralty courts could be applied in such manner as to destroy shipping practically by confiscation, which might follow proof of "only probable cause"; and that the stamp act inaugurated a system of "internal taxation" that violated first principles. Rebutting the assumption that members of Parliament as "men of the highest character for their wisdom, justice and integrity" could not "be supposed to deal hardly, unjustly or unequally by any," Hopkins replied that "one who is bound to obey the will of another is as really a slave though he may have a good master as if he had a bad one," and that the pressure upon members of Parliament, who "must obtain the votes of the people," would induce them to make a virtue of transferring so much of the burden of taxation as possible from England to America. He then asserted that "the richest and surest treasure of the prince was the love of his subjects." "We are not insensible," he wrote, "that when liberty is in danger, the liberty of complaining is dangerous. . .. Is the defence of liberty become so contemptible and pleading for just rights so dangerous?" Hopkins reached up to the essential issue in the question, "And can it possibly be shown that the people in Britain have a sovereign authority over their fellow subjects in America?" The answer to this ques- tion was then and is now that the British Parliament had no more right to enact as law a statute that would operate in Rhode Island than the Rhode Island General Assembly had to enact as law a statute that would operate in England. On this principle of independence within the empire rests the organization of the British dominions in the present century, including as it does colonial republics bound to the mother country by ties of amity and comity resting upon mutual recognition of right. Canada is rightly called "daughter" in the imperial household but "mistress" at home. Hopkins reached the correct answer: "In an imperial state, which con- sists of many separate governments, each of which hath peculiar privileges," wrote Hopkins, "and of which kind it is evident the empire of Great Britain is; no single part, though greater than any other part, is by that superiority entitled to make laws for, or to tax such lesser part,
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