USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 44
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Governor, please be informed that I do not receive instructions for the administration of my government from the King's admiral stationed in America. . .. The information you have received 'that the people of Newport talked of fitting out an armed vessel to rescue any vessel the King's schooner might take carrying on an illicit trade,' you may be assured is without any foundation, and a scandalous imposition; for, upon inquiring into this matter I cannot find that any such design was ever conceived, or so much as talked of ; and, therefore, I hope you will not hang any of his majesty's subjects belonging to his colony upon such false informa- tion. I am greatly obliged for the promise of transmitting my letter to the secretaries of state. I am, however, a little shocked at your impolite expression, made use of upon that occasion. In return for this good office I shall also transmit your letter to the secretary of state, and leave to the King and his ministers to determine on which side the charge of insolence lies. As to your advice not to send the sheriff on board any of your squadron, please to know that I will send the sheriff of this colony at any time, and to any place within the body of it, as I shall think fit. In the last paragraph of your letter, you are pleased flatly to contradict what you wrote in the beginning ; for there you assert that Dudingston, by his instructions, was directed to show me the admiralty and your orders to him ; and here you assert that I have no business with them ; and assure me that it is not his duty to show me them, or any part thereof."
Governor Wanton, in conformity with a vote of the General Assembly, transmitted the correspondence to London in May, with a letter relating the circumstances, and an additional cause for complaint : "It is now my turn to complain of Mr. Dudingston's illegal proceedings in carrying a quantity of rum he had seized on board a small boat, lying within the county of Kent, in this colony, to Boston, for trial; notwithstanding, by the Eighth of his majesty, it is expressly declared that all forfeitures of this kind shall be tried in that colony where the offence is committed." Dudingston in a letter to Montagu referred to this seizure of twelve hogsheads of rum as "a bait the inhabitants of this government would willingly put in my way if that could fix the schooner," adding, "I could expect no quarter from people of that stamp. On the 20th the sloop was condemned. I have taken the liberty to enclose my letter to the commissioners for your perusal, open ; as it was the intention of the people here, to have the sloop sold in the manner they have been used to, and which always falls into the old owner's hands, without opposition."
The Governor's letter to Hillsborough continued : "To recite every particular of his unwar- rantable procedure would, my lord, be too tedious. Let it then suffice, that since the 'Gaspee' and 'Beaver' have been stationed in this colony the inhabitants have been insulted without any just cause, with the most abusive and contumelious language; and I am sorry that I have reason to say that the principal officers belonging to said vessels have exercised that power with which they are vested, in a wanton and arbitrary manner, to the great injury and disturb- ance of this colony. I have, my lord, constantly afforded the King's officers all the assistance in my power in the legal discharge of their trust ; but if any of them, through prejudice, ignor- ance of their duty, or youthful indiscretion, insult this colony, it is my duty as his majesty's Governor to remonstrate against it."
The "Gaspee" continued to harass Rhode Island commerce ; so far as it was possible to do so, it overhauled, boarded and searched for contraband every vessel entering or leaving any Rhode Island harbor, particularly Providence vessels and small boats plying between Newport and places up the bay and rivers. Relatively the results were meagre in captures and confisca- tions. While there was smuggling in Rhode Island waters unquestionably, most of the traffic was lawful and regular. Besides that, Rhode Island captains were resourceful sailors, and soon learned methods of avoiding or escaping the "Gaspee." Decoys were used to draw the "Gas- pee" off on merry chases, while other vessels took advantage of the distraction to sail without molestation. The English officers and their crew were overbearing and insulting in their
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demeanor ; the delays incident to searches were vexatious, and interfered seriously with the regular sailings of packets, planned to take full advantage of favoring winds and tides. New- port seethed with wrath at the prospect of a summer of discontent; in Providence the towns- people were being welded into a solidarity of hatred, easily stirred to determined action should occasion arise-as it did. Dudingston and the "Gaspee" were exactly the irritants needed to keep alive in Rhode Island the opposition to the English policy of taxing the colonies. Dud- ingston himself very wisely ventured not ashore ; had he escaped the summary reprisals visited upon other upstart and unpopular English naval officers, he would have been arrested in civil actions for damages arising from his illegal and wholly unwarranted interference with per- fectly legitimate shipping. The exchange of correspondence between him and Governor Wan- ton, and between the latter and Admiral Montagu indicated that little alleviation of the nuisance could be expected through the ordinary channels of official action.
The day of reckoning for Dudingston and the "Gaspee" came early in June. On the eighth the "Hannah," Providence sloop, Captain Benjamin Lindsey, from New York, sailed into Newport harbor, was entered at the custom house, and cleared to sail for Providence. On the following day, the ninth, about noon, Captain Lindsey beat out of Newport harbor, and was followed shortly after by the "Gaspee." Within a short time it became certain that Dud- ingston purposed overhauling the "Hannah." The latter was a good sailor, built on the lines that had given Rhode Island vessels a reputation for speed, and Captain Lindsey had no intention of submitting to search while it was possible to outwit Dudingston and outsail the "Gaspee." Perhaps he planned exactly what happened later. After assuring himself that the "Hannah" was more than a match for the "Gaspee," he permitted the latter to draw nearer, always avoiding the risk of a shot from the "Gaspee's" cannon. Besides the advantage of speed, the "Hannah," being of lighter draft than the "Gaspee," could reach longer and farther into shoal water as she tacked up the bay against a fresh wind blowing from the north. Captain Lindsey soon observed that the "Gaspee" was following the "Hannah" almost recklessly, her pilot depending apparently upon Captain Lindsey's knowledge of the water rather than sound- ings or other observation. At Namquit Point, since known as Gaspee Point, Captain Lindsey hove the "Hannah," which had been pointing east, sharply to the west, seemingly to elude the "Gaspee," which was then in close pursuit. Captain Lindsey warily avoided shoal water and cleared the spit adroitly, but succeeding in enticing the "Gaspee," following heedlessly, so that the latter ran hard aground on the sand bar. The tide was then about two hours ebb and fall- ing fast ; the "Gaspee" was caught securely, with no prospect of escape short of returning high water some eight hours later, perhaps ten hours later because of the strong suction of the sand as the vessel settled.
Taking care not to expose the "Hannah" to the broadside of the "Gaspee," Captain Lind- sey continued on to Providence, where he hastened to report to John Brown, owner of the "Hannah," the mishap of the "Gaspee." It was then near dusk of the late June afternoon, and John Brown calculated that the "Gaspee" could not be moved earlier than midnight, perhaps three o'clock in the morning. John Brown, merchant, immediately became leader in an enter- prise planning the destruction of the "Gaspee." Associated with him were Captain Abraham Whipple, Captain John B. Hopkins, son of Esek Hopkins, and nephew of Stephen Hopkins, and others of the merchants and mariners and professional men of the town, including among the latter John Mawney, a surgeon, who, although enlisted in his professional capacity, appears to have taken his part manfully in the hard, decisive combat on the "Gaspee." Drummers were sent through the principal streets of the town, announcing the grounding of the "Gaspee," and calling for volunteers in an expedition against her, to meet at the tavern kept by James Sabin, at what is now the northeast corner of South Main and Planet Streets. Meanwhile John Brown had sent messengers to borrow or commandeer eight five-oared longboats, and gather
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them at Fenner's Wharf, near the tavern. The early evening hours were spent in the tavern, planning carefully the details of the enterprise, while some of the party gathered in the kitchen, melting lead and casting bullets. At ten the party, including men who were described by Dud- ingston later as well-dressed gentlemen, with ruffled shirts and hair tied back and powdered in the prevailing fashion, embarked with sturdy sailors at the oars, and a sea captain at the steer- ing oar of each of the longboats. No disguises were worn, but the members of the expedition were sworn to secrecy. John Brown had planned the enterprise and was a member of the party; Captain Abraham Whipple was immediately in command. With oars and thole pins muffled, the long, hard pull down the river against the rising tide was undertaken without lights, and with silence enjoined on all.
Nearing the "Gaspee," care was taken to assemble the longboats in order for the attack, which was bow on against the bows of the "Gaspee," thus to avoid a broadside from the bat- teries of four guns on each side. Sixty yards away, the bow watch on the "Gaspee" chal- lenged the Providence party, but was not answered, as the flotilla moved closer. A second challenge, also unanswered, brought Lieutenant Dudingston on deck without his coat. Again the call, "Who comes there?" and Captain Whipple answered: "I want to come on board." "Stand off, you can't come on board," shouted Dudingston, and Whipple thundered back, "I am the sheriff of the county of Kent. I am come for the commander of this vessel, and have him I will, dead or alive; men, spring to your oars!" Shots were fired from the "Gaspee," and answered from the boats. Dudingston, marked by his white shirt as he fought to repel boarders, fell to the deck with wounds in the groin and arm, from a musket fired by Joseph Bucklin. Thus was the first British blood shed in the Revolution, on the morning of June 10, 1772, in the waters of Rhode Island. The attack had been well planned, and the Providence men were courageous. The onset was vigorous, the boarders were quickly away and soon clambering over the bows and gunwales. With fists, clubs, stones and handstaves, principally, they quickly swept the deck and drove the crew of the "Gaspee" below deck. There was little recourse to firearms after the first exchange of shots, because of the danger to friends battling foes in hand-to-hand combat. Lieutenant Dudingston was carried to his cabin, and the mem- bers of his crew were securely tied.
There was no formal surrender ; the "Gaspee" had been taken by force. Dr. Mawney, tearing his own shirt into strips to make the first bandage, dressed Dudingston's wounds and staunched the flow of blood. Dudingston was landed at Pawtuxet and taken to the home of Joseph Rhodes. His crew, after gathering clothing and other belongings, were landed on the Warwick shore. The "Gaspee" was then set on fire, and burned to the water's edge after her shotted guns had fired their last salvo, as the flames licked their sides, heated the barrels and exploded the charges. Lieutenant Dudingston heard the cannon from the shore. The Providence men rowed home and dispersed silently. A tradition persists in Bristol that a boat from that town, commanded by Simeon Potter, redoubtable captain of the "Prince Charles of Lorraine," privateer, joined the "Gaspee" party. While the distance between Providence and Bristol, and the lateness of the hour at which the "Hannah" reached Providence, preclude the probability that John Brown dispatched a message to Simeon Potter requesting assistance by Bristol men, Simeon Potter was a resourceful mariner and might have been present, nevertheless.
Immediately upon receiving news of the burning of the "Gaspee," Deputy-Governor Ses- sions visited Lieutenant Dudingston at Pawtuxet, to offer assistance and to get "a declaration from his own mouth" respecting the affair. Dudingston seemed to have lost the haughtiness and overbearing disposition that had added insult to injury in his treatment of Rhode Island captains and crews previously. He refused to talk, both because of his serious illness and because of his duty to report first to his commanding officer. He anticipated court-martial
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because of losing his vessel; on his return to England a court-martial acquitted him. The Deputy-Governor obtained affidavits from two of the crew of the "Gaspee"; they were unable to identify any of the attacking party. On June 12, Governor Wanton offered a reward of £ 100 sterling to any person or persons "who shall discover the perpetrators of the villainy." Admiral Montagu examined Midshipman Dickinson of the "Gaspee," and sent to Governor Wanton a long affidavit signed by Dickinson. Captain Linzee of the "Beaver," sloop, obtained the statement of a mulatto slave, Aaron Briggs, in which the latter named John Brown and Joseph Brown, of Providence, Simeon Potter of Bristol, Doctor Weeks of Warwick, and * Richmond of Providence. When a copy of this affidavit was sent to Governor Wan- ton he took steps to investigate, and obtained affidavits discrediting the slave's statement and tending to prove that the latter, far from being near the "Gaspee," was acually in bed on Prudence Island, when the attack occurred. Governor Wanton also requested Captain Linzee to send the slave ashore for examination by the civil authority as a basis for indictments, but Linzee refused to deliver the slave to the deputy sheriff who served a warrant, and treated the deputy sheriff in an insulting and abusive way. The testimony of the slave was thoroughly discredited by the evidence collected by Governor Wanton. Subsequently the slave confessed that he had taken advantage of an opportunity to board the "Beaver" while the latter lay near Prudence Island on the day following the burning of the "Gaspee"; that he hoped thus to escape from slavery; that he had been threatened by Captain Linzee with hanging from the yard arm of the "Beaver" unless he told all he knew about the "Gaspee"; and that he had made the deposition under duress. Lieutenant Dudingston himself was sued in a civil action for damages for sending one of his captures to Boston for trial, in defiance of an act of Par- liament requiring condemnation proceedings in the nearest admiralty court; the judgment was entered against him.
The destruction of the "Gaspee" has been referred to as the Lexington of the sea, in the sense that it was a demonstration in arms by irregularly organized colonial forces against the organized naval force of his majesty. As such it was the turning point in the critical period. From June 10, 1772, the trend in America was distinctly toward what appeared to be an inevitable recourse to war. The liberty party in America found in the "Gaspee" affair a vin- dication of the freeman's right to resist tyranny, and drew from it a renewed devotion; loyal- ists made the destruction of the "Gaspee" a pretext for fresh effort to induce England to resort to force of arms to quell the American movement, and particularly for an attack upon Charter government. Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts urged revocation of the Charter of Rhode Island. "The persons who were immediate actors," he wrote of the "Gaspee" affair, "are men of estate and property in the colony. A prosecution is impossible. If ever the gov- ernment of that colony is to be reformed, this seems to be the time; and it would have a happy effect in the colonies which adjoin it." In another letter he wrote: "So daring an insult as burning the King's schooner by people who are as well known as any who were concerned in this last rebellion, and yet cannot be prosecuted, will certainly rouse the British lion, which has been asleep these four or five years." The British lion had been aroused, and extraordi- nary measures were prepared as the means whereby to discover those who had burned the "Gaspee" and to punish them. The King, on August 26, 1772, offered a reward of £500 for the discovery of the persons concerned in the "Gaspee" affair; an additional reward of £500 for the discovery of the persons "who acted as or called themselves, or were called by their accomplices, the head sheriff or the captain"; and an additional £500 for any member of the expedition except the two leaders, who should discover their companions. Neither this offer nor the reward offered earlier by Governor Wanton elicited any response, although, because
*Probably Barzillai.
R. I .- 17
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there had been no concealment or disguise, the members of the "Gaspee" party were well known in Providence, but not to all its citizens. Moses Brown did not know for years afterward that his brother, John Brown, had been the leader or even a member of the "Gaspee" party.
A special commission, consisting of Governor Wanton, the Chief Justices of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and the judge of the vice admiralty court at Boston, was appointed to inquire into and report "all the circumstances relative to the attacking, plundering and burning of the 'Gaspee,' schooner." It was ordered that the persons concerned should be taken to England for trial, after first being delivered into the custody of Admiral Montagu. The accused were to be allowed to procure witnesses ; these witnesses, "together with all such as may be proper to support the charges against them, will be received and sent hither with the prisoners." The commission was to be supported, should occasion arise, by General Gage and the British army then in America, and by Admiral Montagu and the fleet. The commission met at Newport on January 5, 1773, and continued to hold daily session, Sundays excepted, until January 22. It reassembled on May 26, and in June submitted a record of the testimony taken by it to the justice of the Superior Court of Rhode Island. The justices discredited the testi- mony of the slave, Aaron Briggs, as contradicted, and as obtained in the first instance by Cap- tain Linzee's threat of "hanging him at the yard arm if he would not discover who the persons were that destroyed the 'Gaspee.'" The justices found : "Upon the whole we are all of opin- ion that the several matters and things contained in said depositions do not induce a probable suspicion that the persons mentioned therein, or either or any of them, are guilty of the crime aforesaid." The commission reported to the King its inability to discover any tangible evidence that would justify an indictment or support a prosecution. Indeed, there was nothing finer connected with the "Gaspee" affair than the fact that no one was found who could be induced by the liberal rewards offered to testify against the leaders and other members of the expedi- tion. The episode was most remarkable for this magnificent demonstration of loyalty. The commissioners, in spite of their failure to elicit testimony, found nothing of which to complain in the attitude or conduct of Rhode Island's Governor or other officers, including the Deputy Governor, and the members of the judiciary. In its report the commission emphasized, as provocation for the "Gaspee" affair, the high-handed conduct, abusive insolence and atrocious behavior of Dudingston in all his relations with the people of Rhode Island; and generally the overbearing and insulting attitude of English officers in dealing with Americans, as reasons for exasperation. The commissioners' report was revealing in this respect of the causes for unrest in America arising from the disposition of English officers to disregard utterly the legal rights of American colonial officers and inhabitants, and from their unveiled contempt for law and for officers attempting to enforce law. Had wise counsels prevailed in England, the King's ministers could have read in the dignified report of the commission a lesson in diplomacy and statesmanship that the ministry sadly needed to learn, but appeared to be incapable of under- standing. Perhaps it was personal loyalty to a King, whose sanity was doubtful, and whose obsession to rule approached madness, which blindfolded his ministers at a time when clear vision was the pressing need of the moment.
EFFECT ELSEWHERE-If the "Gaspee" affair awakened patriots to enthusiasm by the boldness of the stroke at tyranny and oppression, the appointment of the commission, and the procedure outlined for sending to England suspects and witnesses as prisoners aroused them to fury. The commission was the match needed to light a conflagration from Maine to Georgia. A writer in the "Providence Gazette" of December 26, 1772, signing himself "Americanus," said : "A court of inquisition, more horrid than that of Spain or Portugal, is established within this colony to inquire into the circumstances of destroying the 'Gaspee,' schooner; and the persons who are the commissioners of this new-fangled court, are vested with most exorbitant and unconstitutional powers. They are directed to summon witnesses, apprehend persons not
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only impeached, but even suspected ! and them, and every of them, to deliver to Admiral Mon- tagu, who is ordered to have a ship in readiness to carry them to England, where they are to be tried. . ... Is there an American in whose breast there glows the smallest spark of public virtue, but who must be fired with indignation and resentment against a measure so replete with the ruin of our free constitutions? . ... My countrymen, it behooves you, it is your indispensable duty to stand forth in the glorious cause of freedom, the dearest of all your earthly enjoyments ; and, with a truly Roman spirit of liberty, either prevent the fastening of the infernal chains now forging for you, and your posterity, or nobly perish in the attempt. To live a life of rational beings is to live free; to live a life of slaves is to die by inches. Ten thousand deaths by the halter or the axe are infinitely preferable to a miserable life of slavery in chains, under a pack of worse than Egyptian tyrants, whose avarice nothing less than your whole substance and income will satisfy; and who, if they can't extort that, will glory in mak- ing a sacrifice of you and your posterity, to gratify their master, the devil, who is a tyrant, and the father of tyrants and liars."
The "Gazette" of the period printed much of a similar strain in the form of extracts from alleged letters-a favored form of editorial writing in a period in which danger lurked in prosecution for treasonable utterance and criminal libel. The drastic, unconstitutional methods resorted to in England to silence Wilkes had not failed to teach Americans lessons in pro- cedure which they used to good advantage in avoiding responsibility for direct assertion, which could be made with almost equal effect through indirect relation. The towns of Dor- chester and Ipswich, Massachusetts, adopted resolutions in town meeting condemning the royal commission as "destructive of the main pillars of the British constitution," and "an infringe- ment upon the liberty of the subject, and of the most dangerous consequence, as the constitu- tion has already provided a method for the trial of these and all other offenders." In the frequent reference to a constitution embodying principles of law paramount to the legislative authority of Parliament may be traced the steady development of an idea that bore fruit in America in the adoption of state and federal constitutions. The idea was very old in Rhode Island; it had been enunciated in the very first instance in which Rhode Island asserted a right existing under the Charter that was paramount to other authority; it had been main- tained for a century previous to 1776 in relations with the English government.
VIRGINIA AND RHODE ISLAND RESOLUTIONS PROPOSE UNION-The appointment of the "Gaspee" Commission was the occasion for revival of the committees of correspondence, and for the adoption of resolutions by colonial assemblies that marked a nearer advance to union and independence. On March 12, 1773, the House of Burgesses of Virginia adopted resolu- tions creating a standing committee of correspondence, including Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and seven others, "to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament, or pro- ceedings of the administration, as may relate to or affect the British colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies respect- ing these important considerations; and the results of such their proceedings, from time to time to lay before this house." It was further "resolved to instruct the committee, without delay, to inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on which was con- structed a court of inquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with powers to transport persons accused of offences committed in America to places beyond the seas to be tried." These resolutions were sent to Rhode Island by Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and laid before the General Assembly at the May session. The Assembly adopted resolutions (1) creating a standing committee of correspondence, including Stephen Hopkins, Metcalfe Bowler, Moses Brown, John Cole, William Bradford, Henry Marchant and Henry Ward, and (2) requesting the Governor to deliver to the com-
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