Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 55

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 55

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PAPER MONEY PROBLEMS-The General Assembly met thirteen times in 1777, at Provi- dence in February, May, June, July, August, October and December, and twice in March; at South Kingstown in April, May and September ; at East Greenwich in December. The elec- tion meeting in May was at Providence. To meet the situation occasioned by British occupa- tion of the island towns, and the absence of many freemen from home on military duty, for soldiers special provision was made for casting the proxy vote for general officers, and for freemen from the island towns for electing Deputies to the General Assembly in town meetings at places designated on the mainland. For the first time delegates to represent Rhode Island in Congress were elected by the freemen in 1777, instead of appointed by the General Assem- bly, and Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery and Henry Marchant were chosen in the April

general election. Rhode Island proceeded to carry into effect in 1777 the financial policy approved by the New England conferences at Providence in December, 1776, and confirmed by the Springfield conference in 1777, and in part by Congress in November, 1777. To meet immediate need for money £ 50,000, in notes payable in five years and carrying five per cent. interest, was borrowed in February; and in May $15,000 of notes in denominations of frac- tions of a dollar were emitted to replace small silver coins, which had disappeared from circu- lation . The fractions, one-third, one-fourth, one-sixth, one-eighth, one-twelfth, one-eighteenth, one-twenty-fourth and one-thirty-sixth of a dollar, almost bewilder one familiar with modern decimal currency. In October the Assembly voted to call in and retire all outstanding non-

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interest bearing notes on November 1, 1778, except only the fractional currency. Congress sent $190,000 of Continental notes to Rhode Island in July, as reimbursement in part of the accumulating indebtedness of the United States to Rhode Island, as the state advanced money to promote the enlistment and equipment of soldiers and for other general purposes. Taxable estates were valued at £2,111,371, equivalent to $7,038,000, in February. On this valuation a tax of £ 16,000 was levied in March, another of £32,000 in August, and a third of £48,000 in December. The August tax was payable in December, and that of December in March. The £80,000 ordered raised in the levies of August and December was pledged for the redemption of state notes; but in February, 1778, under the pressure of urgent need, the Assembly authorized the use of £ 53,000 of tax money that had been paid into the treasury, for four months, until replaced when Congress repaid the state for advances. Bills issued in 1775 and 1776, and paid into the treasury, amounting, with interest, to £73,193, were burned in October, 1778. The Treasurer was authorized to hire £20,000 at six per cent. in March, 1778. The Assembly ordered a tax of £ 32,000 in June, which included £7500, or $25,000, the quarterly part of the $100,000 requested by Congress in November, 1777. In October a levy of £ 30,000 was ordered. The taxes for two years exceeded seven and one-half per cent. of the state valuation.

Rhode Island also adopted the general economic policy outlined at Springfield, repealing embargoes and statutes restricting monopolies and regulating prices of labor and commodities rigidly. Congress called a conference of representatives of the New England states and New York, Delaware and Pennsylvania, which met at New Haven in December, 1777, William Greene and Jabez Bowen representing Rhode Island. This conference recommended regula- tion of prices, but Rhode Island and Massachusetts both were reluctant to return to the policy condemned at Springfield. Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, writing in May, complained that Rhode Island, in its neglect to follow the New Haven recommendation, was hazarding harmony and unity of action; Connecticut sent a committee to Rhode Island to confer, but Rhode Island postponed the matter, awaiting action by Massachusetts. With Narragansett Bay practically closed to ocean commerce, Rhode Island had become dependent upon the use of Massachusetts ports for entry of goods, which subsequently were brought to Rhode Island overland. The price regulation policy failed ultimately of general adoption. To protect sol- diers and their families against exorbitant increase of prices, an obligation assumed because enlistment had been made and army wages established while prices were limited, the state purchased necessary commodities at wholesale prices, and retailed them to soldiers at the rates previously established for retail sales. This policy was abandoned late in 1778, when the wages of soldiers and officers were increased by subsistence money to offset price increases ; in 1779 a scale of payments without subsistence money was adopted. Embargoes were dis- continued, but from June 10 to November 15, 1778, an embargo on wheat, flour, rye, Indian corn, rice, bread, beef, pork, bacon, livestock and other provisions was enforced in compliance with a resolution adopted by Congress. Rhode Island complained, with good reason, of an embargo on food enforced by Connecticut in 1778, pleading real distress for want of food, and assuring Connecticut that care would be taken to prevent food reaching the enemy. The bounty on salt was repealed in 1778; in that year a bounty had been paid on eighty bushels made from sea water in Barrington. The hope for relief from the financial and economic ruin threatening the state awakened by the alleged discovery of a silver mine in Cumberland, for the development of which a lottery was requested in February, was abandoned after an investigation.

RHODE ISLAND JOINS THE UNION-"Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," proposed by Congress in a resolution adopted on November 22, 1777, were ordered printed and a copy sent to every member of the General Assembly and to each of the town clerks in Rhode Island, and consideration thereof was referred by the Assembly in December to the

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next session. In February, the Assembly instructed the Rhode Island delegates to propose amendments and alterations, but "after having used your utmost influence to procure them to be made, in case they should be rejected, not to decline acceding, on the part of this state, to the articles of confederation; taking care that the proposed amendments and alterations be previously entered upon the records of the Congress, that it may appear they were made before the signing of the confederation; and that this state intends hereafter to renew the motion for them. This Assembly, trusting that Congress, at some future time, convinced of their utility and justice, will adopt them; and that they will be confirmed by all the states." The amendments proposed: (1) Change in the fifth article, which required a state to main- tain a representation of at least two delegates, and deprived a state of its vote in proceedings in Congress if at least two were not present, so that a state, in the event of "sickness, death or any other unavoidable accident," might continue to be represented by one delegate; (2) equali- zation of taxes, by provision for an estimate or valuation "made once in every five years, at least"; (3) confiscation of the King's estates in America, not for the use of the separate estates in which these lay, but for the use of the United States, the delegates being instructed "to move in Congress . . . . that all such lands and revenues be forfeited to the United States, to be disposed of and appropriated by Congress for the benefit of the whole confederacy." Rhode Island's delegates were instructed to sign the ratification of the Articles of Confedera- tion on behalf of Rhode Island unequivocally and irrevocably, whatever disposition might be made of the proposed amendments; thus ratification in February, 1778, was unconditional, and Rhode Island, as it had been first to declare independence, was also first to enter the Confederation.

Consistently, Rhode Island was last to leave it, by ratifying the Constitution May 29, 1790, last of the original thirteen states because of insistence that the modification of the Con- stitution which it proposed should be made before ratification. There was no war menace in 1790, as there was in 1778, when true patriotism demanded waiver of differences and sacrifices for the common welfare. On one proposal of Congress made in the resolutions of November, 1777, Rhode Island delayed; in dealing with avowed enemies among freemen and residents, it had taken possession only of rents, revenues and income; confiscation of estates was post- poned even after other states had acted and Congress advised it. Rhode Island had too much respect for the opinions of men to punish or penalize unduly those who were not engaged in overt acts of treason and not actually levying war.

In compliance with a resolution of Congress, confirmed by the General Assembly, which ordered a proclamation by the Governor, December 18, 1777, was observed in Rhode Island, as elsewhere, as a day "for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that at one time and with one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate them- selves to the service of their divine Benefactor." Congress also recommended that "servile labor and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, may be omitted on so solemn an occasion." The victory of Saratoga, and the prospect of an alliance with France, warranted rejoicing. A treaty was signed Feb- ruary 6, 1778, France acknowledging American independence. The news was received and suitably celebrated in Rhode Island on April 21. Seven days later England's proposals for peace were burned by the hangman. England, tired of the war and foreseeing the probable consequences of French intervention, proposed peace without independence, though otherwise willing to concede many of the demands made by America before the war. Negotiations through commissioners sent to Congress as well as by the British generals stationed in America with American commanders were undertaken. Pigot, in a letter addressed to General Sulli- van, characterized the terms offered "the rebels" as "more generous than they could or had reason to expect from the hands of his most merciful master." The General Assembly refused

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to permit Burgoyne's army to pass through the state and embark at Newport for England, the council of war holding strictly to the terms of the surrender, which named Boston as the port of departure. Another reason was the wish to avoid the mingling of Burgoyne's defeated troops with those at Newport, and the difficulties of identification, that might arise later. The army as a body never returned to England; it was removed from Cambridge to Vermont while negotiations for a change in the port of embarkation proceeded. Eventually some offi- cers and soldiers were exchanged or discharged; many of the Hessians settled in America and became citizens of the United States. Burgoyne himself embarked at Newport for Eng- land on April 15, 1778.

GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN IN COMMAND-Measures to retrieve the disastrous failure of the expedition against the British in Rhode Island in 1777 were undertaken speedily. Essen- tially there was an almost complete military reorganization. Prescott had been replaced by General Robert Pigot as commander of the British in midsummer, 1777. Spencer tendered his resignation, effective December 31, as commander of the American forces in Rhode Island. Nathanael Greene asked for appointment as his successor, but could not be spared from the Continental army. Instead General John Sullivan, one of the ablest officers serving under Washington, was assigned to Rhode Island and arrived in April. Meanwhile, with the pur- pose of replacing the fifteen months' brigade, whose terms of enlistment expired in March, the General Assembly ordered the raising of a new brigade of 1500 men, the force assigned to Rhode Island in the New England army of 4000 men for the defence of Rhode Island agreed to in the Springfield conference. The new brigade consisted of two regiments of infantry, 600 men each, and a regiment of 300 artillery. Ezekiel Cornell was elected as Brigadier General, and Robert Elliott, Archibald Crary and William Barton as Colonels. John Topham replaced William Barton as Colonel when the latter was commissioned in Continental service. General Varnum had recommended to Washington that a regiment of negroes and Indians be enlisted for Continental service; the Rhode Island battalions in continental service were consolidated, and Colonel Christopher Greene, Lieutenant Colonel Olney, Major Ward, and other officers were sent to Rhode Island to raise the new regiment. The General Assem- bly authorized enlistments, offered bounties to free negroes and Indians, offered freedom to slaves with compensation to their masters, and otherwise promoted the venture. The regi- ment of negroes fought valiantly in the battle of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island had recovered from disappointment because of the failure of Spencer in 1777, and the spirit of old days had been revived. The "Warren," frigate, Captain John B. Hopkins, sailed through the British fleet, exchanging broadsides as she passed, during a snow- storm on February 16, and thus reached the ocean. Captain Hoylsted Hacker lost the "Colum- bus," frigate, at Point Judith, while trying to get to sea on March 27. To avoid capture the "Columbus" was driven ashore by her captain, and was burned by the British on the follow- ing day. The "Providence," frigate, Captain Abraham Whipple, carrying important dis- patches for France, sailed through the British fleet on the night of April 30, firing as she went, and sinking a British tender. Following British practice elsewhere, Pigot organized Tories in the island towns in military companies; more than a few Tories from the mainland joined the enemy. The Rhode Island Tories were not so numerous, comparatively, as else- where, and they were less active in military service; some of those in Pigot's army enlisted under "persuasion" or were drafted. Pigot's treatment of prisoners at Newport occasioned protest ; it was bad, but no worse than the inhumanity practiced toward prisoners elsewhere, which disgraced the British army in America during the Revolution.

INVASION OF BRISTOL-Preparations for a second expedition against the British on Rhode Island were making on the mainland even before the British withdrawal from Philadelphia and concentration at New York, and the arrival of a French fleet of war vessels had changed

BRISTOL COUNTY COURT HOUSE; ONCE USED AS A STATE HOUSE

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the major strategy of 1778. Pigot moved first, with the purpose of destroying the boats in the Kickemuit River, which had been constructed in 1777 for Spencer's expedition, and might be used again with the purpose of landing American troops on Rhode Island. With British and Hessians numbering between 500 and 600, Colonel Campbell left Newport on the night of May 24, and was transported up Narragansett Bay, landing very early in the morning on the Bristol shore opposite Rumstick Point. A detachment was marched overland to the Kicke- muit River, and there burned seventy flatboats and other small craft, besides a quantity of naval stores. The crew of the "Spitfire," row galley, anchored in the stream, were surprised while asleep; flames spreading to the. galley were extinguished by the raiding party, which carried it away. A second body of British and Hessians marched into Warren, burning houses and plundering as they went. The Baptist meetinghouse and parsonage, the latter first home of Brown University, and seven dwellings were destroyed; the powder magazine was exploded, and prisoners were taken. A vessel in the harbor, fitting for privateering, was burned. The British columns, reunited, then marched down the peninsula into Bristol, a small force of Rhode Island troops retiring without disputing the advance seriously. St. Michael's Church, Episcopal, in Bristol was burned when mistaken for the Congregational meetinghouse, and thirty houses were destroyed. When news of the British landing reached Providence Colonel Barton and a few horsemen volunteered to ride immediately, while Sulli- van was preparing to march, to call out the minute men along the road, and engage the enemy. Barton reached Bristol as the British were preparing to retire from the south end of the town, near the ferry, whither their transports had preceded them after the landing farther north. Barton and the minute men pressed closely in pursuit, and Barton was wounded in the right thigh by a musket ball. The British reached their transports leaving several dead and wounded, and carrying others wounded.

The raid upon Bristol had a most salutary effect on New England; it aroused the states to an understanding of the peril involved in their neglect to maintain the army promised by the Springfield conference. Enlistments for the Rhode Island brigade had not been satisfactory, and the General Assembly on May 28 apportioned the raising of 839 effective men to the several towns to bring the brigade to full complement of 1500. The other states had been almost wholly neglectful with reference to their quotas. Writing, on May 26, to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, Governor Greene reported the raid on Warren and Bristol, and the destruction of boats, "which has greatly alarmed the inhabitants of this state, especially as we have been for a considerable time past almost entirely neglected by our sister states not assist- ing with their quotas or troops according to the agreement entered into by the convention at Springfield; and unless we can be better furnished for the future, I see nothing to hinder immediate destruction from taking place; for unless the major part of our militia are con- tinually on duty, the shores cannot properly be guarded ; and in that case we shall very soon be deprived of the necessities of life." Trumbull, on June 6, replying, practically repudiated the Springfield agreement, taking the ground that Connecticut, in view of the number of troops sent to reinforce the American forces about New York, could not send soldiers to Rhode Island. To the council of Massachusetts, Governor Greene wrote: "And we do, in the most earnest manner, call upon the state of Massachusetts Bay immediately to send in their quota of troops, and rescue us from the destruction that otherwise must ensue." One-sixth of the militia was called out in Rhode Island, except in Little Compton and Barrington; and General Sullivan was given authority to call the militia at discretion. The council of war was reorganized in May, to include members from all parts of the state; in October the member- ship was reduced from twenty-one to ten. The British raided Fall River on May 31, but were driven off after burning a cornmill and one dwelling.

PREPARATION FOR ATTACK ON BRITISH-The British in Rhode Island were reinforced in July, 1778, in the process of reassigning stations after Howe's retreat from Philadelphia.

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Their effective forces were estimated as not less than 7000, against whom Sullivan could mus- ter 1600 men, most of whom were camp disciplined but had never been in battle. A penetra- tion of New England, with Providence as the first objective and base, was feared; and Sulli- van strengthened fortifications, relocated cannon, and assigned armed boats to patrol duty in Narragansett Bay with the purpose of discovering an advance under cover of night if one were hazarded. The arrival of a French fleet off the Middle Atlantic coast, too late to inter- cept Howe's transports on their way from the Delaware River to the Hudson, suggested a joint American-French attack upon the British in Rhode Island, both as a diversion for the British in New York, forestalling an advance up the Hudson, and a checkmate for British designs on New England. Action in Rhode Island thus became part of the major strategy of 1778. To Sullivan was assigned the task of organizing New England troops and concen- trating them in anticipation of an invasion of the island.

Of the Rhode Island militia one-half were called, and the remainder were instructed to be ready to answer an alarm promptly. So many freemen were engaged in active military service in August, 1778, that many town meetings for electing Deputies to the October Gen- eral Assembly were not held, and others were poorly attended; the Assembly ordered town meetings on the last Tuesday in September in all towns "not in possession of the enemy," to assure returns of Deputies. Troops were requested from other New England states. John Hancock arrived with a brigade from Massachusetts. New Hampshire was represented ; Connecticut also probably, but with small numbers, for the reasons assigned by Governor Trumbull earlier in the year for repudiating the Springfield agreement. Washington con- tributed to the movement in Rhode Island by crossing the Hudson River to a new base at White Plains, from which he threatened the British in New York; and by sending Lafayette overland to Rhode Island with a division of continental veterans, including a train of artillery and Varnum's and Glover's brigades. Among the troops with Lafayette were the Rhode Island continental battalions. Nathanael Greene returned to Rhode Island to lead a division. Between 10,000 and 11,000 soldiers were assembled in Rhode Island eventually; their leaders included Greene and Sullivan, Washington's most reliable Major Generals, and Lafayette, who had already demonstrated the mastery of strategy which was to prove the undoing of Cornwallis at Yorktown. With the return of the Rhode Islanders, as in the Trojan War all the Greek heroes participated, so all the Rhode Island Revolutionary heroes were gathered in Rhode Island for the movement to capture Pigot's army or drive the British from Rhode Island and New England.

ARRIVAL OF FRENCH FLEET-The French fleet, Count d'Estaing commanding, including twelve ships and four frigates, entered Narragansett Bay on July 29. British vessels were immediately withdrawn from exposed positions, and British troops on other islands were con- centrated on Rhode Island. As the French fleet moved into the Bay, British vessels were destroyed to escape capture. A ship and two galleys in the Seaconnet River were exploded ; four frigates were run aground and burned on Rhode Island; eventually the British sank or burned all their vessels, including two ships. The armament of the fleet thus destroyed amounted to 212 cannon. By August 9 the waters of Narragansett Bay were clear of British war vessels, and the French had landed troops on Conanicut. Sullivan's army, concentrated at Tiverton, began to move across the Seaconnet River to Portsmouth, as Pigot withdrew his outposts from the upper end of the island. Pigot had been completely surrounded. Americans commanded the Seaconnet River and held the north end of the island. The French troops on Conanicut and the French fleet closed the trap. Pigot had no ships in which a sortie might be undertaken. A siege, if continued, could have only one result-surrender; the surrender could be hastened by effective tightening of the lines and by shelling defen- sive positions. Possibly the war might have been ended, as it had been begun, in Rhode

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Island; but that required concerted action and consistent, continuous cooperation by Ameri- cans and French.

THE FRENCH STORM-The American movement across the Seaconnet River proceeded rapidly on August 9 in eighty-six flatboats, which had been built under the direction of Silas Talbot, and other boats brought from Weymouth. Sullivan's army numbered probably 7000 for the time being, because only one-half the Rhode Island militia had assembled, and both Connecticut and Massachusetts had failed to send complete quotas. Only when the 4000 French landed on Conanicut on August 9 had been transferred to the west shore of the island of Rhode Island would Sullivan have a marked superiority in actual numbers over the forces commanded by Pigot. On the evening of August 9 a British fleet of war, twenty-two fighting vessels, besides transports carrying reinforcements and munitions for Pigot, was seen off Point Judith. D'Estaing embarked his troops from Conanicut during the night and cleared ships for action. In the morning, August 10, he sailed, apparently in haste to come to close quarters with Admiral Howe. The latter, although commanding a squadron which in ships of the line exceeded D'Estaing's in numbers, was wary, and led the way out to sea, either because he preferred open water for combat or because he wished to draw D'Estaing away. The day of August II was spent in manœuvring at sea for advantage in position before closing for battle. On August 12 a terrific hurricane arose and scattered the fleets. The storm continued with unabated fury for two days. Two of the French ships, including the "Languedoc," D'Estaing's flagship, were dismasted. On land the storm was not less severe. Trees were uprooted, and tents were blown down, exposing the soldiers to heavy rain for hours without shelter. Provisions were destroyed; ammunition was wet, some so seriously that it could not be used. Horses were overcome and died. The British retirement from Portsmouth, begun on August 9, continued leisurely, and the Americans followed cautiously but steadily. The hurricane found both armies in temporary positions, without the shelter of established quarters. When the storm was over Pigot had reached the line selected by him for defence, stretching across the island from Tonomy Hill, his right resting on Easton's Pond, near the beach. Two miles north lay the American army with flanks protected by Honeyman Hill and Peckham's Hill.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 55

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716