USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 66
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The government in Rhode Island in 1783, as indicated by its general officers, consisted of a Governor and Deputy Governor elected by the people balloting in town meetings; ten Assistants, also elected by the people, and with the Governor and Deputy Governor consti- tuting the less numerous branch of the General Assembly; and seventy Deputies, elected by the people in town meetings to represent the thirty towns in a House of Deputies, constituting a coordinate branch of the General Assembly. The General Assembly combined executive and administrative with legislative functions, which occasioned frequent meetings and the passing of special orders and resolutions in great volume dealing with matters that are in modern organizations entrusted to officers or commissions or to adjustment by judicial pro- cedure. The Assembly elected annually three general officers, corresponding to the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the General Treasurer. While the General Assembly was peripatetic, and the new state had five capitals, or five places where the legislature met- Newport, Providence, South Kingstown, East Greenwich, and Bristol (after 1785)-the seat of government was at Newport. There the annual election meeting was held in May; thither the General Assembly ordered the general treasury returned in 1784, in spite of protest of Deputies from Providence County and Warwick that Newport, off the mainland, was remote and inaccessible. The general treasury had been removed from Newport to Providence early in the war as a precaution against capture by the British; it was returned, lest prestige depart from the island seaport. Daniel Updike of Kingston, was elected as Attorney General in 1790; within a year the General Assembly, resolving that "from the distance of the Attorney Gen- eral's residence from the principal shire towns in the state, his advice upon important questions which interest the state is often with difficulty to be obtained as soon as is useful to the commu- nity," elected William Channing of Newport, "to assist the said Attorney General in all mat- ters which concern the state during the time of the Attorney General's present appointment," and in 1791 replaced Updike by Channing. The judicial system consisted of a Superior Court,
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five justices, and five courts of common pleas, one for each county, with five justices each. All judges were elected annually by the General Assembly. The principle of a separate, if not an independent, judiciary was recognized in an act, 1780, declaring it "incompatible with the constitution of this state for the legislative or judicial powers of government to be vested in the same persons," and excluding members of the General Assembly from election as justices of the Superior Court; and an act, 1783, excluding justices of the courts of common pleas from membership in the General Assembly. The principle of an independent judiciary was to be enunciated in the discussion of the decision in the case of Trevett vs. Weeden, 1786. The General Assembly elected annually a sheriff for each of the five counties; an intendant of trade for each of the ports of Newport and Providence; and officers for the militia, con- sisting of eleven regiments in five brigades, commanded by a major general. While suffrage was restricted to freeholders, no other discrimination was practiced. With the end of the Revolution the test oath administered for the purpose of excluding the disloyal from partici- pation in government and from other privileges, was replaced by a simple oath or affirmation of loyalty to the state. When it became certain that the Revolution had been successful, Rhode Island removed from the statute book language that had been printed probably* to meet an emergency in colonial relations with England. The Rhode Island General Assembly, at the February session, 1783, enacted "that all the rights and privileges of the Protestant citizens of this state . ... be, and the same are hereby, fully extended to Roman Catholic citizens ; and that they, being of competent estates, and of civil conversation, and acknowledging and paying obedience to the civil magistrates, shall be admitted freemen, and shall have liberty to choose and be chosen civil or military officers within this state, any exception .. .. to the contrary notwithstanding." With equal tolerance, in the following year, the rights of Sab- batarians were recognized in an act permitting them and others "paying a religious and legal deference to the seventh day of the week as their Christian Sabbath . . .. to labor in their respective possessions on the first day of the week .... and quietly and peaceably to pass and repass on foot or on horseback for that purpose, any former law, custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding, provided, nevertheless, that this act shall not extend to the liberty of opening shops or stores on the said day for the purpose of trade and merchandise; nor to the lading, unlading or fitting out of vessels; nor to the working at the smith's business, or any other mechanical trade in any compact place, nor to the drawing of seines, or fishing or fowling in any manner in public places, and off their own possessions." Such generous recog- nition of the rights of the common man, characteristic of Rhode Island, were novel in the eighteenth century and even later; the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, a commonwealth in which all inhabitants were taxed to support an established ministry, in answer to the petition of a Catholic citizen who had built a chapel, "and, considering that in the maintenance of this. chapel he was doing his part in the support of religion," requested that he "be relieved of the ministerial tax or to have his portion of it devoted to the support of his pastor," held in 1801 : "The (state) constitution obliges everyone to contribute for the support of Protestant ministers and them alone. Papists are only tolerated, and as long as their ministers behave themselves well, we shall not disturb them, but let them expect no more than that."
POST WAR MEASURES-The end of the war occasioned other measures. Barracks and other military property were ordered sold. The lighthouse on Beaver Tail, destroyed by the British, was rebuilt, and tonnage duties were increased for the time being to cover the expense thereof. Following ratification of the Constitution, the lighthouse was surrendered to the care of Congress. Rhode Island continued to maintain a garrison at Fort Washington, at the entrance to Newport harbor, for a time after ratification; the fort was also surrendered to the care of Congress. Lotteries were granted to assist in restoring property damaged during the war, including one to replace the church of the First Congregational Society of Newport,
*Chapter IX.
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abandoned, after use by the British, in such condition that it could not be repaired, and two dwelling houses belonging to the same society, totally destroyed by the British; another, to repair the church and parsonage of the Second Congregational Society in Newport, which the British had used as hospitals; another to rebuild St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Bristol, which had been wantonly burned by the British during a raid on the town; and another, to repair the church of the Congregational Society of Tiverton, which had been used as barracks by Rhode Island troops. Confiscated estates remained to be disposed of by sale or lease or grant to soldiers in commutation of back pay or depreciation of currency. Particularly, the General Assembly was concerned with safeguarding the rights of minor heirs, widows, credi- tors and other claimants against confiscated estates; and, on occasion, with restoring an estate that had been confiscated, on satisfactory demonstration that the owner, absent under cir- cumstances that suggested questions as to his loyalty to America, had not been disloyal, but had been detained abroad for good reasons. Soldiers, including Nathanael Greene and Silas Talbot, presented requests for payment of salaries or for reimbursement for losses due to depreciation of currency. Greene returned from the war in such financial straits that he asked and was granted an immediate advance on his claim for back pay, while the latter was being adjusted. Provision was made for wounded soldiers and others incapacitated because of sickness or exposure during military service, and also for widows and orphans of soldiers. Eventually the pension list was transferred to the new federal government. Some inhabi- tants who had left the state during the war returned and petitioned for restoration of civil rights; their cases were investigated before the petitions were granted. Stephen Hopkins, James M. Varnum and Rouse J. Helme were appointed as a commission to revise the laws of the state, because "a variety of laws have been made and passed .... during the late war that originated from the necessity of the times, and are not applicable in times of peace, which have not been amended or repealed; and . . . . there are other laws, founded on the former principle of the government of this state while it was a colony, but which are now repugnant to the rights of the citizens as established by the revolution; and . . . . it becomes necessary as well to define the distinct powers of the various branches of government as to make provi- sion in many cases where the laws are silent." Stephen Hopkins died July 13, 1785, before the work of the commissioners had been completed. The commission reported to the General Assembly at the March session, 1786, and the report was referred back to the former commis- sioners, with ten others, for reexamination and further revision .* The statute of limitations, which had been repealed in 1775 as a measure to encourage creditors to be lenient with debtors, was reenacted in 1775. A war-time measure forbidding the distilling of Indian corn, rye, barley, oats or cider, was repealed in 1789, although in the same year the state faced a food shortage that was relieved by placing an embargo on grain. Not all the laws of the period were post-war adjustment measures, however, thus: "an act to prevent melon stealing" estab- lished a penalty for depredations on melon patches, held not to be larceny and punishable as such, because melons attached to the vine were "real estate" at common law, and larceny was an offence against "personal property." Rhode Island enacted a copyright law to protect authors for a period of twenty-one years in their rights and profits.
The Friends petitioned the General Assembly to abolish slavery, and in 1784, a statute declared all persons born in Rhode Island after March I free, as "all men are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and permitted manumission by owners of slaves without imposing upon the owners the obligation of supporting them. The act of 1784 required town councils to make adequate provision for supporting, maintaining and educating children born of slave mothers and freed by the act; it was amended subsequently in such manner as to impose this burden on towns only if the owner of the slave mother freed her; if the owner continued to claim the slave mother he must provide for the children, who had been freed.
*A revision was published in 1798.
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The repeal of a statute that permitted importation of slaves in trade, provided the slaves were withdrawn from the state in one year, forbade the importation of slaves under any circum- stances. The Providence Society to Abolish Slavery was incorporated in 1790.
Newport was incorporated as a city in 1784, with a mayor and clerk, and a city council consisting of four aldermen and six common councilmen, to replace the town meeting; two years later a small number of freemen of Newport petitioned the General Assembly for repeal of the city charter. The petition alleged that the incorporation of Newport as a city intro- duced "a mode of government, novel, arbitrary and altogether unfit for free republicans," and that under the city plan the petitioners "have experienced many inconveniences and indignities unknown to them before . . , injurious to their property and civil liberty, and incom- patible with the rights of freemen ; that the choice of mayor, aldermen and common council is effected by a few leading, influential men, who, when chosen, have the appointment of all the city officers independent of the suffrages of the people, which they conceive to be a derogation of those rights and immunities which freemen are indisputably entitled to, and for which so much blood and treasure has been exhausted," etc. The charter was repealed, and the town form of government was reestablished in Newport; although there was reason for believing that the movement to abolish the city was not so much a spontaneous outburst of democracy as a measure whereby one group of politicians sought to displace another group in control of the government of the community. The episode, including the local disagreement, forecasted the twentieth century agitation in Newport for "reform" of the city government, including an experiment with a novel type of representative council.
Town councils were authorized to draw jurors in 1792, to relieve the freemen from the burden of special town meetings; on the other hand, the General Assembly avowed its own choice of presidential electors in 1792 not to be a precedent, and declared that thereafter the choice should be made by the freemen. The General Assembly did not fulfil its implied prom- ise; in 1796 it chose presidential electors .; After that, beginning in 1800, Rhode Island's record of popular election of presidential electors was unbroken. With the exception of Vir- ginia, which provided for popular election in 1788, Rhode Island's record was the most con- sistent of all the original states. Another measure indicating the extension of democracy, 1792, provided for equal inheritance of intestate estates, the eldest son losing his right to a double share. To relieve the inhabitants of some of the burden of direct taxation for the sup- port of the state government an impost was levied. A state tax of £20,000 was laid upon estates to meet a continental requisition in 1784. The state and the people were poor ; in very large part the coin that had been put into circulation by the French army agents for the pur- chase of food and supplies had been drained from the state. Cash was very scarce; so diffi- cult to obtain that the time for paying taxes levied in specie was extended occasionally as a measure of justice to willing but delinquent taxpayers. In spite of genuine hardship existing in all parts of the state, there was some optimism in Rhode Island. Newport sought a grant of land and a lottery from the proceeds of which other land was to be purchased for park purposes, south of the Parade. The first Thursday in December, 1785, was observed as Thanksgiving Day, because "it is highly becoming all states and governments to make public acknowledg- ments, with thanksgiving, to the Creator and Supreme Governor of the Universe for all His mercies." The proclamation by the Governor, as ordered by the General Assembly, declared, "public thanksgiving to Almighty God for the enjoyment of the exercise of our rights and liberties, religious and civil; for the means of a Christian and liberal education; for blessing the labor of our hands, in giving us to reap plentifully the fruits of the earth in their due season, and for all His other mercies, particularly during the year past."
Renewal of trade with Great Britain and the British colonies, formerly the principal
tThe Assembly in each instance divided the electors, two Federalists, two Republicans, but the electoral vote was cast for the Federalist candidates.
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source of wealth, was indicated in a statute permitting clearance of vessels for British ports and entering of vessels from British ports; but Great Britain's trade policy with America was not generous after the war, and Rhode Island joined other states in 1785 in enacting statutes levying both export taxes on cargoes destined for British ports and impost taxes on cargoes originating in British ports, the purpose being to show Great Britain that in interna- tional relations America was still united. Additional to imposts for revenue purposes, "an act for laying additional duties on certain enumerated articles, and for encouraging the manu- facture thereof within this state, and the United States of America" was passed in 1785. This "protective" measure named a long list of commodities that had been or could be manufac- tured in America from raw materials produced at home. The protective policy, thus early inaugurated, was promoted later by the incorporation of the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, 1789 and the Newport Association of Mechanics and Manu- facturers, 1792, each "for the purpose of promoting industry, and giving a just encourage- ment to ingenuity, that our own manufactures may be improved, to the general advantage not only of the manufacturers themselves, but of the state at large; and for raising a fund . . . . for the purposes aforesaid." Both associations were active over a period of years in pro- moting measures of economic import, and the Providence association became a powerful influ- ence in furthering public education. The war-time act empowering twenty-one Deputies and five Assistants to function as the General Assembly was repealed in 1784, and the quorum of a majority of the Deputies (36 of 70) and six Assistants with the Governor or Deputy Gov- ernor was reestablished.
ECONOMIC RELIEF DEMANDED-Economically Rhode Island had been impoverished by the war. Besides the actual destruction of property valued at probably not less than $500,- 000; the draining of resources through drastic taxation ; heavy interest charges on accumulat- ing indebtedness; assumption for soldiers of the losses involved in a depreciating currency ; the stagnation, if not almost the destruction, of trade and commerce and marine carrying as the principal measures for increasing wealth; and the state's advances beyond its legitimate share of war expenditures to the continental treasury-loan office and federal certificates issued to citizens of Rhode Island as evidence of debts, amounted in 1785 to $800,000 to $900,000. Farmers and landholders, as is usually true under circumstances of financial stress, were heavily indebted to merchants and traders; the latter were embarrassed by the accumu- lation of claims, promissory notes, mortgages, and other evidence of indebtedness, instead of the ready money which is the life of commerce. The world had changed little at the close of the eighteenth century from those days in ancient civilizations in which leaders of revolution- ary movements promised relief to debtors by "new tables" for the settlement of debts, or in which the founders of new dynasties or newly enthroned monarchs reminted coinage at lower precious metal content, partly for the seignorage accruing from debasing the currency by short weight, and partly to win the praise and support of those of the debtor class, usually a majority, who shared in the profit by more advantageous settlements with their creditors, as they paid the amount of their debts in the money of the land, but with money of a lower value than that which had been current when the debts were incurred. Cheaper money is favorable to debtors ; on the other hand, money rising in purchasing power, and therefore dearer, is an injustice to debtors, as it forces them to repay debts in money of higher value.
Rhode Island turned to the emission of paper currency in 1786 as a measure for relieving the insolvency, if not to prevent the utter ruin, facing many of the farmers and landholders. A petition, requesting the creation of a "land bank" was presented to the General Assembly at the February session, 1785, and rejected summarily. The "bank" enlisted the support of the farming towns ; it was opposed by the commercial towns, and also by some who were familiar with colonial experience with paper money, and who did not wish a repetition of it. The mat- ter did not rest with rejection by the Assembly. The agrarian discontent that had occasioned
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riotous demonstrations against tax collection in 1783 was smouldering; the "bank" project was converted into an issue betwixt farmer and merchant, and betwixt country and town. The opposition recognized the gravity of the situation and sought to stem the rising tide of demand for paper money.
PROTEST AGAINST PAPER MONEY-The General Assembly, in 1786, received "the memo- rial and remonstrance of sundry inhabitants of the town of Providence and others, freemen of the state," protesting against the emission of paper currency and suggesting another pro- gram for relief. Admitting that "the operations of this paper credit, under certain circum- stances and to a certain degree, may be useful to a state, as well as to individuals," the peti- tioners argued that the paper "must either remain at par with the precious metals or depreciate. It will not increase our circulating medium unless it augments our business, for it is an established principle that the circulating medium in a country, other things being equal, will always bear a proportion to the trade and commerce. The state, therefore, which wantonly adopts paper, foolishly banishes the same quantity of the precious metals. . . That state paper money would not augment our business, but on the contrary vastly diminish it, must be obvious to anyone who considers the smallness of the state, the vicinity of its large towns to the large states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, many of whose citizens now frequent our markets, but in that case, finding no use for our paper medium, would be compelled to divert their trade to their own markets. Nay, might it not be expected, that the best of our own produce, allured by the charm of silver and gold, would take the same route? Add to this, that while the paper remains at par it would not be more in the reach of distressed debtors than precious metals, if the dread of paper money were removed from the minds of monied men, and private credit restored, nor would anybody be eased thereby, in payment of taxes, as produce would fetch as much of one as of the other. For these reasons your memorialists con- ceive that an indepreciating state paper money would do much hurt and could do no real good. .. Your memorialists humbly conceive it would be a rare phenomenon in the political world for a legislature to make paper money with the direct and avowed intention to avail the public of its depreciation. What would this be, it may be asked, other than to make a promise, and at the same time confess you did not mean to fulfil it, or to fulfil it only in part? In case money so emitted should be suffered to expire gradually, it is evident it would operate as a tax on the community to its full amount. . The operation of such depreciating paper, applied in payment betwixt individuals, would be no less unjust and cruel than its operation as a public tax." The petition then directed attention to the volume of paper of various sorts already in circulation, questioning : "Was there ever a time, it may be asked, before the revolution, when one-fourth part so much money was in circulation in this country? And it may be further asked, was there ever a time when the citizen had less transferable articles to employ and give motion to it?" Discussing motives, the memorial continued: "Whatever pains may be taken by interested men to divide the agricultural interest from the commercial in this state, and to blow up the coals of faction and party, your memorialists entertain too high an opinion of the good sense and virtue of the substantial farmers in the country to believe they can listen to the suggestions of a wily, selfish policy, or aim to build themselves up at the expense of sacrificing the seaport towns and the commerce of the state. . . . Your memorialists presume that the landholders need not be told how intimately the rents of their estates, the prices of their produce, and even the rate of their taxes are connected with the prosperity of commerce in the state, and that, to this prosperity, the solidity of the currency, the stability of public faith, and punctuality in private contracts are absolutely essential. .
The merchant brings his merchandise from abroad, and must make punctual remittances or his credit and his trade are at an end. Paper money will neither pay his debts in Europe, nor purchase the productions of other states to enable him to make payment; and it is well known this state can furnish but very little. It cannot, therefore, with any propriety, be expected that
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