USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 19
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The Board of Trade, their minds intent upon the "advantages and conveniences that may arise by redueing the chartered government", paid no attention to the colony's replies, but reported the gist of Dudley's charges to the Queen. The attorney and solicitor-general, furthermore, rendered it as their opinion that "upon an extraordinary exigency happening through the default or negleet of a proprietor or of those appointed by him, or their inability to proteet or defend the provinee under their government and the inhabitants thereof in times
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of war or imminent danger, your Majesty may constitute a governor of such province or colony". Finally, in February, 1706, a bill "for the better regulation of the charter governments and for the encour- agement of the trade of the Plantations" was sent in to pave the way.1 It passed the House of Commons, but failed to obtain the concurrence of the Lords. The presence of matters of greater national importance prevented the matter from again being brought to issue.
Thus again was Rhode Island's charter saved. One cause certainly of England's unwillingness to take such decided steps was the lack of unanimity among the high authorities over the methods of restraining the colonies. There was a certain class which regarded these colonies as contributors to British commercial supremacy, even again referred to their dangerous encouragement of woolen manufactures, and looked suspiciously on colonial attempts at independence. It was this class that considered the infringement of the Acts of Trade a sufficient cause for the revocation of the charters. There was another class, chiefly the conservatives, which thought that legal embarrassments stood in the way of annulling these charters, even if they had been issued by a former reign that was not now in the best of credit. Nor should the efforts of the agents be overlooked in this triumph of the rights of the chartered colonies. In 1702, Rhode Island, being with- out a regular colony agent, had intrusted her affairs into the hands of William Penn, the famous Quaker, who was now high in favor at the court of Queen Anne. Henceforth he lent his powerful influence to her cause, and at this particular time there were certain reasons why his aid was of especial value. Influential members of the Quaker sect were making common cause with the enemies of Connecticut, but through the light of Penn's eyes they speedily saw that the ruin of that colony meant the ruin of Rhode Island.2 Thus did the much condemned liberality exercised in the time of Roger Williams receive its lasting reward.
Although this defeat did not render the colony charters secure from all future dangers, Rhode Island's enemies accepted the temporary issue and ceased their persecutions. Dudley acknowledged some slight military aid given him by the colony and reported that he henceforth hoped to maintain a good correspondence with the government. Brinley, discomforted by the failure of his hopes, was secretly striving
1Palfrey, iv, 369. The reports of the Board of Trade and the Attorney- General are in R. I. C. R., iv, 12-16.
2This question of the Quaker influence in New England politics is more thoroughly discussed in Doyle's Puritan Colonies, ii, 400.
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to disengage himself from the jurisdiction which he despised. In 1709 he wrote to Sir Francis Nicholson, the former governor of Virginia : "I could exceedingly rejoice if your honor could unite us under a govern- ment whereof you were supreme next under Her Majesty. . . . It is all the hopes I have by your honor's means to have a relcase of our slavery and ill treatment". He then continues to justify his argu- ment with uncomplimentary remarks about the government he desires to displace. "It is a Quaker mob government, the meanest sort rule their betters. I much question whether two persons in the ruling part of their government can write truc English or frame a writing in any methodical way. I know them all well and know their abilities. Some of our highest rank in authority cannot write, and some in authority cannot read. We have now in our town of Newport three justices of three several trades ; a shoemaker, a cooper and a carpenter, and each of them is a captain of a company, and the cooper is our general treasurer. We lie under great grievances and pressures and it is very hard upon us that we can have no remedy".1 The old Nar- ragansett settler realized that unless the Rhode Island government was supplanted by some friendly royal authority, he could never hope to get his numerous land titles confirmed in accordance with his wishes. But Rhode Island had weathered too many storms to be overthrown by the carpings of a few discontented men, and so Brinley's protest went for naught.
One reason at least why Rhode Island was now coming to be regarded with more favor was due to her evident exertion to take some part in the wars that were being waged against the French and Indians. Not being in immediate danger, she, in common with Con- necticut, was not so eager to send volunteers to an unprofitable war as were the exposed colonies of New York and Massachusetts. True it was that she had plausible excuses in that she had already incurred serious charges in fortifying her own forts, and that her long water frontier required the maintenance of large bodies of men in her own territory. But it was the absence of necessity rather than inability that caused her backwardness in the matter. Dudley impatiently referred to Rhode Island when he said that the people of Massachusetts felt "very uneasy under their charge of service in the field, while others of her Majesty's subjects sleep in security and smile at our
1R. I. H. S. Publ., viii, 95. Nicholson commanded the expedition upon Canada in the summer of 1709. He had been the principal patron in the founding of Trinity Church at Newport, and it was perhaps in this connection that Brinley could lay some claim to his acquaintance.
. . . . . . . . .
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losses and charge"; and he frequently alludes to the matter in his report, as passages already quoted have shown. When the colony observed, however, that her defect in this regard was being used as an argument for the revocation of her charter, she became more attentive to military operations. The assembly had occasionally ordered some slight assistance after continued urging by the royal governors, but now, in February, 1707, when Dudley asked for aid in his proposed expedition against Nova Scotia, it quickly voted eighty volunteers and a vessel equipped to convey them. Again in the un- successful expedition upon Canada in the summer of 1709, Rhode Island levied a war tax of £1,000, equipped two hundred soldiers, purchased two war vessels and fitted out several transports. Undis- mayed by this failure, which had put the colony to heavy expense, Rhode Island contributed an equal number of men and transports to the expedition of July, 1710, and also to that of the following May.1
Her services so far had been most creditable, but in common with the other colonies she had suffered greatly both through loss of men and outlay of money. To meet these heavy expenses she had been com- pelled to imitate the neighboring colonies in issuing paper money.2 The soldiers needed money, the treasury was empty and the supply of silver coin was practically exhausted. Some temporary move, at least, had to be made, and so this apparently harmless little wedge was lightly driven in, destined in the end to almost split the colony in twain. The act ordered that £5,000 in bills of credit should be printed with different denominations, each bill to have the value of current silver money of New England. They were to be redeemed in specie by the treasurer at the end of five years, the sum to be secured by an annual tax levied solely for the purpose. As Arnold says, "Thus commenced in Rhode Island a system of paper money issues fraught with disaster to the commercial interests of the colony, whose baleful influence was to extend over nearly a century, distracting alike the political, financial and even the social condition of the people, and which was to be the occasion of most bitter partisan strife long after the Revolutionary war had left us an independent state. If we except the principles upon which the colony was founded, and which from their intrinsic truth have since become universal, this
1The details of military appointments are in R. I. C. R., iv, 70-82, 93-98, 120-124. The subject is gone into more thoroughly in the chapter on military history.
2Bills of credit were first emitted by Mass. in 1690, by N. Y. in 1709, and by N. J. in 1709. See Potter and Rider's Account of Bills of Credit of R. I., p. 7.
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adoption of the paper money system is perhaps the first act of our eolonial legislation whose influence extends beyond the period of inde- pendenee".1
This wasting war, known to the colonies as Queen Anne's War, was rapidly drawing to a close, and the Peace of Utrecht, in April, 1713, finally brought a most welcome end to the eonfliet. Rhode Island took carly opportunity to lay aside her trappings of war. The mili- tary stores and the powder were given over into the treasurer's eharge for safe keeping, and the eannon were tarred and laid on logs on the Governor's wharf. She now found time to give more attention to her internal affairs. Questions of town boundaries, of the long delayed Digest of the laws, and of the improvement of ways of travel eame up for diseussion, that never would have been possible before. The records teem with allusions to the construction of highways and bridges, the ereetion of ferries, and the paving of strects. Various kinds of manufactures, as of hemp, duek, cordage and nails, were granted legislative eneouragement. The laws regulating trade began to rceeive much necessary revision, for Rhode Island was slowly but surely becoming a maritime eolony. Whercas in 1690 there were scareely five vessels belonging to the colony, when Governor Cranston made his report to the Board of Trade, in 1708, there were twenty- nine; and during the ten years preceding this latter date the colony had built for the merchants of other colonies nearly seventy-five ves- sels. As Cranston stated in regard to this increasing interest in ship- ping, "It is chiefly to be attributed to the inelination the youth of Rhode Island have to the sea. The land on said island, being all taken up and improved in small farms, so that the farmers, as their families increase, are compelled to put or place their children to trades or eall- ings; but their inclinations being mostly to navigation, the greater part betake themselves to that employment, so that such as are indus- trious and thrifty, as they get a small stock beforehand, improve it in getting part of a vessel, as many of the tradesmen in the town of New- port also do, for the benefit of their children that are bred to naviga- tion, in which town consists the chiefest of our navigation : not above two or three vessels belong to all the colony besides."2
*
This interest in eommeree continued to increase after the Peace of Utrecht, almost doubling the tonnage of the eolony within the follow- ing ten years. Her vessels carried rum, sugar, molasses, lumber,
1Hist. of R. I., ii, 39.
2R. I. C. R., iv, 56-60.
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horses and provisions to both the British and Dutch West Indies, to Bermuda, the Bahamas, Surinam, Madeira, the Azores and the south- ern colonies, and brought back salt, rice, sugar, molasses, wines, peltry, cotton, and English woolen and linen goods. Such an increase in commerce meant a corresponding increase in population. In 1708 the first official census showed that the colony contained 7,181 in- habitants, with Newport, "the metropolis of the government", pos- sessing 2,203, Providence 1,446, Kingston 1,200, and the remaining six towns from 200 to 600 each. Dudley in 1712 reported that Rhode Island had about 2,500 fighting men, and when after the peace this force had time to settle down and make provisions for their own social and economic betterment, the results must have been indeed striking.
But in it all there lurked the shadow of the paper money question. Since the first issue in 1710 the assembly had emitted four other issues before the end of the following year, amounting in all to £8,300. The influx of all this paper had placed what silver there was in the colony at a decided premium, and the necessity of furnishing some medium of exchange was rapidly becoming an all-absorbing question. It was but a short while before the matter assumed political significance. As money continued to be scarce, there arose a considerable party which favored the further issue of paper money by the public bank system- that is, the emission of a large sum to be loaned at interest to any one who would give mortgage security on his estate. This party was chiefly composed of those who owned a great deal of land and thus hoped to turn it into cash, and also of those who were actively engaged in commercial pursuits, the success of which depended upon the ready money in the colony.
The specie or "hard money" party foresaw nothing but evil in the continuance of such a medium of exchange. In February, 1714, the order of the general assembly that £2,000 of the outstanding bills should be put out of circulation by being burnt was not obeyed. This aroused much protest, and at the succeeding May election the specie party won a complete triumph, scarcely a member of the lower house being re- turned to his office. The paper money party evidently used the following year to advantage, since, in May, 1715, they thoroughly reversed the former success of their opponents. The deputy governor, all but one of his assistants, and nearly every deputy were displaced. The popularity and perhaps the neutrality of Governor Cranston, however, kept him in office. With the control of affairs in its hands, the party carried out its policy as it wished. In July, 1715, the assembly, giving as reasons for their act the heavy expenses of the
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late war, the decay of trade and of farming, and the necessity of repairing the colony fort and the Newport jail, issued a bank of £30,000, to be loaned at 5 per cent. interest for ten years. The colony was thus committed to a course of action which it took many decades to change. The specie party made frequent protests, but when some expenditure of money was required, another lot of bills of credit was issued, and the necessary medium of exchange was provided. There is not space here to note the many successive issues of this currency.1 Suffice it to say that although it rapidly depreciated, ruining many individuals in the process, it usually served the purpose for which it was originally emitted. Its depreciation was due to the inability of the government, beset with constantly increasing expenses, to maintain it. The evils of the system were visited heavily upon many individuals and resulted in tarnishing the colony's good name, but those who were committed to the policy testified heartily in its favor. Gov. Richard Ward in a general survey of the subject, in 1740, referred to the absolute necessity of some kind of currency, if only of paper, and then remarked, "We never should have enjoyed this advantage had not the government emitted bills of credit to supply the merchants with a medium of exchange. In short, if this colony be in any respect happy and flourishing, it is paper money and a right application of if that hath rendered us so".2
Outside of the question of paper money, there was very little public business transacted in the colony between 1713 and 1719. Changes in other governments, like the death of Queen Anne and the succession of George I in 1714, and the appointment of Shute as Governor of Massachusetts in 1716, were not fraught with such momentous conse- quences as were similar changes a few years before. There was so little of public interest to be attended to, that a September meeting of the assembly at Newport in 1717 could not obtain a quorum, and an October meeting of the following year was held at Providence with the Governor and nearly one-half of the members absent.3
By 1719 the old question of boundaries was again coming to the
'The subject is more thoroughly discussed in H. K. Stokes's chapter on financial history. It has been treated in monograph form in Potter and Rider's Account of Bills of Credit of Rhode Island. (Rider's Hist. Tract, no. 8.)
2Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 158. Ward's statement, however, should be con- sidered only as that of a strong partisan.
3One item of interest, however, was the long delayed publication of the colony laws in 1719. For a history of the various attempts to secure a com- pilation of the laws in force, see Rider's introductions to the reprints of 1705 and 1719.
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front. The improvement in the state of society and the increase of Rhode Island's stability prevented border frays from being as frequent as in the early days; but the occasional conflicts that did happen, brought the matter of jurisdiction to the attention of Rhode Island and her neighbors. The northern line was the first to be settled. Ever since some Mendon people had complained, in 1706, that Rhode Island claimed land far beyond the Massachusetts line, there had been constant attempts on the part of both colonies to survey the proper boundary. Although the Massachusetts south line had been carefully laid out by Woodward and Saffery in 1642, the inability of the com- missioners to arrange details delayed the final adjustment until 1719. In May of that year two committees reported that they had started from Wrentham Plain, and had run the line west across the Pawtucket River to a point two miles west of Alum Pond. This report was accepted by both colonies and entered upon the records.1 Although the northern line of Rhode Island was thus established, the controversy over the eastern line, formerly waged with Plymouth, but now to be contested for with the more powerful Massachusetts, was still open and was even now causing considerable dispute between the inhabitants living near the border.
In the same year as the fixing of the northern boundary the old question of the Connecticut boundary was again revived, this time for final settlement. A request of the Board of Trade that a map of the colony should be drawn up reminded the assembly that nothing had as yet been done toward fixing the line with Connecticut. The two colonies in 1703 had agreed that the boundary should be the Pawcatuck as far as the mouth of the Ashaway River, then straight to the southwest corner of the Warwick purchase, and then due north to the Massachusetts line. But nothing decisive had been done in the matter of surveying it.2 In 1719 both the Connecticut and Rhode Island assemblies appointed commissioners to negotiate the matter, although those of Connecticut were ordered only to survey the twenty mile line from Warwick Neck. When the committees met in April, 1720, Rhode Island refused to allow any joint survey unless all the boundary lines between the two colonies were run. This angered the Connecticut assembly greatly and they immediately wrote a letter to
'The various attempts at establishing this line are well summed up in foot notes in Arnold, ii, 27, 42, 62. An account of the Woodward-Saffery survey of 1642 is in N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., Iv, 155.
2 Arnold, ii, 65, gives a summary of the attempt to survey the line.
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Rhode Island saying, "We had no thought, at that time, of settling the line between our colonies, which has too often been fruitlessly en- deavored; nor is there any word in our act referring to it; so that the rejecting of our commissioners upon the special business they were appointed to assist in, because they would not proceed to another which was foreign to it and about which there was no concert between us, is a matter which we believe you will think needs some explana- tion.''1
The letter then went on to state that the boundary at most could not extend beyond a line running south from the Massachusetts line to the head waters of the Pawcatuck River, a large pond in South Kingstown.2 If the boundary was to be finally decided according to this interpretation, it would have resulted in a great loss of territory to Rhode Island. It meant that the straight line running north, instead of beginning at the junction of the Ashaway River where the Pawcatuck turns abruptly south, began at Worden's Pond over ten miles further east, thus reducing Rhode Island to a small strip of land bordering on Narragansett Bay and on the occan. Rhode Island claimed that it was the intent of the patent of 1644 to grant territory as far west as twenty-five miles, that according to her charter of 1663 the line followed the Pawcatuck River only as long as that river ran north, and that this specific boundary had been agreed upon by the commissioners of both colonies in 1703. She naturally made a vigorous protest and replied to Connecticut : "We perceive the whole scope and drift of your said remonstrance is to give us to understand that you will not comply with the agreement of the line between the . two colonies made at Stonington in the year 1703, but wholly decline and reject that agreement. . . But as you have rejected that as well as all other endeavors for an accommodation, and will not be satisfied without swallowing up the greatest part of our small colony, and that as your colony is on the west, without bounds or limits, you covet the same on the east, we are therefore resolved no longer to be thus im- posed upon by you ; but are determined, with the blessing of God, with all expedition to make our appeal to the King in council for his deter- mination and decrce of our westerly bounds."3
Both colonies now prepared voluminous reports for their London
1R. I. C. R., iv, 275.
"This pond is known to-day as Worden's Pond. The Pawcatuck river runs from the ocean northeast until it is joined by the Ashaway River. It then abruptly turns south, and after a long course east, finds its head in Worden's Pond. The location of these points is well shown in a map in Bowen's Bound- ary Disputes, p. 47.
3These letters, dated June 1 and July 7, 1720, are in R. I. C. R., iv, 275, 276.
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agents.1 In February, 1723, a hearing was held before the Board of Trade, which, on March 22, made its report to the Privy Council. This report, easily the best and most careful decision ever rendered on the subject, stated briefly the most important arguments of both sides and came to the following conclusions: "Upon the whole, it seems probable to ns, as well as from the pretended grant of the Earl of Warwick and others to the colony of Rhode Island, as from the sub- mission of the boundaries to arbitration by the agents of Connecticut and Rhode Island so soon after the charter of Connecticut had been obtained, that King Charles the Second was surprised in his grant to Connecticut ; and that His Majesty intended to redress the grievance complained of by Rhode Island by his subsequent charter to them; but the former charter to Connecticut being still in force and never made void by scire facias or otherwise, it is certain that the relief intended for Rhode Island is of no force in law. However, in justice to Rhode Island, it must be observed that the transactions of the commissioners appointed by the respective colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island [in 1703] are a strong proof that those of Connecticut did apprehend that the pretensions of Rhode Island were just and equitable".2
Thus after all these years of struggle and controversy this impartial tribunal arrived at what was undoubtedly the most just decision possible-that Rhode Island's claim to the Narragansett country, although not vindicated in point of law, was certainly justified by right and equity. The report concluded, however, with the wish that both colonies should submit themselves to His Majesty and be annexed to New Hampshire. When this proposal was submitted to the colonies, it met with immediate protest. Connecticut in a brief reply declined to surrender her charter, and asserted her perfect willingness to abide forever by the King's decision upon the disputed lands. Rhode Island addressed a lengthy answer to Partridge, her London agent, in which she likewise refused to be annexed to New Hampshire, arguing that such a course would neither be for the best interests of Great Britain, nor tend to quiet the dispute, nor aid the defence of the country, nor promote trade. They further showed the imprac- ticability of joining the southern colonies to New Hampshire by reason of the distance between those two portions of New England, a point which the Board of Trade seem to have been ignorant of.3
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