USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 20
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'These reports are in R. I. C. R., iv, 282-284, Ext. from Conn. MSS. ii, 73-113 in R. I. H. S. Library.
2R. I. C. R., iv, 307.
3Connecticut's reply is dated October 28, 1723, and that of Rhode Island Nov. 26, 1723. R. I. C. R., iv, 334.
174 STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Unable to make the colonies see the wisdom of giving up their charters, the Board of Trade decided to put an end to the Narragansett controversy by making the decision on grounds of equity and right. On January 25, 1726, they rendered a second report, recommending that the line be run according to the agreement of 1703. This was a complete justification of Rhode Island's claim. The Privy Council adopted the recommendation and reported accordingly to the King, who, on February 8, 1727, issued the final decree on the subject. It ordered that a line, "drawn from the mouth of Ashaway River where it falls into the Pawtucket River, and thence extending north to the south line of Massachusetts Bay, may forever hereafter be the settled boundary between the two colonies".1 Rhode Island might well rejoice that this controversy, so long and bitterly contested, had been settled with the preservation of her territory as granted by the King in her charter. Her persistent efforts in defence of her rights were at last rewarded.
The death of Gov. Samuel Cranston, on April 26, 1727, forms a fitting close to the long period of danger and trouble. It was for- tunate indeed for Rhode Island that during the last quarter century she had been under the wise and efficient administration of such a governor. Firm and courageous in character, tactful to an extraor- dinary degree in his correspondence with the English authorities, and thoroughly patriotic to the interests of his colony, he was exactly the man to preserve Rhode Island from the machinations of her enemies. Few rulers subjected to the test of annual election have ever remained in office as long as he. For thirty successive years his calm neutrality on such disturbing subjects as the paper money question and the im- portance of one or another religious sect,2 his tendency to avoid ex- tremes, and his personal popularity caused him to be elected to the highest position in the colony. He had taken up his task of adminis- tration at a time when the colony's existence was threatened both from abroad and at home. He had warded off the powerful attacks of Lord Bellomont, had guided the government through the long and exhausting srench war, had aided in bringing about a favorable settlement of two important boundary disputes, and now with the
1R. I. C. R., iv, 373. The line was finally surveyed by joint commissioners Sept. 27, 1728. For an account of this survey and the subsequent straighten- ing of the line in 1840, see Bowen's Boundary Disputes, p. 48.
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2It was said that "he did not assemble with any sect nor attend any public meeting. The charter granted a universal liberty of conscience, and he was a keep-at-home Protestant. He was an impartial and good man". (H. E. Tur- ner, The Two Governors Cranston, p. 50.)
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THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR CRANSTON.
approach of deathi could witness a colony whose present stability and future promise was largely due to his own efforts.
Under the lengthy administration of Governor Cranston the colony had experienced notable growth and progress. The population during this period of thirty years had trebled itself; and commerce, manu- factures and agriculture had increased in proportion. There was furthermore considerable attention now given by the colonists to the improvement of their social condition. Schools were deemed a more necessary part of a child's life; there were some attempts to check such social evils as drunkenness and slavery; and the year 1727 wit- nessed the establishment of a printing press at Newport. Another favorable sign was the growth of religious sentiment. The absolute liberty of conscience which was established by the founders as the basis of the colony had often been regarded by the religious bigots of the neighboring colonies as a step towards disorder and anarchy. Cotton Mather, writing in 1695, describes Rhode Island as "colluvies of Anti-nomians, Familists, Anabaptists, Anti- Sabbatarians, Arminians, Socinians, Quakers, Ranters, every- thing in the world but Roman Catholics and real Chris- tians". But during the next quarter century many more churches were built. New and strong sects, like the Episcopalians, established themselves in the colony, and there was a general growth of religious thought, proportionate with the increase in population. The proof thus more clearly shown that religion could flourish where people were allowed to worship God according to their conscience, caused Mather to admit in 1718 that "Calvinists with Lutherans, Presbyterians with Episcopalians, Pedobaptists with Anabaptists, beholding one another to fear God and work righteousness, do with delight sit down together at the same table of the Lord".1 And the worthy John Callender, writing a few years later,? said that the colony had "proved that the terrible fears that barbarity would break in where no particular forms of worship and discipline are established by the civil powers, are really vain and groundless". All faiths indeed, whether Protestant or Catholic,3 Mohammedan or Pagan, were permitted to worship as they saw fit. The triumph of toleration in religion had certainly been achieved.
a
1Mather's two utterances are in his Magnalia, bk. vii, p. 20, and in 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., i, 105.
2Hist. Discourse, p. 108.
3A clause in the Digest of 1719 debarring Roman Catholics from all political rights and asserted to have been passed in 1664, has often been held up as
CHAPTER XII.
THE PERIOD OF PAPER MONEY AND FOREIGN WARS.
In 1727, the very year of the accession of George II to the English throne, Deputy-Governor Joseph Jenckes was chosen to succeed Cranston as Governor of Rhode Island. One of the first cares of his short administration, now that Rhode Island knew just how far her mainland extended, was to give to the recently added inhabitants a more ready access to the courts. To accomplish this, in June, 1729, the colony was divided into three counties. The Island of Rhode Island, with Jamestown, New Shoreham and other adjacent islands, were formed into Newport County, with Newport as the county town ; Providence, Warwick, and East Greenwich were constituted as Provi- dence County, with Providence as shire town; South and North Kings- town and Westerly were made into the third county, known as King's County, with South Kingstown as the chief town. The judicial system was then revised by providing for justices for each county, which, furthermore, was to have its own court house and jail.1
This reconstruction of the courts was also made necessary by the increase in population. In 1730 a census, taken by order of the Board of Trade, showed that the population of the colony had increased to 17,935, of which 1,648 were negroes and 985 were Indians. Newport led with a total of 4,640, then came Providence with 3,916, North Kingstown with 2,105, Westerly with 1,926, South Kingstown with 1,523, East Greenwich with 1,223, Warwick with 1,178, Portsmouth
exposing the founders of Rhode Island to the charge of inconsistency in hav- ing planted liberty of conscience. Samuel Eddy, however, clearly showed in 1819 that this clause must have been introduced into the laws after 1688, and that its probable object was solely to win favor in England in the reign of William and Anne. ( Walsh's Appeal, 428-435. ) S. S. Rider, in a comprehen- sive monograph on the subject (Rider's Hist. Tract, 2nd ser. no. 1), goes more thoroughly into the matter and shows that the clause could not have been in- troduced prior to 1705, as it does not appear in the unprinted digest of that year. He further explains how this law was inserted into the 1719 Digest by the committee appointed to prepare it, and was made necessary by the severe English enactments against Roman Catholics. See also Arnold, ii, 491.
1R. I. C. R., iv, 427; 1730 Digest, 188-192.
THE PERIOD OF PAPER MONEY AND FOREIGN WARS.
with 813, Jamestown with 312, and New Shoreham with 290. A study of these figures discloses the fact that, since the preceding census, the towns in Narragansett country had experienced remarkable growth, undoubtedly due to the recent settled state of that territory, and that the small settlements of Portsmouth, Jamestown and New Shoreham had scarcely gained at all. Of the 1,648 colored slaves, over three- quarters were owned on the island and in the Narragansett country, Newport having 649 and the two Kingstowns 498. The Indians were settled nearly all in the southwestern corner of the colony. Other figures gathered at the time show that there were 5,000 tons of ship- ping and 400 sailors, that the value of the annual exports was com- puted at £10,000, and that the ordinary yearly expenses of the govern- ment were estimated at £2,000, and the extraordinary at £2,500, colonial currency.1
The colony was indeed in a flourishing condition. There was as yet little luxury or display of wealth, but the inhabitants were intelligent and educated, and the better part of them had some fair degree of culture. There was great lack, however, of a literary centre, like the colleges at Cambridge and New Haven, or of a concerted effort towards a spread of liberal knowledge. Newport may be said to have experienced an intellectual awakening in the winter of 1729-30, when George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne and one of the greatest philosophers of the century, decided to visit Rhode Island's shores with the idea of founding a missionary college at Bermuda. He first visited Newport to purchase land as an invest- ment, and also, as his biographer suggests, to establish correspondence with influential New Englanders. With him were several literary men and artists, among whom were Smibert, the famous portrait painter, and Peter Harrison, a prominent architect. Berkeley's first impressions of Newport were very favorable. He says in a letter to a friend: "The inhabitants are of a mixed kind consisting of many sorts and subdivisions of sects. There are four sorts of Anabaptists, besides Presbyterians, Quakers, Independents and many of no profes- sion at all. Notwithstanding so many differences here are fewer quar- rels about religion than elsewhere, the people living peaceably with their neighbors of whatever profession. The climate is like that of Italy and not at all colder in winter than I have known it everywhere north of Rome. The town of Newport contains about 6,000 souls and is the most thriving, flourishing place in all America for its bigness.
1Callender's Hist. Discourse in R. I. H. S. Coll., iv, 94, and Arnold, ii, 106. 12-1
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
It is very pretty and pleasantly situated. I was never more agree- ably surprised than at the sight of the town and its harbor".1
Berkeley lengthened his stay in Newport to nearly three years, purehasing a farm in Middletown and spending his spare hours
WHITEHALL, THE RESIDENCE OF BISHOP BERKELEY IN MIDDLETOWN. Erected by him about 1730, and named after the residence of the early archbishops of England
writing philosophy. Soon after his arrival he aided in establishing a literary and philosophieal society, whose collection of books a few years later formed the nueleus of the Redwood Library. In 1731, disappointed in the hopes of founding his Bermuda college, Bishop Berkeley left for England, leaving behind him a stimulus for literary and intellectual pursuits, a legacy which the colony could not too highly value.2
From this favorable view of the colony, as presented by Bishop Berkeley, and from the rather romantie period of his stay we must now turn, in contrast, to the evils that were rapidly arising from the issuing of paper money. When the time eame for the expiration of the "banks", the government found it necessary to extend the payment and to create further issues to supply a eurreney. Thus, in May, 1728, they again lengthened the time of payment on the first bank of
1Fraser's Works of Berkeley, iv, 160. Berkeley later modified these favor- able views concerning Rhode Island religion, but with especial reference to the more recently settled towns. (See Fraser, iii, 242.)
2The best accounts of Berkeley's stay in Rhode Island are in Fraser's Life, iv, 154-190, and in C. R. Thurston's "Bishop Berkeley in New England" in N. E. Mag., n. s. xxi, 65-82. See also Winsor, Narr. & Crit. Hist., v, 141.
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THE PERIOD OF PAPER MONEY AND FOREIGN WARS.
1715, one-tenth to be paid annually without interest from the date of passing the act. In the following month, giving as reasons the scarcity of money, the rebuilding of the colony fort and the preservation of commerce, the assembly issued a third bank to the amount of £40,000. In June, 1731, there arose a movement for the issue of another bank. Several of the merchants of Newport, realizing the dangers of depreciation and bankruptcy, presented a memorial to the assembly in which they attempted to show why the issue should not be made. They stated that the excessive emitting of bills of credit during the past few years had caused the value of silver coin to increase nearly three-fold as a medium of exchange. A few more years, and silver, and hence all means of redemption, would be driven from the colony. They further asserted that such action was in opposition to the royal act of 1720, which forbade the issuing of bills of credit unless con- firmed by the King's consent, and to the King's instructions to Massachusetts ordering, that that province should not have out in bills more than £30,000 at one time. The outstanding bills of Rhode Island, the memorialists stated, amounted to £120,000, which, on account of the depreciation and the postponement of payment, stood little pros- pect of redemption. The memorial was doubtless favored by most of the merchants and traders of the colony, and also by the more disin- terested and intelligent members of the community. The advocates of these large emissions, says an authority on the subject, "were the multitude who were indebted and distressed in pecuniary affairs and who thus expected to obtain for themselves some measure of relief. It was an easy way of paying old debts. Members of the general assem- · bly were often inclined to favor the project, not only from the desire of popularity, but the less honorable motive of pecuniary interest".1
The assembly refused to listen to the advice and warning of the memorialists, and at the June session, in 1731, passed an act emitting £60,000. This occasioned great protest, and Governor Jenckes, at the risk of losing his popularity, vetoed the act in these words: "His Honor the Governor dissents from the said vote." The Governor was besought to summon the assembly to take action on these matters. Upon his refusal Deputy-Governor Wanton convoked the assembly, which met on August 3, and declared the governor's veto "to be no part of said act of assembly; and that said act be in no wise encum- bered thereby, but that the said dissent be deemed null and void". In giving their reasons for this vote they did not enter at all into the question of principle, but based their whole argument on the score
1Potter's Account of Bills of Credit in Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 33.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
of technicality. They said that the veto had been entered on the records the day after the rising of the assembly, and before then, that that body had no knowledge of any dissent. It was argued that it was not in the power of the legislative authority for any single member to encumber any act by dissenting after the rising of the court. Thus having censured the governor's act they found another ground of complaint against him. Several of the inhabitants had requested from the secretary a copy of the assembly's original act, which that officer drew up and sent to the Governor to receive the colony seal. Immediately two of the assistants caused the news to be spread throughout the colony that the Governor had endangered the loss of the charter by ordering the colony seal to be set to a complaint against the government. These actions resulted in the sending of various letters and memorials to the King. Some of the Newport merchants gave an account of the over-issue of paper money and petitioned that His Majesty would command "this government not to emit any more bills of public credit; and that the bills of credit already emmitted be paid in according to the several respective acts whereby they were first emitted, that thereby an end may be put to our sorrows, and the tranquillity of this your Majesty's colony re- established as in former times". Governor Jenckes, who had incurred considerable displeasure, asked, for his vindication, that the royal determination should be given upon the three following particulars :
"First, whether any act passed by the General Assembly of this colony may be judged valid, the governor having entered his dissent from it at the time it was voted.
"Second, whether or no the governor of this colony may with . safety refuse or disallow setting the colony seal to copies taken out of the secretary's office, and attested by him, in order to be sent to Your Majesty.
"Third, whether it be the governor's duty to examine all such copies before he orders the colony's seal to be set thereto; the secretary which attests them being an officer under oath. ''1
This application was referred to the law officers of the crown, who reported August 5, 1732. As to the last two questions, they confirmed the Governor in his action, asserting that it was "the duty of the Governor to set the colony's scal to such copies of acts as were attested by the secretary in order to be sent to His Majesty; and that the examination and attestation of the Secretary are sufficient without the personal examination of the governor". In regard to the question of the governor's veto power they reported decisively: "In this
1R. I. C. R., iv, 456-461. The first memorial is dated Aug. 30, 1731, and the petition of the Governor Aug. 20.
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THE PERIOD OF PAPER MONEY AND FOREIGN WARS.
charter, no negative voice is given to the governor, nor any power reserved to the crown of approving or disapproving the laws to be made in this colony. We are therefore of opinion that though by the charter the presence of the governor, or in his absence of the deputy governor, is necessary to the legal holding of a general assembly ; yet, when he is there, he is a part of the assembly and included by the majority ; and consequently that acts passed by the majority of such assembly are valid in law, notwithstanding the governor's entering his dissent at the time of the passing thereof." They further rendered as their opinion upon the additional question, "whether His Majesty hath any power to repeal or make void the above mentioned act of assembly, we humbly conceive that no provision being made for that purpose the crown hath no discretionary power of repealing laws made in this province; but the validity thereof depends upon their not being contrary, but as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England, regard being had to the nature and constitution of the place and the people. Where this condition is observed the law is binding; and where it is not, the law is void as not warranted by the charter."
This last decision was of considerable importance to Rhode Island, as it confirmed the fact that the colony, according to the charter, had virtually an absolute and unrestricted control of its own legislation. Although producing an opinion in Rhode Island's favor, these peti- tions inquiring about the right of veto and narrating the assembly's troubles were very dangerous to the welfare of the colony. Partridge, the London agent, realized this, and strove his best to prevent such grievances from being aired before the Board of Trade. He wrote that the governor's query concerning his power of veto was "like to prove of very ill consequence to the colony", and might not only "prejudice the colony in general but even those particular persons themselves who joined with the governor in it". He also wrote to Deputy-Governor Wanton deprecating that such differences should arise among the inhabitants who were scarcely "sensible of the valu- able privileges which they enjoy above many provinces in our Planta- tion". In fact, it was only a few years before that the Privy Council had been anxiously inquiring what rights were reserved to the King in the Rhode Island charter, and, as Partridge said, appeals to the King to settle such disputes "will be a means of laying ourselves open and be attended with ill consequences from such as are no friends to the northern colonies".1
1The letters of Partridge, dated in February, 1732, are in Moses Brown Papers, xv, 4, and Foster's Coll. of Papers, ii, 147, in R. I. H. S. Library.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Thus this important controversy resulted in the complete triumph of the paper money party led by the various members of the Wanton family. In the May election of 1732 Governor Jenekes was displaced by William Wanton, and Jolin Wanton was re-elected Deputy- Governor. Secure in its position, the party was now ready to flood the colony with further issues. In July, 1733, the assembly ordered another bank of their irredeemable paper, this time to the amount of £104,000, giving as reasons the need of repairs to the Colony fort, the encouragement of fisheries and the construction of a pier at Block Island. This issue not only affected Rhode Island, but also helped to depreciate the currency of neighboring colonies, which themselves were struggling with the same question. Massachusetts attempted to prevent the circulation of Rhode Island's bills in her province, and a number of Boston merchants in retaliation issued a private loan of £110,000 secured by their joint credit.1 But such action only resulted in further depreciating the currency of both colonies.
The Wanton influence still presided over the paper money party. When Governor William Wanton died in office, he was succeeded in the election of 1734 by his brother John. Gideon Wanton filled the important and responsible position of general treasurer. By 1738 the "want of a sufficient medium of exchange" necessitated the issue of the "sixth bank", with the familiar excuses of promotion of trade, encouragement of manufactures, and colony repairs. The framers of this act egotistically imagined that the creation of this loan, which amounted to £100,000, was to benefit the surrounding colonies. "Con- necticut carries on but a small trade", says Richard Ward, "and stands in need of a very small medium, which, with a quantity of our bills passing there, hath rendered it unnecessary for them to make any large emissions of bills of credit; and the province of Massachusetts Bay having their hands so tied up that, notwithstanding a great number of our bills is circulating among them, the merchants of Boston have been forced to emit a round sum of negotiable notes of hand, to supply the want of money and prevent business from stagnation".2 Verily, as the good Doctor MacSparran later remarked, "The Nova Anglians in general, the Rhode Islanders in particular, are perhaps the only people on earth who have hit on the art of enriching themselves by running in debt."3
The report of commissioners made in 1739 did not present a very cheerful view of the colony's financial condition. They showed that
1See Felt's Mass. Currency, p. 88, and Palfrey, iv, 549.
2Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 153.
3Updike's Narragansett Church, p. 515.
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THE PERIOD OF PAPER MONEY AND FOREIGN WARS.
up to October, 1739, there had been issued for the supply of the treasury about £114,000 in bills of credit, of which over £11,000 were still outstanding. This deficit was but of small consequence when compared with the outstanding amount of the six public loans or banks. By this method £384,000 had been emitted, of which probably only a small amount had been repaid by the borrowers. If the popula- tion of the colony at the time was 20,000, the public debt would be about £15 per capita.1 But we must leave this subject of paper money for a short time to take up other important matters that were rapidly engaging the closest attention of the colony. When the subject again arises for discussion, it will be found that foreign wars, English inter- ference and the adoption of a specie system by other governments will have so affected Rhode Island's policy as to subject her name to ignominy both at home and abroad.
One of the most significant facts in connection with the later history of the colony was the restriction which the English authorities at- tempted to place upon New England trade. Early in the century, Newport, in common with the other large commercial towns, learned the profit of importing from the West Indies sugar and molasses, and of distilling the latter into rum. The London merchants, always eager to suppress any manufacturing enterprise that interfered with their own markets, sought to embarrass this trade by various restrictive acts. They used their influence so well that in 1733 an act was passed, known as the "Molasses Act", laying a heavy duty on West India products imported from foreign islands into the northern colonies. Partridge, the Rhode Island agent, led in opposing this act. As he wrote home to Rhode Island, "The West India gentlemen are not quiet yet, but as we expected have begun again in the House of Commons, who have already ordered a bill to be brought in for the better securing and encouraging the trade of the sugar colonies. In the present bill they have left out the restriction of sending horses and lumber to the foreign Plantations, but we think in a manner this is as bad as the old bill; for to what purpose will it be to have liberty to send away our commodities, if we cannot have returns for them ?''2 In his petition to the Board of Trade he claimed that the bill deprived the colonies of their rights as Englishmen in laying taxes against their consent and without their being represented in Parliament. As Arnold says, "This war cry of revolution, which was ere long to rally the American colonies in the struggle for independence, was here first sounded by
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