USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
The assembly of Hopkins's second term was not very warm in his support and was inclined to investigate the charges against him. The
The towns of East and West Greenwich, Warwick and Coventry had been set off from Providence county in June, 1750, and erected into a separate juris- diction, known as Kent county, with East Greenwich as shire town.
2See Foster's Hopkins in R. I. Hist. Tracts, xix, pt. 2, p. 15. See also "A brief Account of the Origin and present State of a Dispute between Mr. Hop- kins and myself, with some remarks thereon", in the Warner MSS., v. 2, no. 702. This manuscript is without date or signature, but was, of course, from the pen of Governor Ward.
203
THE HOPKINS-WARD PERIOD.
Governor issued a pamphlet, evidently hastily written and certainly ill-advised, under date of March 31, 1757, in which he defended the questioned acts of his administration. Instead of drawing forth a reply from Governor Greene, as he seems to have hoped, he started a new candidate for political honors in the person of Samuel Ward. This future participant in the Ward-Hopkins controversy, although at the time a deputy from Westerly to the general assembly, was a native of Newport and was thoroughly imbued with its interests. With his pen and his influence, he henceforth controlled the policy of the party that was later named after him. On April 12, 1757, he published an answer to Hopkins's pamphlet, repeating the charges previously made and showing how "unfit" his opponent was for office.1 This timely piece of political literature evidently had its effect, for in the ensuing May election Governor Greene triumphed by a large majority.
Now began an undignified personal contest of unexampled bitterness and length, in which principles were almost wholly lost to sight. "The subsequent acts and utterances", says Hopkins's biographer, "of these hitherto dignified and self-possessed citizens read like a chapter in a mnadman's life." In 1757 Hopkins brought a suit against Ward for slander, laying his damages at £20,000, the trial to take place in Providence. Ward, for obvious reasons, petitioned the assembly for a change of venue to Newport. This feature of the affair was finally disposed of by both parties appearing before the assembly, where it was agreed that the plaintiff would suspend his action in Providence, provided the defendant would meet him at Rehoboth, and submit to arrest and trial under Massachusetts laws.2 The case was tried in September and the defendant obtained a verdict. Hopkins appealed to a higher court, where the case was continued from term to term
1Hopkins's pamphlet and Ward's reply are reprinted in Narr. Hist. Reg. iii, 257, iv, 40. Copies of the original pamphlets are in Warner MSS., (v. 2, no. 706,708). Ward, in his account of the controversy (no. 702), says that Hop- kins, in order to prevent his opponents from preparing an answer, ordered the printer to keep the matter quiet and to conceal the pamphlets after they were printed. This is proved by J. Franklin's own testimony (no. 707). Ward further says that he was compelled to hurry forth a reply, writing a part of it in the printing-house, which might account for some of his "warmth and passion."
2Warner MSS. no. 709, 715, 727. The case was transferred to the Worcester County Court of Common Pleas, where the records of the trial still remain. A comprehensive account of the case is in the Monthly Law Reporter, Oct., 1859, xxii, 327. Some depositions presented in 1757 are printed in Narr. Hist. Reg. iv, 143. Ward's defence is in the Warner MSS. v. 2, no. 702, and also several depositions, v. 2, no. 709-713; v. 3, no. 714-727; v. 5, no. 1891-1892.
204
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
until 1760, when the appellant "pray'd leave to discontinue the suit", and accordingly payed the costs, amounting to over £22.
The political controversy, in the meanwhile, suffered no eessation. On February 22, 1758, Governor Greene died, and within three weeks Hopkins was chosen governor "for the remaining part of the eurrent year". The interval between this time and the sueeeeding May elee- tion Hopkins spent in insuring his own sueeess as against the efforts of his opponent, Samuel Ward. A month before the election he addressed to the sheriff's of the five counties a letter in which he defended his own eharaeter against eertain aspersions made by Ward, and aeeused his enemy of endeavoring to plaee himself at the head of the government "only by blasting another man's reputation". Thus he eoneludes: "However, I shall willingly submit my eause to the freemen of the colony, being fully assured that if their experience of my past serviee doth not recommend me to their favor, nothing I ean say will do it".1 A few days later the Quakers of Smithfield were addressed by eertain others of their faith in Newport and advised to "use their interest in favor of Governor Hopkins, as we have reason to think his opponent is not so moderate a man as we think is proper to sustain such a post".2 When the election was held it was found that Hopkins was triumphant by a majority of but sixty-six votes.3 For four sneeessive years he was chosen to the office, until the election of Ward in 1762 eame to plunge the eolony again into this seemingly never-ending controversy.
But we must pause a moment and glanee baek at the progress of the Seven Years' War, which had been raging throughout the colonies eoneurrently with this loeal politieal struggle. Rhode Island had steadily contributed men and other aid to the various expeditions eon- dueted by the English commanders. In February, 1756, she voted to raise 500 men for the attaek upon Crown Point, but the expedition being abandoned the companies returned before reaching their destina-
This letter, dated April 17, 1758, is printed in Narr. Hist. Reg. ii, 110. The above quotation is reproduced in fac simile in Harper's Mag. xlvii, 272, and as frontispiece in Foster's Hopkins, vol. 2.
2Dated Apr. 28, 1758, in Warner MSS, no. 731.
3In the collection of papers in the R. I. H. S. Lib'y on the Ward and Hop- kins controversy, is a paper giving the detailed vote at this election. This interesting document shows a total of 1281 proxy town meeting votes and 447 "hand" votes for Hopkins, and 1328 proxy and 334 "hand" votes for Ward, giving a majority of 66 votes to Hopkins, although Ward had triumphed at the town meetings by 47 majority. This is probably more correct than the mem- orandum preserved by Samuel Eddy, mentioned in Foster's Hopkins, ii, 258. In 1759, Hopkins's majority was 351. ( Prov. Gazette, Apr. 18, 1767.)
205
THE HOPKINS-WARD PERIOD.
tion. In the following year England came under the wiser adminis- tration of William Pitt and more energetic measures were taken towards prosecuting the war in America. When Pitt in 1758 called upon the colonies to make extraordinary effort, Rhode Island responded with a vote to raise 1,000 men. The results of these measures were immediately felt. Louisburg, which had been strongly fortified since its reversion to the French, was besieged by Amherst and Wolfe in June, 1758, and after a defence of seven weeks was compelled to surrender. A disastrous defeat was suffered at Ticon- deroga in July, but was more than retrieved by the capture of Forts Frontenac and Duquesne. In 1759 Rhode Island again voted to furnish 1,000 men for the intended conquest of Canada. In Septem- ber, Quebec, the chief objective point, surrendered to the daring of Wolfe. The conquest of all Canada was now only a matter of time, and in the following year was completed by the taking of Montreal. In this campaign of 1760 Rhode Island also had 1,000 men, who were disbanded when the success of the English arms was proclaimed.
England now had obtained possession of the Ohio Valley, the pri- mary object of the war, and Canada as well. George II died in Octo- ber, 1760, and to his successor, George III, was committed the project of 1761, of taking the French West Indies. Rhode Island contributed 400 men to this expedition, which, being waged to a greater extent upon the sea, was more to her liking. Although Spain joined with France in 1762, the supremacy of the English even against the two powers never remained in question. Martinique and other islands surrendered in quick succession. The final movement of the war was the expedition against the Spanish province of Cuba, in which Rhode Island had 262 men. In August, 1762, Havana, the strong Cuban fortress, was captured after a two weeks' siege, and the colony of New France ceased to exist.1 On February 10, 1763, the Peace of Paris gave a settlement to England's great conquests in the New World. England gained practically everything east of the Mississippi and all Canada. Spain had all west of the Mississippi and as far north as the watershed of the Missouri. To France was given only the West Indies and some unimportant islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
'Rhode Island's course in this war can be gleaned chiefly from the Colonial Records, from the early files of the Newport Mercury, established in 1758, from the series of official letters in the secretary of state's office, and from a vol. of "Papers relating to the old French war, 1755-1761" in the same office. The R. I. Hist. Soc. has nine muster rolls from 1756 to 1761 in "R. I. MSS." vi, 64-72. Letters written in the attempt to ascertain the names of the Rhode Island soldiers in the Havana expedition of 1762 are in R. I. H. S. Publ. vi, 192, 219.
206
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Rhode Island had experienced considerable hardship during the war. Her commerce seems to have suffered especially. In 1758 it was stated that she had "lost from 90 to 100 vessels", a loss "three times as great as that of New York and four times as great as that of Massa- chusetts". And a list compiled in 1764 shows that 65 vessels had been either wrecked or captured since 1756 from the port of Providence alone.1 These reverses were particularly felt in the commercial towns. A dissenter to the tax rate of 1759 asserted that "The merchants of the town of Newport have lost in the course of their trade, upwards of two millions of money since the commencement of the present war. The price of provisions and all other necessaries of life, being greatly increased by reason of the war, is an additional burden to, and greatly distresses the inhabitants of said town, who depend on trade and labor for their support; at the same time, it may be observed, that the inhabitants of the, other parts of the colony, are proportionately benefited in the price of the produce of their estates, occasioned also by the war".2
The excessive demands made upon her resources in contributing aid during the war, the colony had met by necessary issues of bills of credit. In 1755, £240,000, called "Crown Point money", was emitted, and in 1756 came £14,000 more, known as "Lawful money". From then until 1763 bills of credit were issued in small sums to meet the necessary expenses of government. The colony had much better suc- cess in redeeming these bills than before, chiefly through the means of English aid. When Parliament decided to reimburse the colonies for their war expenses, Rhode Island could then see light ahead. Beginning with August, 1756, there periodically arrived from England chests of silver and gold amounting in all to nearly £57,000 specie, which went a great way towards the redemption of the colony's large outstanding amounts. Yet in spite of this aid and the help of fre- quent colony taxes, she emerged from the war with a heavy debt which it took years to discharge.
During all this period these important questions of war and finance had been greatly influenced by the rival Hopkins and Ward parties. Hopkins had been steadily elected to the office of governor in the years
1Foster's Hopkins, ii, 24, and Prov. Gazette for Jan. 21, 1764. See also list of losses in Sheffield's Privateers, p. 56. R. I.'s commerce at this time was certainly quite large, as may be shown in the list of privateers fitted out dur- ing the war ( Sheffield's Privateers, p. 52.) and the list of the vessels owned in Providence, 1748-1760, compiled by Moses Brown. (Printed in the chapter on R. I. commerce elsewhere in this work.)
2R. I. C. R. vi, 212.
207
THE HOPKINS-WARD PERIOD.
1758 to 1761, but the controversy was by no means ended. As a writer in the Newport Mercury says : "Party virulence had been increasing, until one general hostility pervaded the whole colony, which raged between the friends and supporters of the two candidates. It appears to have been a question about men, more than about measures. Be- tween the mercantile and the farming interests, between the aristocracy of wealth and magnificence and the democracy of numbers, the colony was torn by domestic discord; town against town, and neighborhood
HOPKINS HOUSE, SITUATED ON HOPKINS STREET, PROVIDENCE.
Here lived Stephen Hopkins, governor of Rhode Island and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
against neighborhood; almost every freeman was enlisted in one or the other ranks, and felt towards each other that hostility which abated even the charities and hospitalities of life".1
Shortly before the election in 1761, Hopkins offered "for the peace of the colony" to withdraw his name from the political canvass, pro-
'Quotation from the Newport Mercury in R. I. C. R. vi, 549.
C
208 STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
vided that Mr. Ward would do the same. This proposal Ward refused, preferring to leave the subjeet in the hands of the freemen. He was again defeated. In January, 1762, he followed the example of Hopkins by making propositions of peace, with the terms that both candidates should resign their pretensions and that a Newport mnan should be ehosen governor and a Hopkins man deputy-governor.1 This was of course refused, and Ward bent his energies towards the approaching eleetion. He had a pamphlet published entitled "A Dialogue Between the Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and a Freeman of the Same Colony". The governor, Hopkins, thus addresses the freeman : "Good morrow, sir; I just touched at your house this morning, to desire the favor of your vote for continuing me in my post the next year". The freeman replies: "I wish the publie good would allow me to oblige your honor; but exeept you remove some doubts I have about the reetitude of your late administration, I ean by. no means grant you this favor". Then this diatribe goes on to arraign the administration, aeeusing the governor of perversion of the colony's funds to his own use and of various other transgressions in offiee. The Hopkins party immediately issued pamphlets in reply to the Dialogue, sarcastically denouneing its author and defending their own administration.2 Ward's efforts towards publie honors were now erowned with complete sueeess. For the first time in the long struggle he was chosen governor at the election of May, 1762.
The election of 1763 promised to be a warm struggle. In September of the previous year the Governor and the assistants had elaimed a negative over the Deputies in regard to eertain proceedings about the eleetion laws. This high-handed action oceasioned mueh protest and operated adversely to the Ward party in the approaching eleetion.3 Both sides now girded themselves for the battle and invoked the columns of the public press as a means of spreading party doctrine. The Providence Gazette had recently been established in the northern town, henceforth serving as a useful political medium for the Hopkins
1Arnold, ii, 226, 235, quoting from MSS. in the secretary of state's office.
2A copy of the Dialogue, bearing the imprint of J. Franklin, 1762, is in the R. I. H. S. Library. It drew forth "A reply to a late Dialogue", falsely attrib- uted to Governor Hopkins. I have seen no copy of this pamphlet, but it is advertised in the Newport Mercury of March 2, 1762. Another reply, com- menting upon both the preceding pamphlets, is dated March 22, 1762, and entitled "Remarks on a late Performance, signed, A Freeman of the Colony, in answer to a dialogue between the governor of the colony of Rhode Island and a freeman of the same colony." A copy of this is in the R. I. H. S. MSS. vi, 26.
3See Arnold, ii, 239. In the "Foster papers," ix, 83, in the R. I. H. S. Library, is a long argument on this particular subject attributed to John Aplin.
209
THE HOPKINS-WARD PERIOD.
party. Some one from the town of Cumberland wrote a public letter severely arraigning the Ward administration and calling upon his countrymen to "arise and assert their privileges". An anonymous writer, T. R., a cooper by trade, published "A Letter to the Common People", in which he attacked the financial policy of the party in power. This letter, though asserted to have been written without the least party view, was immediately answered by Ward's friends, which in turn drew forth from Stephen Hopkins, over his own signature, a circular letter to the freemen, denying all charges. His concluding sentence shows how easily these distinguished men could descend to vituperation and personal traducement : "To conclude-slander and defamation have always been the principal engines of Mr. Ward, to get himself into the chair: and to do him justice, no man has greater talents that way, than he, or uses them with more industry. As to this son of Gideon, whom Mr. Ward got to father his scurrilous perform- ance, I shall take no other notice of, than that he is much better qualified to scrub a ship's deck, than to write politics".1
Again the tide of victory turned, and in May, 1763, Hopkins was chosen to the governor's chair by 271 majority. Too elated to let the opportunity pass, his party came out with an exulting lampoon, entitled "The Fall of Samuel the Squomicutite, and the Overthrow of the Sons of Gideon". In quaint imitation of Biblical phraseology, it relates how "in those days there was contention in the land of the Pumkinites, between Stephen the Choppomiskite, and Samuel the Squomicutite. And the inhabitants of Tropwen [Newport] sent message to Samuel the Squomicutite, saying we will give our daughters unto thy sons, and take thy sons for our daughters, we will become as one people, and fight thy battles against Stephen the Choppomiskite, if thou wilt come and dwell in the land of Tropwen. And Samuel being a weak man, hearkened unto the people of Tropwen, and came and dwelt among them, at different times, for the space of three whole weeks. And Samuel made affinity with Gideon and his sons". Then this libellous parable goes on to tell how Samuel promised to the sons of Gideon-Gideon Wanton, of course, is meant-all sorts of political preferment, how he made league with the "Money Changers" and
'The Cumberland broadside "To the Public" is signed by "A Freeman", and is dated Apr. 16, 1763. The Cooper's letter, dated Mar. 31, 1763, is a four page pamphlet, also reprinted in the Prov. Gazette of Apr. 9, 1763. The Hopkins broadside "To the Freemen of the Colony" is dated April 19, 1763. These rare items are all in the R. I. H. S. Library. I have never heard of the existence of a copy of the Ward pamphlet which Hopkins intimates was written by a son of Gideon Wanton.
14-1
210
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
strove for the votes of the laboring men. The fall of Samuel and the triumph of Stephen is thus jubilantly portrayed. "Now the Quakerites, Choppomiskites, and Narragansetites, liked not the doings of Samuel and the sons of Gideon, and they set the battle in array against Samuel, and they smote him hip and thigh, so that the killed and wounded of that day, were dispersed throughout all the land of the Pumkinites, from the land of the fisherman, eastward, until thou eomest to the great river Paukituek, westward. And the battle went sore against the sons of Gideon, several of them were slain, and those that remain, were sore affrighted".1
On February 28, 1764, Governor Ward addressed to the general assembly a proposal which he thought might end the strife. It was in effeet that both he and Governor Hopkins should "resign our pre- tensions to the chief seat of government; for the passions and preju- diees of the people have been so warmly engaged for a long time against one or the other of us, that, should either Mr. Hopkins or myself be in the question, I imagine the spirit of party, instead of subsiding, would rage with as great violenee as ever", ete. This proposal, like a similar one made by Governor Ward in 1762, produeed no good result, sinee it was again proposed that the Governor should be a Newport man. On the very same date as the Ward letter, Hop- kins wrote to his opponent, offering him the post of Deputy-Governor as a means of settling the dispute. But Ward had no wish to play "second fiddle", and replied, "I am neither seeking nor desiring the office of Governor or Deputy-Governor. My sole aim is to restore peace to the Colony, and as my aeeepting this offiee will not in my opinion have any tendeney to obtain that desirable end or answer any other good purpose, I eannot agree to it".2
1There are two slightly differing editions of this rare broadside. The R. I. H. S. Library has copies of both. They are undated, but undoubtedly were printed just after the election of 1763. They might possibly, however, have been printed after the Hopkins triumph of 1761.
2The two letters of Feb. 28, 1764, are printed in Gammell's Life of Ward, p. 270. The reply of Ward, dated Feb. 29, 1764, is from a copy in the R. I. Hist. Soc. Library. James Honeyman and other magistrates went to Ward, March 1, 1764, making proposals similar to those made by Hopkins. Ward replied with a letter, dated March 2, 1764, saying: "The proposals which you have been pleased to make me will not in my opinion answer the desirable end pro- posed". He then continues with his reasons for not accepting the office of Deputy-Governor, upholding his own position in the controversy, saying, among other things, that "a very great part of the freemen of this Colony have for a long time opposed Gov'r Hopkins's administration with zeal and warmth, and that it is not probable this plan will satisfy those gentlemen, as by it Mr. Hopkins is to remain in the Chair". (From copies in the R. I. Hist. Soc. Lib'y.) Hopkins wrote a political letter to the Prov. Gazette, issue of April 7,
-
211
THE HOPKINS-WARD PERIOD.
Hopkins again triumphed in the election of 1764, but by the very narrow majority of 24 votes.1 By the following year, however, the Ward party had acquired sufficient strength to elect their candidate, and he triumphed in 1765 by a majority of 200 in a vote of 4,400. Early in the next year, Ward made another attempt at pacification, which, as usual, failed because of that gentleman's insistence that Newport should control the government. On March 1, 1766, Daniel Jencks wrote from South Kingstown, in reply to a proposal made by Mr. Ward on the previous day. This proposal was in effect that Mr. Jencks should take the governor's chair and locate in Newport; that the Deputy-Governor should remain in Providence, and that the Council should be divided. Mr. Jencks proposed in his reply that "the late Governor Hopkins and Col. Wanton on one side and your Hon'r and the present Depu'y Gov'r on the other, together with such a number of the principal gentlemen of the Colony as you shall agree upon, have a meeting either at East Greenwich or Bristol where I doubt not but such a plan may be agreed upon as will once more unite all parties and restore peace and tranquillity to this divided Colony".2
Nothing appears to have been accomplished under this proposal and Mr. Ward filled the office of Governor until 1767. In the spring of that year the old conflict assumed its customary activity. After a zealous attempt at pacification, which was attended with the usual lack of success, the rival parties met at the polls to test their respective strength. Hopkins was elected governor by the large majority of 414.3
1764, printing these offers of peace and condemning the refusal of the Ward party to accede to them. There is an electioneering letter from Ward to Peter Phillips of North Kingstown, dated March 16, 1764, in the R. I. H. S. MSS, ii, 101. Ward also wrote a letter to the public, dated April 10, 1764. For a letter by Hopkins, Apr. 16, 1764, in justification of Joseph Wanton, see Peterson, Hist. of R. I. p. 208.
'A MS. enumeration of the votes of this election, in the R. I. H. S. Lib'y, shows that Hopkins received 1,992 votes to Ward's 1,968 votes. The distribu- tion of the vote is interesting. Ward won in Newport county except James- town, in all Washington county, in Kent county, except Warwick, in Bristol, and in Glocester and Johnston of Providence county. Hopkins carried only five towns in Providence county, Warren, Jamestown and Warwick, above mentioned, but eight out of twenty-seven towns. The great majorities ob- tained by Hopkins, however, in the towns that he did carry, won the day. The above figures are all the proxy votes made by the towns at their meetings the third Wednesday in April. The "hand votes" amounted to six for Ward and four for Hopkins. This small number was on account of the change in the election law in August, 1760, when personal voting at the May election, was limited to the assembly.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.