USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 9
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petitions should be abandoned for a personal application at the English Court. An event was soon to transpire that was to hasten their judg- ment in the matter.
In 1640 the Aquedneck colony had united with those at Hartford and New Haven in a letter to the Bay urging a mutual consideration of all Indian affairs. The Massachusetts Court ordered that favorable answers should be sent to all but those at Aquedneck, who were "men not to be capitulated withal by us as their case standeth".1 After this "exalted triumph of bigotry"-as the learned editor of Winthrop has termed it-the matter was allowed to remain in abeyance for a few months. At last the pressing danger from the Indians brought the matter into consideration again and on May 19, 1643, the colonics of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven entered into a confederation known as the United Colonies of New England. Rhode Island, as might be expected, was excluded from the league. One has only to read the previous order of 1640 and also notice the stated reason for the alliance, "that as in nation and religion, as in other respects we may be and continue one", to find an explanation of the true reason for her exclusion.2 Aroused to action by this scornful insult, the Rhode Island settlements took immediate steps about obtain- ing a patent from the King. To this end, Roger Williams, without a doubt the ablest man in the colony for the purpose, embarked from New York in the spring of 1643 for England.3 He arrived to find the mother country in the throes of civil war. The King, though still sur- rounded by a considerable body of followers, was a fugitive, and the government of the kingdom was administered by Parliament, standing for civil liberty and the displacement of prelacy. Most opportune it was for Rhode Island that the party in power favored the very princi- ples of toleration that Williams himself held. He soon applied to the recently constituted committee on Foreign Plantations, and on March 14, 1644, received a "Free Charter of Civil Incorporation and Govern- ment for the Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, in New England".4
1See R. I. Col Rec. i, 110; Winthrop, ii, 21; and Mass. Col. Rec. i, 305.
2The articles of confederation are in Hazard, State Papers, ii, 1, Winthrop ii, 101 and elsewhere. Judge Stiness enters quite fully into the subject of R. I.'s exclusion in his Prov. Co. Court House address, p. 19.
3See Winthrop ii, 97, Narr. Club. Publ. i, 10, 23, 218; vi, 272.
4The Charter is in R. I. Col. Rec. i, 143. For discussion as to its date, see Arnold, i, 114. It is signed by Warwick, the head of the Commission, and by ten others, among them Sir Henry Vane.
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THE OBTAINING OF THE FIRST CHARTER, 1639-47.
That Roger Williams was able to obtain the free and absolute char- ter he did was due chiefly to the influence which he had in the most powerful quarters of the kingdom. It was not a mere land patent, nor a trading charter like that of Massachusetts. It was a real, effective governmental charter, bestowing upon the grantees the power to rule within the assigned limits by whatever form of government they saw fit, and the right to make whatever laws they desired. The only pro- viso, that the said laws should be "conformable to the laws of Eng- land", was practically annulled by the clause "so far as the nature and constitution of the place will admit". A distinguishing feature of the charter was the limiting of its operation to civil things only. There was no express provision concerning liberty of conscience, for that, as Williams claimed, was a natural, and not a grantable right.1 The mere limitation to political concerns was the first example of the kind in the New World and was then considered the chief principle of the Charter.
Another distinguishing characteristic of this Charter was the small- ness of the territory granted. In most of the early American patents, the land stretched indefinitely out into the west. Roger Williams, however, was too conscientious to take more than he thought belonged to him, as the following quotation from one of his letters will show :
"The bounds of this our first charter, I (having ocular knowledge of persons, places and transactions) did honestly and conscientiously, as in the holy presence of God, draw up from Pawcatuck river, which I then believed, and still do, is free from all English claims and con- quests ; for although there were some Pequods on this side the river, who, by reason of some Sachems' marriages with some on this side, lived in a kind of neutrality with both sides, yet, upon the breaking out of war, they relinquished their land to the possession of their ene- mies, the Narragansetts and Niantics, and their land never came into the condition of the lands on the other side, which the English, by conquest, challenged ; so that I must still affirm, as in God's holy pres- ence, I tenderly waived to touch a foot of land in which I knew the Pequot wars were maintained and were properly Pequod, being a gal- lant country ; and from the Pawcatuck river hitherward, being but a patch of ground, full of troublesome inhabitants, I did, as I judged, draw our poor and inconsiderable line".2
1Judge Staples says "to accept a grant of religious liberty from any human power, would be a virtual recognition of the right to grant, which, of course, implies a right to refuse". (Code of 1647, p. 10.) In 1658, the General As- sembly asserted that "freedom of different consciences to be protected from inforcements, was the principal ground of our Charter both with respect to our humble suit for it, as also to the true intent of Parliament in granting the same." (R. I. Col. Rec. i, 378.)
2Narr. Club. Pub. vi, 340.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Although the chief purpose of Williams in coming to England was to obtain a civil charter, he found time to take considerable part in the controversies of the period, and to do much .creditable literary work for his own satisfaction. His Key to the Indian Language, composed during his passage across the Atlantic, was soon followed by Mr. Cotton's Letter, Lately Printed, Examined and Answered, in which for the first time he brought out in the public print his ideas upon religious liberty. He next attacked the designs of the Presbyterian divines, who were seeking to establish an intolerant national church, in his Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace. This controversial treatise, which passed through two cditions, was the last published during his stay in England. But he continued to make the influence of his pen felt even after his departure, by leaving behind him two manuscripts which were printed in 1645. In one of these, Christenings make not Christians, he shows the difficulty of converting the Indians, and in the other, Queries of Highest Consideration, he disclaims against the union of church and state and demonstrates the impracticability of enforcing a national religion.1 These various treatises of Roger Will- iams, while they must have had some influence in shaping public opin- ion on these questions, were too far in advance of the age to have any lasting effect. The narrow spirit of the time shuddered at the thought of even partial toleration, and as for the complete sufferance of all religions, that was considered rather as a heresy and a dream.
Soon after he had accomplished the object of his mission, Williams set sail for Boston, where he arrived September 17, 1644. He brought with him a letter, signed by several of the highest personages in Eng- land and addressed to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. The signers expressed their regret that, among such good men as the Bay settlers and Roger Williams, "who mutually give good testimony each of the other, there should be such a distance"; and professed their desire that there should be a more "ready expressing of those good affections, which we perceive you bear each to the other, in the actual perform- ance of all friendly offices".2 Although the Bay rulers had no inten- tion of relaxing in their policy toward Williams and his followers, they
'The best accounts of these different treatises may be found in the various introductions in the Narr. Club. Publications and in the preface of R. I. Hist. Tracts, vol. 14.
2Winthrop ii, 193, and Hubbard (2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vi, 349.) This protect- ing letter includes among its signers Sir William Masham, whose chaplain Williams had previously been in England, and Sir Thomas Barrington, the first cousin of the lady to whom Williams had formerly plighted his troth.
THE OBTAINING OF THE FIRST CHARTER, 1639-47.
allowed him to pass through their domain unmolested. He immediate- ly made his way to the Seekonk, where he was met by his friends in fourteen canoes, and carried in triumph to Providence.1 In a little more than a year he had made a long ocean voyage, procured the much longed for charter of incorporation, and inserted in the same his own ideas about the separation of the church and state. In the language of the instrument itself, it was truly a hopeful beginning, "which may in time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, lay a surer foun- . dation of happiness to all America".
While Williams was absent in England, events were taking place in the colonies tending to weaken what little unification the settlements around Narragansett Bay possessed. In July, 1643, a war broke out between Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, and Sequasson, another Con- necticut sachem, who was a relative and ally of Miantonomo. The Narragansett sachem immediately complained of Uncas to the govern- ors of Connecticut and Massachusetts, desiring to know whether they would be offended if he took part in the feud himself. Governor Haynes replied that "the English had no hand in it", and Governor Winthrop that "if Uncas had done him or his friends wrong and would not give satisfaction, we should leave him to take his own course". Having ascertained the feelings of the English, Miantonomo marched upon Uncas, but was defeated, and through the treachery of his captains, captured. When the news of this came to Providence, Gorton wrote a letter to Uncas interceding in the captive's behalf, upon the receipt of which Uncas placed the prisoner in charge of the English at Hartford. The case now came before the commissioners of the United Colonies, met at Boston in September. This body, after they had upon serious consideration come to the conclusion that they had "no sufficient ground to put him to death", called in "five of the most judicious elders" for advice. These five ministers of the gospel, who should have represented all that was Christian and charitable in the colony, unanimously advised that Miantonomo's life should be taken away. Unwilling to execute the sentence, the commissioners decreed that Uncas should be his captive's executioner. The deed was carried out in the same heartless spirit that the sentence was passed. A party of Indians and English led forth the prisoner from Hartford, and on the road the brother of Uncas suddenly approached Mian- tonomo from behind and split open his head with a hatchet.
The attitude of the Puritan magistrates in this atrocious murder is 1Richard Scott's letter in Fox and Burnyeat, N. E. Firebrand Quenched, ii, 247.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
almost too painful to discuss. It was all a matter of policy. Al- though they had previously asserted their neutrality in the feud, they could not let pass such an excellent opportunity of putting out of the way a savage who might possibly become a strong opponent to their claims for territory. The remarks upon the subject made by Governor Hopkins, written nearly a century and a half ago, are so heartfelt and so truly significant that they are here quoted: "This was the end of Miantonomo, the most potent Indian prince the people of New Eng- land had ever had any concern with; and this was the reward he re- ceived for assisting them seven years before, in their war with the Pequots. Surely a Rhode Island man may be permitted to mourn his unhappy fate, and drop a tear upon the ashes of Miantonomo, who, with his uncle Conanicus, were the best friends and greatest benefact- ors the colony ever had. They kindly received, fed, and protected the first settlers of it, when they were in distress, and were strangers and exiles, and all mankind else were their enemies; and by this kindness to them, drew upon themselves the resentment of the neighboring colonies, and hastened the untimely end of the young king".1
While these forces outside of Rhode Island were thus striving during Williams's absence to prevent the maintenance of her territory, there was a more subtle influence within the colony working towards its dismemberment. At Newport we can perceive thus early the machinations of a certain faction which desired alliance with Massa- chusetts or Plymouth, rather than colonial independence in conjunc- tion with their more liberal but less prosperous neighbors at the head of the bay. It was William Coddington who was the instigator and prime mover of these schemes, and as early as August 5, 1644, we find him writing to Governor Winthrop: "Now the truth is, I desire to have such alliance with yourselves or Plymouth, one or both, as might be safe for us all, I having these in trust in the Island, it being bought to me and my friends ; and how convenient it might be if it were pos- sessed by an enemy, lying in the heart of the plantations and conven- ient for shipping, I cannot but see ; but I want both counsel and strength to effect what I desire. I desire to hear from you, and that you would bury what I write in deep silence, for what I write I never hinted to any, nor would I to you, had I the least doubt of your faithfulness that it should be uttered to my prejudice".2
1R. I. H. S. Coll. vii, 64. The chief authorities for the proceedings against Miantonomo are Winthrop, ii, 131; Winslow, Hypoc. Unmasked, p. 72; Trum- bull Hist. of Conn. i, 130; Records of the Commissioners in Plymouth Rec. ix, 10; and 3 Mass. H. S. Coll. iii, 161.
2Newport Hist. Mag. iii, 3, and copy in Extracts from Mass. MSS. i, 31, in R. I. H. S. Library.
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THE OBTAINING OF THE FIRST CHARTER, 1639-47.
At this early date this covert scheme intended perhaps nothing more than a friendly alliance with Massachusetts and Plymouth, but it was the germ of a project which later sought the entire exclusion of Provi- dence from such a league. Had it succeeded, the northern town, thus isolated, would have soon been swallowed up by her watchful neigh- bors.
Upon Williams's return with the Charter in September, 1644, affairs did not assume a much brighter appearance. The knowledge that such an instrument had actually been obtained only inspired the neighboring colonies to make fresh attempts in exercising their juris- diction in those parts. In November, 1644, Plymouth sent a commis- sioner to Aquedneck to warn them that "a great part of their supposed government is within the line of the government of Plymouth". He was instructed to forbid them "to exercise any authority, or power of government within the limits of our letters patent", which territory was said to include also Coweset.1 It is needless to say that this some- what presumptuous message, so contrary to the express admission of non-jurisdiction nearly seven years before, received but little atten- tion.
The efforts of the Massachusetts colony met with but little better suc- cess. In August, 1645, the Rhode Island colonists assembled at New- port to take action uponaletter recently received from the Bay desiring them to " forbear the exercise of Government". They formulated and returned a dignified and forceful reply, which, since it has historical importance and has been hitherto usually unnoticed, is here printed entire :
"Our much honored friends and countrymen,
Our due respects and love promised.
"Having lately received a writing from the right worshipful your counsell deeply concerning yourselves and us, we pray your favorable attention to our answer.
"First a civil government we honor, and earnestly desire to live in, for all those good ends which are attainable thereby, both of public and private nature.
"This desire caused us humbly to sue for a Charter from our mother state. Not that formerly or now we approve and honor not your civil state and government, but as we believe your consciences are per- suaded to govern our souls as well as our bodies, yourselves will say
1Winslow, Hypoc. Unmasked, p. 83, where the full instructions are given. Gorton says that John Browne, the Plymouth commissioner, "went from house to house, both in Portsmouth and Newport, discouraging the people for yielding any obedience unto the authority of the Charter." (R. I. H. S. Coll. ii, 168.)
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
we have cause to endeavor to preserve our souls and liberties, which your consciences must necessarily deprive us of, and cither cause great distractions and molestations to yourselves and us at home, or cause our further removals and miserics.
"Thirdly, we cannot but wonder that being now found in the pos- ture of government from the same authority, unto which you and we equally subject, you should desire us to forbear the exercise of such a government without an expression from that authority directed to us.
"And we the rather wonder because our Charter, as it was first granted, and first established, so was it also expressly signified unto you all, in a letter from divers lords and commons (at the coming over of our charter) out of a loving respect both to yourselves and us.
"Besides you may please to be informed that his Excellency the Lord Admiral hath lately divers times been pleased to own us under the notion of Providence Plantations. And that he hath significd unto us (which we can show you in writing) the desires of Plymouth to infringe our Charter, but his own favorable resolution not only to maintain our Charter to his utmost power, but also to gratify us with any other favor, etc.
"In all which respects we see not how we may yield ourselves delin- quents and liable to answer in your country, as your writing to us seems to import, why we cast not away such noble favor and grace unto us.
"It is true that divers amongst us express their desires of compos- ing this controversy between yourselves and us, but considering that we have not only received a challenge from yourselves but also from Mr. Fenwick, and also from Plymouth, and also from some in the name of the Lord Marcus Hamilton (of all such claims we never heard until the arrival of our Charter) we judge it necessary to employ our mes- sengers and agents unto the head and fountain of all these streams and there humbly to prostrate ourselves and cause for a small sentence and determination.
"And this we are immediately preparing to do without any secret reservations or delays, not doubting but yourselves will rest satisfied with this our course, and in the interim although you have not been pleased to admit us into considerations of what concern the whole country, as you have done others of our countrymen, yet we cannot but humbly profess our readiness to attend all such friendly and neighborly courses, and ever rest
"Yours assured in all services of love,
"The Colony of Providence Plantations, assembled at Newport 9th :6 Mo. 1645. "Henry Walton, Sec't."1
1Mass MS. Archives, ii, 6, and copied in Extracts from Mass. MSS. i. 38, in R. I. H. S. Library. It has been printed, however, as a footnote to Aspinwall's Narragansett Patent, p. 20.
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THE OBTAINING OF THE FIRST CHARTER, 1639-47.
The Bay magistrates now tried a new tack. They wrote to Will- iams, as chief officer of the colony, that they had "received lately out of England a charter from the authority of the High Court of Parlia- ment, bearing date 10th December, 1643, whereby the Narragansett Bay, and a certain tract of land wherein Providence and the Island of Quidny are included"; and warning those in the said territory to "forbear to exercise any jurisdiction therein".1 Williams perceiving that the order was founded upon no legal sanction, returned what he termed "a righteous and weighty" answer,2 to which he never received the least reply. Massachusetts continued to send out occasional war- rants to those in her claimed jurisdiction at Shawomet, but apparently abandoned the idea of interfering with the provisions of the Charter of 1644.
There are certain passages in the letter to Massachusetts which seem to show that an early attempt was made by the colonists to form a federated government in conformity with the terms of the Charter. They express themselves as being "in the posture of Government", allude to the Charter as having been granted and "established", and sign themselves in true governmental form. There was surely some semblance of organization, especially as Williams in his letter to Mason speaks of himself as the "chief officer in this colony". The true state of affairs was perhaps best described by Gorton, writing in 1646: "Which Charter being joyfully embraced, and with all expedition, an orderly and joint course was held, for the investing of the people into the power and liberties thereof unanimously, for the exercise of the
1Mass. Col. Rec. iii, 49, the letter being dated Aug. 27, 1645. The Charter referred to as having been granted Dec. 10, 1643, is the so-called "Narragan- sett Patent". This patent, supposed to have been obtained by the unauthor- ized efforts of Welde, the Bay agent in England, was never recognized at home or abroad. Whether a forgery or not, its inherent worthlessness has been clearly shown by Thomas Aspinwall in his Remarks on the Narr. Patent. (See also Mass. H. S. Proc. for May, 1860, p. 39; Feb., 1862, p. 400; June, 1862, p. 41; and Book Notes, viii, 196.) In 1673 the Town of Warwick made the following statement concerning the patent: "Mr. Wells procured a patent for our colony and got the same honorable persons [his Majesty's commis- sioners] hands to it as was to our first patent procured by Mr. Roger Will- iams; but when it came to be pleaded to, the Earl of Warwick protested it never passed that board, and therefore condemned it, notwithstanding his own hand was to it, to Mr. Wells his shame". (Copies of Warwick Records, in R. I. H. S. Library, p. 29. ) It was also positively stated both by Williams and Brenton to have been not legally executed (Narr. Club Pub. vi, 341; and R. I. Col. Rec. ii, 162.) In 1664 the Town of Warwick claimed that this pat- ent had been defeated through the exertions of their agents (R. I. C. R. ii, 80). The patent itself is printed in the N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg. xi, 41.
2Williams's reference to this reply is in his letter to Mason in Narr. Club. Pub. vi, 341.
6
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
authority, in the execution of laws, for the good and quiet of the people, which thing gave great encouragement unto the planters, to go on in their employments, hoping to enjoy their lawful rights and privileges without disturbance, which the Massachusetts, together with Plymouth, understanding, they go about by all means to discourage the people, by their endeavouring to weaken and invalid the authority of the Charter in the eyes of the country".1
Undoubtedly there was some attempt to organize immediately a government under the Charter; but its operation and effectiveness must have been defeated by the aggression of Massachusetts and Ply- mouth, as Gorton infers, and also by the lack of co-operation within the colony. There was a certain faction at Aquedneck that was con- tinually sceking to defeat the purposes of the Charter for nearly a decade after its acquirement. To this faction a separate Island char- ter, or even alliance with Massachusetts, was preferable to union with a contentious settlement under a patent which did not even recognize the Island in its title of incorporation. The feeling of distrust must have changed to one of fear, when this faction realized that the Gortonists had been admitted to equal parliamentary privi- leges in the new ship of state. On November 11, 1646, we find Cod- dington writing to Winthrop: "The Commissioners have joined them [Gorton and his company], in the same Charter, tho we maintain the Government as before".2
Thus, on account of local animosities, no effective establish- ment of the Charter of 1644 was brought about until the spring of 1647. In May of that year, arrangements for a general assembly of the people at Portsmouth were made, if we may judge by the subsequent trend of events, chiefly at the instigation of the anti- Coddington faction at Aquedneck. On May 16, the inhabitants of Providence appointed ten commissioners to represent the town in the approaching assembly, and to take action upon the governmental "model, that hath been lately shewed unto us by our worthy friends of the Island". They gave the commissioners full power to act for the town, and instructed them to procure a copy of the Charter, to secure for the town the complete ordering of its own internal affairs, to make provision for appeal unto General Courts, and in case town charters were granted, to obtain one for Providence suited to promote the gen- eral peace and union of the colony. They closed by committing the
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