The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 35

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868

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ONES, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, was born in Newport, Rhode Island, October 8, 1753. His parents were William and Elizabeth ( Pearce) Jones. His grand- father, Thomas Jones, came from Wales, and his father, who died in 1759, entered the privateer service in the war against France, and became First Lieutenant of the famous vessel, the Duke of Marlborough. His mother was left a widow at the age of thirty-one, with five children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth. From a memoir of Governor Jones, prepared by William Jones Hoppin, read by him before the Rhode Island Historical Society, and published in the Society records, we have ob- tained the following facts. He received a fair education, and in January, 1776, then twenty-three years of age, ob- tained a commission as Lieutenant in Babcock's (afterwards Lippitt's) regiment, which had just been raised by order of the General Assembly, for the War of Independence. In

September of the same year he received a captain's com- mission. The regiment marched from Rhode Island on the 14th and 15th of the same month, and joined Washing- ton's army at Harlem Heights, about the 5th of October. On the 14th it was incorporated with McDougall's brigade, which on the 15th became a part of the division under the command of Major-General Lee. Ile took part in the battle of White Plains, and in all the operations preceding the retreat into New Jersey, where he passed through that terrible winter of suffering so prominent in the history of the country. After General Lee was taken prisoner, the Rhode Island regiment was under the brigade command of Colonel Hitchcock. The term of his regiment was to ex- pire on the 18th of January, 1777, but on the 31st of De- cember preceding, notwithstanding their terrible experience, the men volunteered, at the request of General Washington, for another month. On the 2d of January the Rhode Island troops took part in the gallant repulse of the British at the bridge of Assanpink, the success of which was chiefly owing to their good conduct. Their bravery was also con- spicuous at the battle of Princeton, when " Washington on the battle-ground took Hitchcock by the hand and before the army thanked him for his service." In February, the time of his regiment having expired, Captain Jones returned to Rhode Island. He remained with his family until Feb- ruary, 1778, when he accepted a commission as Captain of Marines on board the Providence, twenty-eight guns, which was one of the two frigates ordered by the Naval Committee in Philadelphia to be built in Rhode Island, and com- manded by Abraham Whipple. On the 21st of April, 1778, the news arrived at Providence of the conclusion of the treaty with France, and the- Providence, by order of Con- gress, was sent imniediately with dispatches to our Com- missioners at Paris. She sailed April 30, and on the 30th of May arrived at Pambœuf, near Nantes, when Captain Whipple immediately sent Captain Jones to Paris with his dispatches for the American Commissioners. He remained in Paris until the 11th of June. It is stated on his tomb- stone that he was the first officer that wore the American uniform in Paris, probably because he was the first to ar- rive in Paris after the ratification of the treaty. The Provi- dence sailed from Nantes to Brest, and thence for America. On the 17th of June, 1779, in company with the Ranger and the Queen of France, she sailed from Boston on a cruise off the Banks of Newfoundland. This was the most suc- cessful enterprise of the war. The fleet captured nine ships and one brig, bound from Jamaica to England, and returned to Boston on the 21st of August with eight of the prizes. On the 24th of November the Providence again left Boston, . in company with the frigates Boston, Ranger, and Queen of France, for Charleston, South Carolina, where they ar- rived December 19th. In the spring of the succeeding year, the British having sent a fleet, with a large force, for the reduction of Charleston, Commodore Whipple did not choose to risk an engagement, and it was determined to

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put the crews and guns of all his ships, except the Ranger, on shore, to reinforce the batteries. On the 12th of May, 17So, General Lincoln surrendered the town and garrison. Captain Jones became a prisoner of war, with his com- panions, but was released on parole, and returned to Rhode Island early in the summer. He remained a prisoner on parole through the remainder of the war, and being thus incapacitated for active service, he went into mercantile business at Providence, to which place his family had re- moved. He was at first associated with his brothers, but afterward carried on the hardware business on his own ac- count, in which he continued until his death. On the 28th of February, 1787, he married Anne Dunn, daughter of Samuel Dunn, of Providence. In 1788 he became a free- man. He was for some time a Justice of the Peace, and in 1807 was elected one of the four members of the Gen- eral Assembly from Providence. IIe was re-elected each year until 1811, and from May 1809 was Speaker of that body. In April, 1811, he was elected Governor by the Federal party, and was successively chosen to the same office until 1817. His administration extended over the whole period of the last war with Great Britain, and his position was very difficult and trying. Although by political principle he was opposed to the war, he devoted his time and abilities to sustain the honor of the State and country. In 1817 he retired from public life. He was a member of the Beneficent Congregational Church, of which Rev. James Wilson was then pastor. He was one of the Fellows of Brown University, President of the Peace Society, and of the Rhode Island Bible Society. He was also a member of the Society of Cincinnati from its beginning, and his diploma, signed by Washington and Knox, is still preserved. In pursuance of a special resolution of the Society, Governor Jones was succeeded in his membership by his son-in-law. He died April 22, 1822, leaving his widow and an only child, Harriet. His daughter was the wife of the late Thomas C. Hoppin. Governor Jones was a Federalist of the old school, a man of the strictest integ- rity and the most courtly manners.

BOTTER, HON. ELISHA R., was born at Kingston (then called Little Rest), Rhode Island, 1764. He was the son of Thomas Potter, of that village, who was Colonel of one of the three regiments raised for the defence of the State in the Revolutionary War. But he spent most of his youth in the family of his maternal grandfather, Elisha Reynolds, who owned a large farm, where he resided, near the village. Like all the sons of farmers of that day, he worked upon his grandfather's farm, and for a while in a blacksmith's shop, which he soon left to obtain an education better than the ordinary schools of that day afforded. He studied the Latin language, etc., at Plainfield Academy, and surveying and some branches

of mathematics under Mr. Daboll. He was for one year Clerk of the County Court, and was admitted to the bar about 1789. There is a blank in the records of the Su- preme Court where it should be recorded, but he was ad- mitted to practice in the United States Circuit Court De- cember 4, 1790, and he almost immediately acquired a large practice. We extract the following from a notice of Mr. Potter's life and services, from the pen of the late Pro- fessor William G. Goddard, and published in the appendix to his address on the adoption of the new Constitution in Rhode Island, delivered before the General Assembly at Newport, May 3, 1843: " That portion of his professional education which Mr. Potter did not owe to himself he ac- quired under Matthew Robinson, a celebrated lawyer, who removed from Newport to Narragansett in 1750, and there resided till his death in 1795. He continued to practice law till he reached the age of about forty years, when the fascinations of political life withdrew him from the business of the courts. As an advocate he was successful, although he was often obliged to contend with Robinson and Bourne and Bradford, then distinguished practitioners at the Rhode Island bar. Mr. Potter's last forensic effort was before the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, not many years before his death, when he made the opening argument in a case of his own, and was followed by Mr. Wirt in the close. Most of this argument he committed to writing. In April, 1793, Mr. Potter was first elected a Representative to the General Assembly, destined to be, with few interruptions, the scene upon which he was to exhibit his extraordinary powers for more than forty years. He continued to represent his native town in the Legisla- ture till October, 1796. In November of that year he was elected a Representative in the Fourth Congress, in the place of Judge Bourne, who had resigned his seat. He was at the same time chosen to the Fifth Congress, in the place of Judge Bourne, who had been elected and had de- clined. Mr. Potter likewise resigned his seat before his term of service had expired, and returned home. In Au- gust, 1798, he was again returned to the General Assembly from South Kingstown, and there he remained till, in 1809, he was again elected a Representative in Congress. He con- tinued in Congress with his colleague, the late Hon. Richard Jackson, for six years, when they both declined a re-election. In August, 1816, Mr. Potter was again elected a member of the General Assembly; and thenceforward he was re- elected semi-annually till his death, except in April, 1818, when, being a candidate for the office of Governor, he could not become a candidate for the inferior office. Although he lived in times of high political excitement, and as a politician was never required to define his position, yet so prevailing was his personal influence that he was never opposed but twice as a candidate for the Legislature. In both of these contests, which were extremely ardent, he succeeded by decided majorities. During his long term of service in the General Assembly, Mr. Potter was several

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times elected Speaker of the House. Perhaps no political man in this State ever acquired or maintained, often amid many adverse circumstances, a more commanding influ- ence. This influence was the result mainly of his powers and qualities as a man : of his rare natural endowments- his intuitive perception of character-his large acquaintance with the motives, principles, and passions which belong to human nature and determine the conduct of men. He was not a favorite of the mass of the people, for, politician though he was, he neglected many of the most effective means of winning popularity. Over the minds, however, of those, whether friends or foes, to whom in political con- cernments the people are wont to look for direction, he always exerted an extraordinary influence. When a Mem- ber of Congress, from 1809 to 1815, he did not, like most members of his party during that stormy period, sever him- self from all familiar associations with his antagonists. On the contrary, he mingled freely with them, and though he never exposed to suspicion his fidelity as a politician, he won them to an easy and generous confidence in the vir- tues of the man. After his retirement from Congress, Mr. Potter maintained an extensive correspondence with those leading politicians at Washington whose political sym- pathies were in harmony with his own. He seldom wrote for the newspapers except under his own signature : but at different times he put forth pamphlets intended to influence the politics of the day in Rhode Island. Though he was unskilled in the art of composition, yet he always expressed himself with clearness and vigor, causing the strong con- ceptions of his strong mind to fall with decided effect upon the minds of others. During his long legislative career, Mr. Potter seldom or never made speeches which were the work of premeditation. He never spoke, however, with- out finding willing listeners and producing a strong effect. He was always forcible, and at times he was eloquent. When, more especially, the warm current of his kindly emotions had acquired a quicker flow by some appeal to his sympathies as a man, his gigantic frame would almost tremble with agitated sensibilities. When the unfortunate asked for relief, or when the guilty sued for pardon, the statesman was lost in the man. On such occasions he has been known to pour forth a strain of uncultivated and powerful eloquence, which came from the heart and went to the heart. Although Mr. Potter was for so many years an active and prominent politician, yet he was not unac- customed at intervals to look for pleasure and instruction to some of the master spirits of English literature. Of Shakespeare he was particularly fond, attracted, doubtless, by the marvellous knowledge of the springs of human ac- tion which is discovered by that unequalled dramatist. Mr. Potter loved his native State with genuine ardor, and no man was more indignant when either her rights were invaded or her honor assailed. Had he lived to witness the trials through which she has just passed unhurt, he would have put forth all the energies of his mind

and all his influence as a politician in vindication of the majesty of the laws and the rights of the people. Mr. Potter departed this life at his residence in King- ston, September 26, 1835, aged seventy years." Mr. Potter was from early life an active and influential member of the old Federal party, and was the last candidate of that party for Governor, in 1818. Governor Knight, the opposing candidate, was elected, and the Federalists made no further effort to retain the control of the State. Al- though devoted to the principles of that party, he was opposed to the Hartford Convention, and used his influence by letters from Washington to prevent the party in this State from sending delegates to it. Some of them are still preserved. The following extracts from some sketches of the Washington society of 1826 were written by Hon. Jo- siah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, and published in the New York Independent, in 1881. At the time spoken of Mr. Potter had been at Washington attending to a lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court. "Our hold upon political parties is now so narrowed that it is difficult to realize the uncompromising sternness with which the original Feder- alists kept the faith. To them party had the character of a church or a religion, and I cannot better illustrate this last remark than by quoting the words of Elisha R. Potter, of Rhode Island, a gentleman whom I constantly met at Miss Hyer's table, in Washington, and with whom I made part of my journey home. He had been a member of Con- gress in the last century, and had served again during the War of 1812. He was one day giving me a pathetic de- scription of the gradual fading out of the Federal party, and of the pluck with which the standard was followed after the day was lost. 'I remember a time,' he said, ' when we found ourselves in a minority of eleven, and some timid soul had called a sort of meeting, to see whether it were worth while to continue the opposition. Some were disposed to be dispirited, and I was asked to say a few words to brace them up. Well, it came upon me to say only this : " Friends, just remember that we are as many as the Apostles were after Judas had deserted them. Think what they did, and fight it out." That did the business. We did fight it out, and fell fighting for the good cause.' There spoke the uncompromising spirit of Federalism. . .

Mr. Pottter was one of the men who carry about them a surplus of vital energy, to relieve the wants of others. The absurd inquiry whether life were worth living never sug- gested itself in his presence. I well remember how the faces about Miss Hyer's dining-table were wont to be lighted up when he entered the room. Mr. Potter seemed to carry about with him a certain homespun certificate of au- thority, which made it natural for lesser men to accept his conclusions. Oddly enough, I have met only one other individual who impressed me as possessing the same sort of personal power, and he was one whose place in history is certain when the lives of greater and better men are cov- ered by oblivion; for the muse of history postpones the

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claims of statesmen and poets to those of the founders of religions, who, for good or evil, are more potent factors in the destiny of mankind. Hereafter I may give an account of my visit to Joseph Smith, in his holy city of Nauvoo. It is now sufficient to mention that when I made the ac- quaintanee of the Mormon prophet I was haunted with a provoking sense of having known him before; or, at least, of having known some one whom he greatly resembled. And then followed a painful groping and peering ' in the dark backward and abysm of time,' in search of a figurc that was provokingly undiscoverable. At last the Washing- ton of 1826 came up before me, and the form of Elisha R. Potter thrust itself through the gorges of memory. Yes, that was the man I was seeking ; yet the resemblance, after all, could scarcely be ealled physical, and I am loath to borrow the word impressional from the vocabulary of spirit mediums. Both were of commanding appearance, men whom it seemed natural to obey. Wide as were the differ- ences between the lives and characters of these Americans, there emanated from each of them a certain peculiar moral stress and compulsion which I have never felt in the pres- ence of others of their countrymen. The position of Mr. Potter in his native State has now faded to a dim tradition.

. It was of the authoritative kind which belongs to men who bear from Nature the best credentials. His address to the freemen of the State of Rhode Island, published in 1810, is good reading to-day. There is no document of as many pages so illustrative of the best sentiment and best spirit of the time. The style is that of a man not quite accustomed to easy writing; but there is always dignity in its some- what rugged periods, and the address glows with an hon- orable self-respect, which is not too common in the com- munieations of politicians with their constituents. I

gladly close these records of Washington society by re- calling a figure so typical of a noble American manhood." As pertinent to the remarks of Mr. Quincy as to Mr. Potter's personal appearance, we will add that it was remarked by Englishmen who saw him in Washington, that in figure and countenance he bore a most striking resemblance to Charles James Fox, the celebrated English statesman. There are many yet living who have heard the traditions of the great influence of Mr. Potter in the politics of the Statc. Mr. God- dard, writing in 1843, eight years after his death, speaks of "the extraordinary intellectual and political ascendency, early acquired and to the last maintained by Elisha R. Pot- ter," and the late Samuel Dexter, of Boston, formerly a mem- ber of Congress from Massachusetts, said of him, "that God Almighty had done more for that man than for any man he ever knew." Mr. Potter married, first, Mrs. Mary Perkins, widow of Joseph Perkins, who left no children; second, Mary, daughter of Pardon Mawney, of East Greenwich (of French Huguenot descent, see Rider's Rhode Island His- torical Tracts, No. 5). Children : 1, Elisha Reynolds (see another notice) ; 2, Thomas Mawney, now Medical Director United States Navy ; 3, William H. Potter, attorney-at-law,

formerly residing in Providence, now at Kingston, married Mrs. Sarah C. Swann, daughter of Hon. John Whipple, of Providence ; 4, Jamcs B. Mason, now Paymaster United States Army, married Eliza, daughter of Asa Potter Esq., formerly Secretary of State of Rhode Island; 5, Mary Elizabeth Potter. (See also notices of Mr. Potter in Up- dike's Narragansett Church and in Updike's Memoirs of Rhode Island Bar, under head of William Channing.)

POURNE, HON. BENJAMIN, was born in Bristol, Sep- tember 9, 1755, and was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1775. He studied law, and having been admitted to the bar, practiced his pro- fession in Providence. His talents and public spirit early brought him into notice among his fellow-citizens. When, in January, 1776, two regiments were raised in Rhode Island in compliance with the Aet of the General Assembly, he was appointed as Quartermaster of the Second Regiment called into service. In August of this year he was rec- ommended as an Ensign in this regiment to receive Conti- nental pay. In September, this regiment, under the command of Colonel Christopher Lippitt, was ordered to Long Island to join the forces under General Washington. But it was not only as a soldier that Mr. Bourne served his native State. As a member of the General Assembly he rendered her good service. He took a deep interest in the ratification of the Federal Constitution by Rhode Island. There was much opposition to the measure in different parts of the State. A committee was chosen by the town of Providence to petition the General Assembly to call a convention to take the whole matter of the acceptance of the Constitution into consideration. A majority of the General Assembly voted not to grant the prayer of the petitioners. A sufficient number of the States, eleven out of the thirteen original States, having ratified the Constitution, the new government of the Union was organized in New York, the 4th of March, 1789. The situation of things in Rhode Island was pecu- liar; she was, in some sort, a foreign country, in the midst of the United States. She could claim no protection under the flag of the Union, and her commerce and navigation were without protection in foreign parts. Congress could regard her citizens only as foreigners, and subject them to duties as such. Thus situated, Providence chose a com- mittee, of which President James Manning was the chair- man, and Benjamin Bourne the second on the list, on which werc the names among others of Nicholas Brown, John Brown, and Welcome Arnold, to draft a petition to Con- gress, praying for due consideration to Rhode Island in the emergency in which she now found herself; and the peti- tion was transmitted to Congress by the hands of President

Manning and Mr. Bourne. In November, 1789, North Carolina, one of the two States which had failed to ratify the Constitution, adopted it, and Rhode Island was left

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alone, a community by herself among all the other States of the Union. At the January session, 1790, of the General Assembly, Mr. Bourne renewed his motion for the calling of a convention, and it was carried in the lower House by a handsome majority. The Senate after a warm discussion of the subject voted to adjourn to Sunday morning. One of the Senators, who was a minister of the gospel, feeling that his first duty was to go home and perform his Sabbath ser- vices, the Senate was tied, and the casting vote was with Governor Collins, who threw it so as to make the Senate concur with the House. It is a familiar fact in Rhode Island history that the proposed convention to which Provi- dence sent Benjamin Bourne as one of its delegates, met in May, 1790, in Newport, and on the 29th of this month the Federal Constitution was adopted. In the August follow- ing President Washington visited Providence. A committee, of which Mr. Bourne was a member, was appointed to draw up and present to him an address, which may be found in Staples's Annals, pp. 354-355. He prepared a freedom service in 1797 when President Adams visited Providence. A few months after the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, Rhode Island chose Mr. Bourne as her first Representative to the First Congress. He was re-elected to the Second, Third, and Fourth Congresses. Subsequently he was appointed, September, 1801, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Judge Bourne was a Trustee of Brown University for sev- enteen years, 1792-1809. The University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, in 1801. He died in 1808.

VES, THOMAS POYNTON, was born in the town of Beverly, Massachusetts, April 9, 1769. His parents died when he was a child, and he was placed under the care of relatives residing in Boston. His early education was obtained in the public schools of that city. He made such progress in the work of self-discipline, that he acquired habits of correctness in expression and writing which distinguished him in after-life. His school- days, however, were of short duration. At the early age of thirteen he obtained a situation as a clerk in the count- ing-house of Nicholas Brown, one of the " Four Brothers," of the Brown family. He exhibited traits of character, which, from the outset, won the confidence of his employer, and caused him to be intrusted with the discharge of duties which are not usually assigned to one so young as he was. The death of Mr. Brown occurred in 1791. The event found Mr. Ives occupying a most responsible position in the mercantile house with which he was connected, and in 1792 a partnership was formed between himself and the son of his late employer, under the title of Brown & Ives, who came to be regarded as among the most honorable and successful merchants of the times in which they lived. Of this distinguished house, Professor Goddard remarks

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 35

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868