A short history of Rhode Island

by George Washington Greene

CHAPTER XV.

CHARTER GOVERNMENT AGAIN RESUMED.—FRENCH WAR.—INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.—CHARGES AGAINST THE COLONIES.

Rhode Island had never hated Andros as bitterly as the other colonies had hated him, for the freedom of conscience which he endeavored to force upon them was in her a fundamental principle. But she loved her charter and rightly believed that it was the only sure pledge of her liberties. Therefore, when Dudley, the Chief-Justice, undertook to open his court, he was seized and put in jail. This was a bold casting off of the new government. The next step was a cautious return to the old. A letter from Newport came out calling upon the freemen of Rhode Island to meet there “before the day of usual election by charter,” to take counsel together concerning public affairs. When the day came the freemen met, and doubtless with all their usual freedom of debate, prepared a statement of their reasons for resuming their charter government. Party lines were already sharply drawn. On one side were the Royalists, led by the rich merchant, Francis Brinley, who opposed the resumption of the charter, and called for a general government by immediate appointment of the King. On the other were the Republicans, stronger both by number and by fervor of opinion. Their boldness secured the freedom of the Colony. In an address to “the present supreme power of England,” they gave their reasons for returning to their charter, and asked to have their action approved. Deputy-Governor Coggeshall, with several assistants, resumed their functions, but Governor Clarke, whose characteristic trait was caution, declined and the Colony was ten months without a governor.

Still, in May, all the old officers were reinstated and “all the laws superseded in 1686” resumed their place on the schedule. “The charter was produced in open Assembly” and then restored to Governor Clarke for safe keeping. When the question of the legality of the resumption of charter government came before the King, he approved it upon the written opinion of the law officers of the crown that “the charter, never having been revoked, but only suspended, still remained in full force and effect.” Heartily must Rhode Island and Connecticut have rejoiced that theirs had been so successfully guarded. In May came the welcome tidings that William and Mary had been acknowledged in England. They were promptly and joyfully acknowledged in the colonies. Dr. Increase Mather, a great name in Massachusetts, was in London on behalf of the colonies when the revolution broke out. He obtained an early audience of William and pleaded for the recall of Andros. The recall was granted, and after ten months of confinement the crestfallen Governor was sent to England for trial. But his conduct was viewed in a different light in the mother country from what it had been in the colonies. “The charges against him were dismissed by the royal order, on the ground of insufficiency—and that he had done nothing which was not fully justified by his instructions.” As a compensation for his long imprisonment, he was presently made Governor of Virginia.

In February, 1689–90, the Assembly met for the first time in four years and entered upon the work of organization. Seventeen deputies, together with the officers chosen in May, were present. Absentees were summoned. Clarke refused to serve as Governor. Christopher Almy also declined. The bold but aged Henry Bull was chosen in his stead. After some hesitation Clarke gave up the charter and other official papers. Funds which had been appropriated to the building of a Colony House were held by Roger Goulding, who promptly paid them over. Andros had broken the original colonial seal. A new seal, Hope with her anchor, was procured. Rhode Island’s exposed situation laid her open to attacks by sea, and thus imposed the necessity of new expenses. War had broken out between England and France, and the colonies were to come in for their share of war’s sufferings. Some fear was felt of the colony in Frenchtown, and the few survivors of the unfortunate settlement were required to repair to the office of John Greene, in Warwick, and take the oath of allegiance to the King.

Thus the government was regularly organized and public business began to move on in its accustomed track. At the May session of 1690 Governor Bull declined a reelection, and John Easton was chosen in his place. John Greene was chosen Deputy-Governor. One more was added to the list of assistants, who thus became ten. Here ends the probation of Rhode Island.

Poor and weak, through toil and sacrifice, in spite of internal dissensions and external enmities, calumniated for the great truth on which she was founded, coveted for the beautiful territory which she had redeemed from the wilderness, she had solved the problem of self-government and proved that the religious virtues may flourish without the aid of civil authority. The struggle for existence is over. She now enters through industry upon the path to wealth and culture.

The sessions of the Assembly had been held hitherto in taverns or private houses. But now a proper edifice, the town house, is built for public use and the public meetings are held in it. Thus far, also, the governor, the deputy-governor and the assistants have received no compensation for their services. They are henceforth exempted from the Colony tax. War with the French and Indians was raging all along the northern frontier. New York was the colony most exposed. Leister, her Governor, called on the other colonies for aid. Rhode Island, whose extensive water fronts left her open to attacks by sea, could not send men, and therefore taxed herself three hundred pounds to send money. The wisdom of this course was soon apparent. Seven French privateers made a descent upon the islands on the coast, committing horrible excesses. Bonfires were kindled at Pawcatuck to alarm the country, and a sloop well manned sent out from Newport to reconnoitre. A night attempt was made upon the town but failed. One upon New London was repulsed. Two sloops carrying ninety men were sent out under Thomas Paine and John Godfrey to fight the enemy. A bloody battle which lasted two hours and a half followed, and the French were driven off with the loss of half their crews and a valuable prize. Block Island was particularly exposed during this war. Four attacks were made upon it, the inhabitants ill treated and their cattle driven off. In the last invasion the privateersmen were defeated in “an open pitched battle.”

The war pressed so heavily on the commercial interests of the community that it was found necessary to lay a tonnage duty of a shilling a ton upon the vessels over ten tons burthen of other colonies that broke bulk in Newport harbor. The payment might be made in money or in powder, at the rate of a shilling a pound, and the products of the duty were employed in keeping up a powder magazine on the island. Rhode Islanders had not yet learnt to pay their taxes promptly, and more than once the Assembly was called together to devise the means of collecting sums already voted. The tonnage duty was a welcome, though a small contribution, to the scanty resources of the little Colony. A few years later a new source was opened by the levy of a duty upon foreign wines, liquors and molasses—that upon molasses being a half-penny a gallon. In the August session of 1698 an elaborate tax law in twelve sections was enacted, and a tax of eight hundred pounds currency was voted. By this act a poll tax of a shilling a head was imposed upon all males between sixteen and sixty. But this, also, was not easily collected, and years passed before an adequate method of taxation was devised and applied.

Shortly after the return to the charter the small-pox broke out. “Rhode Island is almost destroyed by the small-pox,” says a cotemporary letter. When the Assembly met they were unable to open the session with the prescribed formalities, for the only copy of the charter was in the keeping of the recorder, who was sick with the dreaded disease, and the reading of the charter was the first step towards organization. When the pestilence was passed, the attention of legislation was directed to the militia laws, which were revised and brought more into harmony with the material wants of the Colony. In this connection it may not be out of place to remember that the town house was enlarged and a belfry added to it. Government was gradually putting on the external forms of authority.