A short history of Rhode Island

by George Washington Greene

The history of the war does not belong to the history of Rhode Island, although the spirit engendered by it led to the formation of some military institutions. Among these was the Newport Artillery, which was chartered in 1741, and is still one of the best disciplined corps in the State.

I have spoken of the substitution of King’s attorneys to attorneys-general. It was made in the hope of enforcing the payment of interest bonds. But after a short trial the original form was resumed. The root of the evil was too deep. Another of the chronic evils of paper money vexed the Colony sorely. Counterfeit bills followed close upon the issue of genuine bills, and the Colony was flooded with bad money.

The Court of Equity was not continued long, and many other changes of brief duration were made in various branches of government. But what deserves especial mention is the instinctive perception with which Rhode Island detected the slightest invasion of her chartered rights and the courage with which she defended them. The clerkship of the naval office in Newport was claimed by one Leonard Lockman in virtue of a royal commission. The claim was referred to a committee which reported “that His Majesty was mistaken in said grant” which belonged to the Governor, who alone was responsible for the conduct of that officer. The question of custom fees and vice-admiralty fees was brought forward about the same time, and “the undoubted right of the General Assembly to state the fees of all officers and courts within the Colony” boldly asserted.

The expenses of the war still increased, straining the resources of the Colony to the utmost. Questions of organization were still rising, but the question of finance was the most difficult of all. New bills were issued with reckless profusion, and various devices adopted for the relief of the exchequer. Several bounties, and among them the bounties on hemp and oil, were withdrawn. The tonnage duty upon all vessels entering the Colony was revived. The lottery so wisely condemned in 1733 was legalized in 1744. Weybosset bridge was built by lottery.

The great military event of the campaign of 1745 was the capture of Louisburg by colonial troops. In this gallant feat of arms which fills so bright a page of colonial annals Rhode Island bore her part—especially through the Tartar, which, supported by two other war sloops, defeated at Famme Goose Bay a flotilla which was advancing with large reinforcements to the relief of the enemy. Captain Fones, who commanded the Tartar in this memorable campaign, has not received the honorable mention to which he was entitled for his gallantry and skill.

New exertions were required for securing Louisburg, and the colonies were again called upon to furnish men and supplies. In this also Rhode Island bore her part, propping as best she might her tottering treasury and using impressment for raising men. When the war was over England acknowledged her services by special grants.

In this year Rhode Island lost one of her faithful sons, Colonel John Cranston, son of the popular Governor, and commander of her forces at the capture of Port Royal. Towards the close of the year another great loss, though of another kind, fell upon the Colony. Two new privateers, mounting twenty-two guns each, with crews of over two hundred men went to sea the day before Christmas in a gale of wind and were never heard of again. Privateers held a place in war then which they do not hold now, and there was bitter sorrowing in more than two hundred households when the months passed away and no tidings of husband or father or brother came.

The success of the expedition against Louisburg increased the desire to carry the war into Canada. Commissioners from the colonies were invited to meet and take council together concerning the common interest. Here we meet for the first time the names of Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery, whose names stand side by side on the Declaration of Independence, which is already drawing nigh. The sense of common interest and mutual dependence gradually gains ground. Every exertion was made to call out the strength of the Colony. Popular feeling went with government and strengthened its hand for the great contest. Canada and Indian warfare were inseparably connected in the minds of the people, who, to rid themselves of the dreaded enemy submitted cheerfully to what they would otherwise have resisted as tyranny. Impressment was authorized by the Assembly.

In the midst of these efforts depreciation was undermining the strength and corrupting the moral sense of the community. The property tax of freemen had doubled. Bribery and fraudulent voting gained ground, and an attempt was again made to meet them by increasing the severity of the law. Every voter and every officer was required to declare under oath that he had neither taken nor offered a bribe; and a single fraudulent vote was sufficient to invalidate an election. The evidence of the briber held good against the bribed; and that the law might not be forgotten it was ordered to be “read in town meeting at every semi-annual election for five years and the name of every transgressor stricken from the roll of freemen.”

Again, the vacillation of the ministry defeated the expedition against Canada. Then came tidings of a great French armada which was coming to the conquest of New England. Great was the alarm of the colonies. But help came from another quarter. Disease and tempest scattered and infected the hostile fleet. One commander died. His successor committed suicide, and the shattered remnants of the unfortunate armada had hard work to make their way back to the French coast.