TRANSIT OF VENUS.—A STRONG DISLIKE TO ENGLAND MORE OPENLY EXPRESSED.—NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT.—INTRODUCTION OF SLAVES PROHIBITED.—CAPTURE OF THE GASPEE.
The feud of the two parties which had so long divided the Colony ceased at the approach of danger from abroad. A new Governor was elected, Josias Lyndon, and a new Deputy-Governor, Nicholas Cooke, whose name meets us so honorably during the first years of the war, now close at hand. For Ward and Hopkins a broader field of honorable rivalry was opening, and we shall soon see them working earnestly together in the Congress of the Declaration.
England had grown very angry over the attempts of the colonies to organize a system of concerted action. But the times were full of lessons, and the chiefest and most heeded among them was the lesson of union. The Parliament of 1761 was as blind as its predecessors had been, and came together firmly resolved to chastise the Americans into obedience. Where both sides were equally suspicious and equally embittered positive collision could not long be avoided. The first occurred in Newport harbor between three midshipmen of the Senegal man-of-war which was lying in the harbor, and some of the citizens. A citizen, Henry Sparker, was run through the body by an officer named Thomas Careless. Careless was indicted for murder, but acquitted on trial by the Superior Court on the plea of self-defence. Collisions occurred at Boston, all of which served to fan the flame of discontent. To hasten the crisis a regiment supported by a naval force was sent to overawe the rebellious town.
At the June session of the General Assembly (1758) an address was voted to John Dickinson for his “Letters of a Farmer.” In closing it they “hope that the conduct of the colonies on this occasion will be peaceable, prudent, firm and joint.” Resistance was becoming a familiar idea, and one of the most significant ways of expressing it was by liberty trees. A large elm in front of Olney’s tavern, in Providence, was dedicated in the presence of an enthusiastic crowd, and an oration embodying the popular sentiment pronounced by Silas Downer.
In the September session several important State papers were prepared, and the withholding of the war money complained of as a great injustice. Still in the midst of this growing disloyalty the King was always spoken of with affection and respect.
While attention was thus anxiously directed to England, purely domestic interests were not forgotten. The deputy-governor’s salary was fixed at fifteen pounds, half that of the governor. An educational society was incorporated at Providence under the name of Whipple Hall. Laws relative to real estate were passed, making it liable for debt after the death of the holder. School and church lands were exempted from taxation, and Trinity Church, in Newport, was incorporated, the first incorporation of a church in Rhode Island. An act was passed, also, wherein the old policy of protecting the river fish was changed, and the Scituate Furnace Company allowed to keep up the dam in the spring. In a previous year a general estimate of ratable estates had been ordered. In 1769 it was reported and found to amount to two million one hundred and eleven thousand two hundred and ninety-five pounds ten shillings and sevenpence, or seven million thirty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars, at the current value of lawful money, six shillings to a dollar, which was made by statute the basis of taxation.
This was the year of the transit of Venus, to which astronomers were looking forward with deep interest. In this band of observers Rhode Island was represented by Governor Hopkins and other unprofessional scientists in Providence, and by Ezra Stiles of Newport—and here we again meet the name of Abraham Redwood, who was never either governor or deputy-governor, but still lives in fresh remembrance as founder of the Redwood Library. He furnished the instruments for the Newport observation. The local memory of this event is still preserved in Providence by the name of the street in which the observatory stood. The latitude of Providence was found to be 41°, 50′, 41″; its longitude 71°, 16′ west from Greenwich.
Meanwhile the current was daily sitting more decidedly towards armed resistance. Opinions which four years before had been cautiously whispered in corners, now formed the chief topic of declamation in every private and public gathering. Virginia passed unanimously another series of resolutions more decided than the first, and sent copies of them to every colonial assembly. Rhode Island thanked her through the Governor. The Wilkes riots in London strengthened the hands of the opposition, and Lord Hillsborough gave assurance at a meeting of several colonial agents that the idea of drawing a revenue from America had been given up, and the offensive revenue act would in all but the tax on tea be repealed. Ministers failed to see that it was an inherent right, not a sum of money for which the colonists were contending. And in this contention they were prepared to go all lengths.
There was smuggling it was true, and thereby a constant loss to the revenue, but the method of enforcing the revenue laws was vexatious and intolerable to a free people. The officers employed in collecting the revenue belonged to a class immemoriably odious, and even where the collection was entrusted to officers of the Royal Navy it was conducted with an insolence and disregard of the rights and feelings of the colonists which made it doubly odious. Things had already reached the pass at which compromises become impossible. Either the King or the people must yield. Fortunately for mankind victory was where the young fresh life lay, with the colonists.
Among those who had made themselves most offensive in their endeavors to suppress the contraband trade was Captain William Reid, of the armed sloop Liberty, which was cruising in quest of smugglers in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. Under the pretext of putting down illicit trade he had sorely annoyed legitimate commerce. After bearing with his annoyances till they could be borne no longer, the people of Newport seized his vessel, scuttled and sank her, cut down her mast and burnt her boat. This was the first overt act of the War of Independence. Proclamations were issued and rewards offered, but the offenders were never detected. Another wrong inflicted by the revenue officers was in claiming higher fees than were allowed by law. After bearing this also till their patience gave out, the merchants of Newport banded together to resist the imposition.