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.

The question of renewing the non-importation agreement came up for decision. New York, which on this occasion had taken the lead, was for extending them “indefinitely until every portion of the revenue act shall be repealed.” Boston followed the example. In Providence and throughout the country opinion was divided, but after much discussion nearly all concurred in admitting everything but tea, and Newport brought down the indignation of the other colonies upon her by admitting prohibited articles.

In these same days the chronicle records a murrain among the cattle and hydrophobia among the dogs. From the first, relief was sought by forbidding the exportation of cattle from the island, from the last by giving general leave to kill all dogs running at large. These acts were to hold good for four months.

This was the period of Newport’s greatest prosperity. Her population was over eleven thousand. She had seventeen manufactories of sperm oil and candles, five rope-walks, three sugar refineries, one brewery and twenty-two distilleries of rum, an article which in those days was deemed essential to the health of the sailor and the soldier, and all hard working men. Her foreign commerce found employment for nearly two hundred ships, her domestic trade for between three and four hundred coasting craft. A regular line of packets kept open her communications with London for passengers and mails. Her society had never lost the intellectual impulse given it by Berkeley. Ezra Stiles, the most learned American of his day, filled one of her pulpits, Samuel Hopkins, the founder of a new school of theology, another. A public library, which still bears the name of its founder, furnished the means of literary recreation and research. She would gladly have drawn Rhode Island College to herself also, but though great efforts were made to bring this about Providence made the better offer and obtained the preference.

While this question was still under discussion the first Commencement came round. Seven young men, clad like their officers in the products of American looms, presented themselves for graduation. It was a holiday in which all citizens could heartily unite, for it was the only one which brought them together in the gratification of a common pride. Commencement Day and Election Day continued to be the gathering days of the Colony long after the Colony had become a State.

The greater part of the slaves of the Colony were in Newport, and special laws were enacted concerning their general treatment and their manumission. In the autumn session of 1770 these laws were revised, and a bill introduced prohibiting their further importation. Unfortunately this movement went no farther. The evil had struck too deep.

There was a lull in the storm. Even men not used to indulge vain hopes began to think that the cloud which had so long darkened the horizon might pass away. The revenue acts were still the chief obstacles to harmony. Smugglers were as bold and as successful as ever. But nothing occurred in 1771 to show that the final rupture was so near. Rhode Island’s peculiar grievance was the old war debt. To make one more effort, Henry Marchant, the new attorney-general, was directed to join Sherwood in enforcing the claim. Another old question was also revived, that of the northern boundary. Among the acts of the Assembly was a new bankrupt law. The evils of a paper currency still continued to bear their fruit.

But one of the most dangerous movements of this year was a claim advanced by Governor Hutchinson to the command of the Rhode Island forts and militia. This claim Rhode Island had contested when advanced by former governors, nor was she disposed to yield to it now. Still less was she disposed to accept a proposal which at this time came from Bristol under the signature, “A Friend to Property,” to divide Rhode Island between Massachusetts and Connecticut, or ask that she should be made a royal government upon the ground that “an elective legislature must always be a source of disorder and corruption” in a small state.

That Rhode Island was not disorderly nor corrupt was proved by the conduct of her courts. A merchant of Wrentham named David Hill was detected by the New York Committee of Inspection “in selling goods included in the non-importation agreements.” By the persuasion of the committee he was prevailed upon “to deposit his goods with a merchant till the revenue acts should be repealed.” But the suspicions of the people were excited, and they seized the goods and destroyed them. Hill finding in Rhode Island “property belonging to some of the committee,” sued them in the Rhode Island courts, asserting that in giving up his goods he had acted upon compulsion. The sympathies of the courts and the people were against him. But, guided by the law and the evidence the Court of Common Pleas awarded him heavy damages and the Superior Court confirmed the award. In the next year when a new election came round and the voice of the people was heard, they also confirmed it by reËlecting the same men for judges. These righteous judges were Stephen Hopkins, James Helme, Benoni Hall, Metcalf Bowler and Stephen Potter.

While these things were a doing the insolence of the officials employed in enforcing the revenue laws reached its highest point. The suppression of smuggling in Narragansett Bay was entrusted to Lieutenant Duddingston, of the Royal Navy, with two armed vessels—the Gaspee, a schooner of eight guns, and the Beaver. Not contented with performing the duties of his office, still vexatious even when considerately executed, he multiplied its annoyances by a thousand acts of petty tyranny. He stopped vessels of every kind without discrimination—ships just from sea, and market boats on their way to Providence and Newport with their perishable freights, and to increase the indignity refused to show his commission or the authority by which he acted. Admiral Montague, who commanded on the station, justified him in his oppression. Complaints were sent to England, but the day of complaint was past.

On the 8th of June the sloop Hannah, Benjamin Lindsey, master, arrived at Newport from New York, and having reported at the custom house set sail the next day for Providence. No sooner was she seen from the deck of the Gaspee than the watchful servant of the King gave chase, and venturing too near a point which ran out from the right bank of the river took ground. Captain Lindsey kept on his course with the welcome tidings that the common enemy was at bay. At the beat of the drum the exasperated citizens came crowding to the gathering place, James Sabin’s house in South Main Street. Eight long boats with five oars each were manned. Powder was prepared and bullets run, and when night set in with its friendly shades the resolute band set forth on its mission of vengeance.

It was long after midnight when they came within sight of the doomed vessel hard set in the sand, and heard the first hoarse challenge of the guard. Without heeding it they dashed forward and as a second challenge came were at her side. Duddingston sprang upon the gunwale—he had no time to dress, no time to arm himself or call his men to quarters—but as he stood full in view his figure caught the eye of Joseph Bucklin who was standing on one of the main thwarts. “Eph.,” said Bucklin to Ephraim Bowen, who was sitting on the thwart on which Bucklin was standing and who lived to tell the story in his eighty-sixth year, “reach me your gun, I can kill that fellow.” As Eph. was reaching him the gun, Whipple, one of the leaders was beginning to answer Duddingston’s hail:—“I am the sheriff of the County of Kent, God damn you,”—but while he was yet speaking Bucklin fired and Duddingston fell, wounded in the stomach. The surprise was complete. The crew with their wounded commander were sent ashore and the vessel burned to the water’s edge.

Who were these bold men? Everybody in Providence knew; but although large rewards were offered for their detection and a special tribunal formed to try them, nobody was ever found to bear witness against them. So deep were the feelings that prepared the way for the separation from England.