CHANGES IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT.--SIR EDMOND ANDROS APPOINTED
GOVERNOR.--HE OPPRESSES THE COLONISTS AND IS FINALLY DEPOSED.
Thus a provisional government took the place of the charter government
under which New England had grown so rapidly. A great and successful
experiment in political science was suddenly checked, and hopes which
had led so many devout and earnest men to renounce the conveniences of
home for the perils and discomforts of a wilderness were rudely crushed
at the very moment when they seemed nearest their fulfillment. The
same blow which fell upon Rhode Island fell with equal fatality upon
Massachusetts and Connecticut. The government by charter ceased. The
two most active agents of James in this remoulding of the government of
the colonies were Dudley, President of the Council, and Randolph, the
Secretary, whose despotic conduct in Boston has already been mentioned.
Here was a broader and more congenial field.
It was resolved as has been seen to address the King in behalf of the
Colony, and John Greene, venerable by years and illustrious by public
services, was appointed to carry the address to England and advocate
it as agent for the Colony. He had watched over the cradle of the
Colony--who so fit to stand by its grave.
Unfortunately, party had lost none of its virulence even in this
supreme hour, and a small minority of dissentients was found to the
sober and judicious conduct of the Assembly. Among them were members
of the Atherton company, and among their methods of attack were bitter
aspersions upon the personal character of the colonial agent. The
provisional government found enough to do in preparing the colonies
for their new life, and one of their earliest measures was a final
organization of King's Province. Among the changes that they made was
the changing of the names of its three towns. Kingston, the largest,
was called Rochester, Westerly, the next in size, became Haversham, and
East Greenwich, the smallest, took the name of Dedford. The western
boundary of Haversham was Pawcatuck River. Dedford was extended on the
north to Warwick, and enlarged by the peninsula of Potowomut. Part of
the actual settlers were living on land to which they had no legal
claim. Preëmption rights were granted them and time given them to
"arrange with the owners by rent or purchase."
At last, on the 20th of December, 1686, the Royal Governor, Sir Edmond
Andros, arrived in Boston. He came in a ship of the royal navy and
brought with him two companies of the royal army, the first regular
troops that had ever been seen in Massachusetts. He had already
been in the colonies and knew the spirits with whom he would have to
deal. Rhode Island, like her sisters, had everything to fear from his
arbitrary will. But she had treated him with respectful consideration
on his former visit, and was now treated by him with less than his
usual harshness.
He entered at once upon his welcome task, the transformation of a
constitutional government into a despotism. Massachusetts came first in
order, and the very first blow was a deadly one, an outrage upon her
convictions and a deep humiliation to her pride. Her Puritan theocracy,
which had penetrated every part of her civil polity, was overthrown,
and the service of the church of England was openly celebrated. In this
Rhode Island had no change to fear, for freedom of conscience was, till
other ends were accomplished, the doctrine of the King himself. In all
other things all the colonies fared alike.
We have seen how watchful Rhode Island was of the taxing power, and how
nearly she had reached the great fundamental principle that taxation
and representation go together. Andros sent out his tax-gatherers
without consulting the tax-payers. His object was to raise money,
no matter how. Farming the revenue, always a favorite device of
despotism, offered facilities which he promptly turned to account. The
augmentation of fees was an abundant source. Those of probate were
increased twenty-fold. Writs of intrusion opened another channel for
organized robbery. No one could tell how soon he might be compelled to
buy his farm over again. Even marriage afforded a field for the display
of arbitrary power. Necessity at first compelled the government to
recognize the validity of civil marriages. But as the transformation
of laws and usages progressed, no marriages were recognized as valid
which were not celebrated according to the rights of the Church of
England. To feel the odious tyranny of this law it should be remembered
that there was but one Episcopal clergyman in the Colony. Another
oppressive act was the introduction of passports, whether for the fees
they brought in or in order to throw obstacles in the way of a free
communication among the colonies, it would be difficult to tell.
Andros's commission gave him the power to appoint and remove his
counselors at will. The council consisted of nineteen members, five of
whom were from Rhode Island. One of them, John Greene, was absent on
his agency in England. Their first meeting was held at Boston. In this
the usual oaths of allegiance and office were taken, the two Quaker
members from Rhode Island being allowed to make their affirmation. All
officers in commission were continued in office during the Governor's
pleasure, and all laws that did not clash with the laws of England,
were retained. The first was the only full meeting of this impotent
board, which only met to confirm the resolves of an arbitrary Governor.
In substance Andros had his own way, though not without occasional
opposition and now and then humiliation. In Rhode Island the charter
was adroitly put out of his reach by Governor Clarke and not reproduced
till he had left Newport. In Connecticut it was hidden in the hollow of
an oak. The seal of Rhode Island was broken. The members of the council
were constantly changing, and few of them, according to Randolph, cared
for the King. "His Excellency has to do with a perverse people."
We meet some of the questions of our own day. Licenses for the sale
of liquor were granted in Newport, but no liquor could be sold in
King's Province. How well the prohibition was obeyed it is impossible
to say. Poor laws also appear in the guise of taxes for the support
of that perplexing part of the population. It would be tedious and
useless to follow the despotic Governor through all the changes of his
administration of two years and four months. Suffice it to say that he
had fully imbibed the spirit of his master, and did all that he could
to reduce the colonies to servitude. A few provisions, however, may be
mentioned as illustrating the condition of the country. With the growth
of the towns fires became sources of danger. To enforce watchfulness
the person in whose house a fire broke out was fined two and sixpence,
and for still greater security every householder was required to set
"a ladder reaching to the ridge pole, to every house that he owned."
Attention was called to the fishing in Pettaquamscot pond and an order
passed for encouraging it. A tax was laid for the extermination of
wolves, which seem still to have been very numerous.
In April, 1688, Andros's commission was enlarged so as to comprise New
York and the Jerseys, all under the general appellation of New England.
Enlarged powers and minute instructions accompanied the new commission,
and among the former was the subjection of the press to the will of the
Governor.
But another change was drawing nigh. There was nothing in common
between James the Second and the New England colonist, and Andros
represented his master too faithfully not to be bitterly hated. Even
Thanksgiving, that thoroughly New England festival, was neglected
when announced by his proclamation. Some spoke out their detestation
openly to his face. "I suppose," he said one morning to Dr. Hooker, the
great clerical wit of Hartford, "all the good people of Connecticut
are fasting and praying on my account." "Yes," replied the Doctor, "we
read, 'This kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer.'"
Rhode Island suffered less at his hands than any other colony. The
enforced toleration which excited such strong feelings in Massachusetts
met with no opposition in a territory where Baptists and Quakers
and Puritans and Separatists worshipped according to their own
convictions. John Greene soon became aware that there was no prospect
of a return to the free life of the charter so long as James held the
throne. Therefore, without renouncing the hope of a better future,
he confined his negotiations for the present to questions of minor,
though important bearing. Chief among them was the putting an end to
the intrusions of the outside claimants to Narragansett. This brought
up all the unsettled claims which had been so pertinaciously enforced
and so firmly resisted. The Atherton claim was thrown out by the
Commissioners as extorted from the Indians by fear. The Connecticut
claim was repudiated upon grounds set forth in the Rhode Island
charter. Several individual titles, both Indian and English, were
considered, and after careful examination, the right of Rhode Island to
King's Province was confirmed for the third time--"against Connecticut
in point of jurisdiction, and against the so-called proprietors in
point of ownership." This report was met in England by a petition of
Lord Culpepper in behalf of the Atherton company for grants of land
not already occupied and the bass ponds, upon such quit rents as might
seem good to the King. The petition was granted in part and Andros
was intrusted to "assign them such lands as had not already been
occupied--at a quit rent of two and sixpence for every hundred acres."
Thus far Rhode Island has come off with honor in her contests with her
neighbors. There was one, however, in which she won no honor. A party
of unfortunate Huguenots had established themselves in King's Province,
forming a little settlement of their own and paying honestly for their
lands. But the French name was not loved in the colonies and their
Protestant neighbors persecuted them away. Traces of them may still be
found in the neighborhood where they settled, which bears to this day
the name of Frenchtown.
Meanwhile great changes were taking place in England, where James
was rapidly running his career of bigotry and oppression. Slow as
the communications between the mother country and her colonies were
there was still communication enough to enable the latter to form
some conception of the state of public feeling in the former. The new
government had never acquired any stability in New England. The Council
was constantly changing, and after the first meeting never all met
together again. The public mind was ripe for revolution, and when the
first tidings of the fall of James reached New England she was prepared
to accept them with all their consequences. Unfortunately for Andros he
was in Boston at this critical moment, and Boston was ready to act with
her wonted vigor. The Governor was summoned to surrender his authority,
and refusing, was thrown into prison. Massachusetts made haste to
reörganize her government, but her charter was gone.