PROGRESS OF THE WAR WITH THE FRENCH.--CHANGE IN THE JURISDICTION
OF THE COURTS.--SENSE OF COMMON INTEREST DEVELOPING AMONG THE
COLONISTS.--LOUISBURG CAPTURED.
War still continued to give its stern coloring to legislation. The
Tartar was held ready for instant service. The Governor and his council
were vested with the power of laying an embargo upon outward bound
vessels. Speculation turned seaward, and the money which in peace would
have been employed in building up commerce and manufactures was spent
upon privateers.
Still the interests of peace were not altogether neglected. The
productive enterprise which was to raise Rhode Island so high in the
list of manufacturing states, was already awakened, and as early as
1741 James Greene and his associates petitioned the Assembly for
permission to build a dam across the south branch of Pawtuxet river
and lay the foundation of those iron works which in the sequel became
so celebrated throughout the colonies. Population was increasing. The
large townships became too large for the demands of local government
and were divided. Thus Greenwich, carrying out the suggestions of its
position, was divided into East and West. About the same time Warwick
was divided and a new township set out under the name of Coventry.
In the next year North Kingstown was divided and the Town of Exeter
incorporated, and a year later the country district of Newport, which
was separated from the town by thick woods, was incorporated as
Middletown. The territorial struggle was nearly over and Rhode Island
was settling down into its permanent proportions. The schedules still
continue to record the progress of organization as experience called
for new changes. The office of attorney-general was abolished and a
King's attorney for every county appointed instead. A Court of Equity
composed of five judges, annually elected by the Assembly, was formed
to try all causes of appeal in personal actions from the Superior
Court to the General Assembly--a course which "by long experience had
been found prejudicial." To draw closer the ties of loyalty a form of
prayer for the royal family was sent from England to be read in every
religious assembly throughout the colonies as a part of public worship.
The dissensions with Connecticut concerning the western boundary had
taken a new form. The line, as the reader will remember, had been drawn
and marked by competent authority. A committee appointed by Connecticut
displaced the bound at the southwest corner of Warwick. The Rhode
Island Assembly sent surveyors to examine the ground and restore the
line. This outrage was repeated twice.
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.
Before the tidings of this disaster could reach New England it had
been resolved to send reinforcements to the succor of Annapolis Royal,
the supposed point of attack. The Rhode Island troops sailed early in
November. The Massachusetts troops soon followed. Both were overtaken
by heavy gales which cast some of them ashore at Mt. Desert. Some, like
their adversaries, the French, were crippled by disease and a few made
their way to the nearest port. Winter set in and the campaign of 1746
closed in gloom.
This was the year in which the royal decree concerning the eastern
boundary was enforced. Rhode Island gained by it a large accession of
territory--the towns of Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren and
Cumberland, which were incorporated and brought under the control of
Rhode Island laws. Thus ten new deputies were added to the colonial
representation. Thus, also, a revision of the judicial and military
system of the Colony became necessary, and a new court was established
under the title of Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and
General Jail Delivery, and consisting of a chief-justice and four
associate justices annually chosen by the Assembly. The judicial powers
of the assistants or upper House of Assembly ceased, though they still
continued to act as a court of probate. Two militia companies were
formed in Tiverton and one in each of the other new towns.
The previous history of the new towns belongs to Massachusetts and
Plymouth. Their annexation to Rhode Island brought her an increase
of about four thousand inhabitants, well trained most of them in the
tenets of religious freedom.