DEPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY.--INTRODUCTION OF THE
SPINNING-JENNY.--BITTER OPPOSITION TO THE FEDERAL UNION.--RHODE
ISLAND FINALLY ACCEPTS THE CONSTITUTION.
The question of finance meets us at every turn, and in every phase
bears fatal witness to the demoralizing effects of paper money
unsustained by hard money capital. At the Spring election of 1786,
the triumph of the paper money party was complete. A new bank was
established of a hundred thousand pounds. And soon a Forcing Act became
necessary to give the bills currency under heavy penalties. A complete
stagnation of business presently followed. The old hostility between
town and country revived. Commerce was suspended. Shops were closed.
The farmers who had mortgaged their farms for the bills, found that
they had got nothing but bits of paper in return for fruitful acres.
To retaliate upon the tradesmen they refused to bring their produce to
market. The necessaries of life fell short and much suffering ensued.
In Providence a town meeting was held to devise a remedy, and it was
resolved that the farmers should be left to make their own bargains,
and that to relieve the immediate demand five hundred dollars should
be borrowed and sent abroad to buy corn for the sufferers. At Newport
an attempt was made to force the bills upon the grain dealers, which
led to a riot. At a meeting in South Kingstown farmers were advised to
break off their intercourse with the merchants.
A convention of the country towns of Providence County was held at
Scituate and adjourned to meet the State convention at East Greenwich.
Sixteen towns were represented and resolved "to support the acts of the
General Assembly," and enforce the penal acts in favor of paper money.
Providence was represented by five of its best and most popular men,
but they were powerless against the torrent.
When the question came before the Assembly a new Forcing Act was
passed, in which the right to trial by jury was withheld and all the
common forms of justice violated. The protest of the indignant minority
was refused a place on the records; and pushing their recklessness
to the utmost, the triumphant majority enacted that the arrears of
Continental taxes might be paid in the new bills, and proposed a system
by which all trade was to be carried on by a committee in the name
of the State. This, however, was a step too far even for these wild
schemers, and when the Force Act was brought to trial, it was condemned
by a full bench as unconstitutional.
But the Assembly persevered, summoned the judges to answer fofr their
interference, and under the name of Test Act passed a new Forcing
Act more outrageous than the last. It was something like a pause in
this reckless career that the new act was referred to the towns for
discussion. Only three towns accepted it. An attempt at conciliation
failed.
The lowest deep of financial degredation was reached when the treasurer
was ordered to pay one-fourth part of the State debt in the bills
received for taxes. Never had party spirit assumed so dangerous a form.
Among the bad doings of the Assembly was the resumption of the charter
of Newport.
It was at this critical moment, when rents were paid in corn and trade
seemed about to return to its original form of barter, that the first
spinning-jenny in the United States was constructed by Daniel Jackson,
of Providence, and the foundations of Rhode Island's manufacturing
prosperity securely laid. History is full of compensations.
We reach the beginning of a still greater struggle. The convention
that was to transform the Confederation into a Union was to meet in
May. Should Rhode Island be represented in it? Those who had faith in
the Confederation, and there were many such, believed that with some
amendments it might be made to answer all the purposes of a stable
government. Those who were more impressed with its weakness called
for a thorough and radical change. The first, who in the sequel were
known as States Rights men, were also the advocates of paper money. The
second, the Federalists of a later day, were in favor of hard money.
The motion to send delegates was lost, and another step taken towards
repudiation. "All holders of State securities were required to present
them to the treasurer within six weeks and receive five shillings in
the pound thereupon, or to forfeit that amount, and interest was to
cease immediately upon the rising of the Assembly. The paper was now
passing at the rate of six dollars in paper for one in silver." Never
had the honor of the State been so imperilled. Fortunately, though, the
Assembly was divided, the courts were firm, and it was only by removing
four judges out of five that a decision in favor of paper payments
was obtained. Meanwhile the bills continued to fall, and soon reached
eight for one. But the moral sense of the community was not altogether
stifled. Some churches refused to receive as communicants men who paid
their debts in paper.
But soon all questions became absorbed in the question of the
acceptance or rejection of the Convention. In the Senate it was voted
to send delegates, but the bill was lost in the House, whose action
was defended by a State Rights letter, setting forth the doctrine of
popular sovereignty and "the entire subserviency of the legislature
to the public will." None but the people could send delegates to a
convention.
Meanwhile, the Convention, with Washington at its head, and Franklin,
Hamilton and Madison among its working members, had reached the end
of its arduous labors. The next step was to submit it to the people.
The Assembly met and a bill was introduced for printing it for
distribution, and appointing delegates as recommended by the Convention
itself. The last was voted down by a large majority. The fruit was not
yet ripe. But a resolve to print a thousand copies for distribution was
agreed to, and thus the question was brought squarely before the people.
And now for three years it was the chief question in all public
meetings, and was sure to come in either directly or indirectly
wherever two or three met together for business or for pleasure. The
merchants accepted it cheerfully, for they saw progress and development
and protection in it. But it was opposed by the farmers, who saw in it
a sacrifice of the rights of the State. Rhode Island had stood alone
so long, had been so firm and self-reliant through the dark days of
her long contest with Massachusetts and Connecticut, that she failed
to see how completely the relations of the colonies to each other were
changed, when from colonies they became states. There was no place for
independent states in the domain occupied by a Federal Union.
The first to accept the Constitution was Delaware. Pennsylvania came
next, and then New Jersey. The opening of 1788 was marked by the
accession of Georgia. Connecticut followed close. In Massachusetts
the contest was long and bitter. In June New Hampshire gave in her
adherence.
We have seen in what a dark hour Rhode Island first turned her
attention to cotton spinning. In this hour of even deeper gloom she
first opened a direct trade with India. About the same time a rolling
and a slitting-mill was established near Providence. Women of all
classes met together to spin flax, and men of all classes took pride in
wearing homespun. Nor was the promise of navigation less. Providence
already counted a hundred and ten sail in her waters, exclusive of
river craft. In spite of all her errors her faith in the future was
unimpaired.
Meanwhile the contest continued. Town was arrayed against country, the
States Rights men still holding the majority in the Assembly, although
in Providence the Federalists were strongest. The tidings of New
Hampshire's acceptance was received with exultation. The Constitution
was sure. In Providence it was resolved to unite the celebration of the
Fourth of July with that of the completion of the National Union. The
States Rights men took this for an intentional insult and marched upon
the town. Nothing but the good sense of the leaders prevented a bloody
collision. The rejoicings it was agreed, were for the Declaration of
Independence, not for the Declaration of the Union. Then from five to
six thousand people sat down in a tent a thousand feet long to feast
upon a sumptuous banquet, the most attractive part of which was an ox
roasted whole. On the very next day came tidings from Virginia. She
also had accepted the Constitution. New York followed and then North
Carolina, and the warmest enthusiasm welcomed each new declaration of
acceptance. But a bitter party spirit still held Rhode Island back.
Thus month followed month. New assemblies and new town meetings came
together and fought over the same ground. In all the other states
of the old thirteen the Constitution had been accepted, and was in
successful operation. It was clear that Rhode Island could not long
preserve her insulation. She was already compelled to ask vital favors
of the Union, and petition Congress to exempt her commerce from paying
duties in Union ports. For a while Congress bore with her and granted
her prayer. Slowly but surely the decisive day drew nigh. All the
artifices of parliamentary tactics were brought into play. In the midst
of intense excitement and by the casting vote of Governor Collins, it
was decided on the Sabbath morning of January 17th, 1790, to call a
convention. But even in the convention the friends of the Constitution
were in a minority. The familiar ground was to be fought over again
with no less bitterness than in the beginning. Loud murmurs came from
Congress. Shall this little strip of land prevent us from completing
a union so full of promise? Louder still were the murmurs from the
seats of commerce--Providence and Newport. We will break away from
these impracticable men and go into the Union alone with our ships and
our spinning-jennies. A coalition ticket was formed. So great was the
eager crowd, in which each man had his opinion, that the State House
was found too small to hold them, and the convention was compelled
to adjourn to the Second Baptist Church. It still took three days
more before a vote was reached; and then, at five o'clock of Saturday
afternoon, on the 29th of May, 1790, Rhode Island declared her adhesion
to the Union.