The eastern side of Narragansett Bay is chiefly occupied by Aquidneck,
or Rhode Island, upon which is the queen of American seaside resorts,
Newport. Aquidneck is the Indian "Isle of Peace," the word literally
meaning "floating on the water," and its southwestern extremity
broadens into a wide peninsula of almost level and quite fertile land,
making a plateau elevated about fifty feet above the sea. The island
is fifteen miles long and from three to four miles wide, and this
plateau rests upon rock, the strata making cliffs all around it, with
coves worked into them by the waters, presenting smooth sand beaches
having intervening bold promontories. The southeastern border of this
plateau, facing the Atlantic, has an irregular front of little bays
and projections, with the waves dashing against the bases of the
cliffs and among the rocks profusely strewn beyond them. Behind the
western extremity of the island is Brenton's Point, projecting in such
a way as to protect the inner harbor of Newport. Here are the wharves,
facing the westward, and the ancient part of the town, its narrow
streets and older houses covering considerable surface. The harbor is
protected by a breakwater, and beyond is Conanicut Island. This was
"Charming Newport of Aquidneck," as the colonial histories recorded
it, then a leading seaport of New England. Thames Street, fronting it,
was, in the eighteenth century, one of the busiest highways of
America. Protecting the harbor entrance, upon Brenton's Point, is Fort
Adams, which was a formidable fortification before modern-gunnery
improvements superseded the old systems, and, next to Fortress Monroe,
it is the largest defensive work in the United States, having
accommodations for a garrison of three thousand men. It was built
during the Presidency of John Adams, and named for him, being then
hurried to completion as a defense against French attacks, war with
that country seeming to be imminent, and the French particularly
desiring to possess Newport. All around the ancient town, and
spreading over the plateau, to which the surface slopes upward in
gentle ascent from the harbor, is the modern Newport of the American
nineteenth century multi-millionaires. From the older town, southward
across the plateau, stretches the chief street, Bellevue Avenue,
through the fashionable residential district.
William Coddington, whose name is preserved in various ways, but whose
descendants are said to have been degenerate, founded Newport. He led
a band of dissenters from the Puritan church in Massachusetts and
bought Aquidneck from the Indians, starting his colony in 1639. Most
of the earlier settlers, in fact, were people of various religious
sects driven out of the strictly Puritan New England towns. Having
abandoned England because they objected to a State Church, we are told
that the Puritans forthwith proceeded to set up in Massachusetts what
was very like a State Church of their own, and soon made it hot for
the unbelievers. They drove out both William Blackstone and Roger
Williams. Blackstone, when he had to go over the border and establish
his hermitage at Study Hill on Blackstone River, said: "I came from
England because I did not like the Lords Bishops, but I cannot join
with you, because I would not be under the Lords Brethren." After
Blackstone and Williams, many others came to Rhode Island and settled
at Newport, for there they enjoyed the completest liberty of
conscience. The Quakers were unmolested and came in large numbers; the
Baptists flocked in and built a meeting-house; the Hebrews came, solid
business men, originally from Portugal, and established the first
synagogue in the United States; the sternest doctrines of the
Calvinists were preached; the Moravians held their impressive
love-feasts; and orthodox Churchmen fervently prayed for the English
King. There were all shades of belief, and dissenters of all ilks, and
many having no belief at all, so that the fair town on Aquidneck was
pervaded with such an atmosphere of religious toleration and
cosmopolitan irregularity that it became famous for its sharp contrast
with the stern rigidity of New England. Hence it was not unnatural
that at the opening of the nineteenth century President Dwight should
have declared that an alleged laxity of morals in Stonington was due
to "its nearness to Rhode Island." But despite these peculiarities the
Newport colony got on well, so that the growing settlement on the
"Isle of Peace" in time came to be designated as the "Eden of
America." Dean Berkeley, afterwards Bishop, visited Newport in 1729,
remaining several years, and gave the colony an elevated literary
tone. An Utopian plan for converting the Indians brought him over from
England, but he soon discovered that it was impracticable, and went
back home to become a Bishop. His favorite resort is shown at the part
of the Newport Cliffs called the "Hanging Rocks," and it is said he
there composed his _Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher_, and the
noble lyric closing with the famous verse proclaiming the patriotic
prophecy which Leutze made the subject of his grand mural painting in
the Capitol at Washington:
"Westward the course of empire takes its way."