WEBVTT NOTE 62. Rhode Island and Connecticut After the Glorious Revolution 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.760 Volume 1, Chapter 62, Rhode Island and Connecticut after the Glorious Revolution 2 00:00:07.760 --> 00:00:13.800 We have seen what happened in the northern royal colonies after the Glorious Revolution. 3 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:19.760 Connecticut and Rhode Island, alone of all the colonies, continued on their old self-governing 4 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:21.560 path. 5 00:00:21.560 --> 00:00:27.200 Connecticut's charter was reconfirmed as we have seen in 1690, Rhode Island's in late 6 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:30.080 1693. 7 00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:34.840 Rhode Island was probably the only colony that did not greet the overthrow of Andros 8 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:36.920 with great joy. 9 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:43.400 Not only did Andros and Rhode Island have in common a profound hatred of Massachusetts, 10 00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:49.360 but the little colony was thoroughly grateful for Andros's decision to stand with it on 11 00:00:49.360 --> 00:00:55.120 the Narragansett country question and against the aggressive claims of Connecticut and the 12 00:00:55.120 --> 00:01:01.320 of the Atherton Company. Upon the overthrow of the Dominion, Rhode Island assumed possession 13 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:07.080 of King's Province, never to relinquish it again, even though the territorial dispute 14 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:13.280 dragged on for years. In 1703, commissioners from Rhode Island and Connecticut finally 15 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:19.400 settled the dispute. In a compromise, the territory of the Narragansett country was 16 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:25.200 was conceded to Rhode Island, but Rhode Island agreed to ratify all existing land claims 17 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:33.800 to the area, thereby granting victory to the huge arbitrary Atherton Company land claims. 18 00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:40.080 In effect, the decision foisted on the future of Narragansett country a large plantation 19 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:45.340 way of life. Rhode Island remained one of the most libertarian 20 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:51.360 of the Colonies. The Quaker governor, John Easton, found it impossible, for example, 21 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:58.260 to raise troops in 1691 to join in the war to conquer Canada. The basic cause was the 22 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:04.480 inability to impose enough taxation on the colony. The libertarian bent of the colony 23 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:11.860 continued when the non-Quaker Samuel Cranston was elected governor in 1698. A nephew of 24 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:18.860 of the former Quaker governor Walter Clark, Cranston essentially continued Quaker policy. 25 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:24.540 Thus, tax laws were scarcely enforced, and laws in general almost totally ignored in 26 00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:31.540 the colony. In 1698, Edward Randolph ranted that neither judges, juries nor witnesses were 27 00:02:32.380 --> 00:02:39.180 under any obligation. His explanation for this unusual breadth of liberty and minimization 28 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:45.060 of Government in the colony was that the management of the government, such as it is, was in the 29 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:52.060 hands of Quakers and Anabaptists, who, for one thing, would take no oath. This included 30 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:59.300 a refusal of the Quaker governor in 1698 to take the required oath to enforce the navigation 31 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:05.940 laws. Neither did Rhode Island impose any government schooling on its citizens. The elected 32 00:03:05.940 --> 00:03:11.240 The Massachusetts governors of Rhode Island assumed admulty powers, hence the Quaker governor 33 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:18.240 Walter Clark refused to permit the English admulty judge to function in the province. 34 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:23.760 Since the Crown could not control Rhode Island by appointing a governor, it tried to bring 35 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:28.560 the colony's militia under neighboring royal governors. 36 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:33.200 Governor Phipps of Massachusetts tried to send agents to take over the Rhode Island 37 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:40.680 in 1692, but the assembly and the government fought back, ordered their own officers to 38 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:45.660 retain command, and asked the king for redress. 39 00:03:45.660 --> 00:03:50.400 Rhode Island also pointed out that several Massachusetts counselors had a vested interest 40 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.520 in the derogantic country, and thus in bringing Rhode Island to heel. 41 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:01.080 The Crown replied against Rhode Island, but shifted the militia power to New York. 42 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:07.800 did concede Rhode Island's control of its own militia in peacetime. Ironically, Rhode 43 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:12.720 Island's gravest conflict with the governors of New York came under the relatively liberal 44 00:04:12.720 --> 00:04:19.160 Bellamont administration. One of Bellamont's non-liberal traits was an excessive zeal in 45 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:24.680 hunting down pirates, a practice which absorbed a good deal of his energies during his brief 46 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:31.680 Unquestionably, Rhode Island governors had aided and abetted piracy during the war with 47 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:39.080 France in the 1690s by commissioning privateers whose only difference from pirates was an 48 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:41.440 official license to plunder. 49 00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:48.160 Bellamont, investigating conditions in Rhode Island during 1699, was already prejudiced 50 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:55.320 against Rhode Island and denounced its leaders as poor, lower class, and generally Quakers 51 00:04:55.320 --> 00:05:01.240 and sectaries. He was particularly bitter at the absence of religious orthodoxy among 52 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:08.920 them and the lack of government schools. Bellamont's liberalism, so refreshingly intense and benighted 53 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:15.400 New York, virtually disappeared in the highly individualistic colony of Rhode Island. So 54 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:21.920 So far, no outside governor had successfully made good his claim to command of Rhode Island's 55 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:22.920 militia. 56 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:28.000 But the tyrannical Joseph Dudley, who had lobbied in England for abolition of the Rhode 57 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.860 Island Charter, dearly tried. 58 00:05:30.860 --> 00:05:37.160 On assuming the governorship of Massachusetts in 1702, Dudley attempted to assume command 59 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:42.800 of the colony's militia as well as impose an admulty judge on Rhode Island. 60 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.080 Going to Rhode Island, he pressed his militia claim, but the Rhode Island governor and council 61 00:05:48.080 --> 00:05:53.880 refused and asserted their own authority. Dudley ordered the militia major to serve 62 00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:59.920 under him, but the major stood with Rhode Island. In more turbulent King's Province, 63 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:04.840 Dudley was more successful and the militia joined his command, but the Rhode Island 64 00:06:04.840 --> 00:06:11.520 officials soon went to the Narragansett country and won the militia back again. Dudley's exercise 65 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:18.540 Ahos of Admiralty jurisdiction also greatly angered the colony. Dudley, as had Bellomont, 66 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:25.360 objected to Rhode Island Commissions to privateer pirates and, when his Admiralty Judge, Nathaniel 67 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:31.080 Byfield, released a French prize captured by a Rhode Island privateer, he was hooted 68 00:06:31.080 --> 00:06:38.120 down the street by an angry Newport mob. Once again Rhode Island's disdain for war and 69 00:06:38.120 --> 00:07:08.120 and the State. Its quite obvious lack of patriotic exultation in killing officially declared enemies, brought down upon its head numerous denunciations for being a rogues land. Dudley complained to the Crown that the colony was a perfect receptacle of rogues and pirates. He was particularly bitter that the Quaker-run colony would contribute neither men nor money to the great war to conquer French Canada. 70 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:16.120 which had been resumed in 1701. In fact, the Rhode Islanders went so far as to shelter deserters from the Army. 71 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:25.120 In this, of course, Rhode Island was following in its great tradition of being the haven for refugees from all types of state persecution. 72 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:47.120 Judley was also bitter at Rhode Island's low taxes. While Massachusetts strained and groaned under a tax burden of 2200 pounds per month to pay for war against France, Dudley noted that Rhode Island relaxed happily with taxes of less than one penny on the pound. 73 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:54.520 Dudley kept up his harangue and charges against Rhode Island, and by late 1705 they were endorsed 74 00:07:54.520 --> 00:07:56.400 by the Board of Trade. 75 00:07:56.400 --> 00:08:03.320 Beginning in 1701, the Board had tried several times but failed to induce Parliament to liquidate 76 00:08:03.320 --> 00:08:09.760 the self-governing and proprietary colonies, that is, those not under direct control of 77 00:08:09.760 --> 00:08:11.320 the Crown. 78 00:08:11.320 --> 00:08:16.620 The proposal had largely been engineered by Randolph and Dudley, the old enemies of the 79 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:23.420 of the American Colonies. Now in 1704-05, the board took its case to a more sympathetic 80 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:29.940 crown and urged that the Queen appoint royal governors for Rhode Island and Connecticut. 81 00:08:29.940 --> 00:08:35.900 The leader in the drive to smash Connecticut's and Rhode Island's independence was again 82 00:08:35.900 --> 00:08:42.800 Joseph Dudley. But the tide was stemmed by Sir Henry Ashurst, the indefatigable English 83 00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:49.800 The Board of Trade made its last attempt to cripple the Rhode Island and Connecticut charters 84 00:08:54.560 --> 00:09:01.560 in a parliamentary bill of 1706. Asherst was again easily able to defeat the bill. Moreover, 85 00:09:02.640 --> 00:09:09.160 the Board of Trade was by now losing its power and its Tory drive. The war against France 86 00:09:09.160 --> 00:09:28.160 Edward Randolph, the board's great champion of aggressive imperialism, had died in 1703, and Blathwaite and the other high Tory members of the board were to be dismissed in 1707 and succeeded by far more moderate and liberal members. 87 00:09:28.160 --> 00:09:34.800 As the war with France dragged on, however, Rhode Island began to drift from pacifist 88 00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:41.880 and libertarian principles and to tax its resources heavily by contributing men and 89 00:09:41.880 --> 00:09:43.360 materials. 90 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:49.580 As we shall see in a later volume, Rhode Island, following the lead of Massachusetts, financed 91 00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:56.080 the ruinous expeditions against the French by turning to a dangerous and mischievous 92 00:09:56.080 --> 00:10:15.080 the creation of paper, money, and with the Quakers losing control of the provincial government, the non-Quaker assembly decided to shift control of the militia to the central government from the towns, where Quaker influence was still strong. 93 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:21.080 Connecticut, of course, in these years followed much the same path as her sister colony, Rhode Island. 94 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:28.400 It similarly rebuffed attempts by Massachusetts and New York to assume command over its militia, 95 00:10:28.400 --> 00:10:36.120 and led in repelling attempts by Dudley, Randolph and the Board of Trade to liquidate its independence. 96 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:41.800 Connecticut too hung back at first in the resumed war against France, but at the end of the 97 00:10:41.800 --> 00:10:50.160 first decade of the 18th century was zealously participating in attempts to invade Canada. 98 00:10:50.160 --> 00:10:57.200 however, continued to handle her own meager maritime cases, even though she was technically 99 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:00.760 under New York's jurisdiction. 100 00:11:00.760 --> 00:11:07.160 When Connecticut effected its revolution against the Dominion in 1689, the true leadership 101 00:11:07.160 --> 00:11:14.440 of its government rested in the hands of the main architect of the revolution, the pro-Les 102 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:16.680 Larian, James Fitch. 103 00:11:16.680 --> 00:11:23.640 As leader of the Popular Liberal Party, Fitch, though only a counselor, dominated the government. 104 00:11:23.640 --> 00:11:30.180 Fitch drove through a democratic extension of the franchise to freeholders of 40 shillings, 105 00:11:30.180 --> 00:11:35.680 as well as a uniquely democratic method of selecting public officials. 106 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:41.560 Taking his stand squarely for the old charter, Fitch threatened reprisals against the partisans 107 00:11:41.560 --> 00:11:44.200 of the royal oligarchy. 108 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:51.480 The Arch Reactionary Party continued, well after 1690, its desperate attempts to restore 109 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:59.020 royal government in Connecticut. Thus Gershom Buckley, Edward Palmes and William Rosewell, 110 00:11:59.020 --> 00:12:05.540 aided by the Tory Governor Fletcher of New York, petitioned the King in 1690 to restore 111 00:12:05.540 --> 00:12:13.060 royal government. Buckley expanded his diatribe against the charter government into a book, 112 00:12:13.060 --> 00:12:20.940 Will and Doom, 1692, which remained unpublished, but which furnished ammunition for all the 113 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:27.140 Board of Trade attempts of the following decade to liquidate independent Connecticut. 114 00:12:27.140 --> 00:12:33.620 Governor Fletcher, after command of the militia was transferred from Massachusetts in 1693, 115 00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:37.460 tried to assume control of the militia in Connecticut. 116 00:12:37.460 --> 00:12:43.740 The Connecticut government resisted Fletcher's demands, and the threat of bloodshed forced 117 00:12:43.740 --> 00:12:50.200 Fletcher to return to New York. Fletcher finally obtained the limited power to requisition 118 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:56.980 a quota of troops in the colony, but Connecticut managed to resist this as well. The liberal 119 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:03.880 revolutionaries headed by Fitch were, however, destined to go down to defeat, not at the 120 00:13:03.880 --> 00:13:09.600 at the hands of Tory opponents of Connecticut independence, such as Buckley and Palms, but 121 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:16.600 at the hands of more subtle middle-of-the-roaders, headed by Fitz-John Winthrop. 122 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:22.300 Having headed off various assaults on Connecticut's charter during his stay in England, Winthrop 123 00:13:22.300 --> 00:13:29.960 returned to Connecticut a popular hero in 1698. He won election as governor that year, 124 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:35.760 When Fitch was ousted from his council post, Winthrop's method was deadly to the liberal 125 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:42.760 cause. While disarming the liberals by successfully defending Connecticut's charter against Tory 126 00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:50.760 assault, Winthrop reimposed government power and oligarchic rule at home. Winthrop moved 127 00:13:50.760 --> 00:13:56.760 quickly to enlarge the powers of the governor, only nominal during the liberal days of Fitch. 128 00:13:56.760 --> 00:14:02.920 The assembly granted Winthrop more power to act between legislative sessions, to appoint 129 00:14:02.920 --> 00:14:10.120 government officials, and to manage military affairs. Furthermore, in 1699, Connecticut, 130 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:17.080 like Rhode Island three years earlier, split its legislature into two chambers. This bicameral 131 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:23.320 split was a maneuver to increase executive and oligarchic power, for now the governor 132 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:30.320 and his Upper House of Assistance were able to veto the popularly elected deputies. Furthermore, 133 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:37.180 the judicial system was converted into an independent oligarchic power. Whereas before 134 00:14:37.180 --> 00:14:44.180 1698, judges were elected annually in each county, now county judges remained independently 135 00:14:44.900 --> 00:14:51.900 in office on good behavior. In this way, the judges were freed of the checks put on their 136 00:14:51.900 --> 00:14:58.900 by popular elections and were transformed into a quasi-permanent oligarchic bureaucracy. 137 00:15:01.020 --> 00:15:06.540 Or as the reactionary Samuel Willis put it, they were freed from the arbitrary humors 138 00:15:06.540 --> 00:15:13.260 of the people. Finally, to complete the litany of counter-revolutionary statism imposed by 139 00:15:13.260 --> 00:15:20.260 the Winthrop regime, a law of 1699 established the Puritan or Congregational Church in each 140 00:15:20.260 --> 00:15:35.260 Every taxpayer was now forced to pay for its maintenance, and new churches could be formed only on permission of the general court. New public schools were also forced upon the colony. 141 00:15:35.260 --> 00:15:45.260 Professor Dunn's comments on Winthrop's reactionary reforms are more favorable, but provide correct insight into the facts. 142 00:15:45.260 --> 00:15:52.960 For example, by curbing the colonist's undisciplined anarchic, that is, individualistic behavior, 143 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:59.500 he, Winthrop, could meet charges from the Board of Trade that Connecticut's government 144 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:02.340 was inadequate and irregular. 145 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:08.060 The reforms were particularly designed to break James Fitch's democratic faction. 146 00:16:08.060 --> 00:16:13.420 With support increasing for Fitch, and with Winthrop kept busy for the next decade in 147 00:16:13.420 --> 00:16:18.300 in Defending Connecticut's Charter, there was no time for further changes of this type 148 00:16:18.300 --> 00:16:24.420 in Connecticut. But the damage had been done. Furthermore, the main result of the Board 149 00:16:24.420 --> 00:16:29.180 of Trade's assault on Connecticut was to force the colony to agree to the right of 150 00:16:29.180 --> 00:16:35.460 appeal in judicial decisions to the Crown. Moreover, the status Winthrop program was not 151 00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:43.300 yet ended, for when Winthrop died in 1707, he was succeeded by his chief advisor, Reverend 152 00:16:43.300 --> 00:16:51.940 Gerdin Saltenstahl, who proceeded in the Saybrook Platform of 1708 to organize the Puritan Churches 153 00:16:51.940 --> 00:17:00.220 into a tight Presbyterian system. If a community is to have a state-run church, it is far easier 154 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:07.100 for the state to control a centrally governed church than one of independent congregations, 155 00:17:07.100 --> 00:17:13.980 So Connecticut transformed its Puritan churches halfway between truly congregational and Presbyterian 156 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:18.460 forms into a fully Presbyterian structure. 157 00:17:18.460 --> 00:17:24.040 The legislature convoked a Synod of Ministers and Elders at Saybrook, which adopted the 158 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:25.540 new regime. 159 00:17:25.540 --> 00:17:30.800 The general court then imposed the system, taking care to allow religious liberty to 160 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:35.920 dissenters provided their churches were licensed by the state. 161 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:42.980 From then on, only a minister legally recognized by the general court could receive state support. 162 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:48.420 It was also in Saltenstahl's regime that Connecticut threw itself into expensive attempts 163 00:17:48.420 --> 00:17:51.700 to carry the war to Canada. 164 00:17:51.700 --> 00:17:57.780 During the long tenure of Reverend Mr. Saltenstahl, the oligarchic faction became cemented in 165 00:17:57.780 --> 00:17:59.380 the colony. 166 00:17:59.380 --> 00:18:05.940 Here was the beginning of Connecticut's later reputation as a land of steady habits.