Rhode Island History l'uhhshcd bv Th,' Rho,k " land Hi- u-ncal Volume 43, N umber 4 November 1984 \<1<1<:t~· ' TO Benevolent " IH·"I. Provuh-ncc Rh"do; h!.ilntl 01'1Q(>. Jntl pnmcd bv .. gr..m trom rhc " IJle " r Rhode lela nd and l'w v,tI,'nn ' i'!J.n l.il llon" 1. 1""o;l'h l ;;H r.lh~·. C",,'rn"l. "U'Jn L Far mer s.,,·(lo;uq· "I " IJlo; [~~U,-J OUJrlClI\' JI Providence Rhode Contents "l.ilnd Iebruarv. \ b v ,",UIo:o" l .Inti ""," o; mlx r .....·"'nd ~IJ"" fll"'IJl:" r'.I,d ..1 i'W\ ,tI"ncc Rhodo; I l.and Rhode Island : From Classical Democracy 'i.t:n R"lxn I ' Id ' ,'nn.. I'r, h/"," to British Province 119 Alden ,'I Andcrc on """l're'Il!.'n! \tr~ Ed...In G Ptschet \ 1<(" I'tnlJen! S YDNEY V . lAME S P.lrk Palme r, secrctatv ,'I Rachel Cunha u"nC",nr -evraarv Srcphen C WIIl' .Im.. If'" IIln Rhode Island Renegade: The Enigma Allxu C.UI"'ll u"I\/"nr treasurer of Joshua Tefft 1 ) 6 HLLU"',OIIHl .."'ltn C OLING , C A L L O \ \' A Y Ca rl Rlldcnh.lu,lth Svdncv \' I.lm,·, Anlum,'lt,' F 1),,'''' l1I n lo: Index 6 Rrchard K, <;h,,"'m .ln 14 PUlilit ,\110'" t 0," '-u1 III Ik ""elxn I l;"JJ"... ,k\', tll<lI1m"n Curd"n Allen Hcnrv L I' gcck .... nh I' Ilr franc I .. H Ch.lln Pmt How ard I' ChuJ.KuU R" h.,·ll Alle n GIt'ene Pamela A Ko;ll n,'dy Leona rd I Levin Al.m Slm p..un Wm !\-teKcn :lc \A,'" " d....Hd ""'11 ( .lenn warren L IF.ll1 l.I' le, cd i/til Maureen Ta\,)ur, l' ld llrl' "du<J1 Lennard 1 Levin. ""l'\' <,duOl lean L"C.... l11 , d,"IXIWI Ellen O 'Rt'lllv ("lIlon,11 """I,ml Glen n n , Horton. ('.Iuoll<1J <-"",t,wt The Rhotlt: hJ.md Il I, mIH,,,1 \'''-I''!'' a"um,', n" ""-p,,n..rbahtv t" TIh,' "pm l"n.. " I contrrbuturc ' Y ' ~ h\ The Rhode " land tl l'l"rlcd! ,,,nd" I • ; r • .. - .. .. .. a • ...~ of ~ "' ft. \. I .... '. I· r I." .\t.a D. .h•• . <::;r. ,,;.,;' ,,0;;" ....-.lV . ,.. '.,~ / ,. .•. ,~ • Southern New England In the tate sevent eenth century. Derail from AMap of Ne w England, New Yorke, New lcrsev, Maryl and s, Virguua (r 690). Courtesy of fohn Carrer Brown lubrar...'. Rhode Island: From Classical Democracy to British Province Sydney v. James The colomaI governme nt in Rhode Island, as in mos t other English '11 lames I~.i mem ber or t he Department colonies 10 Non h Ameri ca, underwent several transformations, some 01 Hrseorv . Umvervuv ot Iowa An c;l.r!,,:r vemon oi rhl~ C~'''''W W ;l. ~ presented at the duplicated no where else. lt proceeded from a unique experiment to de­ N mt h Annu..1toru m on Rhode bb.n.! mocracy to a form of Bn ush provmce shared only with Connecticut. Hisrury, sp"nwleoJ by the Rhode- Island HI ~ run c ;l.1 Socrcev <lnd the Provid ence PIe­ By culorual government I S meant th e central government above th e se rvauon S<KICly, lan 110 , 191\ , to wns rather than the towns th emsel ves. The record ha s elements of cont inuity or evolun on AS we ll as profound change from the ea rlies t orgaruza non to th e one that became stabilized in the first decade of th e eightee nth century. The ele ments of conn nuu v included secular foun ­ danons, annual elections, repr esemanon of the towns in vario us ways, and a corps of officials elec ted at large to act in executive and legislauvc and Judicial capac mes. T he change was from a species of direct dernoc­ racy, through a mixture of direct democracy and representative respon· sibrluy, to an oft en modi fied representative system, which finally in 169n adopted a bicam eral General Assembly as Its central organ and later still was adjusted to the stat us of a provincial government within the British empire. In another light , the change was from daring to compromise, from ideology to reasonableness, from failure to success. The following sketch of thi s process will st ress two of the many pos­ sible themes: the meaning of Institutional forms and the long search for a successful relation of the government to the expectation s and loy­ alties of it s citizens. The dramatic alt erations of form s call fur a simple chronological treatment, beginning with the Aquidneck government found ed in 16 ~9 , going on to the government unde r th e Providence Plantations charte r of 1644, th en th e Rhode Island charter of 166], and finall y the revision of the govern ment unde r th e charte r beginn ing in 16 96 . Th e first government set up to embrace more than one Rhode Island town was on Aqurdneck. and It emb raced only two. It was founded In 1639 and lasted m most respects only until 1643, alt hough It S iudicral fun cti ons connnued a couple of years longer. It proclaimed subordma­ tion to the English monarchy but never won a charter or any other Sign ''0 f RO ,"'1 C l A ...... I CAI. IHM O CRA CY TOIlIUT I'dII'ROV1!\' L f I Cla n-ncex HTl ~ham , ~,J bull'Rt·, of attcnnon irom otfkials at w hitehall. It kept revising its elf, often to Md, " , Ih,- Tuwn 01 PUTt- mouth Pro­ c o u r a /;; m ~ ~'ldl·nn· . 'yol l, I - ~. hc rcatr cr cued a-, improve ItS local backing. hut with dr... results. It faded away h uJv Ren n l f'orhmoUlh as ItS leaders lost ho pc tor Its cttccuvenc ss and as government slowly l Tho, '''0'0;1'' ,,' J.:m.'<: r.ao' "' .I~ a ca me into bemg under the cha rte r ot I fq~ tor a larger iu nsdrcnon. Th e pmJuu ul .1n<: ll'llI CI ."<"\X An_tnll" "av e Ii'll' st.mdard <: ~pt"l linn In ,I'll' 1',,1111<:., Aqu idneck com monwcahh. ephe meral though It was , needs ancnnon Dem ocracv ....1_ ~"" c rnmcnt bv the m.IO '-, becau ..e oi u s infl uence un what came nex t. Io>'hlk .I11" oU.1I:\' "" ;1 ' government bv the tt- ... and monarchv bv on... \1.111\' av m It was launched by WIlh am Coddmgton and those who SIded wit h am;u,nl Alhcn_ could be on more 11'1.10 .. him 111 the squabbles in early Portsmout h. WhIle Coddingto n and orh. d"llnd mmoruv mrhe adult male s ers we re planm ng Ne wport a.. a turure town, their opponents too k th,,'>C whu had Tl"tu, n! <: 1II~,' n , h l r I lohn RUt"dl R.1fI1.,u ,-J Rn'otJ, po wer III Port smouth. The Newpon pioneers. iom ed by a lew m end ... 01 the Cu/nm or Rh,,,!.' lsland and Pro­ at the ot he r end of th e 1..land, presently proclaimed themselves the vrdenc.. P/<lntllt/f>n\ In '1.,'" E m~ l an J , 7 vel, IJ'W \"lJ <: nlc, 1~ , 1'l -1 " 1'l2 1 .1. <7- 90 . body politic fur the whole 01 Aqurdneck . The..e men were rhose wh o Y). 'li t h e lt'alter t He'! a s Rrc' 01 R I had polmcal fights III the towne-c-a nunomv oi the adult males . The)' ~ Denmv A O'Toole,'Earles, Rctu­ int ended 10 exercise the power to lemsf ate and make policy III their ~l'l.·' ,m d Ru,(u," Th.· (JUl'" lo t C I",I Orde r In rhe T" .... n' ,1oJ C"I,," ,· or Pm­ gene ral rneenngs. Thus th ey planned a class rcal dem oc racy as Anstorlc vidence Plamanon-, ' " ,1'0- 1"_4" IPh [) un de rstood It, a government based on deCISIOns as to laws and poli cy in JI~~, Bru....n UmVCfMI\-, I ,,!? , I. 141 - 14!l. D O-PI. 1'''' - 1",,,, 11 \, 1!" -11 ~ th e assem bly oi cmzens. although they did no t call It one.' The}' _ Reo (>1 It f • I, 100. 101 10 \ . lot- adopted English law III a vagu e way hut con u nued the quasi- or psu edo­ " Fn r example, 'b id. I. 10 1- 106. 10<1. Hebraic offic ials 0 1 judge and el ders, chosen earhcr III Portsm out h, In '"-', Ibid I 111 addition to a sec retary, tr easurer, constable, and militia commande rs. All these officials wen: elected ior one -year term s or until a successor w as chosen . Th e ne w gove rnment began mak ing dec isions . At the out. set nobody could tak e for granted the ir implementat ion, hut adiusr. meru s of old co nrennons III Port smouth led to th e new authority's ho lding some sway. A series of changes recast th e Island com monwealth. The origi nal freemen kep t admitting more, thus begtnmng a process that trans­ formed the body polinc from a smal l and wealthy minority of the men to something close to a maioruy.' They revi sed the slate of offici als . The judge became the governor, th e first elder became the deputy gov­ erno r, the other tw o becam e fou r ass istants.