Modern portrait of Hopkins. Collection of Brown University.
Flatbed scanning is a pretty routine task, often done by rote, earbuds firmly in place. Sometimes, however, a piece will catch my eye, make me curious, and send me to journeying across the Internet seeking answers. Such was the case recently, when I was working with items from the Rider Broadsides collection, which chronicles Rhode Island history. I grew up in Rhode Island, and received a bachelor’s degree in History from Brown before returning to the University for graduate studies in Public Policy. The focus of my undergraduate work was early U.S. history. In baseball jargon, this collection was right in my wheelhouse.
Portion of letter from Hopkins supporters, praising Hopkins and suggesting coalition.
The broadside that caught my attention features text from four letters between Samuel Ward, Stephen Hopkins, and supporters of the two men. I knew that Ward and Hopkins had been colonial governors of Rhode Island – and rivals – but that’s where my knowledge ended. Some research revealed to me that Newport, Rhode Island was the colony’s preeminent city in the early days, but by the 1750s, Providence had become a successful commercial port, and competition between the two cities manifested itself in a political rivalry. Stephen Hopkins, a friend and business partner of the Brown family of Providence, was first elected governor in 1755. Samuel Ward was supported by the Greene family of Warwick, and was aligned with Newport interests. The two men traded power, although Hopkins was far more successful, winning the governorship nine times to Ward’s three.
The broadside was issued in April of 1767, a month before the contentious election of 1767. Ward was the governor, and Hopkins was trying to replace him. The document was published by Ward, and contains the text of several letters to Ward from Hopkins and friends of Hopkins. The Hopkins faction suggests a power-sharing agreement, with the two sides splitting the various colonial offices. One group of Hopkins supporters, however, made the mistake of framing their proposal with a list of statements praising Hopkins and criticizing the current state of the colony under Governor Ward. This list is one reason that the Ward faction gave for rejecting the coalition proposal.
Hopkins won the 1767 election, according to one historian, with the help of, “personal influence, money, and liberal amounts of rum.” Hopkins only served a year before deciding to reach out to Ward to end their competition for the governorship. The ex-governors went on to serve as Rhode Island’s delegates to the Continental Congress; Hopkins became the first chancellor of Brown University.
Letter from Samuel Ward, rejecting coalition proposal.
Looking back at events like the Ward-Hopkins controversy makes us realize that we’ve always had factions in America, and we’ve found ways to move past them. This broadside, while a piece of Ward propaganda, was also an attempt to provide the “Freemen of this Colony” with both sides of the debate so they could “form a true Judgment of the Proposals which have passed between the Two Parties.” The day has passed when such pamphlets were universal touchstones that spurred debate. Modern media fragmentation makes it easy to go through life without exposure to contrasting views. I imagine men like Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins would have found such lack of meaningful debate objectionable.
~Matthew McCabe ’09 MPP ’14