Not Your Father's Founders (12 page)

Kingston, New Jersey
January 23, 1730−November 10, 1779
Man of Mystery

By the time he was thirty years old, the young Princeton graduate was a wealthy man living in New Jersey, where he had acquired a reputation as an honorable and ethical businessman. Despite his early success in New Jersey, Hewes moved to North Carolina in 1760 and launched successful shipping and merchant businesses in Wilmington. Within three years he was elected to the North Carolina legislature and was on his way to a successful political career.

In 1775, the royal governor of North Carolina dissolved the colony's provincial legislature. Hewes, a Quaker and an outspoken critic of the British government but a proponent of reconciliation rather than independence, had been a member of the legislature for nine years by that time. North Carolinians disenchanted with British legislation issued a notice on February 11, 1775, requesting the election of representatives for a shadow provincial congress to be held on April 3rd. On March 1, 1775, Governor Josiah Martin informed his council that such proceedings were “highly derogatory to the dignitary of the Legislature, which had been appointed to meet on the same day, and in every light illegal, and inconsistent with good order and government.”

The North Carolina patriots defied Martin and created a separate legislature. Hewes went on to represent North Carolina at the ongoing Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, and again in 1776, along with William Hooper and John Penn.

The North Carolina Provincial Congress, the colony's shadow legislature, provided clear instructions to its delegates. It told Hewes, Hooper, and Penn “to concur with the delegates of other colonies in declaring Independence and to form foreign alliances.”

Joseph Hewes was an anomaly at the Second Continental Congress. Instructions to the contrary, he was firmly anti-independence at the beginning, even though he disagreed with British tax policies. He tried to convince pro-independence delegates that the country did not have to separate from Britain to get the relief they wanted from Parliament.

Hewes was not always successful in getting his points across, though, because he did not possess well-refined persuasive skills. Therefore, when he tried to convince his peers that independence was not the way to go, they often laughed at or scolded him. So he stopped talking and started working on committees instead. Strangely enough, he generally worked with committees that favored independence. Finally, he had an epiphany and accepted independence as a solution.

In the end, he had to make personal sacrifices to support his principles. As a Quaker, he was expected to abide by pacifist beliefs.

Early in 1775, the Society of Friends (the Quakers) held a convention to denounce the congress meeting in Philadelphia. Not only did they oppose war, they also opposed the committees formed by delegates at the Second Continental Congress.

As a result, Hewes broke his affiliation with the Quakers in favor of independence, committee work—and war. In so doing, he acted on both his religious and political convictions.

Even though he was not always willing to put his mouth to work in Congress, Hewes was willing to put his money where his mouth was. That, more than anything, set him apart from other members of the group.

In 1774 the First Continental Congress had recommended a system of nonimportation to hit the British in their pocketbooks. The suggestion had not gained much traction between then and 1776. Hewes changed that. He and some of his counterparts worked to develop a nonimportation association.

Belonging to the nonimportation association was costly for Hewes. A large chunk of his business involved imports from British merchants, with whom he had been dealing for over twenty years. When Hewes gave them up voluntarily, it cost him a considerable amount of money.

Hewes also put his ships at the new country's disposal. In one of those little coincidences of history that rarely—if ever—get into history books, Hewes pushed hard to get a navy commander's assignment for his friend John Paul Jones. And Jones went on to become the country's first naval hero. Hewes's knowledge of maritime affairs was invaluable to the Americans. In 1776, he offered his ships to the Continental armed forces.

Hewes served on a committee to rig the first navy ship and as the secretary of the Naval Affairs Committee until 1779. As a result of his work, he can be considered the “Father of the Navy,” although he has stiff competition for the claim from people like Jeremiah O'Brien and John Paul Jones.

By the time Hewes signed the Declaration of Independence, he had given the country a lot more than his time. He had provided ships, sacrificed part of his business, brought John Paul Jones's name to the attention of military leaders, and denounced his Quaker heritage. Sadly, he would not live to see his dedication pay off.

Hewes was tired and ill when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He went home afterward to settle some of his business and private affairs and serve with the North Carolina legislature. Hewes was reelected to Congress again in 1779, and returned to Philadelphia.

On October 29, 1779, Hewes fell ill and never recovered. He died on November 10. The entire Congress attended his funeral the next day, along with the general assembly of Pennsylvania, its president and supreme executive council, the minister plenipotentiary of France, and a large number of citizens.

The ceremony was a fitting sendoff for a man whom few people actually knew well, and whom history books seldom mention. All they knew was that he had given up a lot to help create the United States, which was a price he was willing to pay.

Providence, Rhode Island
March 7, 1707−July 13, 1785
Willing to Wait a Long Time

Stephen Hopkins, a farmer in his youth, held several political offices in his hometown of Scituate, such as the town clerk, justice of the peace, and president of the town council. He served in the Rhode Island General Assembly from 1732–52, acting as Speaker from 1738–44 and again in 1749. Significantly, Hopkins was an early advocate of uniting the colonies. He supported Ben Franklin's plan to consolidate the northern colonies in 1755, his first year as governor of Rhode Island. After a meeting in Albany, New York, attended by delegates from seven of the thirteen colonies, he wrote
A True Representation of the Plan Formed at Albany for Uniting All the British Northern Colonies
.

The Albany Congress had been convened to discuss unifying the colonies. While it was adjourned before any agreement was reached, it laid the groundwork for the Continental Congress in 1776.

Hopkins's second major treatise,
The Rights of the Colonies Examined
, was published in 1765. In it he analyzed Parliament's authority and justified colonial opposition to it. He did not suggest in his document that the colonies break away from Britain. He expressed a wish in his conclusion that the king and his consorts gain a little wisdom in the way they ruled the colonies and “perpetuate the sovereignty of the British constitution, and the final dependency and happiness of all the colonies.” If that required drastic action on the colonists' part, so be it.

Hopkins played a central role in what might be considered the first actual military battle of the Revolutionary War, the
Gaspee
incident. History books don't often assign it the importance it deserves—if they mention it at all. In 1772, the British customs schooner
Gaspee
, commanded by Lieutenant William Dudingston, entered Rhode Island waters to enforce unpopular trade regulations. The ship ran aground. On June 10, 1772, about 100 local patriots boarded, burned, and sank the
Gaspee
, shot and wounded Dudingston, and captured the crew. The British did not take kindly to the incident. They threatened to identify the miscreants, ship them to England, and try them for treason.

Hopkins, the chief justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court at the time, made a show of cooperating with the British. He promised to provide the British commission investigating the incident with a full written account of his own findings. There is no evidence that he ever did—or ever intended to comply with the commission's demands.

In fact, he leveled a threat of his own. Hopkins implied that he might arrest Dudingston. He issued a warrant for Dudingston's arrest in October 1773, but he did not follow up on it.

A little over a year after the incident took place, Hopkins made it clear that he had no serious intention of prosecuting anyone for burning a British ship. The incident became a national issue when Thomas Jefferson urged committees of correspondence in other colonies to coordinate a united response to the British should they attempt to punish the miscreants who attacked the
Gaspee
. They never did, although the British offered a reward of £1,000 to anyone who would turn them in, which was magnanimous, since the ship cost only £545 to build and outfit. That demonstrated how seriously the British took the incident, although Hopkins did not. He moved on.

Hopkins started serving with the First Continental Congress in 1774. When the discussion about the Declaration of Independence began in 1776, he was eager to participate.

Thus, when the delegates lined up to sign the Declaration of Independence, Stephen Hopkins had waited longer than most of the others for the privilege.

Hopkins lived for another nine years after signing the declaration. He left the Continental Congress in 1778, returned to Rhode Island, and served in its legislature from 1777−79. The man from the smallest colony left a huge impression on the people and the country he left behind.