[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 91 (Monday, June 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2956-S2957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Finally, Madam President, on healthcare, today, health insurers in 
the State of Washington proposed an average rate increase of 19 
percent. In my home State of New York, insurers are requesting an 
increase of 24 percent, half of which they said is due to the 
Republicans' repeal of the healthcare coverage requirement.
  Following rate increases in Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, and Oregon, 
these increases confirm what we already know to be a trend: The 
policies of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans are 
driving up healthcare costs for millions of Americans.
  President Trump promised the American people that healthcare would be 
``far less expensive and far better'' but once again has failed to 
deliver. Instead of ``far less expensive and far better,'' Americans 
have gotten health coverage that is far more expensive and will be far 
worse, and it is a direct result of Republican policies and President 
Trump's actions.
  President Trump has deliberately sowed major uncertainty in the 
marketplace. He will start offering expanded junk insurance plans, and 
congressional Republicans repealed the coverage requirement in their 
tax bill. Each of those actions, taken separately, have destabilized 
our healthcare system. Taken together, these policies are causing 
chaos, skyrocketing rates, and the return of dark days in which people 
with preexisting conditions faced higher premiums, denied care, and 
medical bankruptcy.
  On healthcare, as on many issues, President Trump made bold promises 
but has failed to deliver the results that middle-class Americans need 
and expect. On healthcare, he has swung at the ball and struck out.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            ``Gaspee'' Days

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, the night spanning June 9 and 10 
marks the anniversary of a key chapter in American history--one whose 
first shots spurred our Nation on toward independence from Britain, yet 
one that remains unfamiliar to most Americans today, which is why I 
come here each year to tell the tale of the Gaspee Raiders.
  I encourage my colleagues and all students of history to explore this 
chapter in more depth, in histories such as ``An Empire on the Edge'' 
by Nick Bunker or ``The Burning of Her Majesty's Schooner Gaspee: An 
Attack on Crown Rule Before the American Revolution'' by Steven Park.
  Here is the tale in brief form.
  It is 1772. Tensions between England and the Colonies have grown 
increasingly strained. Rhode Island is a seafaring, trading colony, 
without much regard for His Majesty's taxes. King George III stations 
the revenue cutter HMS Gaspee under the command of Lieutenant William 
Dudingston, in Rhode Island waters. The Gaspee's mission: to interdict 
smuggled goods and enforce the payment of the Crown's taxes.
  Lieutenant Dudingston was an arrogant sort, who quickly became 
infamous for destroying fishing vessels, seizing cargo, and flagging 
down ships only to harass, humiliate, and interrogate the colonial 
sailors. According to Gabriel Weis in his 1916 ``Guide to Newport, 
Rhode Island,'' ``This unprincipled ruffian had ruthlessly ravaged the 
Rhode Island coast for several months, destroying unoffending fishing 
vessels and confiscating everything he could lay hands on.''
  Rhode Island seamen and traders chafed at the harsh tactics of 
Dudingston. A number of them delivered a petition seeking relief 
against the Gaspee to Rhode Island Chief Justice Stephen Hopkins, later 
a signer of the Declaration of Independence. On this occasion, Hopkins 
provided a legal opinion saying that British officers were obliged to 
present their orders and commission to Rhode Island's Governor before 
entering local waters, asserting a measure of colonial sovereignty.
  Dudingston, of course, refused such an impudent notion and threatened 
to hang any man who tried to oppose the Gaspee. His first mistake, in 
the winter of 1772, was to seize a sloop named ``Fortune,'' along with 
its cargo of rum and sugar, from Nathanael Greene, the wealthy son of a 
Quaker minister. As Daniel Harrington wrote in the Providence Journal 
last year, ``the patriotic fervor . . . sweeping the colonies [had] 
seemed to elude [Nathanael Greene] until Dudingston snagged his Fortune 
and ignited the righteous spirit of resentment that now consumed him.''
  After first suing Dudingston for the return of his ship--and 
winning--Nathanael Greene would join the Revolutionary cause, 
ultimately commanding Rhode Island's army and then rising in General 
Washington's ranks to become the commander of the Southern Campaign of 
the Revolutionary War. During the war, General Cornwallis wrote to his 
wife: ``That damned Greene is more dangerous than Washington.''
  Thank you very much, Lieutenant Dudingston, for igniting Nathanael 
Greene's righteous spirit.
  Dudingston's various provocations continued until they reached the 
breaking point on June 9, 1772, when he set his sights on the sailing 
vessel Hannah, traversing Narragansett Bay from Newport to Providence. 
The Gaspee ordered the Hannah to stop and allow a search. On board the 
Hannah, Captain Benjamin Lindsey refused and continued on his course to 
Providence, ignoring warning shots fired by the Gaspee. Knowing that 
his Hannah was lighter and had a shallower draft than the Gaspee, 
Lindsey raced up Narragansett Bay and over the shoals off Pawtuxet

[[Page S2957]]

Cove. The heavier Gaspee kept up its chase of the Hannah but ran 
aground in the shallow waters off Namquid Point. The Gaspee was stuck 
fast on the shoal in a falling tide
  Captain Lindsey sailed on to Providence and, with the prominent 
merchant John Brown, later the founder of Brown University, rallied 
local patriots to a meeting at Sabin's Tavern, in what is now 
Providence's East Side. The Rhode Islanders gathered there made a 
fateful decision.
  The British Navy was the most powerful military force on the planet. 
The British Crown was the most powerful political force on the planet. 
The Rhode Islanders had managed to strand one of His Majesty's vessels, 
a symbol of their oppression, helpless in an outgoing tide.
  They resolved to attack.
  In the early moonless hours of June 10, several dozen men--perhaps 
benefiting somewhat from the refreshments of Sabin's Tavern--led by 
John Brown and Abraham Whipple, shoved off in longboats from 
Providence, with blackened faces and muffled oars, to row through 6 
miles of dark waters for the Gaspee.
  As the boats surrounded the Gaspee, Whipple called out and demanded 
Lieutenant Dudingston surrender his ship. One witness later recounted 
his demand in this form--forgive me for the language involved, but it 
is historically correct.

       I am the sheriff of the county of Kent, God damn you. I 
     have got a warrant to apprehend you, God damn you; so 
     surrender, God damn you.

  Dudingston refused this polite offer and instead ordered his men to 
fire upon any men who attempted to board. The determined Rhode 
Islanders then forced their way aboard the Gaspee, and a struggle 
ensued. In the melee, Lieutenant Dudingston was shot in the groin and 
arm by musket balls. Gabriel Weis wrote: ``The attack on the `Gaspee' 
caused the first bloodshed in the struggle for American independence, 
and was the first resistance to the British Navy.''
  Brown and Whipple's men soon overpowered the British crew and took 
control of the ship. Brown ordered one of his Rhode Islanders, a 
physician named John Mawney, to tend to Dudingston's wounds. He 
survived. They transported the captive Englishmen safely to shore and 
then returned to the abandoned Gaspee for one final act of defiance to 
the Crown and riddance to the ship: The Rhode Islanders set the Gaspee 
afire.
  Now, the Gaspee was a gunship, and gunships store gunpowder, and the 
gunpowder is kept below decks in a powder magazine. The Gaspee burned 
until--wham--its powder magazine exploded, blasting into the Rhode 
Island night what remained of His Majesty's meddlesome ship, her debris 
flying across the blast-lit waters of Narragansett Bay.
  Word quickly spread of the Rhode Islanders' daring raid. The news was 
spread through pulpits and pamphlets up and down the Colonies, stoking 
the flames of revolution. The furious King George offered huge rewards 
for the capture of the insolent rebels. A trial in England was 
announced, but in characteristic, impressive solidarity, not one Rhode 
Islander would step forward to identify a single one of the raiders. 
The royal threats broke vainly against the silent solidarity of the 
Rhode Islanders. The royal nooses hung empty. The story of the Gaspee 
is just one part of a daring Rhode Island resistance, stretching across 
the years and months before the Gaspee incident, into that explosive 
night on Narragansett Bay, and on throughout the Revolution.
  His Majesty's Navy had not heard the last of Abraham Whipple, for 
instance. In 1775, Abraham Whipple was in command of a small fleet 
facing off against the British frigate the HMS Rose. The captain of the 
British ship sent a menacing and accusatory note to Captain Whipple:

       From Captain Sir James Wallace of the Rose:
       You, Abraham Whipple, on the 10th of June 1772, burned His 
     Majesty's vessel, the Gaspee, and I will hang you at the 
     yard-arm.--James Wallace.

  To which note Whipple replied with acerbic brevity:

       To Sir James Wallace, Sir:
       Always catch a man before you hang him.--Abraham Whipple.

  By the way, Rhode Islander John Millar, two centuries later built a 
replica of the HMS Rose which obtained a starring role in the movie 
``Master and Commander'' as Captain Aubrey's warship, the Surprise.
  Rhode Island is proud of our role in sparking our Revolution. We have 
made a tradition of celebrating the Gaspee incident with our annual 
Gaspee Days celebration and parade in Warwick, just ashore of where the 
Gaspee was led aground.
  This year, the Rhode Island State Archives is staging a new exhibit 
called ``Gaspee Raiders: Pirates or Patriots.'' King George was pretty 
clear about which, but we are pretty clear also about which. There, 
visitors can learn about the events of June 1772 and even experience 
the entire Gaspee Affair in virtual reality.
  Much of the world does not remember the burning of the Gaspee, but we 
do not forget. Beyond our State borders, most Americans think of other 
events as catalysts of the Revolutionary War. More than a year after 
the Gaspee incident, up in Massachusetts, some Boston worthies 
fortified their courage with strong drink and pushed tea bales off the 
deck of a British vessel. That is not bad--I guess it ruined the tea--
but, personally, I think it is more impressive more than a year earlier 
to have blown up the British ship and shot its captain, but, for 
whatever reason, the Boston Tea Party is the better known historical 
event.
  In fact, many of my colleagues, having heard me give this speech, 
tell me they never even heard this story. Maybe it is because 
Massachusetts had two of our first Presidents, the Adams' father and 
son, and they talked it up. Maybe after the war, Rhode Islanders just 
went home to their farms and boats and businesses while Massachusetts 
wrote the early history books. Whatever the reason, the seizing and 
burning and blowing up the Gaspee deserves a more prominent place in 
Revolutionary history.
  We are the State that first enshrined separation of church and State 
in the New World. Samuel Slater sparked America's Industrial Revolution 
with his mill in Pawtucket, and we drew first blood in the fight for 
American independence that night on Narragansett Bay. The Gaspee Affair 
is not a peculiar, drunken anomaly; it is part of a robust and early 
resistance by a proud colony, now a proud State.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moran). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.