[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2810-S2811]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Vote on Baker Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Baker nomination?
  Ms. STABENOW. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley) is 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 54, nays 45, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 218 Ex.]

                                YEAS--54

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Tillis
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--45

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Merkley
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Peters). Under the previous order, the 
motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and 
the President will be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.
  The Senator from Rhode Island.


                250th Anniversary of the ``Gaspee'' Raid

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, this week marks the 250th anniversary 
of the first blow struck in the American Colonies' struggle for 
independence from the British Crown. I come to the Senate floor every 
year to commemorate this moment because it took place in Rhode Island 
at the hands of some brave and bold Rhode Islanders.
  Before recounting the tale of those bold Rhode Islanders, I would 
like to acknowledge a special guest with us in the Gallery today: 
Michael Tatham, Deputy Head of Mission for the British Embassy here in 
Washington. A lot has happened over the last 250 years, and Great 
Britain is now America's closest ally and great, great friend. It is an 
honor to have the Deputy Ambassador here today.
  So it was 1772, and the Royal Navy's revenue cutter, the HMS Gaspee, 
patrolled Narragansett Bay in the wake of the Seven Years War, where 
Great Britain had emerged the victor. The Crown owed, by some 
estimates, between 74 and 133 million pounds. That was a colossal 
burden on the empire's finances. The Gaspee's mission was to collect 
taxes from the Colonies to help repay British debt.
  I will concede that part of the Gaspee's mission was righteous. Rhode 
Island's rum distilleries formed a corner of the so-called triangle 
trade, with enslaved people from Africa and sugar from the Caribbean 
forming the other legs of this foul business. Rum-running to support 
the slave trade was repugnant and a worthy target of British 
authorities.
  But Britain's heavy hand reached far beyond that. British customs 
agents seized Colonial vessels and cargo at whim, leaving rightful 
owners with no recourse to reclaim their property. One such owner was 
John Hancock, whose signature would soon become famous. Authorities 
even pressed Colonial sailors into service on His Majesty's vessels 
against their will.
  The Gaspee and her captain, Lieutenant William Dudingston, drew 
particular ire. One of Dudingston's first acts was to stop the merchant 
ship Fortune. Dudingston and his crew roughed up the Fortune's 
commander, Rufus Greene, condemned the ship and her cargo, and sent the 
Fortune to Boston for the admiralty to sell.
  This did not please the Fortune's owner, Rhode Island's Nathanael 
Greene, who would go on to become General Washington's aide-de-camp and 
wartime administrator and then command the southern campaign of the 
Revolutionary War, which he did so effectively that British General 
Cornwallis would write:

       That damned Greene is more dangerous than Washington.

  Dudingston's reputation only worsened from there. British law awarded 
revenue cutter commanders a share of the cargo they seized. Dudingston 
seized so much cargo that he was able to nearly double his salary, and 
he earned, along with that bounty, a well-deserved reputation for 
arrogance. Soon Rhode Islanders were protesting his conduct formally, 
but those protests yielded no accommodation.
  On June 9, 1772, simmering anger at Dudingston and the Gaspee boiled 
over. Dudingston spotted a small trading ship, the Hannah, bound for 
Providence. The Gaspee gave chase, and Dudingston hailed the Hannah's 
captain, Benjamin Lindsey, and ordered the Hannah to submit to a 
search. Captain Lindsey declined that invitation and ignored the 
Gaspee's warning shots and sailed on toward Providence.
  Now, the Hannah was smaller and lighter than the Gaspee, and Captain 
Lindsey was more familiar than Dudingston with the waters between 
Newport and Providence. Lindsey steered his Hannah across the shallow 
waters outside Namquid Point. The Hannah could sail over the shallows, 
but the heavier Gaspee could not. Dudingston and his crew ran aground 
on a sandbar off Pawtuxet Cove, stranded, as the Sun was setting in a 
falling tide. The Gaspee would need to wait for the next day's high 
tides to lift it free.
  When the Hannah arrived in Providence, Captain Lindsey summoned local 
patriots to Sabin's Tavern for refreshments and for planning. The 
result of the plan was that under the leadership of John Brown, later 
to be famous for Brown University, and Abraham Whipple, a group of men 
boarded a half dozen longboats to row from Providence down to Pawtuxet. 
Through the dark night, with oars muffled, the Rhode Islanders 
descended on the Gaspee. Whipple reputedly called out to Dudingston--
and I hope the young pages will forgive my language, but this is 
apparently the language used in that moment:

       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.

  I believe I mentioned that the Rhode Islanders had fortified 
themselves at Sabin's Tavern, which might explain some of the language. 
In any event, Lieutenant Dudingston refused that invitation so a brief, 
sharp battle ensued.
  At this moment those 250 years ago, Rhode Islanders drew the first 
blood of what would become our revolutionary struggle when a musket 
ball struck Lieutenant Dudingston. The Rhode Island patriots boarded 
the Gaspee. In the melee, Dudingston cried out:

       Lord, have mercy upon me--I am done for.

  But he was not. The British sailors soon gave up the fight. The Rhode 
Islanders took the crew prisoner and ferried the captives to shore. A 
marker still stands at the place where the captive crew was brought 
ashore. And there, Dudingston received the care of a doctor and, 
ultimately, recovered from his wounds. Indeed, Dudingston would not 
only heal, but go on to live a long life. He commanded other vessels. 
He moved back to his native Scotland and married and raised four 
children in a coastal town called Elie overlooking the Firth of Fife 
and the North Sea, but he never patrolled Narragansett Bay again.
  A quick side story. A few years ago, a couple from Scotland, Angela 
and Roddy Innes, visited Pawtuxet during Gaspee Days, our annual 
celebration of the Gaspee raid, coming up this weekend. The Inneses are 
connected through

[[Page S2811]]

marriage to the Dudingstons, and Angela wanted to see what the 
Dudingston-Gaspee was all about.
  In Pawtuxet, Rhode Islanders welcomed Angela and Roddy with open 
arms. Local historian Dr. John Concannon invited them to stay. ``It was 
an amazing experience,'' Angela said. ``The people there are incredibly 
friendly.'' The trip also helped them grasp the significance of the 
Gaspee raid on America's road to revolution. And this year, Angela 
Innes will mark the 250th Gaspee anniversary with a Gaspee Day party of 
her own in Scotland.
  Well, that left the dreaded Gaspee. With the prisoners ashore, the 
Gaspee raiders returned to the stranded ship and set her afire. When 
the fire reached her powder magazine, she blew apart, and her remains 
were lost to time and tides. Rhode Island was rid of the dreaded 
Gaspee.
  New efforts are underway now to find the charred remains of the 
Gaspee using advanced sonar technology. Dr. Kathy Abbass of the Rhode 
Island Marine Archaeology Project is on the case. Dr. Abbass is 
accomplished in her field. Indeed, she may have located Captain Cook's 
ship, the Endeavor, sunk in Newport Harbor. If anyone can find the 
Gaspee or what is left of her, it is Dr. Abbass.
  I should offer special thanks to Peter Abbott, the British Consul 
General in Boston who, along with representatives of the Royal Navy, 
came to Rhode Island last month for the announcement that funds had 
been raised to find the Gaspee. Abbott said:

       Being a British consul in New England means you must have 
     broad shoulders. I get invited to events that celebrate the 
     Boston Massacre and Evacuation Day. But what takes the 
     biscuit is commemorating the burning of a British ship!

  The Deputy Ambassador should know that if, in fact, we do find the 
Gaspee, Rhode Island, a colony no more, intends to courteously seize 
the vessel for further research.
  The Gaspee raid represents Rhode Island's spirit of independence, 
which has lived in us since Rhode Island's founding as a refuge of 
religious tolerance from the Massachusetts Colony's harsh theocracy. 
Our celebration of the Gaspee Affair represents Rhode Islanders' pride 
in that spirit, which we share willingly, even with a Dudingston 
descendant.
  Oh, and by the way, this episode where Rhode Islanders rode down 
through the night to a British ship that had been stranded by Rhode 
Island wilds and sacked her and took her crew and set her afire and 
blew her up, that all took place more than a year before Massachusetts 
colonists boarded a British ship to push tea bales into Boston Harbor. 
They pushed tea bales off the ship; more than a year earlier, Rhode 
Islanders blew the ship up. I am just saying, Mr. President.
  So here is to another 250 years of celebrating the Gaspee raiders and 
to more people learning about Rhode Island's role as a spark of 
revolution.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________