[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11571-11572]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             375TH ANNIVERSARY OF PORTSMOUTH, RHODE ISLAND

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with my colleague, 
Senator Whitehouse, to help mark the 375th anniversary of the 
settlement of Portsmouth, RI.
  Portsmouth is predominantly located on Aquidneck Island in 
Narragansett Bay, and also encompasses a number of smaller islands 
including Prudence, Hog, Patience, and Hope. It is the second oldest 
community in Rhode Island and is home to over 17,000 people. With over 
50 miles of coastline, Portsmouth enjoys beautiful views of the 
surrounding bay and islands.
  Portsmouth has a long and rich history. In 1638, Roger Williams 
convinced religious dissenters from the Boston Colony to settle the 
area now known as Portsmouth. One of these dissenters, Anne Hutchinson, 
perhaps the most well-known of the founders of Portsmouth, rebelled 
against the Puritanical lifestyle in Massachusetts Bay, undergoing a 
rigorous trial before being banished and excommunicated from the Boston 
Church. Hutchinson founded the town of Portsmouth with fellow colonists 
who were also searching for religious freedom. Portsmouth is believed 
to be the first town in the New World that was established by a woman. 
The signing of the Portsmouth Compact in March of 1638 created the 
first true democracy in America.

[[Page 11572]]

  The town played a role in our Nation's fight for independence. The 
Battle of Rhode Island, which took place in 1778, was significant to 
the history of the Revolutionary War because it was the first joint 
operation of American and French forces and also was the only battle in 
which black Americans fought as their own unit as part of the First 
Rhode Island Regiment, alongside Native Americans. The site of the 
battle is designated as a National Historic Landmark by a plaque and 
monuments at Patriots Park. Portsmouth was also home to a general army 
hospital that treated thousands of wounded Union soldiers and 
Confederate prisoners during the Civil War.
  With its vast shoreline, Portsmouth's maritime legacy is historically 
noteworthy. It was the site of the Navy's first PT-boat training 
facility, the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center in Melville, 
where President John F. Kennedy trained. Portsmouth is now fittingly 
the home of US Sailing, which is the governing body for the sport of 
sailing in the United States.
  As we celebrate the 375th anniversary of Portsmouth's settlement, I 
would like to recognize the residents of Portsmouth for all of their 
efforts to preserve one of our country's most treasured places. Like 
the town's motto for this anniversary celebration proclaims, Portsmouth 
has a proud heritage and a bright future. Congratulations to the Town 
of Portsmouth on its 375th anniversary.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, in 1638--375 years ago--a small, brave 
group of free thinkers banded together to establish an independent 
democratic community founded upon civil liberty and religious 
toleration.
  The settlers were followers of Anne Hutchinson, a highly educated 
midwife and controversial figure in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where 
ideological conformity was enforced by the gallows and the lash. 
Hutchinson and many of her allies were banished from Massachusetts for 
challenging the orthodoxy of the Puritan establishment. At the urging 
of Roger Williams, who had founded the colony of Providence Plantation 
just 2 years earlier, they settled on nearby Aquidneck Island in 
Narragansett Bay. The group called themselves the freemen of Pocasset, 
after the Native American name for the area. Eventually the new 
community settled on the name of Portsmouth.
  With the signing of the Portsmouth Compact on March 7, 1638, these 
religious dissenters, including John Clarke and William Coddington, 
formed a ``Bodie Politick'' that held forth the freedom to worship 
according to one's own conscience. Together with Roger Williams and his 
Providence colony, they blazed the path for American freedom of 
religion, one of our enduring national blessings.
  Their bold declaration would echo 25 years later in the Royal Charter 
granted in 1663 by King Charles II to establish the colony of Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations in New England, which provided the 
world's first formal establishment of freedom of religion. Their 
principles of tolerance are the foundation upon which our State, and 
afterwards our Nation, were built.
  Portsmouth, RI, was also the first community in the New World to be 
founded by a woman. It was in Portsmouth in 1778 that the First Rhode 
Island Regiment, with its complement of over 100 African-American 
soldiers, valiantly repulsed British forces in the Battle of Rhode 
Island. And it was Portsmouth abolitionist and suffragist Julia Ward 
Howe who penned the patriotic poem, ``The Battle Hymn of the 
Republic,'' in 1861. The history of Portsmouth is a legacy of America.
  I am proud to join with our State's senior senator, Jack Reed, and 
all Rhode Islanders in congratulating the people of Portsmouth on this 
historic milestone.

                          ____________________