STEPHEN HOPKINS

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

If there was anyone at the Second Continental Congress who was familiar with the tempestuous history between Britain and the American colonies, it was Stephen Hopkins. Hopkins was not only an educator and a student of the history between them, he had lived it. The self-educated Hopkins was sixty-nine years old on the day he signed the Declaration of Independence, and well versed in how badly the relationships between Britain and America had been deteriorating for years. Hopkins was not averse to keeping the political pot boiling by stirring up his fellow patriots against the Crown and always being ready to defend the colonies against its domineering laws and policies. He was one of the first patriots to advocate a “United States” long before the call for independence became fashionable.

Hopkins the Writer

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 the Instigator

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.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

Hopkins suggested early in 1772 that no British ship should be operating in or near Rhode Island without permission, as he told the colony’s deputy governor.

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’s Crowning Achievement

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.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“MY HANDS TREMBLE, BUT MY HEART DOES NOT.”

—STEPHEN HOPKINS, ACKNOWLEDGING HIS AGE AND CEREBRAL PALSY WHEN HE SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

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.