Rhode Island General Assembly

“ In 1875 he was a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly and in the latter was elected speaker of the state House of Representatives. In 1878 he was returned to the Federal Congress and in 1880 was re-elected, but in the following year resigned to take a seat in the Senate. He was successively elected to the Senate (in the years 1886, 1892 and 1905) , and became one of the most forceful and efficient members of that body. ”

“ Rhode Island gained by it a large accession of territory—the towns of Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren and Cumberland, which were incorporated and brought under the control of Rhode Island laws. Thus ten new deputies were added to the colonial representation. Thus, also, a revision of the judicial and military system of the Colony became necessary, and a new court was established under the title of Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Jail Delivery, and consisting of a chief-justice and four associate justices annually chosen by the Assembly. ”

“ We have seen how she was harassed by Wallace in January, 1776. In February more houses and a windmill were burned and more stock plundered on Prudence, and a descent for plunder made on Point Judith. With this last the names of several persons suspected of being Tories were mixed up, giving the Committee of Safety much to do. Difficulties between the citizens of Newport and the soldiers under General West, encamped on the island, arose in a measure from the same cause. West resigned because men whom he had arrested as Tories had been set at liberty by the Assembly. ”

“ Even if such authority could be deemed to have been confided by the charter to the general assembly of Rhode Island, as an exercise of transcendental sovereignty before the revolution, it can scarcely be imagined that that great event could have left the people of that state subjected to its uncontrolled and arbitrary exercise. That government can scarcely be deemed to be free, where the rights of property are left solely dependent upon the will of a legislative body, without any restraint. ”

“ And, further, we do, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, give and grant unto the said Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America, and their successors, that the Governor, or, in his absence, or, by his permission, the Deputy-Governor, of the said Company, for the time being, the Assistants, and such of the freemen of the said Company as shall be so as aforesaid elected or deputed, or so many of them as shall be present at such meeting or assembly, as aforesaid, shall be called the General Assembly ”

“ Rhode Island was favored with a charter from Parliament, granted in 1644 to Roger Williams. The charter was very liberal, and in religion and politics the people were absolutely free. The general assembly, in a code of laws adopted in 1647, declared that "all men might walk as their conscience permitted them--every one in the name of his God." Almost every religious belief might have been encountered there; "so if a man lost his religious opinions, he might have been sure to find them in some village in Rhode Island." ”

“ Rhode Island lacked great men, who favored the constitution, to lead her. ... The requisite number of states having ratified the constitution, a government was formed under it April 30, 1789. Our General Assembly, at its September session in that year, sent a long letter to Congress explanatory of the situation in Rhode Island, and its importance warrants my quoting a part of it. 'The people of this state from its first settlement,' ran the letter, 'have been accustomed and strongly attached to a democratical form of government. ”

“ In Massachusetts they were imprisoned, scourged, mutilated, put to death, and with the increase of persecution increased in numbers. In Rhode Island they were allowed to follow their own convictions and became useful and industrious citizens. And when the United Colonies urged the General Assembly, not without threats, to join in the persecution, it appealed to Cromwell, asking “that it might not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men’s consciences so long as human orders, in point of civility, are not corrupted or violated.” ”

“ The general assembly shall also have the power to act in relation to the property, affairs and government of a particular city or town provided that such legislative action shall become effective only upon approval by a majority of the qualified electors of the said city or town voting at a general or special election, except that in the case of acts involving the imposition of a tax or the expenditure of money by a town the same shall provide for the submission thereof to those electors in said town qualified to vote upon a proposition to impose a tax or for the expenditure of money. ”

“ At Newport an attempt was made to force the bills upon the grain dealers, which led to a riot. At a meeting in South Kingstown farmers were advised to break off their intercourse with the merchants.
A convention of the country towns of Providence County was held at Scituate and adjourned to meet the State convention at East Greenwich. Sixteen towns were represented and resolved “to support the acts of the General Assembly,” and enforce the penal acts in favor of paper money. Providence was represented by five of its best and most popular men, but they were powerless against the torrent. ”

“ Among the bad doings of the Assembly was the resumption of the charter of Newport.
It was at this critical moment, when rents were paid in corn and trade seemed about to return to its original form of barter, that the first spinning-jenny in the United States was constructed by Daniel Jackson, of Providence, and the foundations of Rhode Island’s manufacturing prosperity securely laid. History is full of compensations.
We reach the beginning of a still greater struggle. The convention that was to transform the Confederation into a Union was to meet in May. ”

“ If we are what we profess to be—a Republican Government, there is no State in the Union but what should be amenable to the General Government holding to the old English rights in Rhode Island. Then Congress, with the President at their head, could meet and veto every act made by any department of the Government, if it was necessary. ”

“ The whole matter was referred to the Board of Trade and by them to the Attorney-General, who decided in favor of Rhode Island. A distinction, however, was made between peace and war. In time of war the commander-in-chief might, in conjunction with the governor, call out the quota prescribed by the Board of Trade. Rhode Island’s quota for service under the Governor of New York was forty-eight men. The eastern boundary question was referred to the New York Council as being disinterested and near the spot. ”

“ All will agree that the concession of a power to a government so constructed is dangerous. The proposing a new system, to be established by the assent and ratification of nine states, arose from the necessity of the case. It was thought extremely hard that one state, or even three or four states, should be able to prevent necessary alterations. The very refractory conduct of Rhode Island, in uniformly opposing every wise and judicious measure, taught us how impolitic it would be to put the general welfare in the power of a few members of the Union. ”

“ They believe that the people of Rhode Island are in the right; that they are contending for equal justice in their political system; that they have properly adopted a constitution of government for themselves, as they were entitled to do, and they can not and will not remain indifferent to any act, from whatever motive it may proceed, which they deem to be an invasion of the sacred right of self-government, of which the people of the respective States can not be divested. ”

“ The Light Infantry Company, of Providence, was chartered at the same session. It was to consist of a hundred men and be stationed “in front of the left wing of the regiment.” A day of fasting and prayer was appointed and religiously observed. But the most important step of all was the election of Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward for delegates to that Congress towards which all eyes were anxiously directed. Thus Rhode Island had been the first to propose a Congress and the first to take action upon the proposal. ”

“ One thing strikes a Rhode Islander very peculiarly in regard to the adoption of the federal constitution. The people were not to vote directly upon it, but only second-hand through delegates to a state convention. No amendment to our state constitution, even at this day, can be adopted without a majority of three-fifths of all the votes cast, the voting being directly on the proposition, and a hundred years ago no state was more democratic in its notions than Rhode Island. ”

“ Rhode Island is again raising her hand against National power. She again assumes to be superior to the United States. All foreign-born citizens of that State, not possessed of a freehold estate of $134 value, or property amounting to an annual rental of $7, are, by State law, forbidden to vote. These men were naturalized under a law of the United States, not under a law of Rhode Island. The United States not only made them citizens, but expressly in the XIV. Amendment declares them to be citizens, and yet little Rhode Island presumes to be stronger than the United States. ”

“ Deputy-Governor Richard Ward was chosen to fill his place, and William Greene was promoted to the place of Deputy-Governor made vacant by the promotion of Richard Ward. Henceforth these two names become prominent in Rhode Island history.
Disease came with war. The small-pox broke out again. Portsmouth and Jamestown were compelled to call on the Assembly for aid and Dutch Island was used as quarantine ground. While the minds of the colonists were thus prepared for thoughts of suffering and death, George Whitefield came among them calling them to repentance and prayer. ”

“ Whatever stretches of such power may be ventured on in great crises, they cannot be upheld by the laws, as they prostrate the laws and ride triumphant over and beyond them, however the Assembly of Rhode Island, under the exigency, may have hastily supposed that such a measure in this instance was constitutional. ”

“ Is it not self-evident that a trifling minority ought not to bind the majority? Would not foreign influence be exerted with facility over a small minority? Would the honorable gentleman agree to continue the most radical defects in the old system, because the petty state of Rhode Island would not agree to remove them?
He next objects to the exclusive legislation over the district where the seat of government may be fixed. Would he submit that the representatives of this state should carry on their deliberations under the control of any other member of the Union? ”

“ It thus offered a great contrast to the Massachusetts colony, in which the towns were the creatures of the General Court; and it was this extreme looseness of organization, combined with religious toleration, which formed the leading characteristic of the Rhode Island political experiment. Although the settlers at Providence had signed an agreement to unite for purposes of government, there were no town officers, and practically no organization, until four years later. ”

“ When the constitutional convention met in Philadelphia in 1787 to frame a constitution for a stronger Federal government, the agriculturists of Rhode Island were afraid that the movement would result in an interference with their local privileges, and especially with their favourite device of issuing paper money, and the state refused to send delegates, and not until the Senate had passed a bill for severing commercial relations between the United States and Rhode Island, did the latter, in May 1790, ratify the Federal constitution, and then only by a majority of two votes. ”

“ Thus a provisional government took the place of the charter government under which New England had grown so rapidly. A great and successful experiment in political science was suddenly checked, and hopes which had led so many devout and earnest men to renounce the conveniences of home for the perils and discomforts of a wilderness were rudely crushed at the very moment when they seemed nearest their fulfillment. The same blow which fell upon Rhode Island fell with equal fatality upon Massachusetts and Connecticut. ”

“ This claim Rhode Island had contested when advanced by former governors, nor was she disposed to yield to it now. Still less was she disposed to accept a proposal which at this time came from Bristol under the signature, “A Friend to Property,” to divide Rhode Island between Massachusetts and Connecticut, or ask that she should be made a royal government upon the ground that “an elective legislature must always be a source of disorder and corruption” in a small state. ”

“ Ten thousand acres of land were set apart for new settlers at the rate of a hundred acres to each man—the new settlers to be approved by the Assembly. Rhode Island threatened to appeal to the King. Connecticut declared that she was ready to meet the appeal. Attempts at compromise were made by both parties. Connecticut proposed to fix the line at Coweset, the modern East Greenwich. Rhode Island offered to allow Connecticut to dispose of half the unpurchased lands in the Province if the settlers would accept the jurisdiction of Rhode Island. ”

“ It has a most pernicious tendency. If an early general convention can not be parried, it is seriously to be feared that the system which has resisted so many direct attacks, may be at length successfully undermined by its enemies. It is now perhaps to be wished that Rhode Island may not accede until this new crisis of danger be over; some think it would be better if even New York had held out until the operation of the government could have dissipated the fears which artifice had created, and the attempts resulting from those fears and artifices. ”