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PROVIDENCE COUNTY
COURT-HOUSE.
-
1885
......
..... . ..
சசிகலாக்
the proms
1 PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
ON
DECORATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS ARY OF CO 17 2045.77 .. APR 20 1890 AND 1
SMITHS
NI
DEPOSIT
PROCEEDINGS ON THE LEGISLATIVE VISIT,
CONORE
FEBRUARY 4, 1885.
1 1 50 1890
HUN AN DEPISIS
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF RHODE ISLAND.
PROVIDENCE E. L. FREEMAN & CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE. 1555.
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND,
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
JANUARY SESSION. A. D., 1885.
RESOLUTION to print two thousand copies of the report of the Commissioners to decorate the Providence County Court House, and of the addresses and poem delivered before the General Assembly relating thereto.
[Passed February 26, 1855.)
RESOLVED, That the report of the Commissioners to decorate the Providence County Court House, together with the addresses and poem delivered before the Gen- eral Assembly relating thereto, be printed. and two thousand copies thereof be published for the use of the General Assembly.
A true copy. Attest :
JOSHUA M. ADDEMAN. Secretary of State.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
THE Providence County Court House, erected under the supervision of a commission elected by the General Assembly, was dedicated December 18, 1877. The Com- missioners deemed it judicious to postpone for a time the painting and decorating of the interior walls and ceilings, and they were accordingly left plain and rough. The General Assembly, at its January Session, 1884, author- ized the Governor to appoint a commission for the pur- pose of contracting for and superintending the painting and improving the interior of the Providence County Court House, creating a second tier of alcoves in the State Law Library, and making such other incidental improvements as they might deem necessary and proper, and appropriated the sum of $10,000 for the expense thereof. His Excelleney Governor Bourn, on the 8th of April, 1884, appointed as Commissioners for the forego-
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
ing purpose the Hon. John H. Stiness, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and one of the Commissioners for the erection of the building, Mr. Alfred Stone, the archi- tect of the structure, and the Hon. Edward L. Freeman. of the House of Representatives.
The Commissioners proceeded at once to discharge the duty assigned them, and on the 25th of February, 1885, submitted the following report :
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
To the Honorable the General Assembly, at its January Session, A. D. 1885:
The undersigned, Commissioners to paint and improve the Providence County Court House, under resolution of the General Assembly passed at the January Session. A. D. 1884. respectfully report :
Immediately after their appointment they endeavored to ascertain the cost of work necessary to be done at a fixed price, and estimated it at three thousand dollars. viz. : for new alcoves in Law Library, $1,500 ; for re- finishing wood-work. $1,000 ; for miscellaneous expenses, $500. Upon this estimate they appropriated the remain- ing seven thousand dollars for the painting of the walls and advertised for designs whose cost should not exceed that sum. Several designs were submitted, from which the Commissioners selected those of Mr. HI. Edgar Hart-
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
well. of the city of New York. The work began in July last, after the adjournment of the sessions of the courts, and was completed in November.
It gives the Commissioners pleasure to state that throughout the building the work was done thoroughly and satisfactorily. They sought to obtain a result that should be simple, effective, appropriate and durable, and believe that the work done has all of these characteris- ties. A feature of decoration. hitherto untried in this State, if not in New England, was introduced in the main hall, by an historical painting upon the wall of the stairway. The event selected as the subject of the pic- ture was the return of Roger Williams with the first charter of the colony in 1644. That charter was the first step in the organization of the settlements into a colony. It is, therefore, the foundation of our govern- ment as a State. It was the first charter under which a purely " civil government " was ever instituted, and it organized the first colony in which every inhabitant was free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, so long as he did not disturb the public peace and order. It covered the smallest territory of any charter in the land, because our fathers were unwilling to quarrel with the other New England colonies about
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
the land they claimed by conquest from the Indians. under a confederation from which our settlements were excluded, although only through their services to the confederation had such a conquest been rendered possi- ble. In a magnanimous spirit of conciliation and peace this charter was sought only for lands . judged vacant on all hands." It was obtained from the Commissioners of Parliament, notwithstanding the fact that Massachu- setts had previously secured a somewhat questionable grant of the very same territory. Its procurement was noteworthy : its modesty, conspicuous ; its character unique. Not only was it thought to be worthy of com- memoration upon these grounds, but. singularly and fortunately, it happens to be ahnost the only prominent event in our early history of which a contemporaneous description remains, sufficient to warrant an attempt at representation.
The scene has been faithfully portrayed by the artist. Mr. C. R. Grant, of Boston, who was selected by Mr. Hartwell for that purpose. Thus, in part at least, has been carried out the recommendation of the Commission- er's for the erection of the building, in their final report, reiterating that of the architects at its opening, . that the notable seones and events. in which the history of
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
the State so richly abounds, should be emblazoned on its walls and thus handed down to future generations."
The appropriation under the resolution was $10,000.
The expenditures have been as follows :
Pamting. $7,000 00
New aleoves in Law Library. . 1,550 00
Re-finishing of wood-work, 950 00
Linoleum for lower corridors, . 135 00
Curtains, 90 00
Closets and shelves.
86 00
Printing and advertising, 16 69
Traveling expenses to inspect specimens of work, etc., 11 30
Plans and specifications for work in Law Li-
brary. 40 00
Electric call-bells. 40 00
Brass pendents. 1 67
Stretching sereens. 1 82
Tablet for picture, . 4 75
Labor, 2 99
$9.996 22
Unexpended balance,
3 78
$10,000 00
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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
The vouchers for the above expenditures are in the hands of the State Auditor.
The Commissioners appreciate the courtesy of the General Assembly in accepting an invitation to visit the Court House and inspect the improvements, and trust that they found the work which has been done worthy of their approval.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN H. STINESS, E. L. FREEMAN. ALFRED STONE.
The Commissioners extended to the General Assembly an invitation to visit and inspect the Court House on Wednesday, February 1. 1885, at 12.30 r. v. The in- vitation was accepted, and the General Assembly also passed the following resolutions :
RESOLUTIONS relative to visit of General Assembly to Providence County Court House.
(Passed January 30, 1554.
Resolved. That His Honor Judge Stiness, the Honora- ble Horatio Rogers, and the Reverend Frederic Denison, be invited to deliver the addresses which they have re-
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
cently delivered before the Historical Society upon the historical painting in the Court House, before the Gen- eral Assembly at the Providence County Court House. on Wednesday, February 1, 1885, at 12.30 r. M.
Resolved, That Messrs. James C. Collins, of North Providence, John Carter Brown Woods, of Providence, and Arnold L Burdick, of Newport, on the part of the House of Representatives ; and Messrs. Edward (. Du- bois, of East Providence, and Charles HI. Page, of Seit- uate, on the part of the Senate. he and they hereby are appointed a Committee to extend the above invitation and to superintend the arrangements for said occasion.
On the day appointed, His Excellency the Governor. the members of the General Assembly, State officers. and other invited guests, inspected the improvements made in the Court House, the decorations on the walls and the mural painting representing the Return of Roger Williams with the first Charter of the Colony, in 1614. and then assembled in the main Supreme Court room where His Excellency Governor Bourn presided over the literary exercises of the occasion. After brief appro- priate remarks he introduced as the first speaker of the day Ilis Honor Judge Stiness, who delivered the follow- ing address :
ADDRESS OF HON, JOHN H. STINESS.
THE RETURN OF ROGER WILLIAMS WITH THE FIRST CHARTER OF THE COLONY, IN 1644.
THE decade of years that followed the founding of Providence presents a most crit- ical and interesting phase in the history of the colony. Within that period the colony was established : but, more important far, it was established upon a principle, which. though untried at the time, is now univer- sally recognized as the very corner-stone of social government. It is a period that may well excite the pride of every son of Rhode Island. and its brief history should be as widely known as is the fact that Roger Wil-
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
liams landed here. Its culmination was in the event portrayed upon the wall. - the re- turn of Roger Williams with the first charter of the colony, in 1644. The settlement of Providence was quickly followed by gather- ings at Portsmouth. Newport and Warwick.
The territory of Rhode Island was then under no grant from the crown of England. other than the trading franchise held by the Plymouth Company, and the settlers obtained their tenure of land by purchase from the Indians. Providence, Portsmouth and Now- port,-the two latter soon uniting,-had each a form of voluntary self-constituted govern- ment, but there was nothing to unite the sep- arate settlements, save a common interest and danger for the future, and a common suffering and history in the past. The settlers at War- wick denied the authority of these govern- ments, which, at best, had but a feeble hold upon the people of the other towns. In ad-
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
dition to these elements of weakness was that of insecurity against ever-present danger from Indian wars and incursions, which the towns were by no means able to resist, but which, fortunately, through the influence of Wil- liams, they were able almost wholly to avert.
In 1636 .- the year after his banishment from Massachusetts, -the Pequods, foresee- ing the irrepressible conflict of the races, re- solved upon a war of extermination against the whites. To this end they made offers of friendship to their ancient enemies, the Nar- ragansetts, and sought their alliance. Con- necticut had already felt the power of their merciless fury, and Massachusetts, in her ex- tremity, turned to the only man who could stand between her and the Narragansetts, - the exile from her shores, Roger Williams. In his own words: "Upon letters received from the Governor and Council at Boston. requesting me to use my utmost and speed-
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
iest endeavors to break and hinder the league labored for by the Pequods against the Mo- hegans, and Pequods against the English. (exeusing the not sending of company and supplies, by the haste of the business) the Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and, scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself, all alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas. every minute in hazard of life, to the sachem's house.
"Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pe- quod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought, wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also.
"When God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to pieces the Pequods'
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
negotiation and design, and to make, and promote and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with the Narra- gansetts and Mohegans against the Pequods. and that the English forces marched up to the Narragansett country against the Pe- quods. I gladly entertained, at my house in Providence, the General Stoughton and his officers, and used my utmost care that all his officers and soldiers should be well accommo- dated with us.
" I marched up with them to the Narragan- sett sachems, and brought my countrymen and the barbarians, sachems and captains. to a mutual confidence and complacence, cach in other."1
The war came. The Pequod race and power
1 Letter to Maj. Mason, June 22, 1670. Knowles's Memoir of Roger Williams. p. 393. R. I. Col. Rec. I., 15%. Mass. Hist. Coll., Ist Series Vol. 1. p. 275
3
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were utterly destroyed and Massachusetts was saved. Still, after this signal service, the sentence of banishment was left unrepealed.1 Nay, more; on either hand, Massachusetts and Connecticut were looking with envious eyes on the fair fields that lay between them, and the former may have felt a touch of cha- grin that, notwithstanding all ber efforts, the "heretical colony" should lie upon her bor- der. On various pretexts she sought to claim jurisdiction over the settlers and their lands at Shawomet2 even sending an armed force to take them to Boston, where they were tried for heresy.3 At length the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven formed a league for mutual do- fence, under the name of the "United Colo- nies of New England. "4 The Rhode Island
1 Letter to Maj. Mason.
" Arnold's History of Rhode Island, Vol. 1, pp. 177-189.
8 Records of Mass., Vol. 2, p. 51.
+ Hazard's Hist. Coll. II., p. 2.
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
settlements were not included in this confed- eration. When we read in the preamble to the Articles that one reason for the formation of the league was " that as in nation and relig- ion, so in other respects we may be and con- tinue one." we do not need to go further to see that the exclusion of Rhode Island was really upon the ground of difference in re- ligious doctrine. It could not have been because the Rhode Island men were more individual dwellers in a wilderness, without a charter, and therefore not entitled to be recognized as a government. for Connecticut was in the same plight and did not receive a charter until about twenty years later. It could not have been because they were with- in the territory of the Plymouth Company. though at one time such a pretext was made. for the Connecticut settlements were within the lines of the same grant.1 Neither could
1 Hazard's Hist. Coll. IL .. p. 99.
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
it have been on account of their weakness in arms, for all were weak and the alliance was upon this express reason : nor because of their isolation, like those in Maine for instance, for Rhode Island lay in the pathway between the colonies. The people of Connecticut were in accord with those of Massachusetts in relig- ious matters, while the people of Rhode Is]- and were not. Aside from the sentences of banishment which had been passed upon in- dividuals at Providence and Aquidneck. the attitude of Massachusetts towards the organ- ized settlements at these places was shown in 1640. when Mr. Coddington and Mr. Brenton had joined with others from Connecticut in a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, about the policy to be pursued towards the Indians1 The General Court voted that the Governor reply to the letter, "onely excluid- ing Mr. Coddington & Mr. Brenton, as men
1 Winthrop's History of New England, II., p. 24.
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
not to be capitulated with all by us. either for themselves of the people of the iland where they inhabite as their case standoth."1
This alliance, and their exclusion from it. seem to have aroused the Rhode Island men to the necessity of energetic action. As early as 1639. Nicholas Easton and John Clarke had been appointed a committee by Ports- mouth and Newport to write to Sir Henry Vane for a charter? but they had not sue- ceeded in obtaining one. Providence and the island towns now earnestly combined. and Roger Williams was selected to go to England on this important mission.3 Ignor- ing his services in preventing the alliance of the Pegnods and Narragansetts, and forgetful of obligation for his magnanimity in the time of her most pressing need, Massachusetts de-
1 Records of Massachusetts, Vol. 1, p. 305.
" R. I. Col. Records, Vol. 1, p. 94.
3 R. I. Col. Records, Vol. 1, p. 121.
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
nied him the scant courtesy of permission to enter her territory to take passage in a vessel from her ports. He was therefore obliged to make the long and wearisome journey to New York, where, in the summer of 1613, he em- barked for England in one of the vessels of the Dutch.1 On the voyage he " drew the ma- terials" of his Key to the Indian language,2 which before the end of the year was pub- lished in London.
The embarrassments of his mission were many. England was then distracted by the contest between King Charles and the Par- liament ; the people of this colony were fow and feeble: their controversies with their neighbors seemed insignificant on the other side of the ocean, in the midst of more ab-
! Arnold's History of Rhode Island, Vol. 1, p. 113.
Letter 10 Mass., Oct. 5, 1654. Publications of Narragansett Club, Vol. 6, p. 272.
2 Key into the Language of America, Coll. R. I. Hist. Society, Vol. 1, p. 17.
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
sorbing matters; and more than all this. Ma- -achusetts, with her greater prestige, sought and actually obtained a patent covering the territory of Rhode Island.1 The character and ability of a man are best seen in that which he accomplishes. Viewed in this light Roger Williams was a man of no small com- pass. During his stay in London he pub- lished three works, which were well received. One was the unique and laborions elucidation of the Indian language, already mentioned ; one a letter in reply to Mr. Cotton's letter about his banishment. and the third a con- troversial treatise, after the style of the dis- putations of the time, in which he brought out his theory of liberty of conscience.2 Ile became the friend and visitor of Milton and of Sir Harry Vano; he secured the charter that he sought, not withstanding the previous
1 Arnold's History of R. I .. Vol. 1, p. 118.
: Elon's Life of Roger Williams, Chap. X.
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grant to Massachusetts; but more than this, he obtained the charter of a colony. Massa- chusetts had only a charter for a trading company, with the incidental power to make such rules and organization as might be nee- essary for its purposes.1 It did not contem- plate an established territorial government. Williams's charter gave to the people. as a colony, the full grant of absolute authority within its bounds. only requiring conformity to English law, "so far as the nature and constitution of the place will admit." Here was a marked difference between this charter and that of Massachusetts or any that had preceded it. Conformable, also, as might be expected, to the original agreement of the settlers of Providence,2 it was a charter simply for "ciril government."
1 Charters and Constitutions compiled by Ben: Perley Poore, Vol. 1, p. 932.
2 R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 14.
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
No action was taken under the Massachu- setts grant until August 27. 1645, when this remarkable letter was sent to Williams :
.. Sir, we received lately out of England a charter from the authority of the High Court of Parliament, bearing date 10 December, 1613, whereby the Narragansett Bay, and a certain tract of land wherein Providence and the Island of Aquetneck are included, which we thought fit to give you and other of our countrymen in those parts notice of, that you may forbear to exercise any jurisdic- tion therein, otherwise to appear at our next General Court. to be holden on the first fourth day of the eighth month, to show by what right you claim any such juris- diction, for which purpose yourself and others, your neighbors, shall have free liberty to come, stay and so- journ, as the occasion of the said business may require.
Dated at Boston. in the Massachusetts 275 6 mo., 1615.
To Mr. Roger Williams. of Providence. By order of the Council.
INCREASE NOWELL, Secretary.""
' R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 133. Records of Massachusetts, Vol. 3, p. 49.
1
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
With reference to this matter, in his letter to Major Mason, in 1670, Williams wrote:)
" Some time after the Pequod war, and our charter from the Parliament. the government of Massachusetts wrote to myself (then chief officer in this colony) of their receiving of a patent from the Parliament for these va- cant lands, as an addition to the Massachusetts, &c., and thereupon requiring me to exercise no more author- ity, Ke., for they wrote, their charter was granted some weeks before ours. I returned what I believed righteous and weighty to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Win- throp, the first mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of mine I never received the least reply ; only it is certain, that at Mr. Gorton's complaint against the Massachusetts, the Lord High Admiral, President. said openly, in a full meeting of the Commissioners, that he knew no other charter for these parts than what Mr. Williams had obtained, and he was sure that charter, which the Massachusetts Englishmen pretended, had never passed the table."
According to Arnold, however, whose re- searches in the British State Paper Office gave
1 Knowles's Memoir, p. 393.
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
opportunity for authentic information, the charter was not only actually obtained but described in precisely the same language the boundaries named in our charter, giving as reasons for the annexation to Massachusetts, "its rapid growth requiring an expansion of its territory and the desire to christianise the natives." No reference to this charter is made by the early writers of Massachusetts, and we are left to wonder why, after obtain- ing it. that colony made no attempt to enforce it. except by the letter just alluded to, writ- ten a year and a half afterwards. Governor Arnold thinks this is due to a reservation in the Massachusetts patent of all lands "in present possession held and enjoyed by any of His Majesty's Protestant subjects." while the charter of Williams had no such reserva- tion.1 But we have seen that this reserva-
1 Arnold's His. R. 1 .. Vol. 1. p. 118.
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PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
tion did not prevent Massachusetts from asserting a claim to this land in 1645. The authorities of Massachusetts did not then rec- ognize the claim of our settlers to this terri- tory nor hesitate to assert their own.
I venture to suggest that at least an addi- tional reason may be found in the different character of the two charters. That of Mas- sachusetts was a grant to a trading company ; that of Rhode Island to a colony establishing a local civil government. The former was originally for limited purposes, which grad- ually and perhaps insensibly, expanded into something more permanent and important; the latter was for the full and free exercise of civil authority, which, in view of the friend- ships Williams had formed in England, it was not deemed prudent to attack. What- ever the reason may have been, the fact remains that, notwithstanding its charter. ante-dating ours, the colony of Massachu-
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ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
setts never ventured under it a single act of dominion or interference within our territory. For many years Massachusetts disputed our title to the towns on the east shore of the bay, but that claim was made under the orig- inal grant, not under the charter of December. 1643. and it was afterwards decided adversely by commissioners of the King.1
The smallness of the territory of Rhode Island has often been the subject of surprise and comment. With the apparent influence which Williams had acquired in England with those who were then in power and his success in obtaining so free a charter, there can be little doubt that he could have com- passed a larger grant of land, had he desired to do so. European ideas of the geography of this country were not very exact in those days and charter boundaries were by no
1 Arnold, Vol 2. pp. 111-132, 183.
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means grudgingly drawn. The charter to the Plymouth Company, for instance, ran from 40° to 48° north latitude, and from sea to sea.1 Within these lines, the grant to the Massachusetts Bay Company extended from three miles northward of any and every part of the Merrimack River to three miles southward of any and every part of the Charles River, and of the southermost part of Massachusetts Bay, "from the Atlantick and Westerne Sea and Ocean on the East Parte to the South Sea on the West Parte." Notwithstanding this somewhat ample grant for a population of a few hundred people, we have seen that the Massachusetts authorities sought to add the little tract of Rhode Island on account of her "rapid growth requiring expansion." Not only could Williams, easily. no doubt, had he chosen to do so, have taken
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