USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > An oration on the annals of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 3
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While in the early Colonial History we read of Mrs. Verin, who claimed the right to go as often as she pleased to Mr. Wil- liams's meeting, in spite of her husband (who, finally, was obliged to remove back into Massachusetts to preserve his mar- ital authority, that was jeoparded by the freedom of Rhode Island), on the other hand, at the close of the colonial period, the same principle of religious freedom, abused to licentious- ness and latitudinarianism, had brought forth, with the neglect
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of schools and churches, a profound ignorance, both of things divine and of things earthly.
This sad condition of the populace was the dark feature of the country towns, rather than of the towns on the coast. The towns of Providence, Newport, and Bristol were the residences of the merchants, the scholars, and the mechanics of the State. They were familiar with the ideas which governed the times, and understood the exigencies which demanded the develop- ment of the Union of the Confederacy into the full unity of the Constitution .* But the people of the country towns could neither appreciate the crisis nor tolerate the necessity of surren- dering the dignity of the sovereignty of Rhode Island. And the country ruled the State. For, under the provisions of the Charter, the ancient village of Portsmouth. sent as many Dep- uties to the Legislature as Providence; and Newport sent more. Moreover, there were politicians, "giants in those days." If the people of Rhode Island knew nothing else, they were familiar with local politics. And, one man more than any other in the State, though living in Providence, and mingling with the intelligent of the land, was the oracle of the country people, who obeyed his nod.
ARTHUR FENNER, the leading politician at that time, and for many years the Governor, was the leader of the opposition to the Constitution of the United States. When the proposal came from the Continental Congress to the several States to appoint Deputies to the Convention "to Revise the Articles of Confed- eration," Rhode Island, through Fenner's instigation, refused compliance. When that Convention, under the Presidency of George Washington, matured the Constitution, under which this Union, till of late, has prospered, Rhode Island, under the same bad influence, rejected it, by refusing to call a convention of the people, even to consider it.
The Representatives, under the Charter, were chosen every six months; and the Legislature met every quarter of the year.
* Letter of Gen. James M. Varnum to Gen. Washington, President of the Fœd- eral Convention .- UPDIKE'S Memoirs of the Rhode Island Bar, pp. 300-302.
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Notwithstanding those oft-recurring opportunities, the public sentiment was steadfastly opposed to any expression of favor to the new order of things proposed. Rhode Island clung to her traditions. South Carolina and the modern school of rebels never, until now, proclaimed State Rights and State Sovereignty like Rhode Island in 1789. And let me admire, with you, the Providence of Almighty God over our unity as a nation, which permitted Rhode Island to stand aloof from the Union till the favorable opportunity for amendment of the Federal Constitu- tion had passed away.
In the Congress of 1789 the amendments were proposed, for the most part, which modified or explained the provisions of the Constitution. The State of Rhode Island adopted the Con- stitution May 29, 1790. It is said that there were some amend- ments proposed, and lacked but one vote to pass them, which would [have reasserted State Rights, and almost State Sover- eignty, to the manifest detriment of the grand and fundamental law of national unity, which the Constitution was designed and ordained to establish. If Rhode Island had been represented in that Congress of 1789, her vote might have prevailed to reduce the Constitution to the impotency of the Confederation ; or, at least, to confine its provisions and impair its consistency, so as to give color to the pretensions of the rebellious States, who are now ignobly striving, in war and blood, to overthrow the palladium of unity, of security, of prosperity, and of na- tional life .*
Wherefore, in both what she has done, and in what for a time, through Divine Providence, she left undone, Rhode Island has been God's instrument in laying and in perpetuating the foun-
* For example, the first Amendment which Rhode Island proposed as a condi- tion of her acceding to the Constitution, was, "The United States shall guarantee to each State its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," etc. 9th. "That Con- gress shall lay no direct taxes without the consent of the Legislatures of three- fourths of the States in the Union ;" and so on to twenty-one amendments. Ex- tracted from one of the original 300 copies (preserved among the papers of the late Dr. Solomon Drowne) of the " Ratification of the Constitution of the United States by the Convention of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," published by order of the Convention, May 29, 179c.
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dation of Constitutional Democratic Liberty, and also in pre- serving its developed Charter to the posterities unborn.
But, to recur to the period of strife, when the Old and the New were struggling for mastery, and the mother of the sons of Rhode Island was in her travail.
In June, 1788, the Convention of New Hampshire adopted the Constitution, as the ninth State ; after which, in accordance with its provisions, it was to go into operation.
The friends of the Constitution in Rhode Island determined on celebrating the great event on the Fourth of July following, on Smith's Hill,* in Providence. But the country towns were in a ferment at the tidings ; and on the 3d of July the neigh- boring woods were filled with armed men, resolved to prevent the celebration. The leaders of both parties conferred together, when it was agreed that the toasts and guns should be thirteen, instead of nine, in commemoration solely of Independence. On this condition the rural malcontents suffered the hilarity to pro- ceed, and even remained to share a steak of the roasted ox, which was a prominent feature of the festivities. This reunion, it is said, considerably mollified the antagonism of the parties by the magic of a good dinner : for the country people, after fast- ing for twenty-four hours, were very hungry. But the friends of the Constitution, in Providence, would not forego their right to celebrate the great event. " On the next day, July 5th, the news reached Providence that Virginia had adopted the Consti- tution. They rang the bells, and formed a procession supposed to contain one thousand persons, which paraded through the principal streets of the town. The artillery company fired a salute of ten guns, which was answered by some larger cannon from Federal Hill.+
On the 29th of July, they heard that New York had adopted the Constitution. Invention was taxed to give a significant type to this fresh celebration ; so, some genius of the day
* Land of Job Smith, at the head of the Cove, called "Federal Plain" by the papers of the day.
t Staples' Annals of Providence, p. 336.
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devised the plan. The south side of "the Great (Weybosset) Bridge" was decorated with eleven national flags, representing the States in the order of their vote of adoption, with the sev- eral majorities inscribed upon them. While the north side of the bridge was conspicuous with a standard of North Carolina, on a pole which leaned thirty degrees; attached to which was also a banner, bearing the motto: "It will rise." And for Rhode Island the artist of the occasion furnished only a bare pole, leaning forty-five degrees, and a motto : "Rhode Island in hopes."
The Government of the United States, under the Constitu- tion, was organized in New York, March 4, 1789. This event rendered a session of the General Assembly necessary, as Judge Staples says, with quiet sarcasm, "to provide for the foreign relations and commerce of the EMPIRE of Rhode Island." * But the Legislature was inexorable, and all petitions for the adoption of the Federal Constitution were referred to a fu- ture session for consideration. Meanwhile, the merchants of the State, dreading that Congress would pass laws against the commerce of Rhode Island, as of a foreign power, petitioned their forbearance and their mercy; which Congress freely be- stowed for a time, limited in the Act. But even in that peti- tion there is the appearance of a threat to join themselves in alliance with some other nation. " We feel ourselves attached," says the petition, "by the strongest ties of friendship, of kin- dred, and of interest to our sister States, and we cannot, without the greatest reluctance, look to any other quarter for those ad- vantages of commercial intercourse which we conceive to be natural and reciprocal between them and us."
In November, 1789, North Carolina adopted the Constitution. Rhode Island was, thereupon, left alone, sovereign, independent, without alliances with any nation, and with no community bound to her by either treaty or community of interest. The fondest vision of the stout old conservatives was realized. State Sovereignty loomed up in its huge proportions through
* Staples' Annals of Providence, p. 337.
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the delusive mirage of the political desert. The phantasm which had allured the islanders, in the self-complacency of their seclusion, for more than a century, now revealed its petty mag- nificence. Even the stolid countryman, and the determined partisan, and the desperate politician must have shrunk at the ridiculous spectacle. The film from the eye of stupidity, pre- judice, and stubbornness began to dissolve, and the symptoms of clear sight revealed themselves at the next Legislature; still they postponed the question, but dared not to reject it. Finally, on Saturday, January 17, 1790, the subject was debated in earnest till night. Both branches then adjourned until the next morning, which was Sunday. The bill from the Lower House, calling a Convention, was before the Senate (or Assistants, as they were named in the Charter), when it appeared that one of the anti-Federal Assistants, who was also a minister of the Gos- pel, had left town to attend to his parish. This made a tie in the Senate, and threw the casting vote upon the Governor (John Collins), who, though of the anti-Federal party, yielded to the necessity, and decided for concurrence with the Lower House in calling a Convention.
The excitement on that memorable Sunday in Newport was intense; and while the churches were deserted, the streets were thronged with a rejoicing assemblage. At the following elec- tion, Governor Collins was defeated, in consequence of his vote for the Convention. The new General Assembly met at New- port on May 5th, with Arthur Fenner as Governor. On the 24th of May the CONVENTION met at Newport. On the 26th of May, the motion to adopt the Federal Constitution was offered. A test question was made to adjourn, and lost by nine votes. The motion to adopt the Constitution was then in order, and the instrument was read. "The State House," says Ar- nold, "could not contain the crowd of people assembled to witness the momentous proceedings. For more ample accom- modation, the Convention removed to the Second Baptist Meet- ing House, where, for three days, the great debate continued. At five o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the final vote was taken.
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Thirty-four members voted to adopt the Constitution, and thir- ty-two voted in the negative. A majority of two votes saved the people of Rhode Island from anarchy, and the State from dismemberment."" The 29th day of May was thus signalized, Sons of Rhode Island, as among the birthdays of the Republic, and as the day of the new birth of Constitutional Union in our State.
As Mordecai M. Noah, quoting from Peter Wilkins, said of the coal-mines of Rhode Island : "They are the last place that will be consumed in the general conflagration ;"+ but, neverthe- less, the coal is actually preferred for smelting furnaces ; be- cause, when ignited, it burns with fervent heat till it is consumed to ashes ; so Rhode Island coal is significant of Rhode Island character. It is difficult to excite, but, when inflamed, it burns with enthusiasm and endures until death. It is hard to light it up, but it is harder to extinguish it. And as Rhode Island was the latest in adopting the Constitution of the United States, so she will be in ardor foremost to support, and the last to maintain, defend, and preserve the Union established by the Constitution.
This day, the 29TH OF MAY, was, peradventure, the date like- wise of the arrival of ROGER WILLIAMS off Slate Rock at " What Cheer,"t and the SETTLEMENT OF " PROVIDENCE PLAN- TATIONS" IN 1636. For the first record of Providence bears date the 16th of the 4th month (June, O. S.)§ And the " An- nals of Providence" relate that Roger Williams and his five associates embarked in a canoe from Seekonk; and after exchang-
* Arnold's Hist. R. I., vol. ii., p. 562.
+ Bryant, also, in his " Meditation on Rhode Island Coal," thus apostrophizes it: " Yea, they did wrong thee foully-they who mocked Thy honest face, and said thou wouldst not burn ;
Of hewing thee to chimney pieces talked
And grew profane-and swore, in bitter scorn,
That men might to thy inner caves retire, And there, unsinged, abide the day of fire."
# This event has been commemorated in stirring verse by the Hon. Job Durfee, late Chief Justice of Rhode Island .- See his poem, " What Cheer; or, Roger Wil- liams in Banishment," Canto IX.
§ Bartlett's Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. i., p. 13.
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ing salutations with the Indians at Slate Rock, in Seekonk River, they sailed (or paddled) around Fox Point and up Providence River, where they landed in the month of May, or early in June .* Another record says it was " In the spring of 1636 ;"+ it was not in June therefore. The 29th day of May, being the just middle date in the last week in May, and June not being in "the spring of the year," may accordingly be reckoned as the era of the founding of "Providence Plantations in New England." As the founder named the place where he landed "Providence, in grateful remembrance of God's merci- ful providence to him in his distress,"# so we may, with filial gratitude, admire and praise the Providence of God, which guided the Commonwealth along the untried paths of political and religious experiments, and celebrate this day, the 29th of May, both as dutiful Sons of Rhode Island, and as loyal citizens of this Republic of the United States.
Indeed, this day (the 29th of May) might be properly a day of sacred joy to all the world, for (in the exulting language of Mr. Bancroft, in his History of the United States), "the annals of Rhode Island, if written in the spirit of philosophy, would exhibit the forms of society under a peculiar aspect ; had the territory of the State corresponded to the importance and sin- gularity of the principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with wonder at the phenomena of its history."§
What God may have in store for her to do, we will not proph- esy. But if the past be the oracle of the future; if princi- ples be the seed of ripened conduct ; if the insignia of arms and the blazonry of standards be the proclamation of determined minds, then Rhode Island shall go on to glory in the van of advancing civilization, leading the nations in their march of democratic freedom.
For the first act of equality and justice, the basis of demo-
* Staples' Annals of Providence, p. 21.
t Elton's Life of Roger Williams, p. 38.
# Ib., p. 38.
§ Barcroft's History U. S., vol. i., p. 380.
€
1771775
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cratic government, was recorded in 1638 in the " Initial Deed" from Roger Williams of the lands which he purchased of Ca- nonicus and Miantinomoh, granting to his thirteen (mystic num- ber) of fellow-citizens, " the equal right and power of enjoying and disposing of the grounds and lands, which were so lately given and granted by the two aforesaid sachems to him."*
And note the Records of Rhode Island in 1639, when it was ordered " that a Manual Seale shall be provided for the State, and that the Signett or Engraving thereof shall be a sheafe of arrows bound up [with a snake's skin, t] and in the Liess or Bond, this motto indented : AMOR VINCET OMNIA.# And again, in 1647, it was ordered, " that the Seale of the Province shall be an Anchor,"§ under the Charter which Roger Williams procured from Cromwell's Parliament, through the Earl of Warwick. And, finally, in 1664, it was ordered that the old seal of " the Anker," with the word "HOPE" over the head of it, shall be the " Seale of the Collony,"! under the Royal Charter of Charles II.
Is not the escutcheon of Rhode Island the demonstration of her principles, and of her determination, and of her progress ? She calls herself a " State" as early as 1639. " All-conquering Love," bestowing equality and justice, with " arrows" to defend the rights of all against invasion or insurgency ; the " Anchor," sure and steadfast, the emblem of fixedness and conservatism, fastening the ship of state to Wisdom in the past, while " Hope" inscribed there, to indicate the land of refuge for the oppressed in conscience, and being lifted above all, points upward to Heaven for aid and inspiration, and beckons forward to a future wherein the Sons of Rhode Island, obedient to the instructions of their venerable mother, shall do further exploits on the arena of human life in coming ages, and emblazon fresh pages of Lib-
* Initial Deed-Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i. p. 19.
+ R. I. Historical Coll., vol. iii., p. 11. Prince's N. E. Chronology, p. 200.
# Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i., p. 115. The motto here referred to has been adopted, and inscribed on the banner of our fraternity, together with the " Anchor," and its legend "Hope," of subsequent seals. § Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. i., p. 151. A fac simile of Record. ¡ Ib., vol. ii., p. 41.
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·
erty and Law. on the history of the world. Is not the escutch- eon of the Sons of Rhode Island the symbol of her principles, her determination and her progress ?
And let us recruit our memories again with the names of Rhode Island's sons (providential men), whom God raised up to sow good seed, under the Constitution of the United States and the old Charter, on that chosen spot of "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
Here SAMUEL SLATER" came and set up the first cotton-mill in America, introducing the vast interest of cotton manufacture to this Western Continent. He, too, in Pawtucket, in 1791, is said to have established the first Sunday school in America.t Here GILBERT STUART # was born and reared, who is the peer of the best painters and the acknowledged head of the art in the United States. And, in this connection, it may be stated that COPLEY, the Boston boy, received his first impulses from the pictures which Smybert brought with him in the train of Bishop Berkeley :§ and, thus, the great painter, Copley (the father of Lord Lyndhurst, | late Chancellor of England, and of Mrs. Gar- diner Green, of Boston), gained his inspiration through Rhode Island. There was EDWARD G. MALBONE, the painter of " The Hours," whom Benjamin West sent home to Rhode Island, say- ing that he could teach him nothing. Of Malbone, Dunlap says, quoting the Analectic Magazine for 1815, "Whoever writes the history of American genius, or of American Arts, will have failed to do justice to his subject if he omit the name of Malbone. T Nor must I omit the name of WASHINGTON ALL- STON, who, though born in South Carolina, was sent to New- port for his health at the early age of six, in 1785, where he
* White's Memoir of Samuel Slater, and History of Manufactures.
t One of the first scholars, Benjamin G. I. Dexter, is yet alive.
# National Portrait Gallery.
§ Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, vol. ii., p. 673 .- " John Smi- bert." Dunlap's History of the Arts of Design in the United States, vol. i., pp. 21, 27. 104. Tuckerman's Biographical Essays, p. 257.
| Born at Boston in 1772, and deceased in London, October, 1863.
T Dunlap's Arts of Design, vol. i., p. 14. Tuckerman's Artist-Life, p. 58.
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received his education,* till he went to Harvard University in 1796 ; obtaining, as he himself acknowledged, the first impres- sion of painting, and recognizing his own rare capacity, from his boyish intercourse with Malbone.
The Fine Arts and Manufactures found congenial soil in Rhode Island.
And what of Commerce ? HENRY COLLINS, of Newport, was known and styled as the Lorenzo de Medicis of Rhode Island, t for his enterprise as a merchant, and for his patronage of the fine arts. JOHN BROWN,; of Providence, a merchant prince, whose ventures compassing the globe, reached the East Indies, whither he dispatched the first American ship § that doubled the Cape of Good Hope. CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLIN and GEORGE GIBBS, of Newport, these too, with others, were pioneers in commerce.
In Law, HENRY WHEATON, born and bred in Providence, composed the work on "International Law," which is now, at this time of controversy, a text book of the Cabinets of Europe and the United States. Mr. Harris, late minister of the United States in Japan, says that "the only foreign author whom the Japanese honor is Henry Wheaton ; and the only book which they have translated, is Wheaton on International Law." His reports of the Supreme Court are, likewise, the masterful expo- nents of the judgments under the Constitution.
And a throng of publicists and lawyers rise up to memory. I stand not on the order of their coming. SAMUEL WARD, some time Governor, was Chairman of the Committee of the Whole in the Continental Congress, when they made choice of
* The salubrious climate and good schools of Newport brought many Carolinian boys to Rhode Island. General James Hamilton was here taught. John C. Cal- houn was at school in Newport, where he courted and afterwards married his cous- in, Floride Calhoun. Did he imbibe his notions of State Sovereignty here, to impregnate the South with its virus ? If so, the fable of the eagle, shot by an arrow feathered with a plume from her own wing, is verified by the existing Southern Rebellion. instigated by the teachings of Calhoun.
+ Letter of Dr. Waterhouse, in R. I. Hist. Coll., vol. iv., p. 44.
# Hague's Historical Discourse, p. 102, 182.
§ The "General Washington."
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George Washington "to command all the Continental forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of American liberty."*
JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM, renowned for eloquence at the bar, and for military talents : he was Colonel of the Kentish Guards, that furnished, as from a military school, twenty-four officers for the Continental army, of whom the orderly sergeant, General Greene, was one. Having served in the Army of the Revolution as Brigadier-General, and in the Continental Con- gress, Varnum was the first Federal Judge of the Northwest- ern Territory.t
BENJAMIN BOURNE, the grand old champion of the Federal Constitution, who renewed the motion in the Convention for its adoption, which was carried; THEODORE FOSTER, the first Sen- ator, renowned alike in law and statesmanship; DAVID How- ELL, WILLIAM BRADFORD, and SAMUEL EDDY # made their mark on the age. BENJAMIN HAZARD,§ HENRY BULL, SAMUEL W. BRIDGHAM (first Mayor of Providence), as scholars and law- yers, are famous. And among the men of this next generation, NATHANIEL SEARLE, TRISTAM BURGES, and JOHN WHIPPLE were a triumvirate of barristers to whom Judge Story was accus- tomed to yield homage, saying to the former, " You know, sir, as much law as I." But, towering above all, in sweet benignity of aspect, JAMES BURRILL | was conspicuous and celebrated for both knowledge of law, acuteness of intellect, retentiveness of memory, grace of diction, eloquence in pleading, earnestness in conviction and fidelity to his clients, with elegant taste and sim- plicity of manners, and purity of character. As a statesman, his short career in Congress as Senator, evinced broad, national views of public policy, and his lamented death in Washington, like that of his friend Lowndes, of South Carolina, in the ripe- ness of prime manhood, hushed the voices of beautiful wisdom, and plunged both North and South in grief. It is well that his
* Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, vol. vii., pp. 529-532, note.
+ Updike's Memoirs of the R. I. Bar, pp. 145-233.
¿ Goddard's Address, p. 58.
§ Ib., p. 62.
| Ib., p. 57.
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grandson* is our poet to-night, to sing of Rhode Island in his glowing verse.
The State of Rhode Island has given JONATHAN RUSSELL, t the erudite HENRY WHEATON,t and the stately WILLIAM HUN- TER§ to Diplomacy, as Representatives of our country at foreign courts.
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