USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > An oration on the annals of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 5
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Dorr was impeached for treason and confined in prison. The State then adopted the present Constitution in 1843.
" The Dorr War" was the school which has made Rhode Island and her soldiers foremost in suppressing the present great rebellion. It quenched in shame and ignominy the flames of radical democracy, which were threatening the direst calamities to the free republican institutions, not only of Rhode Island, but of the United States. As in bombardment, the safest place is where a cannon ball has passed through, so Rhode Island is henceforth the place of security against the assaults of faction within the battlements of Law and Order. The noble determi- nation of the citizen soldiers of Providence, and the gallant yeo- men of Rhode Island, amid the confusion which reigned in that civil war, has been celebrated in beautiful and spirited verse, in the lyric poem of George Burgess.#
* The officers, Randall H. Greene, Chairman, and John H. Ormsbee, Secretary.
t Providence Morning Courier, Vol. VII., No. 57, July 19, 1842.
# See NOTE VII .- Bishop Burgess' Poem on Rhode Island, in 1842.
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AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Sons of Rhode Island ! The last era in the annals of our State is the present epoch of civil war. I shall not prophesy. We are making history now. It must suffice to say that the Gov- ernor (Sprague*) of Rhode Island dispatched the first telegraphic message to the President of the United States, offering the whole strength of the State to maintain the Federal Constitution, and union of the country, against the rebels, who have lifted unholy hands against the best government in the world. Although Massachusetts dispatched men, who made the 19th of April, 1861, memorable for the first blood of the war for the Union, shed in Baltimore on the same calendar that commemorates the first Massachusetts blood on the 19th of April, 1775, at Lexing- ton, in the war for Independence, yet Rhode Island was second in the field; while showing herself Pallas-armed, she was the FIRST fully equipped and ready for immediate service.t Rhode Island has contributed soldiers to suppress this rebellion of the slave States, in proportion greater than any of her loyal sisters, except Kansas. The ratio of Rhode Island soldiers to popula- tion, is 1 to 117% ; of Massachusetts, 1 to 17af. ; and of Maine, 1 to 2024
Her BURNSIDES has led her forces| to battle at Bull Run ; and to victory at Roanoke, and Newbern, and Fort Macon; while her RODMAN, T and SLOCUM, ** and other soldiers have sealed their patriotism in death .. Her sons, with their swords, are carving immortal historytt on the fortresses of rebellion, and diffusing, with their bullets, the seeds of a free civilization in the plantations of slavery.
* See NOTE VIII .- Letter of the Hon. Wm. Sprague, U. S. Senator of R. I.
{ See NOTE IX .- The Three Telegrams-" War News in other cities."
# See NOTE X .- Ratio of soldiers to population in twenty-four States.
§ Ambrose Everett Burnside, Major-General, and Commander of the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg.
I See NOTE XI .- Reminiscences of the Sons of Rhode Island in New York.
T Brigadier-General Isaac P. Rodman, of South Kingston, Rhode Island, fell mortally wounded while gallantly leading a Division against the enemy at the bat- tle of Antietam, Md .- Major-General George B. Mcclellan being in command at the time.
** John S. Slocum, Colonel 2d Rhode Island Regiment .- Woodbury's Cam- paign of the Ist Rhode Island Regiment, p. 154. "The Fallen Brave," pp. 81-87. tt Vide Frank Moore's Rebellion Record.
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ANNALS OF RHODE ISLAND, ETC.
It is quite sufficient for her glory, that the sons of Rhode Island in this generation, are faithful to the traditions of the State, and loyal in following the example of their fathers.
We are here gathered together in the Halls of the Historical Society of New York, on the anniversary of the landing of Roger Williams, and of the adoption, by Rhode Island, of the Constitution of the United States (at the end of the first year of our association), in State fellowship and in national brother- hood. We have been reviewing a past career of more than two centuries, and gathering up the great lesson of Liberty and Law, of Charity and Truth, of Independence and Toleration, which, under GOD'S PROVIDENCE, has influenced the civilization of the world.
While American citizens, true to the glorious old flag that symbolizes and protects the Union as one nation, yet we are not aliens from our native land. We repudiate State Sover- eignty, but we cling to STATE FELLOWSHIP.
Yes! Yonder is Rhode Island. Her streams are vocal with the rattling of the spindle ; her forges resound the clangor of the anvil ; her hills are crowned with the seats of learning ; her shores are lined with cottages and with villas ; her beach is pop- ulous with citizens of all States, in search of health and recrea- tion ; her rocks are memorable as the resort of Philosophy and of Poetry ; her coast is kissed by the warm touch of the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic; her breath is the genial air of heaven ; her bosom is adorned with the emerald grass and the golden corn; her cities are the emporium of industries ; her homes the happy sanctuaries of Love, and Liberty, and Contentment.
The Sons of Rhode Island look to her through pleasant mem- ories and with filial hearts. And the citizens of no State love each other more wisely and well, nor cling closer together, " for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health," than the native-born people of "THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS."
NOTES.
NOTE I .- PAGE 7.
LETTER OF JOHN MILTON.
THE intimacy of ROGER WILLIAMS with the historic men of his genera tion, and the lofty hopes of the future grandeur of America, which the bold thinkers of that age cherished, are set forth in the letter of John Milton to Count Palavicini de Saluces, the noble Genoese envoy into England (quoted in "The Piedmontese Envoy," pp. 292-294).
" My Dear Count :- You remember my worthy friend Livingstone. We spoke of our mutual friend, Mr. Roger Williams, of Rhode Island, a colony in the New World, founded by that noble confessor of religious liberty, who, with many others, fled from tyranny, in the latter part of the reign of Charles I. We rejoiced in the zeal of that extraordinary man, and most enlightened legislator, who, after suffering persecution from his breth- ren, persevered, amidst incredible hardships and difficulties, in seeking a place of refuge for the sacred ark of conscience. Mr. Livingstone made refer- ence to a tract of land he had bought in that colony just at the beginning of the late conflict, thinking to transport himself thither, if the cause of the Parliament failed. The hand of mercy hath now saved him from the evil to come, by translating him into the kingdom of everlasting peace and joy. It might almost be called a translation, so sudden was the stroke which. in the midst of a green old age, snapped asunder in a moment the golden cord of life. He hatlı bequeathed to you this tract of land, that thus, as he ex- presseth himself, 'if you are an alien from your country, and your patri- mony, for conscience sake, you may find an inheritance in a land of liberty, and provide an asylum there for your persecuted brethren in Europe.' It is also his desire that you will adopt his name, in addition to your own.
"I expect, my noble friend, that you will not hesitate to seek, in another hemisphere, the prime blessing of man-liberty ; since I fear your endeavor to serve this sacred cause, either in France or Italia, would now, alas! be in vain. Go then, and join the bands of patriots and confessors beyond the broad Atlantic, to whom my spirit looks with hope, as the conservators of those immortal principles which have here been crushed in their bud. The deep-rooted prejudices and selfish ends of the old Governments of Europe, will, I fear, long retard the growth of these principles in this hemisphere ; but, in the Colonies of America, the Allicise Governor of the world seems to have prepared a soil for their further development, and, as I believe, their
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NOTES.
ultimate triumph. In the visions which often cheer my spirit, amidst the darkness of a precious external sense, I behold these little Colonies expanded into great and prosperous Republics, where each man shall possess the fullest measure of civil freedom, and religion, no longer degraded and defiled by her state bondage, will renew her mighty youth and soar in her pristine vigor and glory. In these days may the honored descendants of COUNT DE SALUCES LIVINGSTONE and of ROGER WILLIAMS rejoice in the fruits of their ances- tors' principles and labors. *
" If I cannot remain in safety in this land, where I am too deeply rooted easily to bear transplantation, I shall, perchance, follow you to the land of HOPE, whither you go. * * k *
"Forget not, as you will never be forgotten by, your devoted friend,
"JOHN MILTON."
NOTE II .- PAGE 19.
THE LAST DAYS OF THE CHARTER LEGISLATURE, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
THE General Assembly, under the Charter, convened on Monday, May 1, 1843, agreeably to a vote of adjournment passed at the session in January. The session was opened at three o'clock, P. M., by prayer, by the Rev. Fran- cis Vinton, Rector of Trinity Church, Newport. The two Houses, in Grand Committee, thien appointed a Special Committee to be present at and witness the organization of the government under the Constitution adopted by the people of the State in November, 1842 ; and it was resolved " that said Committee make report, in conformity to the provision of said Constitution, in order that this General Assembly may know when its func- tions shall have constitutionally passed into the hands of those who have · been legally chosen by the people to receive and exercise the same."
The Grand Committee then adjourned till five o'clock next day, Tuesday, May 2, 1843.
The General Assembly, under the Constitution adopted by the people in November, 1842, convened at the State House, in Newport, on the first Tuesday in May, 1843, at 11 o'clock, A. M. The members of the new Senate and House assembled in separate chambers for the purpose of organizing the government. His Excellency, Samuel Ward King, the last Governor under the Charter of 1663, presided in the organization of the new Senate ; and the senior member from the town of Newport, the Hon. Henry Y. Cranston, and the clerks of the old House, acted as officers of the new House, until it was organized. The Secretary of State, the Hon. Henry Bowen, administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution, to the Sena- tors, and afterwards to the members of the House of Representatives. Ilon. Alfred Bosworth was the elected Speaker, and Thomas A. Jenckesand Joseph S. Pitman, Clerks. The Governor and Senate then joined the House in Grand Committee, and the session of the General Assembly was then opened by prayer, by the Rev. Francis Vinton.
3
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NOTES.
The votes for general officers were then received, and a committee was appointed to count them.
The Grand Committee then ajourned till five o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. The Grand Committee met at five o'clock, his Excellency, Governor King, in the chair. The committee appointed to count the votes reported, and it was thereupon Resolved, that James Fenner be declared elected Governor; Byron Dimon, Lieutenant-Governor ; Henry Bowen, Secretary of State ; Joseph M. Blake, Attorney-General; and Stephen Ca- hoone, General Treasurer.
Governor King, who, during this august ceremony, was seated in the identical oaken chair in which, one hundred and eighty years before, Gov- ernor Arnold received the Charter of Charles II., from Baxter's hands, re- signed his seat to Governor Fenner. Then the Speaker of the House, according to ancient usage, called out : "Sheriff, clear the way : Sergeant, make proclamation that his Excellency, James Fenner, is elected Governor, Captain-General, and Commander-in-chief of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for the year ensuing." The sheriff, with his mace of office, cleared the way, and the town-sergeant of Newport followed to the balcony of the State House, and made the customary proclamation. After proclaiming the Governor, and the other general officers, the sergeant added the pious deprecation of our forefathers : "God save the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
The shouts of the people and the roar of artillery followed the proclama- tion. A committee was appointed to announce the organization of the new Government, to the General Assembly under the Charter. The two houses then separated. After the adjournment (on Tuesday) of the General Assembly under the Constitution, the General Assembly, under the Char- ter, convened in Grand Committee, Gov. King in the chair. The com- mittee appointed by the General Assembly, under the Constitution, ap- peared, and announced that the Government under the new Constitution was legally organized.
The committee appointed by the Charter Assembly, on Monday, to wit- ness the organization of the new government, reported the fact, concluding their report with the declaration that "the power of the government, as organized under the Charter, has ceased." Whereupon, the following reso- lution was adopted :
" In General Assembly, Tuesday, May 2. 1843.
" Resolved, That the foregoing report be accepted, and that this General Assembly be and the same is hereby declared to be dissolved."
The last General Assembly, under the okl Charter, which had withstood the vicissitudes of two centuries, ceased to exist.
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NOTE III .- PAGE 20.
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
ROGER WILLIAMS was a protige of Lord Coke. He was born in Wales, but it is uncertain whether in 1599 or 1606 .* Mrs. Sadlier, the daughter of Sir Edward Coke, in a note to one of Roger Williams's letters addressed to her- self, wherein he attempts to proselyte her, says: "This Roger Williams, when he was a youth, would, in short hand, take sermons and speeches in the Star Chamber, and present them to my dear father. He, seeing so hopeful a youth, took such a liking to him that he sent him to Sutton's Hospital; full little did he think that he would have proved such a rebel to God, the King, and his country. If ever he has the face to return into his native country, Tyburn may give him welcome." This MSS. letter of Roger Williams to Mrs. Sadlier is in the library of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, and is copied in Professor Elton's Life of Roger Williams, chapter viii., with other correspondence between them.
The records of Sutton's Hospital, now the "Charter House," show that Roger Williams was elected scholar June 25, 1621, and that he obtained an exhibition July 9, 1624. The records of Jesus College, Oxford, register his matriculation as follows: " Rogericus Williams, filius Gulielmi Wil- liams, de Conwelgaio, Pleb. an. nat. 18, entered at Jesus College April 30, 1624. After his graduation, he commenced the study of the law, under Sir Edward Coke. He was afterwards admitted to Holy Orders in the Church of England, and served a parish in Lincolnshire. While there, he became acquainted with Cotton, Dudley, Hutchinson, and the leading friends of the Puritan fathers.t At length, turning Puritan, he embarked, at Bristol, for America, and arrived in Boston, February 5, 1631.
He was banished from Massachusetts, "as a disturber of the peace, both of the Church and Commonwealth," in 1635. In the course of two or three years after the settlement of Providence in 1636, Williams embraced the views of the Baptists. "But," says Professor Elton. "there being no Bap- . tist minister in New England, Ezekiel Holliman, a pious and gifted indi- vidual, who afterwards became a minister, was selected to baptize Roger Williams, and Roger Williams then administered the ordinance to Mr. Hol- liman and ten others."# Such was the remarkable origin of the Baptist denomination in America. The Baptist meeting-house in Providence is much venerated by the Baptist people, as the mother of churches. Its first, bell rang its landation. That old bell was made in London, and weighed 2,515 pounds. Upon it was this motto, in rhyme :
"For freedom of conscience the town was first planted; Persnasion, not force, was used by the people ; This Church is the oldest, and has not reeanted ; Enjoying and granting bell, temple, and steeple."§
* Arnold's Hist. of R. I., vol. i., pp. 47-50.
t " It pleased the Lord to call me for some time, and with some persons, to practise the Hebrew. the Greek. Latin, French, and Dutch. The secretary of the council (Mr. Milton), for my Dutch I read him. read me many more languages."-Letter of Roger Williams to John Winthrop .- Knowles Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 264. Also " The Winthrop Papers," in Mass. Hist. Coll # Elton's Life of Roger Williams. p. 145.
$ Hagne's Historical Discourse-The Church Transplanted. p. 158. The last line is an allusion to the prohibition of the use, by Dissenters, in England, of steeple or bell.
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NOTES.
· Roger Williams died in. April, 1683, at his residence in Providence, R. I. " He was buried," says Callender, " with all the solemnity the Col- ony was able to show." "His remains were interred," says Elton, p. 149, "in a spot which he himself had selected on his own land, a short distance from the place where, forty-seven years before, he first set his foot in the wilderness."
In a paper read before the Rhode Island Historical Society, May 18, 1860, Mr. Zachariah Allen has detailed the interesting experiments to identify the grave of Roger Williams. It is curions that an old apple-tree* had spread its roots around his body and absorbed his bones. Hlas that old ap- ple tree, in despoiling his phosphates, exhausted likewise Rhode Island's pride, and sneked up Rhode Island memories? In 1771 the town of Providence voted " to erect over the grave of the founder of this town and colony a monument. "+ Where is that monument ? Is it not discreditable to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, that echo an- swers MEANT! Only " meant," but not done! Is this Rhode Island con- duct ? No! Sons of Rhode Island, let it be done.#
NOTE IV .- PAGE 21.
LETTER OF WILLIAM J. HOPPIN, ESQ., OF NEW YORK.
REV. DR. F. VINTON :
My Dear Sir :-- The taking of the frigate Providence to sea on the 30th of April, 1778, was one of the most brilliant exploits of the war. She was lying in Providence, where she had been built nearly two years before, but as British ships of war were stationed in various parts of the bay, it was almost impossible to go out without being intercepted. It became neces- sary, however, to send important dispatches to France, probably in relation to the treaty with that nation, the news of which had just arrived here. Captain Whipple determined to run the risk of the blockade, and, by his energy and skill, succeeded in the undertaking. My grandfather, William Jones, afterwards Governor of Rhode Island from 1811 to 1817, com- manded the marines on board the Providence, and kept a journal of the cruise, which is in my possession. I send you extracts in relation to this exploit which have never been published :
"On the 30th of April. 1778, at or near high water, at night, we got under way, with the wind at or near N. E., and very thick. Stood down the river, and on the middle ground, a little below Pawtuxet, struck the bar, where we lay perhaps three quarters of an hour until full tide.
* Stephen Randall, Esq .. of Rhode Island, a descendant of Roger Williams, showed me the roots of this tree, which followed the form of the skeleton ; and the pocket compass of Roger Williams now belonging to Mrs. Harriot Brown, of Providence ; also a lineal descendant.
t See Letter of Theodore Foster to Williams Thayer. Jr., in Rhode Island American of July 16, 1519, and Knowles' Memoir of Roger Williams, pp. 430-432. Also p. 359, "Si Monumentum quaris circumspice." Judge Pitman, in his Centennial Discourse, in 1536, eloquently pleads for a monument for " the man who has given us a name and a place, but has no place for his name among us," p. 60.
+ A recent movement has been made. under the auspices of "The Roger Williams Monument Association of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," which was incorporated by act of the General Assembly of Rhode Island. in May. 1860, and was duly organized on the 5th of June, in that year ; the Rev. Francis Way land, D. D., being its first President.
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Passed over the bar and shaped our course for Warwick Neck, and before we arrived near Mamcut Point, discovered a signal, by lights, from a ten- der to the ship Lark. of thirty-two guns, which lay just below Warwick Neck Point to receive us. We kept our course, and very soon received a shot (perhaps of information, as it was at some distance). We, of course, were soon at our quarters-this to effect, however, was not very hard, as we were, in men and boys, only one hundred and fifty-three in number, and many of them at most but merchantable. The Lark was a ship of thirty-two guns to our twenty-eight. Her men were picked for the pur- pose-three hundred in number. Our men were much inferior, a great proportion of them boys, and very few were seamen. We, however, kept our course, during which the Lark, under way, with her foretopsail aback, kept up a scattering fire upon us until nearly alongside, when she gave us a broadside. This civility obliged us to answer, and it was done to effect. By this time, the passage being narrow, we came close in contact, which enabled us to hear the greatest confusion of swearing, etc., I ever heard; they, however, soon recovered, and gave us a second broadside within talk- ing distance, which was promptly returned; and she, the Lark, was so cut to pieces, and with a number of killed and wounded men, as obliged her to round to, all standing ! What a cruel disappointment to a commander who had solicited the station to take the rebel frigate into Newport. It afterwards appeared that her tender fared but little better, as she sunk the next day. We proceeded a little farther, when we were saluted with a broadside from the frigate Hound, and two broadsides were exchanged, but her com- mander, not pleased with Yankee civility, let us alone, and we passed on. It since appeared the Lark had eighteen poor fellows killed and wounded, and was much damaged in sails, rigging, and spars; the Hound not quite so much so; but, through the ever-to-be-adored goodness of Heaven, we had not a man wounded. and but little damage to the ship. We stood on, passed the light-house, the weather extremely thick. In the morning, about daylight, and with, I think, eleven souls on deck (for, as the weather was rough, many of our new sailors were sea-sick, poor creatures), we saw a sail under our lee bow, close or near by. She, it appeared, was a sixty- four gun ship, stationed near Point Judith to take charge of us, if we should escape the two frigates before mentioned-(noble fellows !). We soon had all hands on deck, and made all sail ; and the enemy was quite as expedi- tious; but we had the wind of her. Not a shot was exchanged, each crowding all sail. It soon appeared we gained from her, and by eleven o'clock, A. M., we ran her hull down; and not a little pleased were we, be assured."
The Providence proceeded on her voyage without further difficulty, and on the 30th May, 1778, arrived at Paimbœuf, near Nantes, in France, and Captain Whipple immediately sent Captain Jones with the dispatches to Dr. Franklin, and the other American Commissioners, in Paris.
I think the above account of the exploit of Captain Whipple will be interesting, as it occurred in our own waters, and no particular description of it whatever has appeared, so far as I can learn, in print.
Truly yours, WILLIAM J. HOPPIN.
878 Broadway, June 23, 1863.
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NOTE V .- PAGE 43.
LETTER OF THE HON. HENRY B. ANTHONY.
PROVIDENCE, October 12, 1863.
My Dear Sir :- I have yours of the 9th, reminding me of my promise to repeat to you the remark that General Scott made in my hearing about the late Major John R. Vinton. It was at the table of the Hon. Henry S. San- ford, now our minister at Brussels, that the conversation took place, during the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress. General Scott was giving some account of the siege of Vera Cruz; and in the course of it, said : "John R. Vinton was the most accomplished man in the American Army." I expressed my pleasure at the remark, and said that I had enjoyed the honor of Major Vinton's friendship ; and the General repeated it in his pe- culiarly emphatic style. He also gave an interesting account of the death and burial of Major Vinton.
I think I mentioned to you my doubt about Dr. Vinton's pig story. The pig part of it is true, but not the war part. War was declared in the Senate by a considerable majority. There may have been some prelim- inary question decided by one majority, but I do not remember what it was. . General Hickey, the principal clerk of the Senate, could settle the question.
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