USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence County court house, 1885 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
57
ADDRESS OF JUDGE STINESS.
ocean among the monarchies of the old world. The principle is now so universally recognized and adopted that men have lost sight of its origin. The absorbing interests of the present tend to shut out all but the most prominent facts of the past. Mankind to-day receive the benefit of the "lively ex- periment " made by Williams, little knowing and, perhaps, little caring whence it came. Let us of Rhode Island, however, ever re- member and honor the service that he ren- dered to the State, the country and his fellow- men. Let us take just pride in the fact that Rhode Island first demonstrated that "a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained with a full liberty in religious concernments."1 Let us bear in mind that freedom and toleration in civilized govern- ments of the present day have sprung from
1 Charter of R. I., granted in 1663.
8
58
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
that which was organized in this "patch of ground" under the charter of 1643.
In admiration of the flower let us not forget the seed.
Governor Bourn introduced as the next speaker Gen- eral Horatio Rogers, who spoke as follows :
ADDRESS OF GEN. HORATIO ROGERS.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CHARTER OF 1643-4.
THE value of historical paintings in prom- inent public places by awakening interest in the subject represented, finds fresh illustration in the picture recently unveiled in this build- ing. That awakened interest has already caused, and, for years to come, will continue to cause many to inquire into the significance of the event referred to in that painting, who, but for some such object appealing to their eyes, would scarcely remember, if indeed, they would ever have known, how much Rhode Island owes to the charter of 1643-4,
60
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
and to Roger Williams, the father of the col- ony, for his services in obtaining it.
The special point proposed to be dwelt on in these remarks, is the importance of that charter to this State: for it seems to have been the sheet-anchor of the feeble little col- ony-the bulwark that preserved it from being overwhelmed by what the General As- sembly of 1659 called "our sister collony's anger against us." Dwelling upon a point seemingly so apparent, would hardly have suggested itself had not this court house picture called forth from some beholders, ex- pressions derogatory to the importance of the event it commemorates, by magnifying the influence of the charter of 1663 to the dis- paragement of that of the charter of 1643-4.
An event to be adequately appreciated, must be viewed with its surroundings ; hence we must summon to our minds what was transpiring in the primitive days of our
61
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
colonial existence. The earliest settlers of these plantations were wanderers, exiles, out- casts. "I was unkindly and unchristianly, as I believe," wrote Roger Williams, in 1670, "driven from my house and land and wife and children, (in the midst of a New Eng- land winter, now about 35 years past,) at Salem. * * I steered my course from Sa- lem (though in winter snow, which I feel yet) unto these parts, wherein I may say Peniel, that is, I have seen the face of God." His hasty flight into the wilderness alone prevented his being transported to England, for his brother christians of New England, the godly men of Massachusetts Bay, were less tolerant than savage heathen, and less charitable than godless red-men, though they would have resented with scorn the insinua- tion that Canonicus, Miantonomi, Massasoit, and other unbaptized and unregenerate In- dians were better exemplars of some of
62
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
Christ's precepts than they. Indeed our early settlers were doubly exiled; first, from the civilization of Old England, and then from the civilization of New England, for though Massachusetts Bay was the only col- ony that formally banished Roger Williams, vet, when fleeing from its wrath he settled at Seekonk, the Governor of Plymouth no- tified him, to use his own words, "since I was fallen into the edge of their bounds, and they were loath to displease the Bay, to re- move to the other side of the water." Our earliest settlers describe their condition in this wise, when addressing Richard Crom- well, the Lord Protector, in 1659, for a con- firmation of their charter :- " May it please your highness to know that this poore collo- ny of Providence Plantations mostly consists of a birth and breedinge of the providence of the most high; wee beinge an outcast peo- ple, formerly from our mother nations in
63
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
the Bishop's daies, and since from the rest of the new English over zealous collonys."
Portsmouth and Newport were likewise peopled by the children of oppression of Massachusetts Bay. These three settlements were merely voluntary associations of indi- viduals, and Roger Williams said, "we had no authority for civil government." The government of Providence, especially, was a simple compact, and when the passions of party became too strongly excited to admit of any arbitration but force, it was utterly ineffectual to preserve the public peace. The tumults growing out of Samuel Gorton's conduct proved well nigh fatal to the settle- ment, for the inhabitants being divided in opinion and feeling, there was no superior power to control the disturbers of the public peace. In this exigency some of the weaker party, in November, 1642, had recourse to the strange, and, as it proved, most disastrous
64
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
expedient of applying to Massachusetts for aid and counsel. For inhabitants of Provi- dence to apply to Massachusetts for aid and counsel within six years of the banishment of Roger Williams from that colony, was very like lambs invoking the aid of the wolf to compose differences in their fold. To this preposterous request for aid and counsel Mas- sachusetts declined to send aid, because, as they said, "they could not levy any war without a general court"; and, "for counsel, that except they did submit themselves to some jurisdiction, either Plymouth, or ours, we had no calling or warrant to interpose in their contentions, but if they were once sub- ject to any, then they had a calling to protect them." A little later four of the principal inhabitants of Pawtuxet offered themselves and their lands to the government and pro- tection of Massachusetts, and were received by the General Court and appointed justices
65
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
of the peace. The motives of the General Court were stated by the Governor to be " partly to secure these men from unjust vio- lence, and partly to draw in the rest in those parts, either under ourselves or Plymouth, who now lived under no government, but grew very offensive, and the place was likely to be of use to us, especially if we should have occasion of sending out against any Indians of Narragansett, and likewise for an outlet into the Narragansett Bay, and seeing it came without our seeking, and would be no charge to us, we thought it not wisdom to let it slip."
The next step in Massachusetts aggression was to write a letter "to our neighbours of Providence," dated the 28th of the 8th mo., 1642, wherein, after stating that William Arnold and others have put themselves un- der their protection, they use this language, "and have since complained to us that you
9
66
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
have since (upon pretence of a late purchase from the Indians) gone about to deprive them of their lawful interest confirmed by four years' possession, and otherwise to mo- lest them; we thought good, therefore, to write to you on their behalf to give you no- tice, that they and their lands, de., being under our jurisdiction, we are to maintain them in their lawful rights. If, therefore, you have any just title to anything you pos- sess, you may proceed against them in our court, where you shall have equal justice ; but if you shall proceed to any violence, you must not blame us, if we shall take a like course to right them." An early result of this action by Massachusetts was that Sam- uel Gorton and ten others were arrested, car- ried to Boston, and imprisoned.
Verily, the wolf had intruded itself into the fold, and Massachusetts, without any decent pretext whatsoever-for the four ap-
67
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
plicants for aid and counsel could confer no jurisdiction-made aggression upon the de- fenceless settlement of the very men it had banished six years before, and proposed to have them submit to Massachusetts courts for law and justice. It can hardly be won- dered at that this action caused Roger Wil- liams and his associates great uneasiness.
But this was not the sole exhibition of dislike and ill will towards the Rhode Island settlements. When the four New England colonies associated themselves together as the United Colonies of New England, for their mutual protection against the Indians and others, the settlements around Narragansett Bay were not admitted, the excuse being that they had no charter. This was an excuse, however, and not a reason, for after a char- ter had been obtained, the exclusion still continued.
All these evidences of grasping aggression
68
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
and settled ill-will on the part of their neigh- bors, required some prompt and decided ac- tion by the Narragansett Bay settlements if they meant to preserve an independent exist- ence; and yielding their independence in- volved the abandonment of that priceless freedom of conscience which had been so painfully sought in the wilderness in hard- ship, exile, and peril. Truly the great prin- ciple of soul liberty was trembling in the balance. Governor Arnold, in his History of Rhode Island, thus sums up the reasons for seeking the charter of 1643-4 :- "To strengthen their position at home, to for- tify themselves against encroachments from abroad, and above all to secure the enjoyment of that liberty of conscience for which they had suffered so much and were destined to endure still more, they sought from the Brit- ish Parliament a charter which should recog- nize their acts of self-government as legal,
69
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
and invest with the sanction of authority the novel experiment they had commenced. The movement was made by the colony at Acquedneck. Providence united in it, and Roger Williams was selected as the agent."
The beneficent effect of the procurement of the charter was immediately apparent, for Roger Williams, who had been forced to em- bark at New York in a Dutch ship for Eng- land because Massachusetts would not permit him to pass through her limits or to take passage in one of her vessels, boldly landed at Boston on his return, bearing the govern- ment's recognition of his settlements, and a letter of recommendation of his own person. Roger Williams's previous admission "that we had no authority for civil government," henceforth had no foundation, and this is his testimony of the effect of the charter: "And upon this, the country about us was more friendly, and wrote to us, and treated us as
70
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
an authorized colony; only the differences of our consciences much obstructed." The evil wishers of Massachusetts Bay could no longer urge, as they had formerly done, that the Narragansett Bay settlements "now lived under no government"; and brighter times dawned for the newly chartered colony.
The charter of 1643-4 was a full and abso- lute charter of civil government, and all suf- ficient for the needs of the colony. Its grant of power was ample and adequate. Its pro- curement was to the feeble settlements con- tending with the grasping aggressions of powerful neighbors, like the recognition of a struggling people by a nation so mighty as to insure them safety and protection. Had not the charter of 1643-4 been obtained, it is hardly probable that the aggressions of Massachusetts could have been successfully resisted for twenty years longer, and so the
71
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
charter of 1663 would probably never have been granted. Far be it from me to detract from the instrument under which Rhode Isl- and lived and prospered for a hundred and eighty years, but the charter of 1663 was prac- tically only confirmatory of that of 1643-4, and so the commission to John Clarke, dated October 18, 1660, authorizing its procurement, clearly intended it to be; for it will be remem- bered that the Long Parliament, under which the charter of 1643-4 was granted, and the Commonwealth, had been swept away, and the Stuarts were again seated on the throne of England. The second charter construes, defines, and amplifies the first, and is as pro- lix and verbose as the other is brief and sin- ple. Governmental affairs in the colony were crude and inchoate at the granting of the first charter; they had been crystalized into form at the granting of the second; and much was put into the second which, nevertheless, ex-
.
72
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
isted by law under authority of the first, con- spicuously, freedom of conscience.
Such, in our view, was the importance of the charter of 1643-4; and no more happy selection could have been made for the sub- ject of a historical painting for the Courts of Law in the chief city of this commonwealth, than its reception on our shores. Fortunately Roger Williams is the central figure, for, in a double sense, he was the founder of the State. When, an outcast and a wanderer, he landed here in 1636, he planted the settlement ; but when he procured the charter of 1643-4, he founded the colony. It is no wonder, there- fore, that the people of Providence flocked across the river to welcome home the fore- most man among them, triumphantly return- ing with a charter from which so much was hoped and so much was realized, for Rhode Island, in 1663, had become, in the words of the second charter, a "lively experiment"; but.
73
ADDRESS OF GENERAL ROGERS.
in 1643-4, it was only, in the language of the first charter, a "hopeful beginning # # which may in time, by the blessing of God upon their endearors, lay a surer foundation of happiness to all America."
The Rev. Frederic Denison was then introduced to the audience and read the following poem :
10
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON.
TRUTH'S TOIL AND TRIUMPH.
Truth's toil and triumph be our song. With meed to helpers due ; The extirpation of the wrong, The planting of the true.
Truth, angel-like, its life imparts To men by Heaven's decree ; Sincerely welcomed to our hearts, It sets our natures free.
A lily in a mummy's hand, Survives a thousand years ; Truth slumbered in our fatherland, But here in strength appears.
76
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
When exiled feet, for truth opposed, The darkened forest trod, The issue of the way disclosed The guiding hand of God.
In thought and conscience men were bound By code of monarchy : And preachers, priest-like, blessed and crowned The old theocracy.
Stern magistrates, in blinded zeal. Assumed divine control, And, under plea of public weal, Forged fetters for the soul.
With jail and gibbet hedged they in The ark and grace of God, While hard, on what they counted sin. They laid the legal rod.
The stroke they dealt had strong rebound To higher raise the right, To kindle on barbarie ground A new and radiant light.
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON. 77
He whom they banished loving turned To men in pagan gloom, And, in his gracious mission, earned For outcast truth a home.
The new seed fell in virgin soil Where, welcomed with "what-cheer," No thorny bigotry might foil The filling of the ear.
The pagan monarch showed him grace That brothers had denied, And gave him, in the wilderness, Plantations by his side.
How wonderful, a heathen king, By the Great Spirit moved, Should pay so rich an offering To truth of Heaven approved.
Wrought by a gifted painter's hands, The deed of that kind king To-day on speaking canvass stands, Art's choicest offering.
78
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
Here truth's apostle built his state. Unlike what men had known, That clothed with power the magistrate "In civil things alone."
Assailed by foes, he crossed the sea And from the Lion's paw Obtained a patent, broad and free. To guard his christian law.
Thus shielded by the English throne, The Bay State wilds retrod, He bade his baffled foes to own The Providence of God.
Through all his perilled settlement Exultant sped the news. And swift on Seekonk's breast was sent The squadron of canoes. 0
Triumphant welcome he received ; Joy filled each heart and home ; A crowning labor was achieved ; Back rolled the cloud of gloom.
79
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON.
That charter first the boundaries reared Around the infant state ; Henceforth its jealous rivals feared To breathe their bitter hate.
It gave the colony its name, Its sword and shield of law, To common sovereignty its claim, To courts their mace of awe.
As some bold eape defies the sea And breaks its billowing rage, Truth's champion stood for liberty - The leader of his age.
Men poured on him their obloquy, And laughed his scheme to scorn ; Yet of that scorned fraternity Our nation's hope was born.
So let it pass from lip to lip And be our boast for aye, That Freedom's anchor first took grip In Narragansett Bay.
80
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
Yet leaders win but little praise Who step o'er ancient bounds ; So hard it is for men to raise Their aims to loftier grounds.
The toiler had his doubts, betimes, To what his tilth would grow. Such aliens came from other climes Their vexing tares to sow.
Behold him stand defiantly, Confronting power and pride. And deal such blows to bigotry It pined away and died.
His brow no conqueror's wreath obtained. He cared not for a name ; Yet serving others, justly gained The noblest niche of fame.
The spring from which he drank still flows Within the city's heart. And, honored now, his image glows Beneath the hand of art.
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON. 81
Devoted to humanity. Long let his life be told ; He left our land a legacy Uumeasured by our gold.
What faith he held, we hold allied With holiest beliefs, While high his statue stands beside Our nation's greatest chiefs.
Thus, proud, Rhode Island claims the hand Of Williams on her scroll, And holds her hills the cradle-land Of liberty of soul.
A little State, but well she fills Her tome of history, Her reigning city holds the hills, Her queen sits by the sea.
Here only, on the earth's wide face, Could such free thought take root. Uplifting heavenward boughs of grace With golden clustered fruit. 11
82
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
Alone, for more than seven score years. Our State for freedom stood, And held, unmoved by biting jeers, Her code of brotherhood.
That law, at last, was set on high By revolution's right - The star of our republic's sky, A continent to light.
When revolution's morning broke. Here boomed the opening gun ; When struck that shot the British oak, Aloft our flag was run.
To rend the galling tyrant yoke And win the rights of man, Here first a legislature spoke And led the battle-van.
For world-renowned achievements won In that great battle-scene. Close with our peerless Washington Stood our illustrious Greene.
83
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON.
And when rebellion's armies rose, Our State, with courage wont. Full girt to deal to treason blows, Pressed swiftly to the front.
That strife fierce raged o'er all our land, The truth in fire was tried, But Heaven upheld the loyal hand, And slavery writhed and died.
The battle-storm and tempest past. In Freedom's waters cahn, Our well tried anchor holding fast, We lift to heaven our psalm.
Inspiring truth, again confest. That right, at last, prevails ; God's mountains on their rock-beds rest, Despite opposing gales.
The ancients dreamed of far-off isles With golden-appled trees : Our toiling fathers made these wilds The true Hesperides.
84
PROVIDENCE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
But never breadth, or wealth. of ground. Or soft and sunny skies, Can make a commonwealth renowned : In man the virtue lies : -
In man, who fells the tangled wild. Who plows the stubborn soil, Who, where the sun has never smiled. Brings in the sun, by toil :
In man. of noble character, Of kingliness of soul, Who holds God's mandates to confer A glad, supreme control.
The truth bestows victorious power, And weaves a fadeless crown ; Ordained with right the earth to dower, It casts all evil down.
Throned on these mountains of the west. The truth Heaven-crowned. shall reign ; Her eagle spurns the despot-crest. Her flag allows no stain.
85
POEM BY REV. FREDERIC DENISON.
Truth never to oppression yields. Predestined, in her day, To win, on all her battle fields, Triumphant, peaceful sway.
Truth, victor-elad with God's defense, Shall hail earth's freedom won Ere from her mountain battlements Shall sound the sun-set gun.
At the conclusion of the services, which were listened to with profound attention and great interest, the audi- enee retired to the grand jury room, where a collation was served under direction of the legislative committee. after which the assemblage dispersed.
CONTENTS.
Frontispiece. PAGE.
Introductory Note, . 5
Report of the Commissioners,
7
Resolutions relative to visit of General Assembly to the Court House, . 11
Address of Hon. John H. Stiness, 13
Address of Gen. Horatio Rogers,
59
Poem by Rev. Frederic Denison, . 75 Tail-piece.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 014 110 278 3
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.