USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island tercentenary, 1636-1936. A report by the Rhode Island Tercentenary commission of the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12
He continued with a recapitulation of the wrongs suffered by the Colonies at the hands of the representatives of the King, the rights and duty of the Colony to safeguard its liberties and then offered the act.
"In 1775 the Statute permitting and regulating appeals from Rhode Island courts to His Majesty was repealed. I now ask for the repeal of the allegiance act passed in 1756."
He then read the Rhode Island Declaration:
"An Act repealing the Act entitled 'An Act for the more effectually securing to His Majesty the allegiance of his subjects in this, his Colony and dominion of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" and altering the forms of commissions, of all writs and processes in the Courts, and of the oaths prescribed by law," as the preamble reads.
The Act was seconded by John Fenner, a Deputy from Johnston and was amended by John Brown, a Deputy from Provi- dence. This amendment was seconded by Col. Arnold and passed overwhelmingly.
When the nays were called for a Tory Deputy from Newport -impersonated by Councilman Edward F. Moran, of the Provi- dence Tercentenary Committee-besought his fellow representa- tives to "follow not the blind path of impulse but stop and think of what consequences your action today may bring".
As he concluded his speech, the Speaker asked those in favor of the amended act to rise. All but six of the Deputies rose.
"In the past" said the Speaker, "we have closed our meetings with the words 'God Save the King.' It is fitting that we rise today and repeat 'God Save the United Colonies.'"
Preceding the ceremony at the State House a colorful parade of the participants and others was held from the campus of Brown University, older than the independence of the State, to the old State House. In a rain that at times was heavy, the participants, most of them wearing costumes of the days they were about to
· 55.
A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
recall, marched through the Van Wickle gates, otherwise opened only for Commencement processions, and down to the foot of College Hill.
Here the procession was met by Governor Theodore Francis Green in Colonial costume and by Mayor James E. Dunne of Provi- dence, who rode in an old yellow coach with postboys and out- riders. The coach, owned by the Colt estate, was used by George Washington on one of his visits to Rhode Island.
Riding in the procession were Very Rev. Lorenzo C. McCarthy, O. P., President of Providence College and Chairman of the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission; Ira Lloyd Letts, Chairman of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Tercen- tenary Committee, Inc., the citizen's Jubilee committee; and Councilman David A. Dorgan, Chairman of the Providence City Council Tercentenary Committee.
THE STATE EXERCISES
The State exercises were held at the State House and were opened at noon with a luncheon tendered by the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission to state officers, the General Assembly, representatives of patriotic and other organizations and other guests, in the assembly hearings room on the third floor. At the same time Governor Green received Gov. James M. Curley and a delegation from the Great and General Court of Massachusetts at luncheon at the Narragansett Hotel.
Governor Curley, Assistant Secretary John H. Backus, Gov. Curley's military aides and a number of members of the Massachu- setts House of Representatives, were met at the State line by a detail of State Police and escorted to the hotel where they were guests of the Tercentenary Commission and later to the State House.
It had been planned to hold the exercises on the marble terrace at the front entrance and amplifiers had been arranged to carry the words of the speakers as far as the railroad station, but a rain which as the morning wore on increased until .it became heavy, necessi- tated removal within doors, where a second set of amplifiers had been placed for such an emergency. The addresses were broadcast over Station WEAN.
· 56.
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
The speakers stand was arranged in front of the State room on the second floor, the guests being seated on all three floors, around the rotunda. They included Chief Justice Edmund W. Flynn and associate justices of the Supreme Court, Presiding Justice Jeremiah E. O'Connell and justices of the Superior Court, the General Offi- cers of the State, the Rhode Island General Assembly, a delegation from the Massachusetts Senate and House, representatives from patriotic, historical and civic organizations and distinguished citizens.
Color was added by the uniforms of ancient chartered organi- zations of the State Militia, including the Kentish Guards of East Greenwich, The First Light Infantry Regiment and the First Light Infantry Veterans of Providence, the United Train of Artillery Veterans of Providence, the Bristol Train of Artillery of Bristol and the Varnum Continentals of East Greenwich.
More than 2000 persons crowded into every nook and corner of the great building to witness the historic ceremony.
Preceding the opening of the exercises at 2:30 o'clock, a band concert was given by the Providence Festival Band, Robert Gray, leader, which included the "Rhode Island State March" by George Spink and the "Rhode Island Forward March", the latter written for the occasion by Raymond G. Williams of the Providence Sym- phony Orchestra.
Very Rev. Lorenzo C. McCarthy, O. P., President of Provi- dence College and Chairman of the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission, presided and made the opening address.
"This is in truth a very memorable occasion," he said. "We are assembled to inaugurate the tercentennial celebration of the founding of Rhode Island by Roger Williams. This celebration should unquestionably emphasize the political and social philoso- phies of the founder, but by the same title we should not be un- mindful of the efforts of the people who in each succeeding gener- ation have rendered those principles functional."
Citing that the movement led by Williams was a protest against conditions then existant, he applied the lesson to today, saying:
"Communism, Fascism and Naziism are, in their negative aspects, protests against certain social, political or economic injus-
· 57 ·
A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
tices. Russia has gone Communistic as a protest against the unequal distribution of wealth; Italy has gone Fascist as a protest against an economic order which did not supply its citizens with the means of subsistence; and Germany has gone Nazi as a protest against a threat to destroy its national integrity.
"In each instance there is a justifiable reaction against the violation of class, racial or national rights. And I think that all fair-minded persons will recognize the reasonableness of their pro- testations."
The invocation followed, by Rev. Arthur W. Cleaves, D. D., pastor of the First Baptist Church, Providence, founded by Roger Williams and associates. The "Rhode Island State Hymn" was then sung by the Festival Chorus, accompanied by the Festival Band.
Gov. James M. Curley of Massachusetts then presented to Governor Theodore Francis Green of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the Act of the Massachusetts General Court rescinding the decree of banishment imposed by the Court October 9, 1675, upon "Mr. Roger Williams, of Salem," saying:
Massachusetts is indebted to Governor Green and the good people of Rhode Island for forcibly directing our attention to the necessity for righting a grievous wrong to a great American liberal with whom the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dealt most un- justly and severely three centuries ago, Roger Williams. The great philosopher, John Ruskin, said. "Every noble soul leaves a fiber of it interwoven forever in the work of the world." And of no single individual can this be said to be true of than in the case of Roger Williams.
The dominant characteristic of Roger Williams was his supremely high order of moral courage, uncompromising integrity and adherence to what he regarded as duty regardless of conse- quences. Roger Williams' contention at all times was that Christian liberty was the only true test of Christian fellowship, so that to walk with and understand this great American it was necessary to lay aside every mean thought that savored of prejudice.
The pronouncement of Roger Williams for which he suffered the sentence of banishment were identical with the pronounce- ments made by the fathers of the American Government more than a century and a quarter later. It was a pronouncement most
· 58 .
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
remarkable and highly courageous at a time when ecclesiastical authorities and intolerance walked hand in hand. It represented the first enunciation of that great principle which years later formed the cornerstone upon which the American Republic was established, namely, the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all men regardless of race, creed, or color.
What the great poet Coleridge said of Milton is applicable to Roger Williams, namely, "that he lived so far in advance of his age as to dwarf himself in the distance."
The chief offense of which Roger Williams was guilty was that he adhered to the belief that every sect was entitled to worship in the manner it pleased and regardless of race, creed or color no one should be punished for his belief. This liberal and mental atti- tude in 1776 was recognized as the cornerstone of American Gov- ernment, but in Roger Williams day it was in conflict with the viewpoint of the established church headed by the Reverend John Cotton. The insistence of Roger Williams that the secular courts had no right to punish a man for canon defects, was the basis for his banishment in October of 1635. The outstanding feature in connection with the punishment of Roger Williams was that un- questionably the declaration that the Massachusetts Bay Colony did not actually own the land which they claimed and occupied in the name of the King, won for him the good will of the Indians of the Narragansett Tribe and later made possible the protection from the massacre of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by these same Indians. The Massachusetts General Court in 1635 heard the charges, and unquestionably through fear of the Reverend John Cotton, pronounced the sentence of banishment. With no desire to leave the field where he had performed such notable service in the vineyard of God, Roger Williams, with four companions, fled to what is now your beautiful state of Rhode Island, and in striking contrast with other claim jumpers, he paid the Indians for the land taken, now known as the capitol city of Rhode Island-Providence.
His viewpoint with reference to mental reservations in wor- ship and civic matter is expressed in his utterance "God in his in- finite wisdom hath given me to see the city, court and country the schools and universities of my native country, to converse with some Turks, Jews, Papists and all sorts of Protestants, and by books to know the affairs and religions of all countries-Being forced to
· 59 .
A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
observe the goings of God and the spirits of men both in Old and New England-I did humbly apprehend my call from America not to hide my candle under a bed of ease and pleasure or a bushel of gain and profit, but to set it on a candlestick of this public pro- fession for the benefit of others".
The open defy of ecclesiastical authorities representing as it did the pronouncement of separation between Church and State was a challenge to the doctrine as presented by the Reverend John Cotton who was sufficiently powerful to compel the adoption of the order for the banishment of Roger Williams. His position was in line with the pronouncement of the Divine Master who was the first Advocate of the separation of Church and State when he expounded the doctrine of "rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's". To Roger Williams then more than to any other individual may be traced the inclusion in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights of the principles of liberty of thought and freedom of conscience, without which unquestionably the development and progress of America might have been greatly retarded.
The Constitution as drafted by Roger Williams for the con- duct of the Rhode Island Plantation in 1647 guaranteed liberty of person, liberty of estates and property subject only to the Gen- eral Assembly chosen by the people, liberty of society and corpora- tion; liberty of free disputes, debates, writing and printing-in other words-freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and to these principles of freedom expounded by Roger Williams may we as Americans trace whatever is worth while in the life of the American nation.
From time to time, even since the pronouncement of the principles as enunciated by Roger Williams and as later embodied in the Charter of our Rights as Americans, attempts have been made to abridge or restrict those rights by certain agencies, but to the ground work laid by Roger Williams and foundationed by the colonial fathers, they have been maintained without change and growing more virile through the years.
It is fitting in this hour of serious world travail when the Jew is required to suffer for conscience sake in Germany and the Christian is required to suffer in Russia, and the Catholic is required to suffer in Mexico, the pronouncement of Roger Williams be-
· 60 .
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
comes more potent and the necessity for maintaining the principles for which he suffered banishment become more pronounced.
That the revocation of the order for the banishment of Roger Williams should be signed by a son of immigrant parents who fled the land of their birth to escape misrule three centuries after the order of banishment had become effective, is but an added indica- tion that the world moves on and that Almighty God is still Ruler of the Universe.
As he concluded, Gov. Curley handed to Gov. Green, the copy of the resolution revoking the decree of banishment, framed, engrossed and embellished with the quill pen used to sign the original act.
The Providence Festival Chorus sang "Song of the World Adventurers" led by John B. Archer.
Governor Green's reply to the presentation of the Resolution was:
It is a peculiar privilege, which no man could esteem more highly than do I, to welcome to this State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations the progressive Governor and other high officials of the neighboring Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as they come officially to inform us of the revocation of the decree of banishment of our founder, Roger Williams, 300 years ago.
The cynic and the materialist may sneeringly remark that this revocation means nothing to Roger Williams and that this ceremony is purposeless and purely sentimental. Let them not forget, however, that sentiment is one of the great moving forces in the world! This revocation on the part of Massachusetts is definite proof that the ideas upon which Roger Williams founded this colony have prevailed. This ceremony is a gesture of friend- ship, than which none could at this time be more significant, or more heartily appreciated by the present citizens of the colony Williams founded. On the one hand we should be grateful to Massachusetts that it banished Williams, otherwise this colony might not have come into existence. On the other hand we are grateful to Massachusetts because in the future these two states will go forward with the common high purpose to achieve as nearly as possible the ideals Williams proclaimed and which are not yet entirely attained.
· 61 .
A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
We people of Rhode Island on commemorating the three hundredth year of our State signalize a founding of a large signifi- cance and a history of particular liveliness and interest. This State is usually referred to as "the smallest state in the Union", and so it is geographically. Perhaps this reference is fortunate, because it is almost always supplemented by the comment that it is smallest only in this one respect. The historians have found that there is a great deal more to be said. Living in these Plantations at the start was dangerous. It was also idealistic in things of the mind, of the spirit and of society. It was a hard-fought, often disastrously en- dangered life. It came through immensely trying periods, always assuming a certain character unmistakable among others, and prominent among its sister states.
There are some accomplishments-let us admit the fact-not to be accredited to Rhode Island. We are not, of course, high on the population lists of the world. We have no great metropolis. The sum total of our productivity is not outstanding. Yet even among physical and material things, little Rhode Island is not without its particular character. Also we have one of the finest harbors, not only in America but in the world. We can boast of our climate; for have not impartial college professors and scientists assured us it is unsurpassed?
But, of course, it is not on such things as these that we place emphasis in a commemorative year such as this one. We are glad to be where we are; we are prouder to think of what we have done and what we have been. The three hundred years would be as nothing had they been idly spent on the shores of Narragansett Bay. It is not the time nor the place that matters, but the people that matter, and what they have accomplished.
Three hundred years are, after all, a brief time in the world's span of life. Only the other day, the city of Rome celebrated its two thousand, six hundred and eighty-ninth years! How young that makes us feel! These three centuries seem like a day compared to such antiquity. It is only when we recall the relatively vast progress of humankind in those generations since Roger Williams came to these shores that our own history appears also to reach far back into a very remote past.
Think for a moment of the immense changes which altered the world since 1636. Materially, at least, the world is a new place.
· 62 .
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
Machines travel over land and sea, and through the air; they vibrate in our mills and factories; they produce a vast portion of the things we use. We have created great material power. We have accumu- lated enormous wealth. We have known both triumph and defeat in these things. We have had the chagrin of mismanaging things which we ourselves had made; even now we are striving to adjust ourselves to the industrial and financial conditions which, so rapidly brought into being, are difficult to control.
Politically, the world has altered until, again, it has become a new place. There have been tyrants and czars, there have been weak thrones and strong ones. Of all these, almost none remains, and the past three hundred years have been loud with their crashing down, with revolution and war. Democracy, spreading widely through the world, has taken many semblances; and it remains today, with fascism and communism, one of three great political forces.
Socially, perhaps, the world has altered most of all. The three centuries have been great levelers. They have torn down the few in high places yet, no less, they have lifted millions to better, healthier living. Even on happy occasions such as this, it would be absurd to picture the world as a playground. We cannot forget, even for a moment, the great deal that remains to be done to insure the greater security and peace of mankind. Nevertheless, the truth remains that we have traveled far since 1636. Materially, politi- cally, socially-these three ways bound closely together,-we have, whatever our unsolved problems, taken great strides ahead.
Have we so progressed, spiritually? It is not an easy question. How would Roger Williams answer it, were he here today? It concerns the clerics, the philosophers of the world; it may well baffle you and me and laymen in general. Our material advances have seemed to many to oppose our spiritual well being. Yet, I think we may say that the larger democratization which has been accomplished has been no enemy of the mental and moral life of peoples; indeed, that democratization is the child of a growing mental and moral life. In turn again, it promises to advance that life.
From one point of view we cannot surpass the visions of Roger Williams. We may recreate them in fact; we may succeed in their widespread dissemination; but we cannot improve them.
· 63 .
A Report of the Tercentenary Commission
We cannot think better than Williams thought in his formulation of a truly Christian community. We have changed in this: that now Williams is widely praised, then he was widely blamed. Even Massachusetts-storehouse of wisdom-I should say "especially Massachusetts", found much fault in this man. With hard, Yankee stubborness, it has taken our neighbor-state exactly three hundred years to recall its opposition! And we are honored today by the presence of these Massachusetts officials who have come down to hear our "What Cheer! Netop" and to answer our greeting with this friendly news of the recall of the edict of banishment of our founder.
We must never forget that the founding of Providence and these Plantations differed radically from the founding of all the other colonies in North America. Some were business enterprises; some were the result of exploration; some were havens of refuge where a particular kind of people might express themselves. But Williams, seeking a place for his exile, founded this State as a Utopean community. The birth of Rhode Island meant the mate- rializing of a very certain set of social, political and religious ideals which Williams had definitely formulated. Rhode Island became the focus of his entire life. And that life was spent in striving to realize a Christianity-inspired, truly democratic state where men were equal in each other's sight and in the sight of God.
To Roger Williams' influence there can be no end. He ex- pressed perfectly an ideal community for man. No progressive system of government, no progressive scheme of society-what- ever name it may take for itself-can lack those principles which Williams set forth. They inspired the founders of the United States; their echo rings in our State and national Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights and our Constitution. They will still be a guiding ideal wherever progressive man thinks and hopes.
The Tercentenary opening exercises were closed with benedic- tion by Rt. Rev. G. Gaylord Bennett, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop of Rhode Island of the Protestant Episcopal Church. This was fol- lowed by the general singing of "America".
All public schools in the State were closed on May 4 by request of the General Assembly, to allow the pupils to attend the State House ceremonies. A very large number took advantage of this opportunity.
· 64 .
The Rhode Island Tercentenary 1636-1936
S. A. R. CELEBRATION
Immediately on the close of the State celebration, the Rhode Island Society, Sons of the American Revolution, held in the State House rotunda exercises originally planned for the green lawns of the State House grounds, where a tree had been planted for dedi- cation as a "grand child" of the famous "Washington Elm" at Cambridge, under whose sheltering boughs George Washington took command of the American Army at the opening of the War of the Revolution.
The tree is planted about 60 feet in from Smith street, just west of Gaspee street.
Chairman Frank A. Page introduced Col. Henry D. C. Dubois, donor of the tree, as the opening speaker following the invocation by Brig. Gen. Charles T. Glines, S. A. R. chaplain. Judge Dubois presented the tree to Col. Winfield Scott Solomon, President of Rhode Island Chapter and Col. Solomon in turn pre- sented it to Governor Theodore Francis Green who accepted it on behalf of the State. Dr. James F. Rockett, Director of Education, also spoke.
A packet of soil gathered from places that were milestones in the life of Washington, was scattered about the roots of the tree, which was grown from a shoot out of an original seedling from the Cambridge elm. Included was soil from Washington's birthplace in Wakefield, Va .; from his boyhood home opposite Fredericks- burg, Md .; from Fort Necessity, scene of his first real military experience; from the garden of his mother's town house in Fred- ericksburg; from Independence Hall, Philadelphia, where he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the American troops by Con- gress; from the old State House at Annapolis, Md., where he resigned his commission at the end of the war and from Mount Vernon, his last home and final resting place.
In the evening the Rhode Island Sons of the American Revolu- tion and Daughters of the Revolution, dined together at the Biltmore Hotel, the guests of honor being Governor Green, Mayor James E. Dunne of Providence, Very Rev. Lorenzo C. McCarthy, O. P., chairman of the Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission; Ira Lloyd Letts, chairman of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Tercentenary Committee, Inc .; and Councilman
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.