USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 2
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 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101
CHAPTER XXIV-ECONOMICS AND NATIONAL POLITICS.
Republican Party Economic and Humanitarian, 691 ; Kate Chase Sprague, "the Enchant- ress," 691 ; Rhode Island's Influential Congressmen, 692; How a Rhode Island Vote Elected President Hayes, 693; Williams and Greene for Hall of Statuary, 694; Rhode Island Con- gressmen, 694; Majority vs. Plurality Election, 696; The Complex Situation in 1902, 698; The Campaign of 1906, 698; Preliminary Strategy and Primary Skirmishes, 699; A New Newspaper, 701 ; Colonel Linkaby Didd, 702; Three Candidates for the Senate, 702; Rhode Island's Opposition to Federal Tax Measures, 704; New Congressional Districts, 705; Last Senatorial Elections by General Assembly, 706; Election by the People, 707; The Issue on Absentee Voting, 708; The Campaign of 1922, 709; Law and Order in 1924, 710.
CHAPTER XXV-EVOLUTION OF GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
The Status Quo in 1843, 713; New Officers, 714; Growth of State Property, 715; New State House, 717; Replenishing the Treasury, 718; The Government of 1901, 718. Court Opinion on Appointive Power, 720; Municipal Autonomy, 722; State Property in the Twen- tieth Century, 724; More Boards and Commissions, 725; Supercommissions and Overlord Boards, 726; Later Commissions, 728; Outline of Government, 730.
CHAPTER XXVI-RHODE ISLAND BENCH AND BAR.
Distinction Between Distribution of Powers and Separation of Powers, and Its Implica- tions, 741; Courts Under the Charter, 742; Court Practices, 743; No Separate Judiciary, 744; Trevett vs. Weeden, 744; Lay Judges, 745; First Professional Supreme Court, 746; The Constitution and the Courts, 746; Declaration of Judicial Independence, 747; Denial of Judicial Power in Assembly, 748; Statutes Declared Unconstitutional, 750; An Independent "Judicial" Court that Hesitated to Grasp "All Judicial Power," 751; A New Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy, 753; The Trial of Dorr, 753; The Gordon Trial, 754; The Hazard Case, 762; The Sprague Cases, 762; Negligence Cases, 773; Changes in the Bar, 776; Bench and Bar-Organization of the Department of Justice, 778.
XV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXVII-FINANCE AND BANKING.
Colonial Finance, 781 ; Sources of Revenue, 781 ; Revenues in 1850, 782; State Finances at End of Century, 783; Bonded Indebtedness, 785; Current Revenue, 785; Tax Reform Discussed, 788; Municipal Finance, 788; Banks and Banking, 791; The Dexter Swindle, 792; Service of the Banks, 793; Currency Regulation, 793: Rhode Island Banking Gen- erally Sound, 794; Bank of United States, 795: Panic of 1837, 796; Statutory Regulation of Banking, 797; Expansion of Banking, 797; Panic of 1857, 798; A Summary, 799; Sav- ings Banks, 800; National Banking Act, 802; State Banks that Became National Banks, 803; Other State Banks, 804; Banking Facilities in 1865-66, 806; Sprague Failure, 806; Consolidation of Banks, 809; Rise of Trust Companies, 810; Present Banking Organization, 811 ; Magnificence Replaces Shabby Gentility, 812; Commercial Banking, 813; National Banks Mark Transition, 814; Trust Companies as Commercial Banks, 814; Insurance Com- panies, 816.
CHAPTER XXVIII-TRANSPORTATION AND OTHER PUBLIC UTILITIES.
Annihilation of Time and Distance, 821 ; Rhode Island Ferries, 821 ; Bridging of Streams, 822; Road Building, 823; Packet Lines and Steamboats, 824; Turnpikes and Stagecoaches, 825; Blackstone Canal, 827; A Century Ago, 827; Railroads, 828; Street Railways, 830; Sound Steamboating, 832; The Golden Age of Steamboating, 834; River Steamboats and Shore Resorts, 835; Consolidation and Conflict, 837; Harbor Improvement, 837; Railway vs. Tramway, 839; Municipality vs. Tramway, 840; The Transfer Question, 842; Marauders in Control, 843; The Bicycle and Good Roads, 844; Late Bridge Construction, 845; The Changes of a Century, 846; Harbor Development, 847; New England Southern, 849; Pass- ing of Electric Traction, 850; Automobile Transportation, 853; Flying, 855; Water Com- panies, 856; Street and House Lighting, 857; Other Utilities, 858.
CHAPTER XXIX-RHODE ISLAND INDUSTRY AFTER 1850.
Rhode Island Industries in 1850, 861; Cotton as King, 862; Growth of Cotton Textile Industry 863; Southern Competition, 865 ; Woolens and Worsteds, 866; Other Textiles, 868; Iron and Steel, 869; Steam Engines, 871; Safes, Horseshoes, Windlasses, Sewing Machines, 872; A Vigorous Metal Industry, 873; Jewelry and Silversmithing, 874; Rubber Goods, 879; Other Industries, 880.
CHAPTER XXX-RHODE ISLAND FARMING AND FISHING.
Early Colonial Husbandry, 885; Early Wealth from Soil, 886; Environmental Factors, 887 ; Rhode Island's Agricultural Fame, 889; Rhode Island Johnnycakes, 889; Rhode Island Greening Apples, 890; Rhode Island Reds, 890; Changing Markets, 891; Importance of Marketing, 894; Orcharding, 895; Forestry, 895; Education for Farmers, 896; State Pro- motion of Agriculture, 897; The Promise for the Future, 898; Wealth of Fisheries, 899; Whaling, 900; Oysters, 900; Other Shellfish, 902; Inland Fisheries, 903; Volume of Fisheries, 904; Lobster Fishery, 905; Research Studies of Fish, 905.
CHAPTER XXXI -- RHODE ISLAND TRADE AND COMMERCE.
Why Rhode Island Went to the Dutch, 907; Shopping Centers, 908; Newport, the Metropolitan, 908; Cheapside and the Movement Westward, 909; The Arcade, 910; Dor- rance Street Ultimately Farthest East, 912; Advertising Methods, 913; Street Signs, 914; Gifts with Merchandise, 915; Department Stores, 916; The Passing of Main Street, 917; Trading Centres, 919; Retail Markets, 920; Chain Stores, 923; Cooperative Enterprises, 925; Coal Trade, 926; Petroleum, 927; Rum and Prohibition, 928; Restaurants, 929; The Modern City-State, 930; Other Mercantile Establishments, 931; The Southern Gateway of New England, 932.
xvi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXII-RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Review of Schools at End of Nineteenth Century, 933; Special Schools, 933; Education of Blind, and Rehabilitation, 934; Providence Reform School, 935; Sockanosset and Oak- lawn Schools, 937; High Schools, 938; Improvement of Schools, 939; Child Labor and Compulsory Attendance, 940; More Uniform High Standards, 940; Improving Teaching and Teachers, 941 ; Teachers' Salaries and Pensions, 943; Training Teachers, 943; Supervision, 944; Other Modern Improvements, 945; Patriotic Instruction, 946; Vocational Education, 947; A New Commissioner, 948; A Survey, 949; Legislation of 1922, 951 ; A State School System Achieved, 953; Outline of School Administration, 954.
CHAPTER XXXIII-HIGHER EDUCATION IN RHODE ISLAND.
Rhode Island College, 959; First Graduating Class, 960; Reopening After Revolution, 961 ; Name Changed to Brown University, 962; Francis Wayland's Regime, 962; Wayland's Plan for a New Higher Education, 966; After Wayland, 967; Brown's Iron Man, 968; E. Benjamin Andrews, President, 969; The Andrews Controversy, 970; A Long Administra- tion, 971; The State College, 974; Growth of State College, 976; A Survey, 977; The Twentieth Century State College, 977; Rhode Island College of Education, 979; Providence College, 982 ; A College of Art, 984; The State Interest at Rhode Island School of Design, 985 ; College of Pharmacy, 986; Business College, 987; Other Colleges, 988; Wealth of Rhode Island's Resources for College Education, 989.
CHAPTER XXXIV-PAROCHIAL AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Colonial Private Schools, 991; Select Schools, 992; Rhode Island Academies, 994; Other Private Schools, 998; Catholic Schools, 999; Elementary, Secondary and Collegiate Education Provided, 1003; Drive for Catholic High Schools, 1004.
CHAPTER XXXV -- RHODE ISLAND CHURCHES.
The Lively Experiment Most Extraordinary, 1007; Toleration Defined, 1008; Early Church Societies, 1008; Eighteenth Century Churches, 1010; Extension of Church Societies, 1013; Catholic Church Beginnings, 1015; Twentieth Century Churches, 1023; Charitable Institutions Maintained by Churches, 1024.
CHAPTER XXXVI-MEDICINE AND SURGERY IN RHODE ISLAND.
John Clarke, Physician, 1027; Newport as an American Salerno, 1027; Early Provi- dence Doctors, 1029; Epidemic Diseases, 1030; Medical School, 1032; Medical Society, 1033; Hospitals, 1034; Rival Schools of Medicine, 1035; Public Health Service, 1036; Improve- ment of Practice, 1038; State Regulation, 1040; State Sanatorium, 1041 ; Providence City Hospital, 1041 ; Newport Naval Hospital, 1042; Twentieth Century Hospitals, 1042; Hos- pital Resources, 1045; Modern Practice, 1046; Dentistry, 1046; Trained Nursing, 1047; The Organization for Health, 1047.
CHAPTER XXXVII-ART AND LITERATURE IN RHODE ISLAND.
The Golden Age of Newport, 1049; Stuart and Malbone, 1049; Other Early Artists, 1052; The Hoppins, 1053; After 1850, 1053; Later Painters, 1055; Artists Not Painters, 1056; Art Resources, 1057; Rhode Island Writers, 1058; Five Among Early Settlers, 1058; Historians, 1059; Law Books, 1062; Other Sciences, 1063; Literature, 1064; Poets, 1066; Juveniles, 1066; Travel Tales and Short Stories, 1067; Essays, 1067; Plays and Novels, 1067; Libraries, 1069; Redwood Library, 1069; Providence Library, 1071; Other Early Libraries. 1071; Athenaeum, 1072; Popular Library Movement, 1073; State Support for Libraries, 1075; Progress in Ten Years, 1076; Providence Public Library, 1076; More New Libraries, 1077; Traveling Libraries, 1078; Rhode Island's Library Resources, 1079.
xvii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXXVIII-RHODE ISLAND NEWSPAPERS.
Early Ventures in Newport, 1081; Early Providence Newspapers, 1081; Rhode Island Printers Who Went "To the Westward," 1082; Newspaper Support of Revolution, 1082; Characteristics of Colonial Newspapers, 1083; Newport Newspapers, 1084; Party Organs, 1085; The "Gazette" and Its Rivals, 1086; The "Providence Journal," 1087; Daily Succeed Weekly Newspapers, 1088; Democratic Newspapers, 1089; Fresh Ventures, 1090; The "Journal" as a Party Organ, 1091; The "Journal" Sunday School, 1093; George W. Daniel- son, Master Printer and Editor, 1094; "Telegram" and "Record," 1094; Growth of News- papers, 1095; The "Tribune," 1096; Changes in Newspaper Methods, 1097; News Service, 1098; Improved Printing Presses, 1098; Advertising, 1099; Typesetting Machinery, 1099; No New Newspaper After 1891, 1100; Sunday and Other Weekly Newspapers, 1100; News- papers Elsewhere than in Providence, IIOI; Town Weekly Newspapers, 1102.
CHAPTER XXXIX-RHODE ISLAND IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN AND WORLD WARS.
Prompt Action in War With Spain, 1105; First Rhode Island Regiment, 1105; A Float- ing Machine Shop, 1106; The Disaster of the War, 1107; Relief Work at Montauk Point, 1108; World War, 1109; Rise of War Sentiment in Rhode Island, IIIO; Rhode Island Pre- pared, IIIO; Battery A on the Mexican Boundary, IIII; Rhode Island Overseas, III2; The Selective Draft, III2; Home Fires Kept Burning, III4; Liberty Loans, 1116; War Time Construction, III7; War Service of Rhode Islanders, III7; Battery A, 1118; Battery B, III9; Battery C, 1120; Other Rhode Island Units, 1I21; Armistice and After, 1122; United Spanish War Veterans, 1123; Veterans of Foreign Wars, 1123; American Legion, 1124.
CHAPTER XL-WOMAN'S PART IN MAKING RHODE ISLAND.
Mary Williams, Model Wife and Mother, 1125; Anne Hutchinson, Disturber of the Puritan Conscience, 1125; Mrs. Joshua Verein, Gentle Woman, 1126; Mary Dyer, Martyr, II26; Woman's Part in the Building of a Commonwealth, 1127; Nineteenth Century Changes, II28; Effects of Factory System on Women, 1129; Women as Teachers, 1129; Charitable Associations, 1130; Civil War Service, 1131; Equal Rights Movement, 1131; Woman Suf- frage Agitation, 1132; Suffrage and Anti-Suffrage Associations, 1133; Woman Suffrage Achieved, 1135; Effects of Woman Suffrage, 1135; Education of Women, 1136; Women's Clubs, 1138; Congress of Mothers, 1141 ; Women in the Professions, 1142; The Philanthropy of Women, 1142.
CHAPTER XLI-COSMOPOLITAN RHODE ISLAND.
Heterogeneity at the Beginning, 1145; Significance of Toleration, 1145; Extension of Religious Toleration to Political Toleration, 1146; Manufacturing and Immigration, 1147; Segregation of Immigrants, 1148; English and Scotch, 1149; Irish Immigration, 1149; Advance from Poverty to Position, 1150; French Canadian Immigration, 1152; Love and Preservation of French Language, 1153; Italian Immigration, 1154; Columbus Day Becomes "Discovery Day," 1155; Old World Atmosphere Maintained, 1156; Other Immigrants, 1157; Effects of Immigration, 1158; Toleration in Practice, 1160; Rôle of the School, 1160; Com- pulsory Attendance Laws, 1161; Americanization Program, 1163; The Pioneer State, 1164.
CHAPTER XLII-GOD'S COZY CORNER IN NEW ENGLAND.
Mild, Temperate, Invigorating Climate, 1165; Summer Land of the Sagas, 1166; Inde- structible Beauty, 1167; Metropolitan Park System, 1169; City Parks, 1170; Beautiful New- port, 1172; Jamestown and Narragansett Pier, 1173; A People's Playground, 1174; Rhode Island Clambake, 1175; Water Sports, 1178; Hop Bitters Regatta, 1178; Yachting, 1179; America's Cup Races, 1180; Other Sports, 1180.
xviii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XLIII-RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.
The Movement of Colonial Democracy, 1183; From Revolution to Union, 1184; The War Between the States and After, 1185; Struggle of Parties for Political Supremacy, 1186; Opening of the Twentieth Century, 1187; Automobile and Effects on Transportation, 1188; World War, 1189; Recent Politics, 1190; Continuity of Constitution, 1192; City-State of 1930, 1194; The Importance of Rhode Island, 1195; Education as the Solvent for Problems, I196; Rhode Island Not Exclusively Materialistic, 1196; If Roger Williams and John Clarke Could Return, 1197; Rhode Island Has Kept the Faith, 1198; The Promise for the Future, 1199.
Index, 120I.
RHODE ISLAND
R. I .-- 1
RHODE ISLAND
CHAPTER I. WHY RHODE ISLAND?
HE outstanding features of any map of Rhode Island are Narragansett Bay and the rivers that empty their waters into the bay. On a topographical map, show- ing contours and elevations, land and waterways, the last are dominating features, for the highest elevations, except a few scattered hills, rise gradually to barely 800 feet above mean high water mark, and interpose scarcely an obstacle to travel on lines as straight as those laid out by Roman engineers constructing military roads and aque- ducts. Rhode Island roads are far from being straight, nevertheless; after the fashion in New England, they parallel shore or stream, skirt lake or pond, seek easy grades, wind about instead of climbing rolling hills, or bend to pass through town or village, the location of which has been determined usually by a favorable water site. Bays, rivers, ponds and even smaller waterways dominate the system of communication by travel, and determine locations for pub- lic highways and bridges, railways and tramways, omnibus routes, ferries and steamboat lines.
A political map of Rhode Island, delineating county, town, city, and district boundaries established by the General Assembly to define the territorial jurisdiction of courts and sheriffs, to divide the state into convenient units for local administration by municipal corporations, and to group population for representation in state legislature or federal Congress, similarly reflects the outstanding features of the terrain. All five counties reach tidewater ; two, Wash- ington and Kent, lie west of the bay; two, Bristol and Newport, lie generally east of the straighter western channel in the estuary; while Providence County surrounds the head- waters of the bay and embraces the northern portion of the state. The counties correspond substantially with historical divisions antedating the King Charles Charter of 1663, and, until Rhode Island had become predominatingly an industrial commonwealth, indicated a reason- ably equal division of population. In the twentieth century three-quarters of the people of Rhode Island reside in Providence County; in consideration of the fact that the county is not in Rhode Island a unit for representation in government or for taxation, this patent inequality is not discussed with reference to partisan political significance.
Twenty-one of thirty-nine Rhode Island towns and cities, including within their bound- aries the homes of three-quarters of the population, are maritime-in the sense of bordering navigable waters and having free access to the Atlantic Ocean. Thirteen towns and two cities-Little Compton, Tiverton, Bristol, Warren, Barrington, East Providence, Providence, Cranston, Warwick, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, Narragansett, South Kingstown, Charlestown and Westerly-reach the coast line of almost eighty miles bordering ocean and estuary. Four towns and one city --- Jamestown, Middletown, Newport, New Shoreham and Portsmouth-are located on islands in bay or ocean. The city of Pawtucket sits astride a navigable river below and above the waterfall that marks the edge of the piedmont plain-a location favored for great cities on the Atlantic seaboard. While Rhode Island sent two mem- bers of the federal House of Representatives, Narragansett Bay was the dominating bound- ary of First and Second congressional districts; with three Congressmen additional to two Senators, the division for districts roughly is: First, east of the bay; Second, west of the bay; Third, north of the bay. The towns and cities are primary units for representation in both Senate and House of the Rhode Island Assembly.
4
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
An economic map of Rhode Island, showing occupations and products of factory, soil or water, as well as distribution of wealth, is definitely correlated to waterways, for these have been constraining influences in determining the location of industrial enterprises and commer- cial centres. More than eighty per cent. of taxable wealth is accumulated in towns and cities lying in the larger river valleys or along the shores of Narragansett Bay. Population is as compactly aggregated in industrial and commercial centres as it is widely dispersed in farming communities ; that more than ninety per cent. of the people of Rhode Island reside close to bay and rivers is simply another fact derived from the dominating influences in the geographi- cal environment, which are water and waterways.
Rhode Island is referred to in documents antedating the King Charles Charter of 1663 as the Bay country, the Narragansett Bay country, or the Narragansett country. While the last designation had reference to the tribe of Narragansett Indians, who occupied most of the territory west of the bay during the period of colonization, the former were more signifi- cant. Rhode Island may be described as consisting of Narragansett Bay, and enough land on either side and at the headwaters to assure control of the waterway. In this respect, Rhode Island resembles the Canal Zone, which is a narrow strip of territory within which lies the Panama Canal. When the United States had decided to construct between Colon and Panama a canal that would connect the Atlantic Ocean through the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean, our Secretary of State and other diplomatic representatives sought to purchase from Colombia a land area sufficient to control the approaches to and the banks of the waterway when excavation had been completed. Colombia apparently was reluctant to part with the territory wanted, including as it did two important cities and harbors, and a profitable railway line connecting them. Thereupon, the Colombian province of Panama revolted, the United States recognized its independence, and negotiations for the cession of the Canal Zone to the United States achieved rapid progress. It is scarcely necessary to say that the financial consideration for the transfer of sovereignty was offered to and was paid to the province of Panama instead of to the state of Colombia. A treaty ceding what would be eventually two narrow strips of land approximately paralleling the canal and contiguous to either bank was executed and ratified.
The marked resemblance of (I) canal and Canal Zone to (2) Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island is easily recognized when reference is had to maps of reasonable size in each instance; the resemblance is most impressive when reference is made particularly to the eastern boundary of Rhode Island, which is defined in the King Charles Charter of 1663 as follows: "And extending toward the east, or eastwardly, three English miles, to the east and northeast of the most eastern and northeastern parts of the aforesaid Narragansett Bay, as the said bay lyeth or extendeth itself, from the ocean on the south, or southwardly, unto the mouth of the river which runneth towards the town of Providence, and from thence along the easterly side or bank of the said river (higher up called by the name of Seacunck River) up to the falls called Patucket falls, being the most westwardly line of Plymouth Colony, and so from said falls, in a straight line, due north until it meets with the aforesaid line of the Massachusetts Colony." This is not the present eastern boundary of Rhode Island, which was run by agreement betwixt Rhode Island and Massachusetts almost two centuries after the year of the Charter. The line three miles east and northeast of Narragansett Bay swept southeasterly, easterly and northeasterly of Mount Hope Bay, and included within the territory assigned to Rhode Island the site of Fall River, which was a Rhode Island town until 1862, as well as part of the present town of Swansea in Bristol County, Massachusetts. On the other hand, location of the colony line from Bullock's Point, at the mouth of Provi- dence River, along the banks of the Providence and Seekonk Rivers, placed the present Rhode Island town of East Providence and so much of the present city of Pawtucket as lies east of the Seekonk and Blackstone Rivers in Plymouth Colony, thus assuring to Plymouth
5
WHY RHODE ISLAND?
access to a closed harbor to the west superior to New Bedford, Plymouth, Provincetown or any other harbor along the wild and treacherous reaches of Cape Cod or Cape Cod Bay.
The three-mile limit indicated in the Charter may or may not have had reference to inter- national practice defining a marine league as the limit of extra-territorial jurisdiction over contiguous navigable waters, which it apparently reversed in defining a line three miles inland from the shore. The earliest definite enunciation of the doctrine of the three-mile limit is attributed to Bynkershoek in the book called "De Dominio Maris," which was pub- lished in 1702. Bynkershoek used the words: "Imperium terrae finiri ubi finitur armorum vis, idem est, quousque tormenta explodunt," which means, when translated, that a nation controls the open water within the range of cannon shot. The range of cannon at the open- ing of the eighteenth century was approximately a marine league or three English miles. Unless Bynkershoek invented the three-mile limit, which he probably did not, the period of forty years between 1663 and 1702 is not too long to assume, in a period in which the production of books was not so simple nor so common as at present, for the development of an idea into a principle that would warrant statement by Bynkershoek as an established con- vention. Whether or not the width of Rhode Island between the eastern boundary line and the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay was defined arbitrarily, or coincidentally, or acci- dentally, as three miles, or because the marine league had been accepted by English jurists two generations before Bynkershoek wrote his book, the fact remains that the eastern bound- ary line was delineated masterfully by a consummate geographical genius. He gave Rhode Island the eastern shore of the bay and the highlands beyond, which in his generation would have assured strategic and military control. The fortification of the heights in Tiverton overlooked the fords and ferries in the Seaconnet River, and held the British in Newport during the Revolutionary occupation. While conceding to Plymouth Colony access to the inner harbor, Plymouth's use thereof must remain forever tributary to Rhode Island. It is perhaps needless to note here that the earlier boundary line was not acceptable to the Plym- outh Company or to the Massachusetts Bay Company, which subsequently acquired the rights of the Plymouth Company. As a matter of fact, Plymouth and Massachusetts continued to hold disputed eastern territory until 1742, when a royal decree confirmed Rhode Island's rights under the Charter.
Quite as much genius was displayed in locating the western and northern boundaries. The western boundary gave to Rhode Island and Connecticut joint possession of Little Nar- ragansett Bay, the estuary at the mouth of the Pawcatuck River, which formed the boundary line at the southwestern corner of Rhode Island. While Little Narragansett Bay is not so accessible as Narragansett Bay, it is capable of development as a harbor. To Rhode Island fell Napatree Point, with possibilities for fortification that were recognized when Fort Mansfield was constructed at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War; and Block Island, which quite as well might have been assigned to New York with Fisher's Island, because of its proximity to Montauk Point, at the eastern extremity of Long Island. Geological research indicates the possibility that some time there may have been contact between Block Island and Long Island, perhaps by a narrow bar, which was washed away by stormy waves and tidal waters; perhaps, also, that Long Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nan- tucket, the Elizabeth Islands and Cape Cod were parts of an earlier continuous coastal plain pierced only by an outward reach of Narragansett Bay, which appears to have existed as a deep valley even in the carboniferous era. The western line as established by the Charter made New York a western neighbor contiguous to Rhode Island by water boundary, where- fore vessels sail from Rhode Island to New York, or from New York to Rhode Island, without the clearance papers that are required for sailings to ports of other than contiguous states.
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.