Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 65

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 65

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).

The people of this state from its first settlement have been accustomed and strongly attached to a demo- cratic form of government. They have viewed in the new Constitution an approach, though perhaps but small, toward that form of government from which we have lately dissolved our connection at so much hazard and expense of life and treasure. . . . Can it be thought strange, then, that with these impressions they should want to see the proposed system organized and in operation, to see what further checks and securities would be agreed to and established by way of amendment, before they could adopt it as a constitution of govern- ment for themselves and their posterity? These amendments, we believe, have already afforded some relief and satisfaction to the minds of the people of this state, and we earnestly look for the time when they may with clearness and safety, be again united with the sister states, under a constitution and form of government so well poised as neither to need alteration or be liable thereto by a majority only of nine states out of thir- teen, a circumstance which may possibly take place against the sense of a majority of the people of the United States.

To this expression of a conciliatory attitude was added :

We are induced to hope that we shall not be altogether considered as foreigners having no particular affinity or connection with the United States. But that trade and commerce, upon which the prosperity of this state so much depends, will be preserved as free and open between this and the United States as our different situations at present can possibly admit; earnestly desiring and proposing to adopt such commercial regula- tions on our part as shall not tend to defeat the collection of the revenue of the United States, but rather to act in conformity to, or cooperate therewith, and desiring also to give the strongest assurances that we shall, during our present situation use our utmost endeavors to be in preparation from time to time to answer our proportion of such part of the interest or principal of the foreign and domestic debts as the United States shall judge expedient to pay and discharge. We feel ourselves attached by the strongest ties of friendship, kindred and of interest with our sister states, and we cannot without the greatest reluctance look to any other quarter for those advantages of commercial intercourse which we conceive to be more natural and reciprocal between them and us.

Congress also was conciliatory ; amendments to the Constitution, including what were to be the first ten amendments, had already been submitted to the states; the time would come when Rhode Island could ratify the Constitution and then ratify the amendments as the state necessary to give the latter binding effect as part of the Constitution. Moreover, Congress suspended from time to time the impost and tonnage laws, while Rhode Island was working out in its own way the problem of ratifying the Constitution. The wholesome restraint exercised at this particular period no doubt was due in large part to the firmness of Wash- ington, who was less impetuous than Hamilton and other Federalists. Early in October, at a special session, the Assembly ordered 150 copies of the amendments proposed by Congress printed and sent to the towns for consideration by the freemen in the October town meetings. A new House of Deputies was elected in October. On the question of calling a convention it voted no, 39-17. North Carolina ratified the Constitution in November, 1789, and Rhode Island stood alone. The journal of the General Assembly for the May session, 1789, con- cluded "God save the State," instead of "God save the United States of America."

A MINISTER WENT TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY-The General Assembly met in Providence January II, four days before the United States revenue and tonnage laws, suspended as to Rhode Island, were to become completely effective. The firm attitude of the General Assem- bly on this occasion refutes the suggestion that Rhode Island was coerced into joining the

378

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

union by fear of loss of trade and commerce. The question of calling a constitutional con- vention was not moved until the morning of January 15; it was debated through the day, and carried, 34-29, so late in the day that when sent to the Assistants for concurrence, the latter postponed action until Saturday, January 16. Late Saturday evening adjournment was taken to Sunday, the Deputy Governor and four Assistants having voted no, and four Assistants, yes, on the question of concurrence with the Deputies. Thus the proposition was lost by one vote in the House of Assistants; had the Governor voted, the result would be either a more pronounced negative, or a tie vote, which would still be negative as non-concurrence. The Assistants on Friday had passed a bill referring the question of calling a convention to the freemen in town meetings for instructions to the Deputies; it was rejected by the Deputies. On Sunday the Deputy Governor introduced a similar bill, which the Assistants passed, and the Deputies rejected. On Sunday a fresh bill ordering a convention was introduced in the House of Deputies, and passed, 32-II. One of the Assistants, a minister, had withdrawn from the body to attend to church duties, when this bill was taken up. The vote was, four Assistants, yes ; the Deputy Governor and three Assistants, no. Governor John Collins broke the tie by voting yes. The bill thus passed ordered elections in town meetings of delegates equal to the number of Deputies to which each town was entitled in the General Assembly, the delegates to meet in convention at South Kingstown on the first Monday in March; and authorized the convention "finally to decide on the said Constitution as they shall judge to be most conducive to the interests of the people of this state." Before adjournment the Assem- bly requested Congress to suspend for a further period "acts of Congress subjecting the cit- izens of this state to foreign tonnage and foreign duties." The resolution calling the conven- tion authorized the latter to report directly to the President of the United States, and the matter thus passed out of the control of the General Assembly.

AND A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ASSEMBLED IN RHODE ISLAND-The convention met at South Kingstown on March I, with seventy delegates, a complete representation from every town, present. The delegates had been selected with reference to their known opinions as to the issue; some town meetings had instructed their delegates to support, or to oppose, the Constitution. The election of Daniel Owen, Deputy Governor, as President indicated that the opponents of the Constitution were in control at the opening session. The delegates included thirty-nine Deputies, two Assistants and the Deputy Governor* from the General Assembly of 1789; thirty-seven Deputies, one Assistant, and the Deputy Governor* from the General Assembly of 1790. Thus more than fifty per cent. of its membership was recruited from the men prominent in the political life of the state at the time. Of the men who had been leaders in the early days of the Revolution, Stephen Hopkins, Nicholas Cooke, James M. Varnum, and Nathanael Greene were dead. Honored as a military genius, Greene's talent as a politician, displayed when by successful lobbying in Congress he saved Washington from removal through the Conway cabal, has received little attention ; Jonathan Arnold had removed to Vermont; Greene had removed to Georgia and died; Varnum had been appointed a Fed- eral judge in the Northwest Territory, and died shortly after at Marietta, Ohio. The mem- bers of the convention were able, and their debates and procedure were dignified. Only an incomplete journal of the convention, with fragmentary minutes and other notes, have been preserved. From these it appears that there was a thorough discussion of the Constitution of the United States section by section, beginning so early as the third day, the convention having proceeded to perfect its organization promptly by adopting rules of order. One of these postponed the vote upon the "grand question for the adoption or rejection of the Constitution" until motions for amendment or adjournment had been determined, a business-like rule that

*Not the same. Samuel J. Potter had succeeded Daniel Owen in 1790.

379

RHODE ISLAND AND THE UNION

would prevent a hasty decision without an adequate discussion. The convention adjourned on Saturday, March 6, to meet at Newport on the fourth Monday in May. Meanwhile the draft of a bill of rights and proposed amendments to the Constitution were ordered printed and referred to the freemen in town meetings on the third Wednesday in April. The motion to adjourn was interposed to defeat a motion to ratify the Constitution; it was carried 41-28. The delegates from Barrington, Bristol, Cumberland, Jamestown, Little Compton, Newport, Providence, Tiverton, Warren, and Westerly, and two from Warwick voted against adjourn- ment. President Owen did not vote.

THE CONSTITUTION RATIFIED-The convention reassembled at Newport on May 24, but adjourned for want of a quorum until the following day, when all were present, including Benjamin Bosworth, of Warren, who replaced General Nathan Miller, deceased. The town meetings had adopted various instructions to their delegates with reference to the Constitu- tion, bill of rights and amendments; and Providence in town meeting had authorized its delegates to meet delegates from other towns in a convention purposing secession from Rhode Island and an appeal to Congress for admission to the union, if ratification in convention failed. A motion to adjourn, introduced on May 26 to defeat a motion for immediate ratifi- cation, was rejected. The debate proceeded on May 27 and 28, when adjournment was taken to three o'clock, Saturday afternoon, May 29. Portsmouth and Middletown, since the con- vention met, had instructed their delegates to vote for ratification. The question of ratifica- tion was put at 5:20 o'clock Saturday afternoon and carried 34-32. The delegates from Bar- rington, Bristol, Cumberland, Hopkinton, Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Providence, Tiverton, Warren and Westerly, and two each from Portsmouth and Warwick voted yes. One Portsmouth delegate voted no, and the fourth Portsmouth delegate and the two New Shoreham delegates were absent. President Daniel Owen did not vote. The act to ratify, included a bill of rights in eighteen sections, one of which declared "That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and inalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of con- science; and that no particular religion, sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others," and another "that any person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms ought to be exempted, upon the payment of an equivalent to employ another to bear arms in his stead." Ratification was unconditional, "in full confidence, nevertheless, that until the amendments hereafter proposed shall be agreed to and ratified," Congress should not call out the state militia for a longer term than six weeks without the consent of the Gen- eral Assembly; should not change the time, place or manner of electing Senators and Rep- resentatives ; and should not levy direct taxes except by requisition addressed to the General Assembly.

The convention proposed twenty-one amendments to the Constitution including (1) a guaranty to each state of its sovereignty, freedom and independence; (2) state regulation of elections of Senators and Representatives in Congress; (3-5) limitation upon the judicial powers of the United States; (4) ratification of amendments after 1793 by not less than eleven of the original states; (6) military duty only by voluntary enlistment except in cases of general invasion; (7) no capitation or poll taxes; (8) direct taxation only by requisition addressed to the state; and (9) only with the consent of three-fourths of the state; (10) prompt publications of journals of proceedings of Congress; (II) annual publication of receipts and expenditures of public money ; (12) no standing army in time of peace; (13) no borrowing on the credit of the United States without the assent of two-thirds of each house; (14) declaration of war only with the concurrence of two-thirds of each house; (15)

380

RHODE ISLAND -- THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

forbidding absolutely acceptance by any officer of the United States of "any present, emolu- ment, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state," by expung- ing the words "without the consent of Congress" from the seventh paragraph of article I, section 9, of the Constitution; (16) forbidding judges of the Supreme Court to hold any other office under the United States, and federal officers to hold state offices; (17) effectu- ally preventing the importation of slaves of every description into the United States "as dis- graceful to the cause of liberty and humanity"; (18) recall by the state legislatures of Sen- ators and Representatives in Congress; (19) a uniform rule of inhabitancy or settlement of poor; (20) no chartering of corporations by Congress; (21) a record vote in Congress on the request of two members. In large part the principles of the program indicated by the pro- posed amendments, have become established by practice, and precedent, if not by law, in the United States ; some of the proposed amendments were too restricting, however.

RHODE ISLAND RETURNED TO THE UNION-To the General Assembly elected in May, 1790, remained the work of enacting the legislation and performing several functions neces- sary to carry the ratification completely into effect and to establish constitutional relations with the United States of America. The May session had adjourned previous to the con- clusion of the constitutional convention. The General Assembly met again to hold its first session as a legislature for a state, one of the United States of America under the Constitu- tion. The Governor, Deputy Governor, Assistants, Deputies (except four not present) and general state officers took the oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States required by the Constitution, and the Governor was direced to issue a proclamation notifying all executive and judicial officers of the state of their obligation to do likewise. Eleven of twelve amendments to the Constitution proposed by Congress were ratified, ten of which, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, became effective by Rhode Island's ratification. Joseph Stanton, Jr., and Theodore Foster were elected in grand committee as Rhode Island's Senators in Congress, and a special election of a Representative was ordered. Benjamin Bourn was declared elected as Representative when the proxies were counted in September. In the exuberance of good feeling prevailing the General Assembly authorized a loan of $150 each to the Senators "to enable them to take their seats in Congress," a measure remarkable by contrast with the delay in providing expense money for the delegates to the Continental Congress. President Washington, who, in his earlier visits to New Eng- land after April 30, 1789, had avoided Rhode Island as "foreign territory," visited Rhode Island in August, 1790. With him were Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State; Theodore Foster, Senator from Rhode Island; Governor Clinton, of New York; Judge Blair, Messrs. Smith of South Carolina, and Gilman of New Hampshire, members of Congress. The party was welcomed in Providence by a federal salute, bell ringing and a procession of escort to the Golden Ball Inn, opposite the State House on Benefit Street. In the evening Rhode Island College was illuminated. After a visit with Governor Fenner on the following day to places of interest, a dinner was served at the State House. The party returned to New York, as it came, by packet. The Rhode Island General Assembly at the October session addressed a letter of congratulations and good wishes to the President. Rhode Island was now a state in the union. The journal of the General Assembly for the June session, 1790, closed with "God save the United States of America."

AN EVALUATION OF RHODE ISLAND'S POSITION-In recent years, because of careful and critical studies of the period of seven years from the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, to Rhode Island's ratification of the Constitution in 1790, there has been a modification of the tendency, manifested in early years, to condemn Rhode Island's behavior utterly. Three general statements: (1) that Rhode Island's objection prevented a federal impost

381

RHODE ISLAND AND THE UNION

when the Congress of the United States seriously needed revenue; (2) that Rhode Island ignored the request to send delegates to Annapolis, which was not true, and the call for the constitutional convention; and (3) that Rhode Island was last to ratify the Constitution of the United States, have been printed without explanation or with implications of hostility to the union. No small part of the odium and reprobation cast upon the state have arisen from statements printed in the newspapers of the period, a time in which partisanship was vituper- ative and editors touched depths in belching defamation that recalled the pamphleteers of the seventeenth century. Rhode Island writers, with few exceptions, have apologized for Rhode Island's acts and attitude during the period, and thus by "confession and avoidance" have not helped the good name of the state of Rhode Island. In large part the apologists were over- come by an obsession that loyalty to the Constitution and to the United States would not per- mit a thought even, that Rhode Island in its staunch and fearless stand against federation might be right, forgetting that Rhode Island always has been a place "ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet."

As to the impost, Rhode Island had a perfect right under the Articles of Confederation to refuse consent, in spite of acquiescence by the twelve others. Had Rhode Island given con- sent, it appears likely now that the Confederation would have continued in weakness for a longer period and thus delayed the Constitution, or would have been merged into the national republic feared at the time because of its effects upon local self-government, which was precious as it is today for preserving individuality in the states. It is to be recalled also that Virginia and other states withdrew ratification of the impost proposed in 1781, and that Rhode Island's conditional ratification of the impost proposed in 1783 did not become effective because other states ignored the request of Congress at that time.

As to the Annapolis conference, Rhode Island elected delegates and sent them forward. Rhode Island's inaction with respect to the constitutional convention at Philadelphia is to be regretted principally because that convention was thus deprived of the wisdom that resided in Rhode Island from long experience with democracy, and because the Rhode Island point of view was not presented or considered. De jure the Philadelphia convention was revolution- ary, and the Constitution was drafted as the first step in a coup d'etat. Patriots of the type of Patrick Henry declined election to the Philadelphia convention, and subsequently opposed the Constitution. It is more than doubtful that the Philadelphia convention could be held were Thomas Jefferson not abroad at the time. The convention was as revolutionary and as rad- ical from a purely constitutional point of view with reference to the Articles of Confedera- tion as would be a convention to overturn the present Constitution of the United States. Some of the delegates elected to the Philadelphia convention, including Lansing of New York, went home when the convention resolved itself into a body to draft a new constitution rather than to propose amendments to the Articles of Confederation, which was the function assigned by Congress. Twenty-two of sixty-one delegates elected did not sign the Constitu- tion, including among these Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and Edmund Randolph of Vir- ginia. There was a difference of opinion and Rhode Island was as much entitled to an opinion as any other state.

As to ratifying the Constitution, Rhode Island delayed until amendments were proposed, and Rhode Island could ratify them with the Constitution thus modified. The process of ratification was not easy or unanimous except in the small states of Delaware and New Jer- sey, and by Georgia, none of them self-reliant from long experience with democracy as was Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania the order for a constitutional convention was rushed through an expiring legislature, lest the next one elected by the people be opposed ; the vote against the Constitution in Pennsylvania was one-third of the membership. Connecticut was compliant, but Massachusetts was militant in opposition. The vote in Massachusetts was 187 to 168,

382

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

the victory a triumph for the political ambitions of Adams and Hancock; had districts opposed to the Constitution sent delegates to vote no, instead of refusing to send delegates at all as a protest, the Massachusetts convention would have rejected the Constitution. Maryland, a small state, voted 63-II for the Constitution. South Carolina fought the battle out, 140-73, as did New Hampshire, 57-46. The struggle in Virginia was worthy of a commonwealth that pro- duced a Washington, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Henry, a Marshall, and a Randolph in a single generation. Washington, Madison and Marshall supported the Constitution; Patrick Henry and Randolph opposed it; Jefferson was anti-federalist, and abroad. The single vote cast by Governor Collins in Rhode Island to break a tie and order a convention had its parallel in Virginia, where the Governor, who had been hostile to the Constitution, was persuaded over- night by the pleadings of Washington to change his attitude and cast a favoring vote. Pat- rick Henry fought valiantly against ratification, and then, noble warrior that he was, was equally vigorous in sustaining the Constitution. In New York the opposition of Governor Clinton went down before the eloquence of Alexander Hamilton. There was glorious opposi- tion to the Constitution, and greater glory in the good feeling with which the contest ended. Rhode Island need feel no shame for standing with the opposition, including as it did great Americans. Had the question of what should be done been so obvious as not to provoke dis- cussion and consideration, and then a battle of giants, Rhode Island's opposition would have been insignificant, petty and negligible. As it was, while the continued opposition after the inauguration of the new federal government was stubborn, no good Rhode Islander should feel otherwise than proud that his state, the smallest in territory, proved its greatness by insisting on settling this question as others in her own time and in her own way. Throughout the strug- gle for and against ratification Rhode Island displayed a fine respect for the opinions of her citizens, in the frequent appeal to the referendum, that is almost without parallel in the history of democracy. In thus frequently consulting the wishes of the freemen and pushing away repeatedly the temptation to act decisively in furtherance of their own wishes, the members of the General Assembly were acting as true Rhode Islanders mindful of over a century and a half of democracy in the Narragansett Bay country. Whether Roger Williams and John Clarke might have been federalists or anti-federalists, and the probability is that Clarke would have been federalist and Roger Williams anti-federalist had they lived near the end of the eighteenth century, both would have approved Rhode Island democracy in its stand for a satisfactory Constitution, even if it required seven years to accomplish it.

CHAPTER XV. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY-REHABILITATION.

HODE ISLAND emerged from the Revolutionary War as a republic, the inde- pendence of which had been recognized by France and Spain, and acknowledged by Great Britain in the treaty of peace. The new international status was indi- cated by the presentation of commissions by Sieur Philip Joseph de L'Tompe as Consul General of France and by Monsieur Joseph Marie Solomon Toscan as Vice Consul of France, and the issuing of exequaturs to them by the Governor in 1783. There was technical accuracy in this diplomacy ; the United States as a nation was still to be achieved, and international relations remained to be simplified under the Constitution. The government established under the Charter of 1663 had guided the colony to May 4, 1776, and the state thereafter. As a republic Rhode Island had had continuous existence for 147 years, 1636- 1783, first as a colony in the British Empire, and later as a state battling to establish its inde- pendence. In its general organization, the Rhode Island government might serve as a model for the new federal government that was to be organized under the Constitution, with its elected executive, its popular bicameral legislature, and its independent judiciary. The innova- tions in American federalism that distinguished it from all earlier confederations lay in careful balancing of functions betwixt central government and state governments in such manner as to assure strength to the former in national affairs and international relations, and autonomy and local regulation by the latter of purely state matters; and the dual citizenship of inhabi- tant in nation and in state.

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.

Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 65

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716