Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 96

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 96

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*Chapter XVII.

¡For ordering the band at Newport to play the "Retreat" as Governor Jones stepped from the boat on election day, 1817, which was interpreted by the Governor as an insult, Captain R. B. Cranston was found guilty by a committee of the General Assembly of conduct "highly improper and derogatory to the dignity and honor of the state." He escaped court martial because he was not in uniform and actually on duty.

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and ex-Governor James Fenner was elected with little opposition in 1824, and without oppo- sition from 1825 to 1830.

NOMINATING CONVENTION DEVELOPED-In the period in which both Federalist and Republican parties had been aggressive rivals for offices, party machinery had been perfected, and the nominating convention had been introduced in Rhode Island as a device for selecting candidates. The Federalist convention, as a rule, resembled the congressional caucus in national politics, the core consisting of members of the General Assembly, to whom were added mem- bers of the party invited to attend, usually by public notice printed in the newspapers. The "Providence Journal" of January 3, 1828, carried the following: "The Representatives and such others of the people of the state friendly to the present administration of the federal government as may attend the January session of the General Assembly are invited to con- vene at the State House in Providence on Tuesday, January 15, 1828, at six o'clock p. m. to nominate candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other state officers for the com- ing year." The Republican convention early developed into a delegate organization ; besides, the Republicans, so early as 1809, had introduced local political clubs, called by reason of their general similarity to the New York city organization, Tammany Societies or Tribes. National Republicans met at South Kingstown in 1831 to elect delegates to a national convention at Baltimore, which nominated Henry Clay for President.

The era of "good feelings" in national politics ended definitely with the administration of James Monroe, last of the Virginia dynasty. The congressional caucus, which had served Republicans in their era of ascendancy as well as it had the Federalists when the latter controlled Congress, nominated William H. Crawford as the party candidate for President. Three other candidates, styling themselves Republican, entered the field-John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. John C. Calhoun was not opposed as candidate for the Vice Presidency. Friends of Adams met in convention in Providence on October 26, 1824, and nominated candidates for presidential electors favorable to him, thus anticipating the "regular" Republican convention called for October 27. The "regular" Republican con- vention indorsed the electors named in the Adams convention. Rhode Island Republicans thus repudiated the congressional caucus ; in the election the people chose presidential electors who cast the state vote for Adams. The national popular election was indecisive, and John Quincy Adams was elected as President by the House of Representatives. Rhode Island continued to support Adams. The General Assembly, in October, 1828, adopted resolutions urging his reelection, thus: "That after carefully and candidly reviewing the administration of our national concerns under the presidency of John Quincy Adams, the General Assembly is fully satisfied that he has been governed by wisdom, and actuated by motives of the purest patriot- ism in the discharge of his official duties; that the General Assembly has discovered no occa- sion to distrust the integrity, ability or faithfulness of any member of the national cabinet, and that it, therefore, sincerely regrets that the character of Henry Clay,¿ a prominent and highly distinguished member of that Cabinet, should have been assaulted by any in this country, to whose glory and best interest that persecuted statesman had so liberally con- tributed by his long and faithful public services; that, considering the peculiar and alarming circumstances which have for nearly four years characterized the canvass of the approach- ing presidential election, the General Assembly deems it to be a matter of deep and vital inter- est to the nation that a fair and honorable effort should be made, by every individual free- man of this republic, to secure the reelection of Mr. Adams to that high and responsible office, for which, in the opinion of this General Assembly, he is so eminently qualified by character, both public and private, and by talents, both natural and acquired." The state presidential

#Accused by Jackson of a corrupt bargain with Adams, to elect the latter in return for a Cabinet appointment.

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STATE AND NATIONAL POLITICS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

vote was cast for Adams as President and for Richard Rush as Vice President. Adams in 1828 carried all six New England states, New Jersey and Delaware, and received sixteen of thirty-six votes in New York; but Andrew Jackson was elected as President. Rhode Island, in 1832, gave Henry Clay and John Sergeant its votes for President and Vice President, against President Jackson and Martin Van Buren. The popular vote was close. Four years later the Democrats carried the state election, and the electoral votes were cast for Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson. Out of the quarrel which had divided the Republican party in 1824 had come two parties, one following Jackson and known as Democratic Republican and later as Democratic; the other following Adams and Clay, and known as National Repub- lican, and later as Whig.

WHIGS VS. DEMOCRATS-A reorganization of state parties followed closely upon the national realignment. The Rhode Island delegation in Congress had been unanimously Repub- lican in 1824. When Senator De Wolf resigned in 1825, Asher Robbins was elected as Sen- ator for the unexpired term, ending March 4, 1827, defeating Elisha R. Potter. In anticipa- tion of Potter's candidacy for election as Senator for the new term beginning March 4, 1827, the "Manufacturers and Farmers Journal" denounced him as an enemy of Providence .* A bitter campaign of accusation and recrimination followed. Eventually Senator Robbins was reelected unanimously, when Potter declined to be a candidate. Senator Knight was reelected unanimously in 1828. The contest between Potter and Senator Robbins was renewed in antic- ipation of election for the term beginning March 4, 1833. There had been in 1832 no election of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Senators, those elected in 1831 holding over. In a meeting of the grand committee on January 19, 1833, Asher Robbins was declared reelected as Senator, the vote standing Robbins 41, Potter 25, Dutee J. Pearce 12. The legality of the procedure was questioned on the basis of a claim that members of the General Assembly (those holding over) elected in 1831 were not competent to vote on the choice of a Senator to be seated in 1833. The General Assembly, a new legislature, elected in 1833, at the October session, 1833, declared the senatorial election of January, 1833, null and void, and the seat of Senator Robbins vacant. In grand committee on November 1, 1833, Elisha R. Potter was declared elected as Senator, unanimously, because the opposition refused to vote. The major- ity in grand committee refused to receive a protest, the minutes reading : "Protest offered by Mr. Cranston .... before proceeding to election, read and laid on table, called up, debated, and ordered not to be received; 29 for, 48 against." Potter carried a contest for the seat to Washington, but the Senate eventually confirmed the election of Senator Robbins. It could scarcely do otherwise, there being no doubt that the grand committee of January, 1833, was comprised of the members of the General Assembly then existing.

Elisha R. Potter, again candidate for the Senate, was defeated by Senator Knight on May 13, 1835, for the term beginning March 4, 1835. The grand committee, meeting on Jan- uary 21 and 22, 1835, to elect a Senator to succeed Senator Knight, ballotted 20 times unsuc- cessfully. With 82 members of the General Assembly present and voting, and 42 necessary for a choice under the majority rule, the first ballot resulted : Albert C. Greene 39, Elisha R. Potter 30, William Sprague, Jr., II, Tristam Burges I, Nehemiah R. Knight I. The for- tieth ballot indicated little change: Greene 40, Potter 29, Sprague 12, Knight I. Elisha R. Potter died in September, 1835; except for seven years in Congress, he had been a member of the General Assembly from South Kingstown continuously from 1793. His ambition to become United States Senator was not realized, nor was that of Tristam Burges. Of the other candidates in 1835, William Sprague became Senator in 1842, and Albert C. Greene in 1845.

*As a member of the General Assembly Potter opposed measures tending to increase the prestige and influence of the large town.

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Elections to the National House of Representatives were also closely contested in the period in which new party lines were being established. That same Samuel W. Bridgham, who in 1821 opposed William C. Gibbs as candidate for Governor, ran in 1820 with Job Durfee as candidates of the "People's" party against Samuel Eddy and Nathaniel Hazard, Republicans, for Congress. Eddy and Durfee, who subsequently to his nomination declared himself a Republican, were elected in 1820 and reelected in 1822 as members of the Seven- teenth and Eighteenth Congresses. For the Nineteenth Congress the election was conducted in August, 1825, and five candidates, all Republicans, offered themselves. Of these Samuel Eddy and Dutee J. Pearce were nominated in convention, the latter defeating Job Durfee. Job Durfee, dissatisfied with the convention, decided to contest the election. Tristam Burges and William Hunter were nominated by a conference of Republicans who had been Feder- alists. The toast to Lafayette, on the latter's visit to Rhode Island, August 23, 1824, in which Burges had called Lafayette the companion of Washington and the friend of Hamilton and Greene, was interpreted as indicating his leaning to Federalism. In his subsequent political career he was National Republican and later Whig. Burges was the only candidate for Con- gress in August, 1825, having a clear majority, and he was declared elected. In the by-election of November 25 Dutee J. Pearce defeated Job Durfee. Burges and Pearce were reelected as National Republicans without opposition in 1827 and in 1831 ; in 1829 from a field of six candidates, all National Republicans, including their old rivals, Samuel Eddy and Job Durfee, and also Elisha R. Potter and John DeWolf, Jr. For the Twenty-third Congress seven can- didates presented themselves in 1833, as follows: Tristam Burges, Albert C. Greene, Henry Y. Cranston and Nathan F. Dixon, as National Republicans; Wilkins Updike and Nathan B. Sprague as Democratic Republicans; and Dutee J. Pearce as the "People's" candidate. Burges was elected in August by a clear majority, and in the by-election in November Pearce defeated Dixon. Burges and Cranston, Whigs, were defeated by William Sprague, Jr., and Pearce as Democrats in 1835. Burges was disappointed also when Nehemiah Knight was elected as United States Senator as a Whig in 1835. Burges' service in Congress had been notable. Known as the "bald eagle" of the House of Representatives, in debate he alone could silence John Randolph of Roanoke.

A BITTER CONTEST-The congressional election of 1835 was one of the most bitter in the history of Rhode Island politics. The year opened with the failure of the General Assembly after twenty ballots in grand committee to elect a United States Senator. John Brown Francis had been elected as Governor in the preceding year by only 110 majority. The General Assembly met in Newport in May, 1835, to count the ballots cast in the annual state election, faced with charges of fraudulent voting from several towns. Eventually the proxies were counted as returned, and Governor Francis was declared reelected by 102 majority. With such a background the canvass for the Congressional election was started, with Burges and Cranston, Whigs, and Sprague and Pearce, Democrats, as candidates. The "Providence Journal," already advocating the candidacy of Daniel Webster for the presidency in 1836, supported the Whigs vigorously. Predicting the possibility of an indecisive popular election and the election of the next President by the House of Representatives, it pleaded for two Whigs to cast Rhode Island's vote for Daniel Webster. Again, the "Journal" urged the superior talents of Tristam Burges in contrast to William Sprague, whom it described as a man become fabulously rich. The Democratic papers responded with equal frankness to such discussion of candidates. As the election grew nearer the "Journal" printed several numer- ical demonstrations of the possibility that a minority candidate might attain a majority in the election by the accumulation of votes as second choice, this as a warning against voting the "split" proxies that had appeared, linking Sprague's name with that of Burges or Cranston.

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Accusations were made by both parties through the public press that the other was "manu- facturing" freemen, by conveying to men otherwise qualified freeholds in land sufficient to meet the legal requirement. One candidate was accused of buying two dozen blank deeds in anticipation of a visit to East Greenwich. Another was asked if he had not "qualified" eight freemen on a Sunday visit to Scituate. The Whigs were particularly bitter against Sprague as a new man in politics, one of the earliest millionaire captains of industry. In the election in August 7767 ballots were cast, of which Sprague and Pearce each received a clear major- ity. The General Assembly met on October 29, 1835, to canvass and count the ballots. Accu- sations of fraudulent voting and other irregularities in the election meetings at Burrillville, Charlestown, Cranston, East Greenwich, Foster, Glocester, North Kingstown, Scituate, Tiv- erton and Warren were made, and both parties had filed protests. Governor Francis cast the deciding vote against an investigation of the election, and the ballots were counted as cast. Thereafter the Whigs referred to the Governor's vote against an investigation as his "veto."

William Sprague defeated John Brown Francis for Governor in 1838. Tristam Burges, running as a third candidate, prevented Sprague's election as Governor in 1839, although Sprague polled a plurality. The "Journal" in an after-election editorial attributed the Whig defeat in 1835 to the expenditure by the "Jackson party" of $40,000 for bribery and corrup- tion ; to the use of government patronage ; to the wealth of one of the candidates; and to the exclusion of certificate voters. The last referred to the law which, although it permitted qual- ification for voting for general officers, and for presidential electors by certificate of land title in other than the town of residence, had not extended the same privilege with reference to election of members of the State House of Representatives or members of Congress. The Whigs won the congressional elections of 1837, 1839 and 1841, the last without opposition. Thomas W. Dorr, who as a Whig in 1835 had drawn up resolutions of indorsement for Burges and Cranston, polled 72 votes as candidate of the "Constitution" party in 1837, and as a Demo- crat 3660 votes in 1839. Rhode Island was divided into two Congressional districts for the election of 1843.

ANTI-MASONIC MOVEMENT-Governor James Fenner, 1807-1811, 1824-1831, Repub- lican, because of his friendliness with the "administration," although re-nominated by the National Republicans in 1830, actually was opposed by the anti-Jackson Republicans, who named and supported Asa Messer, who had been President of Brown University, 1804-1826. Governor Fenner won in 1830, but was defeated in 1831 by Lemuel H. Arnold. Governor Fenner was a candidate again in 1832, against Governor Arnold, and William Sprague, the last named as the candidate of the anti-Masonic party. William Morgan, of New York, pub- lished a book in 1826 which purported to disclose the secrets of Freemasonry. He was arrested at Batavia, N. Y., on September II on a criminal charge, tried and acquitted at Canandaigua. Rearrested and committed to jail on a civil charge, he was taken from jail at night, and carried by organized posses to Fort Niagara, where he was lodged in the powder magazine. There all trace of Morgan was lost; his fate has never been determined posi- tively. Because of the book, and the wish of the Masonic fraternity to suppress it, the story of Morgan's disappearance created vigorous opposition to Freemasonry, which became polit- ical. William Wirt, of Virginia, was nominated for the presidency by an anti-Masonic con- vention at Philadelphia in 1832. The Rhode Island General Assembly, in October, 1831, adopted a resolution as follows :

Whereas, the crimes and enormities within a few years committed in a neighboring state by certain Freemasons, avowedly in the cause of Masonry, have excited universal indignation and abhorrence, and have awakened jealousies and suspicions very unfavorable to all Masonic institutions, and under the weight of which the whole Masonic fraternity-the good and the virtuous as well as the vicious-must unavoidably

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suffer, therefore, in the hope of allaying the great and increasing excitement thus occasioned, and that the innocent may be distinguished from the guilty, if in this state there are any who can justly be charged with advocating the criminal doctrines imputed to Freemasonry ; resolved, that Messrs. Hazard, W. Sprague, Jr., Simmons, Haile and E. R. Potter, with such others as the Honorable Senate may think proper to add, be and they are hereby appointed a committee fully to investigate and inquire into the causes, grounds and extent of the charges and accusations brought against Freemasonry and Masons in this state; and that said committee so far as may be necessary to enable them to perform this duty, be empowered to administer oaths, to examine witnesses, and to call for books and papers.

The Senate concurred in the House resolution and designated Senator Cornell as a member of the committee. The resolutions indicated open-mindedness in the expressed pur- pose of finding the truth as the basis for action if need be in quieting needless agitation.

The committee report, presented in June, 1832, bears the earmarks of thoroughness. The majority of the committee exonerated Rhode Island Masons of the charges made against them, but recommended discontinuance of lodge work. William Sprague presented a minority report, in which he recommended revocation of the civil charters granted by the state, under which the Masonic bodies exercised corporate powers. Petitions for revocation of Masonic charters were presented in the General Assembly in 1833, and in 1834 the Assembly revoked six charters. The Grand Lodge voted, March 17, 1834, to surrender its charter, but to con- tinue as a fraternal organization. Several other Masonic bodies did likewise. A law enacted in 1835 required secret fraternal organizations to file lists of their members, and copies of oaths and rituals. The Grand Lodge charter was restored by the General Assembly, April 4, 1861.

Running as an anti-Mason in 1832 William Sprague polled only 592 in a total of 27II ballots, but that vote for a third candidate in a close election otherwise was sufficient, under the majority rule, to prevent the reelection of Governor Arnold, who polled 2711 to 2238 for ex-Governor Fenner. William Sprague's largest vote in the five elections in 1832 was 976. The annual election of 1832 resulted in no choice for Lieutenant Governor or for any of the ten Senators.

THE FIASCO OF 1832-The General Assembly by statute enacted in January, 1832, had abrogated its own function under the Charter of electing to fill vacancies, by making provi- sion for new popular elections to be ordered by the House of Representatives, general officers holding over until their successors had been chosen. Four by-elections were conducted in 1832, on May 16, July 18, August 28, and November 21, all without the choice of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Senators by majority ; and at the January session, 1833, the Assem- bly voted to continue the officers elected in 1831 to the next annual election in April-May without another by-election. At the same session the rule of majority election for Congress- men was relaxed to permit election by plurality in the first by-election should that become necessary. The state election law of 1832 was repealed at the May session, 1833.

Governor John Brown Francis, who had defeated ex-Governor Arnold in 1833, called a special session of the General Assembly in May, 1834, to consider what measures should be taken in the event that the popular election had been indecisive. The count of ballots showed that he had been reelected by 150 majority. A new election law, passed in May, 1834, pro- vided for a second election if the Governor and Lieutenant Governor and six Senators, or if the Governor or Lieutenant Governor and seven Senators had not been chosen by majority vote. Under the contingencies of failure to choose a quorum of the Senate as indicated, all civil and military officers held over pending the second election, in which choice might be made by plurality. Governor Francis was reelected, defeating Nehemiah Knight in 1834 and 1835, Tristam Burges in 1836, and William Peckham in 1837. He was defeated by William

WATCH HILL LIGHT

ALONG THE BAY FRONT, WATCH HILL

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Sprague in 1838. Governor Sprague and Joseph Childs, as candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, failed to attain majorities in 1839, when Tristam Burges, Whig, ran as a third candidate. Seven Senators were elected, and the law did not provide for a new election in this contingency. Samuel Ward King, elected as first Senator, served as Acting Governor. Governor King was reelected in 1840, 1841 and 1842, the last Governor to serve under the Charter. Governor Francis was a Democrat; Burges and King were Whigs. Peck- ham ran as the nominee of the new "Constitution" party.

William Sprague had been the unsuccessful candidate of the anti-Masonic party for Gov- ernor in 1832, and had declined nomination by that party for Congress. He ran as a Demo- crat in the congressional election of 1835, was successful and declined renomination in 1837. He announced his withdrawal from the Democratic party in 1837, because he believed the economic policy of the national organization would not promote the welfare of Rhode Island interests. He was elected as United States Senator in 1842 as a Whig to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Nathan F. Dixon. Resigning after the murder of his brother, Amasa Sprague, he was replaced by John Brown Francis, another Democrat who had become a Whig in the new alignment of parties. The ease with which men shifted party affiliations in the period of "bad feelings" in politics, 1824-1842, suggests that men rather than measures were dominating political issues. The organizations of Democratic and Whig parties that rose from the ruins of the old Republican party, and, in Rhode Island, the substitution of a Constitution for the Charter,* effected a significant change. From this relation of political history to 1842 we have excluded the constitutional movement, which reached a crisis in the Dorr War,* because that controversy arose and was continued principally outside the con- tests for national and state officers. It remains to examine the political issues in national pol- itics affecting Rhode Island that were the pretexts, if not the real reasons, for the changing affiliations of leading Rhode Islanders.

THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF-The Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, on March 30, 1789, resolved unanimously "that it be, and hereby is, earnestly recommended to all the members of this association to discourage as far as possible all foreign manufactures by using in their families and business those of our own country." The Providence association undertook to establish "public opinion touching the industrial interests of the country" and to promote, by correspondence, the forming of "similar organizations for concerted action in regard to the protection and encouragement of home production." An organization similar to the Providence association was established at Newport ; each was incorporated by the General Assembly. The Providence association, following Rhode Island's ratification of the Constitu- tion, addressed a letter of congratulation to President Washington, in which was expressed confidence that Congress would do "all in their power to promote the manufactures, as well as the agriculture and commerce of our country." The association collected for Alexander Hamilton the information concerning Rhode Island industries that was part of his report on manufactures as Secretary of the Treasury in 1791 to Congress. Hamilton recommended the promotion of American manufacturing with the purpose of (I) separating a portion of the population from dependence primarily upon agriculture; and (2) through sales of farm produce to people engaged in manufacturing creating a market for the farmers' surplus.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 96

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