USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 16
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Among the measures of Governor Pothier's administration were three proposed amend- ments to the Constitution, all of which were ratified November 6, 1928. The three amend- ments provided for (I) biennial instead of annual registration of voters; (2) reorganization of the Senate on the basis of one Senator for each town or city having less than 25,000 quali- fied electors ; and for each town or city having more than 25,000 qualified electors one Senator for each 25,000 qualified electors or major fraction thereof up to not exceeding six Senators ; (3) abolition of the property qualification in cities. Under the second amendment Providence elected four Senators in 1930 in districts, the provision for senatorial districts negativing the probability of a bloc of four Senators from Providence of one party.# The Senate of 1931 will include forty-two Senators, Narragansett, 1901, and West Warwick, 1913, being new towns chartered after 1900. The suffrage amendment excludes registry voters from partici- pation in financial town meetings, and permits the creation of budget commissions in towns or cities by the General Assembly with the approval of property voters expressed in a referen- dum. The amendment also covers transfers of real property and personal property voters to registry lists in the manner already established by usage.
In the election of 1930, the first in which the abolition of the property qualification was effective, a Republican candidate for United States Senator and the Republican state ticket were elected by small pluralities; and the party retained control of both branches of the Gen- eral Assembly. In three city elections-Central Falls, Providence and Woonsocket -- control passed from Republicans to Democrats. The Democratic party attained control of the city council in Providence for the first time in the nearly a century of city government.
#Three Democrats, one Republican, returned in 1930.
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CHAPTER XXIV. ECONOMICS AND NATIONAL POLITICS.
AD the Republican party continued to be merely an organization created to crys- talize public opinion on a single issue-resistance to extension of negro slavery, and its eventual abolition-it should have ceased to exist with the completion of the work of Reconstruction in the South after the war. For the same reason, General U. S. Grant should have been the last Republican President. But the Republican party had been built in part upon the ruins of the old Whig party of Henry Clay and the tradition of protection by tariff as a stimulus for American industry. Besides that, there were members of the party, who viewed the slavery issue with William H. Seward as an "irrepressible conflict" between free labor and slave labor,* because "the slave system is not only intolerable, unjust and inhuman toward the laborer, who, only because he is a laborer, it loads down with chains and converts into merchandise, but is scarcely less severe upon the freeman, to whom, only because he is a laborer from necessity, it denies facilities for employ- ment, and whom it expels from the community because it cannot enslave and convert into merchandise also. . . . . Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephem- eral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation." It was this struggle between free-labor and slave-labor, so keenly discerned and so clearly described by Seward, that explained the appeal of the Republican party to men of the North, drawn to it by intuition if not by under- standing. The Republican party was, therefore, because of its succession to the Whig party and because of its appeal to free labor, an economic party, as well as a humanitarian party ; with the settlement of the slavery issue by abolition and reconstruction, it continued as the party advocating Henry Clay's "American System."t
Once Rhode Island had exhausted measures for conciliation by participation in the Peace Congress of 1861 and by repealing the "personal liberty law," it was ready for war to pre- serve the union. Rhode Island's political support went to the Republican party as the party in control of the machinery of government of the United States, and charged with responsi- bility for the welfare of the nation because of its possession. Senators Henry B. Anthony and William Sprague were staunch adherents of the Lincoln government, and continued with the Republican majority after the assassination of the President. Both voted against President Johnson in the impeachment trial. Senator Sprague's affiliation with the Republican party was strengthened by his marriage with Kate Chase, daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury in President Lincoln's Cabinet until his resignation in December, 1864, to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Lincoln's appointment. "This amaz- ing woman," wrote Bowers,¿ "surpassed by none in history in the imperial sway she held over men's imaginations, suggested in her career the brilliant daughter of Burr. She had been the mistress of her father's household at an age when many girls still find amusement with their dolls. The public men she thus met at the table of Chase had greatly stimulated her intellec- tual growth, and the atmosphere of politics had early become part of herself. While still in
*Address at Rochester, New York, October 25, 1858.
Address in United States Senate, February 2, 1832.
#Tragic Era, 252.
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her teens she was one of the most astute politicians in Ohio. .... When Chase entered the Cabinet, she took the social sceptre from older hands, and at twenty-one she was the belle of the town (Washington). Her extraordinary beauty, grace, charm, her brilliant repartee, made her the darling of the Diplomatic Corps ; her suitors were legion; her triumph was complete. . Ambitious, brilliant, her imagination pictured her father President, and herself pre- siding at the White House. That her marriage at twenty-four to Senator Sprague, whose fortune was great, was dictated by ambition for her father seems probable. At that time she was the most dashing young woman in the country, the most popular in official society since Dolly Madison. Her wedding had been a social event, her trousseau that of a princess, her guests the most notable in the land, and Lincoln had claimed the privilege of a kiss. In less than a year she was the acknowledged arbiter of the most exclusive society. She dimmed the splendor of her raiment and outshone the brilliance of her jewels. . . Wherever this enchantress went she dominated the scene. . . .. Maybe it is the mind behind the beauty that makes her stand out regally among all the pretty women around her. . ... After all, it is not the mere physical beauty that makes her 'the enchantress,' but the distinctive intellec- tual charm of her manner, the proud poise of her exquisite head." The Chase-Sprague house in Washington-the Spragues made their home with the Chief Justice-became the centre of the brilliant social life of the capital city; when the Spragues removed for the summer to beautiful Canonchet at Narragansett Pier, Washington followed, and the Pier became the summer capital.
The Rhode Island Senators were most influential in Congress. Henry B. Anthony was a tower of intellectual strength. William Sprague had youth, money, ambition, an impetuous elan and an irresistible urge to activity in the causes which he supported ; his magnificent serv- ice in raising and equipping soldiers in the early years of the war, and his personal bravery on the battlefield had made him famous before he went to Washington as Senator from Rhode Island. His marriage to the most brilliant and most beautiful woman in America, and his connection by reason of the marriage with one of Lincoln's most able secretaries confirmed his position. In the House of Representatives the Union party Congressmen-William P. Shef- field and George H. Browne, both eminent lawyers-were replaced by Republicans-Thomas A. Jenckes and Nathan F. Dixon-in 1863.
The Republicans continued carrying both congressional districts by majorities exceeding 5000 biennially until 1870. Senator Sprague was interested in the tariff because of his large investments in textile factories and other protected manufacturing interests, and was influen- tial in promoting revision that favored Rhode Island. Senator Anthony, keenly appreciative of the effect of the tariff upon Rhode Island's economic welfare, supported Senator Sprague ; besides that, Senator Anthony was a powerful debater and vigorous exponent of his party's principles. In the House Congressman Jenckes devoted his energies to civil service reform, and achieved distinction for his reports and success in obtaining legislation that have linked his name forever with one of the most significant movements for the improvement of govern- mental service. The labor of Congressman Jenckes led directly to the appointment of the Civil Service Commission, and the gradual substitution of the merit for the spoils systems in appointments to positions in the federal service. Civil service reform was not complete; it had scarcely begun when Congressman Jenckes had ceased to be a member of Congress. Gar- field was to fall by an assassin's bullet before the nation was to awaken to the extent of the evil of the spoils system. But Jenckes had laid the foundation on which Cleveland, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson were to build the merit system. One of the most able supporters of Con- gressman Jenckes was another Rhode Islander-George William Curtis, brilliant writer, and editor at various times of the "New York Tribune," "Putnam's Monthly," "Harper's Weekly" and "Harper's Monthly." President Grant appointed Curtis as one of a commission to draw up rules and regulations for the civil service under the first civil service reform act, drafted
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by Jenckes, and passed in 1868. Congressman Jenckes was also author of the national bank- ruptcy act of 1867.
HOW A RHODE ISLAND VOTE ELECTED PRESIDENT HAYES-The single vote by which Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Samuel J. Tilden for the presidency in 1876-1877 was cast by a presidential elector chosen by the Rhode Island General Assembly after it had been discov- ered that George H. Corliss, who apparently had been elected, was Commissioner from Rhode Island of the United States Centennial Commission. The Constitution of the United States provides* that "no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed an elector." Governor Henry Lippitt asked the Supreme Court of Rhode Island to render an advisory opinion. The Court, Stiness, J., dis- senting, held (1) that Mr. Corliss, at the time of the popular election in November, held an "office of trust or profit under the United States" and was ineligible for election as presiden- tial elector ; (2) that he could not by declining the office create a vacancy that would give the other electors right under the statute to fill the vacancy, because he had not been elected and so could not "decline"; (3) that the provision for filling a vacancy in the statute covered only vacancies created after an election ; (4) that resignation of the "office of trust" could not cure the situation unless the resignation preceded election; (5) that the disqualification did not result in the election of the candidate next in vote but in failure to elect; (6) that the vacancy caused by failure to elect could be filled under the statute by election by the General Assembly in grand committee.f Stiness, J., dissenting, held that the incorporation of the Centennial Commission by act of Congress made the corporation the trustee, and that mem- bers of the corporation held under the corporation charter and not as officers of the United States ; hence Mr. Corliss was not disqualified. Governor Lippitt called a special session of the General Assembly to fill the vacancy, and the General Assembly, in grand committee, elected William A. Slater.
It will be recalled that, following the presidential election of 1876, contests from several Southern states were referred to an Electoral Commission created by Congress, and that the Electoral Commission decided contests in such manner that Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as President by one majority. The Rhode Island election was not contested, and the question was not taken before the Electoral Commission. On the recitation of facts above these pos- sibilities are suggested : (I) that the vote cast by William A. Slater was the decisive vote, inasmuch as Hayes could not obtain a majority without it; (2) that if the November election of 1876 in Rhode Island resulted in failure to elect the fourth Presidential elector, and nothing further had been done, the decisions by the Electoral Commission in favor of Hayes would have produced only a tie vote, which would have thrown the election of a President into the House of Representatives in Congress and would have assured the election of Tilden by the Democratic majority in the House; (3) that had the ineligibility of Mr. Corliss been inter- preted as clearing the way for the election of the candidate having the next highest vote, Til- den would have received the vote of one Rhode Island Democrat and would have been elected by that vote as President.
The closeness of the election of 1876, the long-continued suspense while the Electoral Commission was hearing evidence, the delays that carried the announcement of the result ultimately almost to March 4, the possibility that the Electoral Commission might fail, and eventually the doubt as to what action Congress might take when the Electoral Commission presented its report, all produced apprehension. Governor Lippitt, in his message to the General Assembly in 1877, expressed confidence in the "intelligence, patriotism and respect for law of the American people," thus: "I do not consider it my province, and it is certainly not my intention, to discuss at length in a message of this kind, the condition of national affairs,
*Article II, section 1.
tIn re George H. Corliss, 11 R. I. 638.
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despite their present uncertainty. I have not so far lost my faith in the intelligence, patriot- ism and respect for law of the American people as to anticipate any violent rupture of our government or its institutions. That some hot-headed partisans may see in the very close result of the presidential contest a circumstance that may lead to another civil war is apparent. It is equally so that the solid common sense of the mass of our people, entirely irrespective of party, would instantly crush any overt act in this direction. The time has not yet come, and this is not the generation, to pull down the Temple of Liberty erected by our fathers. I think I can answer for our own state, limited as she is in numbers and influence, that no such attempt would for a moment receive the support of any considerable number of the inhabitants. I have faith that the representatives of the people having this matter in charge will succeed in adjusting the difficulty. Whoever is found to have been legally elected will be inaugurated and receive the united support of the American people." The course of events in March, 1877, is familiar history. Samuel J. Tilden accepted the decision of the Electoral Commission and discouraged further agitation by his supporters. No one knew better than Tilden how ruth- lessly the grim soldier in the White House until March 4, 1877, would have suppressed rebellion before or after the inauguration of President Hayes. From the South federal troops were withdrawn, and the Democratic governments chosen by the white people were inaugurated. The Civil War and Reconstruction both were at an end. Tilden was right; Governor Lippitt's confidence in the "intelligence, patriotism and respect for law of the American people" had been justified.
WILLIAMS AND GREENE FOR HALL OF STATUARY-When, in 1864, Congress invited each of the states to contribute statues of two distinguished citizens for a national hall of statuary in the chamber in the Capitol at Washington formerly the meeting place of the National House of Representatives, Rhode Island was the first of the states to respond. Roger Williams and Nathanael Greene were selected for honor, and the General Assembly ordered a marble statue of each. The statue of Nathanael Greene was completed first, and was the first statue placed in the new Hall of Statuary. In the dedication suitable exercises were con- ducted, and notable addresses were delivered on the life and character of Nathanael Greene and Rhode Island's glorious history. The statue of Roger Williams does not purport to be a portrait, for no picture of the most remarkable pioneer in democracy of the seventeenth cen- tury had been preserved, from which the sculptor might copy. The sculptor attempted to express in a face of marked serenity an idealistic conception of nobility of character and earnestness of purpose, along with that search for truth that dominated the life of Roger Wil- liams. Otherwise the statue portrays a figure clad in the Puritan garb of the seventeenth century and carrying a large Bible. The statue of Greene is more nearly a portrait of the famous Revolutionary General, garbed in the uniform of a continental army officer. More lifelike than the statue of Williams, Greene's pose suggests the aggressive action that charac- terized his generalship. The statues are mounted on finely proportioned pedestals of West- erly granite, also the gifts of Rhode Island. An equestrian statue of Nathanael Greene, erected by Congress, adorns one of the squares in the capital city.
RHODE ISLAND CONGRESSMEN-The Rhode Island delegation in Congress-Senators Anthony and Sprague, and Representatives Dixon and Jenckes-remained unchanged through the Thirty-eighth to the Forty-first Congress, 1863-1871. Benjamin F. Eames replaced Jenckes and continued to represent the Eastern, or First District, as it was renamed in 1872, through the Forty-second to the Forty-fifth Congress, 1871-1879. James M. Pendleton succeeded Dixon as Representative from the Western, or Second District, 1871-1875, and was followed by Latimer W. Ballou, who served through the Forty-fourth to the Forty-sixth Congress, 1875-1881. All were Republicans, and all were elected by comfortable majorities, except Eames, who in 1870 was opposed by two Republicans as well as a Democrat and a Prohibi-
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tionist. Congressman Ballou was challenged in 1878 by Jerothmul B. Barnaby, who, as a can- didate for Governor in 1877, had reduced the Republican majority in the state election to less than 500. The time of electing Congressmen was changed in 1868 from spring to fall, and in 1870 to the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, thus coinciding with the presidential election in the quadrennium. Thereafter the vote polled in the congressional elections was large or small in four-year cycles, as the election fell in or out of presidential years. The Greenback party nominated candidates in 1876, 1878 and 1880, and polled its largest vote, 886, in 1878.
Rhode Island had not followed Senator Sprague in his opposition to resumption of specie payments. The General Assembly, in 1878, adopted resolutions approving the return to specie payments, and opposed the Bland bill with its concession to bimetalism. Governor Van Zandt called a special session of the General Assembly in April, 1878, to take such meas- ures as might be desirable in view of the anticipated repeal of the national bankruptcy act. A committee was appointed to draft an insolvency act. The election of Senator in 1874-1875, following the retirement of Senator Sprague, recalled the senatorial election of 1835, in the course of which twenty-one ballots were taken before Nehemiah R. Knight attained the required majority. The balloting in 1874-1875 resulted in the selection of General Ambrose E. Burnside in joint assembly on the twenty-eighth ballot on January 26, 1875. The election of a Senator to succeed Senator Sprague was undertaken at the May session, 1874, twenty-one ballots being taken between June 10 and June 25 without success. Nathan F. Dixon, who had represented the Western District in Congress, 1863-1871, and who had been defeated for reelection to the Forty-second Congress, was General Burnside's strongest opponent in the early balloting. Eventually most of the Dixon votes were cast for Burnside, after the former had withdrawn from the contest. Senator Burnside was reelected in 1880 for six years from March 4, 1881, but died September 13, 1881. Senator Anthony, whose first election was in 1858 for the term beginning March 4, 1859, was reelected four times, the last in 1882; he died September 2, 1884. The passing of Senators Anthony and Burnside marked practically the ending of an era.
Senator Anthony, from being a stalwart figure in Rhode Island state politics from the period of the Dorr War, as editor of the "Journal," the organ of the Republican party, and as one of a group of men who succeeded in maintaining a unique and effective control in the state government, assumed a position of relatively similar significance in the councils of the nation. In the Senate he became a strong debater, supporting measures for the vigorous prosecution of the Civil War. As a member of the committee on printing he achieved the establishment of the Government Printing Office, destined to be the largest printing plant, with the finest equipment, in the world, all part of Senator Anthony's project for better print- ing in the government's own shop. The capacity of the Government Printing Office, in spite of all the demands made upon it from day to day by Congress, has been tested but never strained. Senator Anthony was twice elected President pro tem of the United States Senate. His influence with his Rhode Island colleagues was marked, and they constantly, with the exception of Senator Sprague, looked to Senator Anthony for advice and counsel. His rela- tions with Senator Sprague were strained because of the latter's attitude on financial policies, and the quarrel which developed led Senator Sprague to list Senator Anthony and the "Jour- nal" as among his enemies. Perhaps it was the linking of Senator Anthony and General Burnside in one scathing address delivered by Senator Sprague in the Senate that confirmed a friendship between Senator Anthony and Senator Burnside that scarcely had been expected by those in Rhode Island who supported Burnside against Dixon in the senatorial election of 1874-1875. Burnside and Anthony were intimate and friendly colleagues so long as both remained in the Senate. Senator Anthony's immediate successor was William P. Sheffield, who was appointed by the Governor, November 19, 1884, to fill the vacancy caused by Senator Anthony's death, pending an election by the General Assembly, which chose Jonathan Chace.
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Governor Littlefield called a special session of the General Assembly in September 1881, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Burnside. The General Assembly elected Nelson W. Aldrich on October 5, 1881, and at the same session adopted resolutions on the deaths of President Garfield and Senator Burnside. Senator Aldrich was destined to become the dominating figure in federal politics known throughout the country as "General Manager of the United States." Both Senator Aldrich and Senator Chace had been members of Con- gress, when elected to the Senate, Aldrich as Representative from the First District from 1879, and Chace as Representative from the Second District from 1881. Henry J. Spooner was elected to succeed Aldrich in the Forty-seventh Congress at a special election on November 22, 1881; and Nathan F. Dixon to succeed Chace in the Forty-eighth Congress at a special election on February 5, 1885. Rhode Island's support of Republican candidates for the presi- dency was continued through the period from 1860 to 1892, although in the latter year the Republican majority dwindled to 754 in a total vote of 53,196. In state politics the Demo- cratic party had become an effective competitor at the time .*
MAJORITY VS. PLURALITY ELECTION-Henry J. Spooner, elected from the First District, November 22, 1881, to succeed Nelson W. Aldrich, was reelected by substantial majorities four times, and defeated for reelection the fifth time, 1890, by Oscar Lapham, Democrat, whom Spooner had defeated three times, 1882, 1886 and 1888. Congressional elections in the Second District were not so regular. Nathan F. Dixon, who was elected February 5, 1885, for the short term to March 4 as successor of Jonathan Chace, had been fourth on November 4, 1884, in a contest for the place for the term beginning March 4, 1885. The committee of the General Assembly which counted the Second District vote reported a majority of sixteen for William A. Pirce, Republican, in a total of 15,476. The committee had included in the count twenty-six ballots that had been found among ballots cast for presidential electors, and Charles H. Page, Democrat, who had been credited by the committee with 5995, contested the election for the reason that William A. Pirce had not a majority as required by the statute. The national House of Representatives on January 25, 1887 declared Pirce's seat vacant, for the reason that he had not been duly elected a member of the Forty-ninth Congress. The Supreme Court of Rhode Island, in an advisory opinion requested by the state House of Rep- resentatives, ruled that a member of Congress could be elected by plurality vote or by major- ity vote as prescribed by the state law.t Governor Wetmore also requested an opinion of the Supreme Court to determine whether he or the General Assembly order a new election to fill the vacancy created by the unseating of Pirce. The question was suggested (1) by the lan- guage of the Constitution of the United States, article I, section 2, "when vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies"; and (2) by the language of the Rhode Island election law providing "if no person have such majority the General Assembly shall order a new election at such time as they shall deem most expedient." The Supreme Court ruled that the statute referred to a vacancy caused by failure to elect, and that the Constitution referred to a vacancy after election .¿ "The only question," said the court, "is whether a vacancy which exists by reason of a failure to elect is . . . . a vacancy which has happened. .... We think it is .... for we suppose we may assume that William A. Pirce received a certificate of election, and that on the faith of it he was admitted to a seat in Congress, which he continued to occupy as rep- resentative de facto at least, until the seat was declared vacant." The Governor ordered another election, and on February 21, 1887, Charles H. Page, Democrat, received a plurality of 295 over William A. Pirce, for the term ending March 4, 1887. For the same seat for the term beginning March 4, 1887, in an election held on November 2, 1886, Charles H. Bradley,
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