Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 7

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. II > Part 7

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).

*Mauran vs. Smith, 8 R. I. 192.

635

RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR

State of Rhode Island," which would warrant payment of bounties, whereas said recruits were not so credited, and (ii) in charging a fee for issuing copies of records to the city of Fall River ; and (b) disobedience of orders in refusing to return to the office of the Adjutant General certain papers alleged to be "official." Governor Burnside, on June 4, 1866, quashed the charges, dissolved the court-martial, and ordered General Mauran released from "arrest" and returned to duty. Governor Burnside's order included a careful examination of the charges, finding that all but one were not sustained by facts, and that the last, disobedience of orders, indicated an error of judgment, excusable because made by the advice of legal counsel, when it appeared that the paper withheld actually was not an official document. The paper in dispute was a summary abstract of recruiting records taken off by General Mauran for use at a conference of adjutants general at Boston. The General Assembly ordered General Mauran reimbursed for loss of salary and expenses. The issue as to the actual accomplish- ment of Governor Smith in recruiting soldiers appears to have been vital as the cause for conflict. Acting Adjutant General Crandall's report for 1865 included a paragraph which read as follows : "The quota of Rhode Island under calls made by the President of the United States during the continuance of the war was 23,778. Of the gallant men thus furnished by the state, 13,338 were placed in the army and navy during the administration of your excel- lency (Governor Smith). The residue, being 10,440, entered the service under the admin- istration of your predecessors, Governors William Sprague and William C. Cozzens." Adju- tant General Mauran's comment, in his report for 1866, on this paragraph was: "The above statement is incorrect, and it is due to the administrations of Governors Sprague and Cozzens, as well as to history, that so gross an error should be exposed and corrected." General Mauran reported the number of men furnished by Rhode Island after May 26, 1863, when Governor Smith was inaugurated, as 7629. The War Department records credit Rhode Island with furnishing 23,699 men; if General Mauran was correct, Governor Sprague and Gover- nor Cozzens (in office less than three months) raised 16,070 men.

(3) Governor Smith also, by charges of irregularity in accounting and gross errors, precipitated a legislative investigation of the accounts of the Quartermaster General. The Governor alleged that the federal government had refused to repay Rhode Island for expen- ditures totalling a million and a quarter of dollars incurred in outfitting and equipping troops. The General Assembly's committee of investigation conducted an exhaustive examination of the records of the Quartermaster General, these indicating confusion due in part at least to the fact that three different individuals had held the office during the war period and had used somewhat differing methods of making entries on the books. The committee also heard a number of witnesses and called for examination clerks and officers who had had access to the books of account or who had been engaged in service for the department. Eventually it appeared that, aside from minor errors in the technique of bookkeeping, misunderstanding rested on the interpretation of entries referring to purchases of horses for artillery and cav- alry. An explanation was readily forthcoming: Governor Sprague with the purpose of send- ing Rhode Island units forward completely equipped and ready for instant service, and with characteristic initiative, had ordered horses purchased for cash (they could not be had other- wise) and had also ordered buying at the price necessary to obtain the horses wanted, disre- garding the price limits established by the government. The Governor had paid for the horses from his private resources or from money advanced by the Globe Bank. Horses had been billed to the government at the government prices. Money repaid by the government on account of horses had been returned to the Globe Bank, and had not been credited on the books of the General Treasurer. For this reason there were discrepancies between federal and state treasury accounts. At the end of the local tempest, Governor Burnside conducted suc- cessful negotiations with the federal government for reimbursing Rhode Island, and the Gen-

636

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

eral Assembly thanked him, and ordered further printing of Governor Smith's special mes- sage on war claims discontinued.

These several investigations, although they provoked bitter animosities, served a whole- some purpose in clearing away pretexts for further quarrelling and in reestablishing public confidence in the integrity of state officers. At the same period there was also an investi- gation of charges that boys in the Providence Reform School had been encouraged to enlist by officers who had collected bounties and hand money and converted both. No financial irregularity was revealed; it appeared that bounty and other money had been held by the officers of the Reform School and deposited properly by them in their legal capacity as guard- ians of the boys during minority. The favorable terms on which Rhode Island war claims were adjusted by Governor Burnside enabled Rhode Island to call for payment, on April I, 1868, the bond issue of $500,000 authorized on August 10, 1861. In the final accounting, which was conducted by General Charles H. Tompkins, employed as an efficiency agent by Governor Burnside, $5097.80 was disallowed, this amount including claims for charges clearly identified as properly state, and $2797.85 for interest, which the federal government did not allow unless ordered by act of Congress. The General Treasurer was found, in January, 1868, to be a defaulter to the amount of some $4000. Samuel A. Parker, whom he had dis- placed in 1866, after the former had served eleven years, was recalled to office, and served until his death, February 4, 1872.

SOLDIER MEMORIALS-Secretary of State Bartlett, in November, 1863, attended the dedi- cation of the soldiers' national cemetery at Gettysburg. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had purchased land additional to the cemetery there before the battle. Secretary Bartlett's report to the Governor mentioned the oration delivered by Edward Everett, but not the address made by President Lincoln, which, rather than the oration, has become associated in America with Gettysburg. Commissioners from eighteen loyal states met on the occasion of the dedication and agreed to recommend to their states a plan for joint action by the states to establish and maintain the cemetery. The General Assembly cordially approved the plan and resolved that Rhode Island "will sacredly perform her part in perpetuating the memory of our heroic dead who there slumber on the field of their hard-fought but triumphant con- flict against the armed foes of our common country." A commission to represent Rhode Island was appointed, and money was appropriated to assist in carrying forward the enter- prise, which consisted of removing the union dead from graves near the places where they had fallen to a compact cemetery, with a section assigned to each state, and of erecting a suit- able monument for the cemetery, with marking stones for each grave. At the end of 1864, 3391 bodies had been moved to the new cemetery. A marble monument, the base of Rhode Island granite from Westerly, was erected. Under the provisions of the original plan, Penn- sylvania held title to the cemetery in trust for other contributing states; in 1870, state inter- ests were ceded to the United States government, which undertook to provide perpetual care and maintenance. At a reunion of veterans of Union and Confederate armies on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, the oration was delivered by Roswell B. Burchard, then Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island. Rhode Island made similar provision for joint cooperation in establishing and maintaining a national cemetery at Antietam.

Other monuments to Rhode Island troops who participated in the Civil War have been erected elsewhere than in Rhode Island, at Andersonville, Georgia, at the site of the Confeder- ate prison, 1903; Vicksburg National Military Park, at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in honor of soldiers who participated in the siege, 1908; at Newbern, North Carolina, in honor of Rhode Island soldiers who died in North Carolina, 1909; at Gettysburg, and other battlefields.

A committee of the General Assembly to which had been referred a memorial for the

WEST WARWICK HIGH SCHOOL

SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WEST WARWICK

637

RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR

erection of a monument over the grave of Brigadier General Isaac P. Rodman recommended that action be postponed until the end of the war, and then that a monument "becoming the affluence of the state and the memory of her illustrious heroes in this war with the rebels be speedily erected ; that the site for the same be some central and prominent spot, where citizens can most often behold it, and where the rising generation can read the names of their bene- factors, catch their spirit, and ponder upon the priceless legacy of freedom bequeathed to them by their valor." A committee, including Governor Burnside, was appointed in May, 1866, to recommend a suitable site and to obtain a design for a monument "to the memory of the officers and men in the army and navy of the United States from the state of Rhode Island who fell in battle and who died of their wounds or from sickness in the late rebellion." The committee recommended a site at the westerly end of Exchange Place in Providence and a design submitted by Randolph Rogers of Rome, sculptor. Action was authorized immedi- ately, but construction was delayed because of the Franco-Prussian War, which for a time interrupted the delivery of bronze castings, which were made at Munich. The monument was completed and dedicated, September 16, 1871. The monument is of bronze and Rhode Island blue granite from Westerly, rising forty-three feet, the ten-foot bronze statue at the top representing America (militant) as at the close of the war, with one hand resting on her sheathed sword, and carrying in her right hand a wreath of laurel and in her left a wreath of immortelles. Beneath the granite plinth on which America stands are bronze stars, with wreaths and festoons of oak and laurel. On the face of the next lower section are the arms of Rhode Island and of the United States, in bronze, with bronze fasces in the corners to indi- cate the strength in union. The dedication, "Erected by the people of Rhode Island to the brave men who died that their country might live," is in the next section below, which is flanked at the corners by four bronze statues, each seven feet high, representing Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and the Sailor. On the next section below are four bassi-relievi, with life- size figures representing War, Victory, Peace and Emancipation, and twelve panels on the projecting abutments which support statues, carrying the names of 1727 Rhode Island sol- diers and sailors who died in the war. Around the base are iron siege mortars with piles of cannon balls. The monument has been moved twice since 1871, each time in an easterly direction ; in 1930 it occupied the centre of an attractive park in the great open square front- ing city hall, federal building and union railway station, the civic centre of the city of Roger Williams.

Other monuments in the same area are (1) an heroic equestrian statue of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, dedicated July 4, 1887; (2) a statue of Colonel Henry Harrison Young, Chief of Scouts, dedicated July 12, 1911; and (3) the Hiker monument to the veterans of the Spanish-American War, dedicated July 12, 1925. The Burnside monument first occupied a site at the easterly end of Exchange Place, before the construction of the federal building. Other monuments commemorating the services of the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War have been erected in Bristol, Central Falls, Newport, North Kingstown, North Providence, Scituate, South Kingstown, Warren, West Warwick and Woonsocket, and two cemetery monuments, at Bristol and at St. Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket. The monument in West Warwick was erected while West Warwick was part of the town of Warwick.

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC-The Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of veterans of the Civil War, based upon principles of fraternity, charity and loyalty, was extended to Rhode Island within a year of the meeting of the first post, at Decatur, Illinois, April 16, 1866. Prescott Post, Providence, was chartered April 12, 1867. The influence of Rhode Island on the early history of this patriotic society appears in the appointment by Gen- eral John A. Logan, second Commander-in-Chief, of General James Shaw, Jr., and Captain

638

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

William W. Douglas in 1868 as members of a committee "to revise rules, regulations and ritual"; the election and reelection of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside as third Com- mander-in-Chief, 1871 and 1872; and the holding of the eleventh annual encampment at Providence in 1877. General Burnside was also first Commander of the Department of Rhode Island, 1868. Following Prescott Post, other posts were organized in Rhode Island, as follows : Ballou Post, Central Falls, September 2, 1867; Slocum Post, Providence, February 27, 1868; Rodman Post, Providence, March 23, 1868; Ives Post, Providence, April 23, 1868; Thomas Post, Apponaug, June 5, 1872; Tower Post, Pawtucket, April 11, 1874; Budlong Post, Westerly, April 14, 1874; Lawton Post, Newport, December 25, 1875; Arnold Post, Providence, January 9, 1877; Burnside Post, Shannock, December 4, 1882; Reno Post, East Greenwich, February 17, 1883; Sedgwick Post, Peacedale, April 18, 1884; Farragut Post, Riverside, May 9, 1884; Smith Post, Woonsocket, September 1, 1884; McGregor Post, Phenix, December 3, 1885; Babbitt Post, Bristol, August 21, 1885; Baker Post, Wickford, May II, 1886; Nichols Post, Rockland, May 15, 1886; Bucklin Post, East Providence, Octo- ber 26, 1886; Warren Post, Newport, February 1, 1888; Lincoln Post, Hope Valley, July 28, 1890; Goddard Post, Ashton, July 31, 1890; Tobin Post, Bristol, January 15, 1891 : Browne Post, Providence, April 16, 1891; Logan Post, Ashaway, November 19, 1891; Guild Post, Pascoag, April 29, 1892. Sixty-five years after Appomattox the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Rhode Island, continues to hold its annual encampment, although the membership at the end of 1930 was less than 150, and several posts had been mustered out with the death of the last surviving comrade. The Rhode Island Department Commanders, a distinguished line, have been: Ambrose E. Burnside, 1868; Horatio Rogers, 1869; Charles R. Brayton, 1870-1871; Elisha H. Rhodes, 1872-1873; Edwin Metcalf, 1874; Edwin C. Pomroy, 1875; Charles H. Williams, 1876; Henry J. Spooner, 1877; Fred A. Arnold, 1878; Henry R. Barker, 1879; Charles C. Gray, 1880; William H. P. Steere, 1881; Henry F. Jenks, 1882; Philip S. Chase, 1883; Andrew K. McMahon, 1884; Eugene A. Cory, 1885; Theodore A. Barton, 1886; Benjamin L. Hall, 1887; Gideon Spencer, 1888; Alonzo Wil- liams, 1889; Benjamin F. Davis, 1890; Benjamin H. Child, 1891; David S. Ray, 1892; George T. Cranston, 1893; Charles H. Baker, 1894; Daniel R. Ballou, 1895; William E. Stone, 1896; Livingston Scott, 1897; Samuel W. K. Allen, 1898; Charles O. Ballou, 1899; Walter A. Read, 1900; Charles P. Moise, 1901 ; George H. Chenery, 1902; James S. Hud- son, 1903; Joseph J. Wooley, 1904; Ezra K. Parker, 1905; George L. Greene, 1906; Edward Wilcox, 1907; William O. Milne, 1908; Francello G. Jillson, 1909; Charles H. Ewer, 1910; Ezra Dixon, 1911 ; Thomas M. Holden, 1912; George H. Cheek, 1913; Gilbert Wilson, 1914; Henry J. Pickersgill, 1915; Joseph Gough, 1916; Augustine A. Mann, 1917; Murdock C. Mckenzie, 1918; Fred A. Burt, 1919; William Massie, 1920; Fred S. Oatley, 1921; Samuel A. Whelden, 1922; Zophar Skinner, 1923; George R. Saunders, 1924; William F. Comrie, 1925; Robert M. Pollard, 1926; Christopher H. Carpenter, 1927; William H. Dunham, 1928; Charles H. Lewis, 1929 and 1930. Patriotic associations auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic have been organized and continue in Rhode Island as follows: Woman's Relief Corps, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Auxiliary to Sons of Union Vet- erans of the Civil War.

The first celebration of Decoration Day in Rhode Island occurred May 30, 1869, for which and the preceding day the Civil War battleflags in the custody of the state were loaned to the Grand Army of the Republic. Rhode Island, in 1874, was the first state to make Dec- oration Day a legal holiday. The name of the holiday subsequently was changed to Memorial Day, to conform to general practice. The parade of union veterans escorted by military and

639

RHODE ISLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR

civic societies, the decoration of graves with flowers, and other ceremonies fitting to a day devoted to cherished memories continue.

For thirty years Grand Army Flag Day has been observed annually on February 12, in honor of the Flag, the Grand Army of the Republic and Abraham Lincoln, in public and private schools throughout Rhode Island. For this day the Commissioner of Education pub- lished annually a program of patriotic selections for distribution to school children in editions which reached 95,000 in 1930. Flag Day is one of the best known of all days in the school calendar, and the school children of Rhode Island for two generations have been taught and have learned well the lesson of honor to the Boys in Blue, who carried the Flag from 1861 to 1865. "Some one had said that a nation is known by the character of the men it crowns. Measured by this standard our nation may claim the highest honor because of the coronation observance on the annual memorial occasions. The crowns it brings to the graves of its patri- otic dead are not such as adorn the brows of kings-not rich with jewels and precious stones, but crowns diademed with tears and emotions from loving hearts, gems from the pure essence of the eternal ---- crowns that will shine on and on with unfading splendor."*

The Grand Army of the Republic became almost immediately after its organization in Rhode Island a most influential factor in the civic and political life of the state. The people rejoiced as opportunity was afforded to reward a valiant soldier by election to public office, beginning with General Burnside, who was elected as Governor by large majorities in 1866, 1867 and 1868, and by the General Assembly as Senator in 1875 and in 1880, an office which he held from March 4, 1875, until he died, September 13, 1881. The Grand Army promoted the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution, granting to veterans of foreign birth, cit- izens of the United States, suffrage privileges equal to those granted to native-born veterans ; the amendment was approved by the people, April 7, 1886, becoming Article VI of amend- ments. The Grand Army was interested in the welfare of soldiers and obtained legislation providing for the appointment of a State Board of Soldiers' Relief to administer public relief for "worthy dependent soldiers and sailors . . .. and dependent worthy families of such deceased soldiers and sailors." The Rhode Island Soldiers' Home for men who served in the army and navy of the United States and were honorably discharged was established at Bristol, and dedicated, May 21, 1891. Provision was made also for the burial of honorably dis- charged veterans who died without means, and for the erection of headstones suitably marked with the name of the deceased and the organization to which he belonged. The Grand Army also marked the graves of its members with an iron reproduction of the fraternal emblem. Not all of the Grand Army's interest was in the welfare of its members, however; the Grand Army was a consistent advocate of the public good, and extended its charity to many worthy causes. At the silver jubilee of the organization in Rhode Island a gift of $10,000 to estab- lish and endow the Grand Army fellowship at Brown University was announced.

*Jean B. Sabate.

CHAPTER XXIII. IDEALS AND STATE POLITICS.

HE state Constitution, whether it be viewed as a compromise or as the maximum concession that the landholders were willing to make to the demands of Dorr and his followers, established ( I) a bill of rights not granted by, and hence not sub- ject to change by, the General Assembly; (2) a new class of voters, native male citizens of the United States qualified by registration and payment of taxes; (3) a plan for representation in the General Assembly incorporating two principles, equal repre- sentation for towns, and representation approximately on the basis of population; (4) an independent judiciary ;? (5) a method of amendment.

Three of these -- suffrage, representation, and amendment ---- became major issues in Rhode Island politics because (I) in America suffrage seeks a non-discriminating status; (2) the factors of representation are continually in flux because of shifting population; and (3) the method of amendment has been made more exacting with other constitutional changes. The general truth of the first two statements is scarcely debatable, whatever view one may hold as to the necessity or desirability for change; the truth of the third statement appears in this : Under the practice prevailing in 1842 of electing a new General Assembly in April, an amend- ment might be proposed at the January session by the General Assembly whose term expired in May, might be approved by the following General Assembly at the May session, and might be submitted to the people at any time thereafter specified by the General Assembly. It was possible to carry the process through in three to five months. Under present conditions a constitutional amendment may be proposed and approved by two General Assemblies in suc- cessive years, and submitted to the people at a special election ordered for the purpose; but the practices of avoiding special elections and of biennial elections tend to stretch the amend- ing process over several years.

PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS-The peoplet appeared more content than the politicians, members of the General Assembly, with the Constitution of 1842. Up to 1864 only four amendments had been ratified and had become part of the Constitution-(I) to abolish the requirement that lists of voters be certified to the General Assembly; (2) to trans- fer the pardoning power from the General Assembly to the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; (3) to reduce the number of stated sessions of the General Assembly annually and the number of designated meeting places, or state capitals, from five to two; (4) to permit qualified electors absent from the state in the actual military service of the United States to vote for federal and general state officers. The people, 6282 against, 4570 for, rejected in 1853, a proposition to call a convention to form a new constitution, and in the same year, 7613 against, 3778 for, rejected a proposition to call a convention to revise the constitution with reference to a limited program. They rejected also, three propositions to abolish the registry tax, 1854, 1856, and 1864; and propositions to permit registration within twenty days of election, 1854; to establish a poll tax, 1856 and 1864; to increase the pay of members of the General Assembly, 1856; and to establish for naturalized citizens of the United States a suffrage right after twenty-one years of residence, 1856. Other proposi- tions were presented in General Assembly, but did not reach the stage of the referendum.

¡Taylor vs. Place, 4 R. I. 324. #Voters.

R. I .- 41

642

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

Three propositions to amend, (I) to establish a literacy qualification, "evidence of ability to read the Constitution"; (2) to abolish the registry tax; and (3) that "no sectarian or denom- inational school or institution shall receive any aid or support from the revenues of the state, nor shall any tax be imposed upon the people or property of the state in aid of any such school or institution," were rejected in 1871.

Three other proposed amendments were rejected in 1876, thus: (1) To repeal section 17 of article IV of the Constitution, which as it required continuance to the following session of the General Assembly and advertisement of petitions for charters of business corporations, operated to inhibit enactment of a general corporation statute; the vote to reject was 9418 to 9187 to approve; (2) to repeal the registry tax, 11,432 reject, 10,700 approve; the amend- ment would permit native male citizens resident two years in Rhode Island to vote if regis- tered; (3) to permit honorably discharged loyal soldiers and sailors of the Civil War to vote on the same qualifications otherwise as native citizens; rejected 11,956 to 11,038. The votes on these three propositions were so decisive as to suggest determined opposition to any change, and that the voters enfranchised under the Constitution of 1842 had become almost as jealous of their privileges and prerogatives as had been the landholders previous to the Dorr move- ment. Governor Henry Lippitt, in his message to the General Assembly, expressed regret that the proposed amendments had been rejected, saying: "That relating to the registry tax particularly, if it had been adopted, would have enabled the legislature to provide for a tax in some other form, and thereby remove from our state politics a cause of corruption which has increased wonderfully of late years." His excellency's allegation of "corruption" referred to the payment of registry taxes in bulk by candidates for office or their agents or by represen- tatives of political parties, who filed lists of names to be registered and paid one dollar per name, usually on the last day for completing registration. In some years rival political agents watched each other warily, with the purpose (I) of saving the registry money if it were apparent that the other planned no serious contesting of the election; or (2) of qualifying a large number of his own party if the other were careless; or (3) of rivalling and surpassing the others in the number qualified by registration. Manipulation of the voting list by paying registry taxes was not a violation of the stringent act forbidding bribery enacted in 1864, prac- tically by unanimous agreement, after party leaders had become convinced of the evil of pur- chasing votes or of paying electors to refrain from voting; but those who paid registry taxes in bulk assumed that the payment created an obligation which would be recognized by the voters thus qualified. Furthermore, the practice of bulk payment tended to demoralize par- ties, because voters, instead of supporting their party, became dependent upon their party chiefs for payment of the registry tax; the tone of party allegiance was distinctly lower, therefore. Repeal of the registry tax was the simplest expedient for abolishing the practice ; in addition, repeal would clear the way, as indicated by Governor Lippitt, for another type of tax, which probably would produce a larger revenue.

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. II, Part 7

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