USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 96
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Rhode Island is at times a winter paradise, but for the most part it is Summer Land, with long days of unclouded skies, moderate heat in midsummer, and beautiful days of spring and autumn. God blessed Rhode Island and made it His cozy corner in New England.
CHAPTER XLIII. RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.
ITHIN ten years from the earliest permanent settlement in 1636 the people of Rhode Island, under compacts exemplifying popular sovereignty, not only had established in practice the then novel theory of complete liberty of conscience expounded by Roger Williams, but were challenging jealous neighbors and the whole world with a successful experiment in democracy entirely without precedent in respect for individual liberty and opinion, and in the use of devices such as the initiative and referendum for ascertaining the people's wishes. Fortunately the Warwick Patent obtained by Roger Williams, with the purposes principally of establishing legal sanction and of forestalling the ambitions of greedy neighbors, interposed scarcely an obstacle to continuing the political experiment and none at all to religious liberty. Although the Charter of 1663 imposed a repre- sentative form of government, it was so liberal in its conception and provisions as to establish a self-governing republic and to safeguard liberty of conscience. The people of Rhode Island, already skilled in the practices of free government, experienced no difficulty in adapting the provisions of the Charter to suit their purposes, and in continuing under it the principle of responsibility of officers to the people; they displayed political genius (1) in modifying an impracticable election plan by inventing proxy voting and the modern system of elections; (2) in wise exercise of suffrage in such manner as always to control their representatives; (3) in remodelling the General Assembly as a bicameral legislature to establish a balance betwixt the whole colony interest and the towns as municipal units; (4) in developing agencies and offices for accomplishing purposes arising because of growth of the colony in resources and population and not clearly foreseen in 1663; and (5) in resisting the pretensions of powerful and vindic- tive enemies in America and of ambitious royalist agents commissioned by the mother country or so completely out of harmony with democracy as to wish to destroy it. With the Indians Rhode Island had no quarrels; the early settlers found that friendship could be maintained through fair treatment of the aborigines. Although the colony suffered from Indian depreda- tions during King Philip's War, in which the colony had no part, nevertheless, Rhode Island profited ultimately, as that war broke the power of the New England tribes and banished the Narragansett Indians as a factor to be reckoned with in later years.
The colonial period* lends itself to summary with reference to movements rather than chronological periods, as follows: I. Persecution and migration, including the quarrel with theocracy in Massachusetts, the establishment of democracy in Rhode Island, the vindictive pursuit and punishment of Rhode Islanders by the Puritans, and the welcome which Rhode Island extended to all who were persecuted. II. A quest for legal sanction, through Patent and Charter, as a defence alike from pretenders within and foes without, seeking to end the lively experiment in democracy. III. Boundary disputes with Connecticut and Massachusetts, each greedy for land and for access to Narragansett Bay. IV. Resistance to the pretensions of royal agents neglectful of Charter rights and privileges. V. Conquest of the environment by thrift, and the acquisition of wealth by commerce and industry. VI. Participation in colonial wars as loyal and dutiful subjects of the throne, invariably with glory and distinction for Rhode Island arms on land and sea, particularly on the latter. VII. Change from enthusiastic loyalty to suspicion, and eventually to studied resistance to aggression on the part of ministers and Parli- ament, pursuing the mercantile policy of exploiting colonies ; a distinct change of front follow-
*Chapters I to XI.
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ing the Seven Years War. VIII. Preparation for maintenance, by force of arms if necessary, of the rights and liberties granted by the Charter and guaranteed by natural law. IX. End of colonial status as the quarrel persisted, by the Declaration of Independence on May 4, 1776. In seven of the nine movements the people of Rhode Island were engaged in safeguarding and maintaining democracy ; in the two others-colonial wars and wresting wealth from the soil and sea-they continued the unremitting struggle that was characteristic of the 140 years from 1636 to 1776.
FROM REVOLUTION TO UNIONT-Than Rhode Island no state was more exposed during the Revolution to British reprisals ; yet Rhode Island never faltered in devotion to liberty and independence. In spite of British occupation of its fairest land, the state's revolutionary record is characterized (I) by unfailing and unequalled loyalty in maintaining quotas of troops in the continental armies from the siege of Boston to the surrender at Yorktown; (2) by the heroic deeds of brilliant soldiers and sailors conspicuous even in the setting of a glorious struggle against odds which appeared to be overwhelming ; and (3) by contribution of economic resour- ces surpassing the obligation determined by Congress, until the state had become impoverished and desolate, the sacrifices of the people at home reaching eventually almost to equal the suffer- ings of soldiers in the field. From the Rhode Island point of view, the Revolution was a cul- minating effort to maintain the liberty granted by the Charter of 1663; Rhode Island was jealous, therefore, in preserving what had been gained by acknowledgment of independence in the treaty of peace, and reluctant to concede to Congress functions which might be exercised to create a new tyranny. Rhode Island's persistent refusal to consent to an impost to be levied by Congress was consistent with resistance to the taxing measures proposed by Parliament after 1764. Lest Rhode Island's resistance to the impost be stigmatized as selfish and neglectful of the common welfare, it should be recalled that Rhode Island offered to concede the impost if guaranteed that the public lands, spoils of the successful war, would be administered by Con- gress for the benefit of all the states and not held exclusively by the states within whose real or claimed boundaries they lay. The studied ill-treatment of Rhode Island's delegates to Congress, amounting almost to persecution and threat of death, recalled the struggle of colonial days against hostile neighbors ; it was so little reassuring that it confirmed Rhode Island suspicion that measures intended to strengthen the Confederation were fraught with danger for the least of the thirteen. Eventually Rhode Island must be wooed and won to ratification of the new Constitution by the Bill of Rights incorporated in the first ten amendments. Internally the dis- tress of war had precipitated a quarrel between agrarian and commercial interests which was brought to focus on the issue of emitting paper currency as legal tender. Yet the people, in spite of discouraging relations with the Confederation and of internal discord, set themselves reso- lutely to the work of rehabilitation.
COMPLETE RESTORATION-Within a quarter of a century after 1776 prosperity had been restored through the profits of adventurous foreign commerce and the development of manu- facturing. With confidence reestablished, catastrophes such as the flood of 1807 and the Sep- tember gale of 1815, the last of which entailed losses totalling $1,500,000, seemed rather to stimulate to fresh effort than to cause depression. In the seventy years following ratification of the federal Constitution, 1790-1860,¿ the more significant movements in Rhode Island were : I. Commercial and industrial-exploitation of foreign commerce to test its utmost possibilities, and then abandonment of commerce and reinvestment in factories ; rise of cotton and woolen textile industries, and other industries related to both, particularly the building of machinery, and other metal trades. II. Financial-the development of a banking system adequate (I) to furnish the credit necessary for expanding commerce and industry ; (2) to provide a medium of
+Chapters XII to XIV.
#Chapters XV to XXI.
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exchange in a period in which specie was inadequate in quantity, and (3) to facilitate use of credit instruments of various types familiar to merchants. III. Social and economic-the trans- formation of the state from an agricultural community producing by husbandry a surplus for export, into an industrial community, importing food to sustain an increasing urban popula- tion, divorced from the soil and becoming cosmopolitan as it was recruited by immigration. IV. Related to travel and transportation-building a system of roads and bridges to carry overland transportation in carts and wagons increased in volume by the movement of raw material to supply factories and of factory products to tidewater ; building of the Blackstone Canal; the construction of steam railway lines ; the substitution of steamboats for sailing vessels. V. Edu- cational-revival of colonial interest in education ; the first American effort, in 1800, to establish a state system of free public schools; the development of a state-town public school system reaching every town, with state support after 1828. VI. Political-evolution of governmental agencies commensurate with the developing body politic; culmination of agitation for (I) a state Constitution, (2) extension of suffrage, (3) equalization of representation, (4) an inde- pendent judiciary, in the Dorr movement, and the adoption of a state Constitution in 1842. VII. National-the development gradually of what might be called an American attitude, with- out, however, surrendering the Rhode Island point of view. Thus the coolness of Rhode Island toward the War of 1812 and the Mexican War because the quarrels seemed almost with- out justification, yielded to enthusiasm for the war to save the union when the latter was threatened by the slavery issue.
The outstanding events of the period, 1790-1860, were: Ratification of the Constitution, and the beginning of cotton manufacturing by Samuel Slater, 1790; chartering of Providence Bank, 1791 ; enactment of free school law, 1800; flood, which carried away bridges, 1807; war with Great Britain, 1812; Perry's victory at Lake Erie, 1813; September gale, 1815; Black- stone Canal chartered, 1823 ; State public school law carrying annual appropriation of $10,000 and an appropriation of $5000 to establish the permanent school fund, enacted, 1828; race riot in Providence, 1831 ; election machinery failed completely and general officers held over, 1832; economic depression affecting textile industry, 1834; first steam train between Providence and Boston, 1835 ; panic, industrial depression, suspension of specie payments by banks, 1837 ; land- holders' constitutional convention, 1841, constitution rejected, 1842 ; people's constitutional con- vention, 1841, constitution approved in irregular election ; Dorr revolution, 1842; new state Constitution adopted and ratified, 1842; government under Constitution inaugurated, 1843; Henry Barnard conducted official survey of public schools, 1844; Rhode Island opposed Mex- ican War, 1847 ; personal liberty, or anti-fugitive slavery, law, 1848; secret ballot law, 1851 ; capital punishment abolished, 1852 ; complete revision of statutes, 1857; panic and industrial depression, 1857; Union party organized on eve of Civil War, and William Sprague elected as Governor. 1860; boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts adjusted, 1861.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES AND AFTER-Although Rhode Island participated in the peace conference of 1861 and repealed the "personal liberty law" as a concession to the South, no state displayed greater zeal and loyalty than Rhode Island in raising soldiers for defence of the union. Governor Sprague, within a week after the first call issued by President Lincoln, sent forward the first contingent of Rhode Island detached militia. Rhode Island soldiers opened and closed the battle of Bull Run and participated in most of the hard fighting throughout the war. Rhode Island complied with every request promptly, and emerged from the war with a state debt incurred for the payment of bounties and other expenditures not reim- bursed by the federal government .* Following the war the banking system was reorganized as most state banks were incorporated as national banks .; The cotton textile industry, which had
*Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXVII.
R. I .- 75
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suffered during the war for want of raw staple, was revived immediately, and participated in the prosperity of the wool and metal industries, both of which had thrived. Then came the panic of 1873, affecting the nation, and Rhode Island particularly because of the failure of the house of Sprague .¿ Banks closed their doors never to reopen them, factories ceased to operate and thousands lost employment, credit evaporated, land values shrank, poverty and actual want replaced plenty and comfort, apprehension succeeded confidence as disaster after disaster spread the ruin precipitated by the collapse of the state's greatest industrial and financial organization. For the time being the city of Providence carried forward the Brook Street improvement as a project for relief of the poor ; and the construction of buildings for the group of state institu- tions at Cranston afforded employment for many. Litigation incidental to readjustment of the Sprague interests continued over a decade, ** and the bitter struggle to control the Sprague properties became the paramount issue in one of the hardest fought political campaigns in the history of Rhode Island, when the ex-Governor, running as Democratic candidate for Gov- ernor, in 1883, sought through popular election to regain ascendancy and the right to dictate the election of a new supreme court more favorable to him than the court for the time being.tt Politically, the ex-Governor had reawakened the Democratic party from the depression of the lean years following the Civil War; under his leadership it became a strong, militant party. The vear 1886 was notable for ( I) the creation by the General Assembly of a system of twelve judicial district courts to replace the older justice courts of limited jurisdiction ; and (2) rati- fication by the people of two amendments to the Constitution, (a) one establishing bone dry prohibition, and (b) the other granting suffrage to naturalized veterans of the Civil War "upon the same conditions and under and subject to the same restrictions as native born citizens." The prohibitory amendment was annulled in 1889, after three years of unsatisfactory trial. The suffrage amendment had been urged at various times during and following the war as a just recognition of patriotism ; it was approved 18,903-1477. In the election of 1887 the Democratic party elected John W. Davis as the first Democratic Governor, with the exception of Governor Sprague, 1861-1863, after Governor Philip Allen, 1851-1853. The Bourn amendment, abolish- ing discrimination betwixt naturalized and native born citizens and substituting the poll tax for the registry tax of 1842, was proposed in January, 1887 ; approved by a second General Assem- bly in November, 1887, and ratified by the people in the spring election of 1888. The Repub- lican party elected Royal C. Taft as Governor in 1888, but thereafter, under the majority rule, there was no popular election of Governor until 1892, although John W. Davis, the Democratic candidate led Herbert W. Ladd for three successive years. Herbert W. Ladd was chosen by the General Assembly in 1889 and 1891, and John W. Davis in 1890. D. Russell Brown, Repub- lican, was elected in 1892, and held over in 1893, when the Senate and House of Representatives failed to meet to canvass and count the popular vote, which on the count by wardens had favored the Democratic candidate with a small plurality. Out of the crisis came an amendment to the Constitution, 1893, substituting plurality for majority election.
Thereafter the Democratic tide receded, and the Republicans were uniformly successful until 1902 by pluralities ranging from 6507 to 11,519, in total votes ranging 10,000 less than during the period of struggle. The explanation lies partly in the accomplishment, through the Bourn amendment and plurality election amendment, of major reforms in state politics, and the dissatisfaction of many Rhode Island Democrats with the economic policy of the national party in the latter's support of bimetalism.
Aside from the intense political struggle with which the decade opened, the years from 1890 to 1900 were marked by other events of moment. Throughout the period the state carried forward a program of public improvement by the acquisition of land and construction of public buildings,* including the marble State House, the main building for Rhode Island Normal
#Chapter XXIX.
** Chapter XXVI.
ttChapter XXIII.
*Chapter XXV.
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School, three new armories, two new courthouses, buildings for Rhode Island State College, for the Soldiers' Home at Bristol, for Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf, for Oaklawn and for Sockanosset Schools, a campground for the militia, and the cutting of a breachway from the great pond to the ocean at Block Island. The beginning of a bonded state debt appeared in the financing of the construction of the State House. War with Spaint was declared in the spring of 1898, and Rhode Island responded with the patriotic zeal that had been displayed in other wars. Railroads within the state had been consolidated and brought under a single administra- tion by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Company,# which in 1900 operated 190 of 210 miles of steam railways in Rhode Island. The cove in Providence had been filled in the earlier years of the decade, and the new Union railroad station was completed and opened. The decade had witnessed the substitution of electric tramways for horse cars, and a rapid extension of electric traction, of which 218 miles were operated in 1900. In the same period also the Gen- eral Assembly had enacted the exclusive public service franchise act of 1891, the supplementary exclusive franchise act of 1892, and the so-called "perpetual" exclusive franchise act of 1898.
A commission appointed in 1897 to consider amendments to the Constitution reported in 1898 a "revised constitution," ** which was twice submitted to and rejected by the people in 1898 and 1899. In November, 1900, the people ratified amendment XI, which abolished the Newport session of the General Assembly, defined the membership of the grand committee, and changed the date of the annual election from April to November.
OPENING OF TWENTIETH CENTURY-Factors that were to determine the political situation early in the new century had been accumulating rapidly. They were related in the first instance to the operation of article IX of amendments to the Constitution, which, incidentally to per- mitting the General Assembly to provide by general law for the creation and control of cor- porations, abolished section 17 of article IV of the Constitution, which required the continu- ance of petitions for business charters over an election of a new General Assembly, with public notice of pendency. The exclusive franchise acts followed, creating discussion because of the unusual privileges conferred by them upon public service corporations. The latter, particularly street railways, had lost popularity because of disputes over transfers, fenders, and street widening projects. The perpetual franchise act of 1898 was construed as effectually placing the street railways beyond municipal regulation, and thus as striking definitely at local autonomy. The setting up of canvassing boards and a state returning board, much as these eventually tended to restrict manipulation of ballots, and the appointment of police commissions in New- port, Providence, and Tiverton were evaluated as further invasions of municipal rights.
Then came the street railway strike in June, 1902, following refusal by the railway com- pany to comply with the provisions of a ten-hour law for certain employes. The consequence immediately was an extraordinary registration of voters before June 30, 1902, in anticipation of the fall election, and, in November, election of the Democratic candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. The increase in the Democratic vote approximately equalled the increase in the total vote, which was the largest in the history of the state to that time. The Democrats won again in 1903, lost by a small majority in 1904, and by a normal Republican plurality in 1905. The senatorial campaign of 1906,§ with two rival Republican candidates, and a good gov- ernment candidate with Democratic indorsement, gave the Democrats another opportunity in 1906 and 1907 to win on the issue of "bossism." Thereafter, until 1922, the state election was safely Republican, although the Republican plurality was reduced in 1912 by the defection of members of the new Progressive party. The latter voted in sufficient number for presidential electors pledged to Theodore Roosevelt to enable the Democrats to win the presidential election for Woodrow Wilson.
Chapter XXXIX.
#Chapter XXVIII.
** Chapter XXIII.
§ Chapter XXIV.
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RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
After the people had rejected, in 1902, two proposed amendments to the Constitution, they ratified, in 1903, Article XII, which provided for a reorganization of the judiciary .* The new Supreme Court established under the amendment consisted of five justices, and exercised pre- rogative, revisory and appellate jurisdiction. A superior court, or trial court, was also created. Under the amendment the Supreme Court gradually and eventually assumed appellate and revisory jurisdiction not only over courts, but also over boards and commissions exercising judicial functions. Another proposed amendment failed of ratification in 1905. but three amend- ments ratified in 1909 effected, through the piecemeal process, substantially completion of the program of the constitutional commission of 1896-1898, except suffrage extension and pro- vision for constitutional conventions. An amendment in 1911 provided for biennial elections. A constitutional commission appointed in 1912 reported in 1915 an elaborate "revised constitu- tion" including so many innovations as to preclude expectation that the General Assembly would propose it for ratification or rejection by the people. The acquisition of state property, which had reached marked proportions in the last ten years of the nineteenth century, was continued into the twentieth century with the building of three armories, two new courthouses, and additional accommodations at Rhode Island State College, at Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf. and at Cranston for the penal and charitable institutions. Exeter School and the State Sanatorium were developed as new state institutions.
The automobile had followed the bicycle, and projects for building side paths had been abandoned in the course of a movement for better roads .; The people approved successive bond issues to guarantee long-term borrowing, and the state's bonded debt accumulated rapidly. The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association meeting in Rhode Island, 1910, awakened interest in improving Narragansett Bay. Two state piers were constructed, and other shore property and riparian rights were acquired in anticipation of further development. The United States Government widened and deepened the channel, the city of Providence developed Field's Point as a municipal wharf, and direct transatlantic commerce was established with Narragansett Bay as a port of call. A metropolitan park commission was created, with the purpose of acquiring and preserving naturally beautiful places as sites for parks and boulevards. Newport, which had ceased to be a state capital with the abolition of the May session of the General Assembly at the opening of the century, witnessed in 1905 the last meeting of the Supreme Court in the old State House, 258 years after the first meeting in Newport in 1747 of the General Court of Trials.
Economic conditions generally were satisfactory during the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, and factories as a rule were busy. The consolidation of banks, which had been in process in the last ten year of the nineteenth century, continued as state-chartered trust companies tended to replace national banks .¿ The reorganization proceeded steadily, and there was no loss of confidence in the banking system until, in 1907, the Union Trust Company closed its doors following sudden withdrawal of deposits. The immediate cause of suspension was an upset in Wall Street, incidental to the steam railroad campaign to gain control of the electric tramway system. The trust company had abundant assets, and was reopened. The pub- lic had been aroused, however, and a state bank commissioner was appointed. A few small trust companies followed the Union Company into receiverships, and did not emerge as did the Union Company. The Union National Bank of Newport in 1912 and the Atlantic National Bank of Providence in 1913 failed. The establishment of the federal reserve banking system early in the Wilson administration was acclaimed because of the promise of a national currency adjustable to the needs of business, and likely to promote sound economic prosperity at a time when the outlook for business was none too good and depression was feared. The exuberant enthusiasm, in the northern part of the state particularly, because of the expected building of
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