USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 35
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A municipal census, taken this year, gave Providence a population of 15,941, of which number 8,729 were on the east and 7,212 on the west side of the river, and of whom 1,414, or nearly ten per cent., were colorcd. The Providence papers about this period frequently com- plained of the numbers of colored people in the town, a large percent- age of whom were, they asserted, lawless and idle. This year thirty acres of land at Field's Point were purchased by the town of Provi- dence for $4,500, or $150 an acre.
James De Wolfe having resigned his seat in the United States senate, Asher Robbins, Republican, of Newport, was elected in his place, on November 5, 1825, by the general assembly, by a small majority over Elisha R. Potter.
The assembly in January, 1826, passed an act forbidding members of the courts of commissioners being members of either house of the general assembly, but the act itself constituting that court, together
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with all other aets for the relief of insolvent debtors were repealed in June by four majority in the house and one in the senate. The de- bate over this matter attracted a good deal of attention, on account of its importance, and because of the ability of the debaters, some of the best legal talent in the state being arrayed on each side. Ex-Con- gressman Potter led the fight for repeal, and was given credit by his political enemies for the final outeome. The lottery question attraeted considerable attention this year, and the propriety of suppressing this form of gambling was already being discussed.
The manifestations of grief when news was received of the deaths of ex-President Adams and Jefferson, and the tributes to their memory which were bestowed in equal degree, showed that the former feeling, so prevalent in the state against the Sage of Montieello, had been greatly modified. At the time of Jefferson's death, a publie subserip- tion was being raised throughout Rhode Island to assist in relieving his peeuniary embarrassments, and one of the most responsive toasts given in Providence on the Fourth was the hope that the venerable patriot would not be compelled to dispose of Monticello by lottery.
As a United States senator to succeed Senator Robbins would, in the regular order of things, be chosen at the October session of the assem- bly this year, considerable interest was manifested in the August semi-annual election of members of the house. It was assumed that Mr. Potter would again be a candidate, and Mr. Robbins's friends, especially in Providence, urged the freemen to return men pledged to support him. Mr. Potter was accused of all manner of politieal here- sies, and among other things of being an enemy of the town of Provi- dence. The Providence Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal was particularly bitter in its denuneiations. A few weeks before the meet- ing of the assembly, Mr. Potter came out in a letter in the Providenee Microeosm, in which he struek baek at his opponents, and insinuated that Senator Robbins had been guilty of questionable conduet, when he held the position of United States district attorney under Presi- dent Monroe. This compelled Senator Robbins to publish affidavits to elear his reputation. When the time for the choice of senator in grand committee arrived, Mr. Potter, who was a member of the house from South Kingstown, declined being a candidate, and Senator Rob- bins was unanimously re-elected.
A new judiciary law was enacted in January, 1827, which involved some reforms in procedure, and reduced the justiees from five to three. Some of the judges who expected to be displaced under the action of this law seeretly circulated a "prox", just before the April election, in the attempt to defeat four of the senators whose votes had assisted in the passage of the new law. The attempt, however, was a failure, as the judges' candidates received on an average only about 525 votes. An attempt was made at the May session to repeal the new law, but,
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THE PERIOD FROM 1812 TO 1830.
although Mr. Potter favored such action, the house rejected the act of repeal, the vote on its passage being 25 to 41.
The temperance movement, at least in its public manifestations, had its inception in Providence this year. A public meeting was held in April in the First Baptist meeting house, at which resolutions were passed in some measure condemnatory of the liquor evil.1 Governor Fenner, than whom few public men in Rhode Island history have been more successful in trimming their sails to catch an approaching breeze, must have had a premonition of the coming temperance deluge, for on election day at Newport, in May, he abstained from treating, and instead thereof gave $100 to the Newport public school fund. Lieutenant-Governor Collins, following the example of his superior, also gave $50 to the fund.
Considerable rivalry existed between the original Republicans, and those of the newer (Federalist) brand, as to which were the truest friends of President Adams's administration. Both parties claimed to be truly loyal thereto, and no Republicans were considered genuine without the Adams "hall-mark". The newer faction stole a march upon the Patriot regulars, at Newport in June, by calling a caucus of "Senators, Representatives and people", who were supporters of President Adams's administration, to meet on the day previous to the regular Republican congressional convention. The caucus, which was well attended, renominated Messrs. Burges and Pearce, and the regu- lars doing the same, the two congressmen were re-elected without opposition.
The " Administration party" again forestalled the Patriot Repub- licans in nominating a "prox" for the April election of 1828. All of the old officers except four senators were renominated. The Repub- lican convention renominated the old ticket with two exceptions, and the two senators left out of both proxics-one of whom openly avowed himself a Jackson man-ran independently and failed of clection. Two of the senators who were "turned down" by the " Administration prox" were elected, and the other two were defeated.2
A free school law was passed at the January term of the general as- sembly in 1828. The receipts from lottery managers and agents and the duties obtained from auctioneers had been allowed to accumulate for a year or two for the purpose, and by the terms of the law now enacted, ten thousand dollars of such receipts were to be divided each year among the several towns in proportion to their several school populations, to be used for the support of free schools. Five thousand dollars of the
1 For a history of the temperance cause in Providence, see a series of sketches by S. S. Wardwell in the Prov. Journal for 1859.
"This strife over the election of state senators brought out two pamphlet ad- dresses, both anonymous and both filled with the personal vituperation that so especially distinguished the politics of the period.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
accumulated receipts then in the state treasury were at once set apart as a permanent fund for the use of schools, and thercafter all state receipts from lotteries and auctioneers over and above the ten thousand dollars distributed to the several towns, were to be added annually to the permanent fund, which was to be invested by the general treasurer in good bank stock. The towns were authorized to appropriate such additional sums for schools each year as a majority of the frecmen of each, assembled in town meeting, should decm proper. A new law for the relief of insolvent debtors, which referred their petitions to the Supreme Judicial Court, was passed at this session. At the June ses- sion permission was given for the extension of a railroad, starting from Boston, from the Massachusetts state line to Providence. The legis- lators, who were accustomed to provide for the assessment of tolls by turnpike associations operating under state charters, gave the railroad company authority "to take and exact from persons making use of the same (the railroad), reasonable tolls", and for that purpose to "erect and keep up a toll-gate, together with the necessary appendages there- to". A toll gate upon a railroad seemed to be a very necessary provis- ion at that time.
At the October session a resolution expressing confidence in Presi- dent Adams's administration, and in Henry Clay, and advocating the President's re-election, passed the house by a vote of 44 to 18. Presi- dent Adams passed through Providence, which he reached by the New York boat, on Sunday, August 10. Salutes were fired, and he was received cordially, and with as much attention and pomp as could be expected on the Lord's day.
The Jeffersonian Republicans allowed the "Friends of the Admin- istration" to call the convention for the nomination of presidential electors, and the ticket selected was endorsed by them. Shortly before the election a Jackson weekly, the "Republican Herald", was started in Providence, and a Jackson Electoral Prox was put up.1 A large portion of the freemen of Rhode Island, however, looked upon Jackson with great distrust. The Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal warned its readers shortly before the election that if the "Military Chieftain" was chosen, the country would probably be ruined, and that the people then living might see established upon its ruins "a long line of sceptered kings". Even the Patriot, which had sounded the war cry of the plain people for many years, after Jackson's success seemed assured, regretted the result, but not so much because it dis- trusted the successful candidate, as because his candidacy had been dictated by British influence, and his election was due to the "wild Irish rabble of New York city." The Adams electoral ticket received
1 The Herald office also issued An address to the people of Rhode Island proving that more than eight millions of the public money has been wasted by the present ad- ministration. By a Landholder, 1828.
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THE PERIOD FROM 1812 TO 1830.
2,754 votes, and the Jackson ticket 821. The vote of Providence was 538 to 73 in favor of Adams, and that of Newport 290 to 66. The wisdom of adopting a city form of government and establishing a high school was frequently discussed in Providence at this period.
A bill was introduced at the January session in 1829 to repeal the 27th section of the law for the assessment and collection of taxes, which exempted school and religious property from taxation. It passed the house by 9 majority and in the June following was accepted by the senate in an amended form, the exemption being retained on these classes of property when protected by charters.
The free suffrage party began to be heard from again this year. Meetings were held in several of the towns. Large assemblages were held in Providence in aid of the movement. One on the 28th of March was described by the Journal of that town as the largest meeting ever held in the state, as many as 1,200 to 1,500 being in attendance. Most of the leading citizens took part in the campaign, and all of the news- papers advocated the reform but the Jackson organ, which warned the farmers against giving Providence too much power. At the May session memorials were sent to the general assembly by the suffragists,1 but a motion by Wilkins Updike that the petitioners have leave to with- draw, put a stop to the movement at the June session.
The state campaign of 1829 was a fight between the "General Re- publicans" and the Democratic-Republicans (Jackson) on the sena- torial ticket, in which the latter elected eight of their ten candidates. A trial of strength took place in the house on "Election Day" over the speakership. The Regulars nominated Joseph L. Tillinghast of Providence, while the Jacksonians supported Wilkins Updike. The former was chosen, receiving 37 votes to 27 for Updike. The Jackson- ian Republicans were now the Administration party. The Providence Patriot accepted the situation and retained the advertising patronage of the national government. Many of the Republicans of the Jeffer- sonian stripe now aligned themselves with the radicals who had been supporting Jackson. Governor Fenner trimmed his sails to catch the Jackson breeze, and ex-Congressman Eddy, now chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, did likewise. Messrs. Burges and Pearce were nominated for re-election to Congress by the anti-administration Republicans, who now began to call themselves "National Republic- ans". The Jacksonians, who took the name of "General Republic- ans", put forward Judge Eddy and Job Durfee, while Elisha R.
"The memorials were referred to a committee of which Benjamin Hazard was chairman. The report of this committee, known as Hazard's Report, was strongly adverse to the petitioners, urging that the franchise should be pre- served to the freehold class and denouncing "democracy " as a thing to be shunned. The argument, although specious and illiberal, had its effect with the "landholding " assembly.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Potter and John De Wolf, jr., also had some supporters.1 The two sitting congressmen were re-elected, however, by more than two thou- sand majority over all competitors.
CHAPTER XIX.
FROM 1830 TO THE DORR WAR.
The National Republicans could no longer support Governor Fen- ner. He was renominated at their convention in January, 1830, but their newspapers repudiated him, and put Dr. Asa Messer of Providence at the head of their ticket, with Nathan M. Wheaton for Lieutenant-Governor. Fenner was re-elected, however, by over a thousand majority. The General Republican senatorial ticket was elected in most cases by small majorities. Elisha R. Potter was now fully committed to the Jackson party, and he was placed in nomination for speaker in May against Tillinghast. The latter won, however, by one vote, he receiving 34 and Potter 33. At the previous January session the latter had offered resolutions indorsing Jackson's adminis- tration. They were rejected, the vote standing 8 to 50. Mr. Potter, who was acknowledged by friends and foes alike to have been a man of great influence, seems to have been fairly driven into the Jackson camp. He was a constant target for many years for the shafts of the Providence press, and he, on his part, responded by generally opposing legislation favorable to Providence. Any measure which the Provi- dence delegation desired, if advocated by any country member, sub- jected the latter to the charge from Potter and his followers of being "the fifth member from Providence". At the June session in 1830, Mr. Potter presented a resolution-which, however, was laid on the table on his own motion-for the appointment of a committee to take into consideration the expediency of more effectually guarding the liberty of the press, and "protecting the citizens of the state against its licentious abuse."
The town of Providence having, by majority vote in town meeting,
1 The election contests of this year 1829 were productive of no less than five electioneering pamphlets in which personal abuse, as usual, played an impor- tant part. The " Herald office", the Jacksonian stronghold. started the ball roll- ing in April with some anonymous Hints to the Farmers of Rhode Island. Replies and counter-charges followed in rapid succession, Tristam Burges himself tak- ing a hand in the controversy with an Address to the Landholders and Farmers of Nemp nt County. These pamphlets reveal much that is interesting in relation to the politics of the period.
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FROM: 1830 TO THE DORR WAR.
expressed its desire to adopt a city form of government, was granted a city charter by the general assembly in January, but it was to be void unless accepted by a three-fifths vote of the freemen of the town. The charter was submitted to the voters of the city on February 15, 1830, but although a majority of the votes polled-383 to 345-were cast for it, it failed to receive three-fifths, and the proposition was lost.1
At the January session of the general assembly in 1831 the question of the relief of insolvent debtors again came up for legislation, and the provision by which petitions under it were referred to the Supreme Judicial Court was repealed. In June the maximum limit of school age was changed from sixteen to fifteen years.
John Brown Francis of Warwick, a grandson of John Brown, one of the famous Brown family of Providence, was nominated for Governor by the National Republicans in January, 1831, and in the brief inter- val between his nomination and his declination of the honor, he was given such an excellent character-private and political-by the National Republican press, that when he was brought forward by their opponents two years later, they were obliged to abstain from the usual custom of that day-an attack upon a candidate's private character. Mr. Francis declined the nomination, and Lemuel H. Arnold of Provi- dence was finally chosen to head the ticket.2 Lieutenant-Governor Collins and the other state elective officials-the secretary of state, attorney-general and general treasurer-were unobjectionable, and were put upon the ticket. The General Republicans renominated Gov- ernor Fenner, and the other state officers. The National Republican Prox, whose senatorial candidates were entirely distinct from that of the "Republican, Administration and Farmers' Prox", was endorsed by the anti-Masons, who were now becoming actively interested in politics, and it was elected by over 800 majority. The Administration Republicans were so badly beaten that they made no nominations for Congress in opposition to Messrs. Burges and Pearce, who were re- elected in August. A state convention was held by the manufacturing interests in October to appoint delegates to a national tariff conven- tion, to be held in New York. The National Republicans also held a
1 Providence had 16,836 inhabitants, according to the national census of 1830. It was now more than double the size of Newport, whose population was 8,010. The factory towns of Smithfield, Warwick, Scituate, Cumberland and North Providence were growing rapidly, while the farming towns were at a standstill. Smithfield, the third town, had 6,857 inhabitants, and there were 5,529 in Warwick.
2 During this and the following year, many abusive pamphlets were issued for election purposes. Governor Fenner's change in party affiliations and Arnold's connection with the Providence and Pawtucket Turnpike gave all op- portunity necessary for slander and vituperation, while the Anti-Masonic troubles of the period furnished additional subject matter. After 1832 elec- tioneering pamphlets seem to have been very seldom issued.
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convention at South Kingstown in November, for the purpose of elect- ing delegates to a national Republican convention in Baltimore to nominate a candidate for President.
A serious riot occurred in Providence in September, 1831, and the helplessness of the town authorities in preserving the peace on such an occasion probably had considerable influence in determining the gen- eral assembly to grant, and the freemen of the town to accept, a city form of government. Providence had a large colored population for a New England town, and although there were many good citizens among them, there was a large floating element which was dissolute and disorderly. The riot, which was the outcome of a collision be- tween dissolute whites and lawless blacks, is thus described in Staples's Annals of Providence :
"The first outbreak of popular feeling was on the night of Septem- ber 21. A number of sailors visited Olney's lane for the purpose of having a row with the blacks inhabiting there. After making a great noise there and throwing stones, a gun was fired from one of the houses. The greater part of the persons in the lane then retreated to the west end of it, and five sailors who had not been engaged in any of the previous transactions, went up the lane. A black man on the steps of his house, presented a gun, and told them to keep their dis- tance. They in turn proposed taking his gun. This they did not attempt, but pursuing their walk a little further, then stopped. Here they were ordered by the black man 'to clear out', or he would fire at them. This they dared him to do. He did fire, and one of their num- ber was instantly killed. The first company, who were still at the foot of the lane, then returned, tore down two houses and broke the win- dows of the rest. During the next day there was a great excitement. The sheriff of the county with other peace officers were in Olney's lane early in the evening. As the mob increased in numbers and in vio- lence of language, they were ordered to disperse, and seven taken in custody. Subsequently others were arrested, who were rescued from the officers. The sheriff then required military aid of the Gover- nor of the state, and at midnight the First Light Infantry marched to his assistance. The mob, not intimidated by their presence, assaulted them with stones. Finding that they could effect nothing without firing upon them, the soldiers left the lane, followed by the mob, who then returned to their work, and demolished six more houses in the lane and one near Smith street, not separating until between three and four o'clock in the morning. On the morning of the 23d, an attack on the jail being expected, the sheriff required military aid, and the Governor issued his orders to the Light Dragoons, the Artillery, the Cadets, the Volunteers, and the First Infantry, to be in arms at six o'clock in the evening. The mob appeared only in small force, and did little mischief. The military were dismissed until the next evening.
-
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FROM 1830 TO THE DORR WAR.
On the evening of the 24th there was a great collection of persons in Smith street and its vicinity. Soon they commenced pulling down houses. Upon this, finding it impossible to disperse or stay them, the sheriff called again on the Governor, and the military were again assem- bled. During their march to Smith street they were assailed with stones. They marched up Smith street and took post on the hill. Here both the Governor and the sheriff remonstrated with the mob, and endeav- ored to induce them to separate, informing them that the muskets of the military were loaded with ball cartridges. This being ineffectual, the riot act was read, and they were required by a peace officer to disperse. The mob continued to throw stones both at the houses and soldiers. The sheriff then attempted to disperse them by marching the dragoons and infantry among them, but without success. He then ordered the military to fire, and four persons fell mortally wounded, in Smith street, just east of Smith's bridge. The mob immediately dispersed, and peace was restored."1
The net results of the affair were the loss of four lives, and the destruction, either partial or complete, of seventeen houses. On the next Sunday a mass meeting was held in the State House yard, and resolutions were adopted, sympathizing with the friends of the killed, but approving of the action of the civil authorities.
On October 25, at a town meeting called for the purpose, the free- men voted-471 to 175-in favor of a city government, and the gen- eral assembly at the October session granted a charter. It provided for a mayor and six aldermen, to be elected on a general ticket, and twenty-four common councilmen-four from each of the six wards. It was submitted to the freemen of the town on November 27, and was accepted by a vote of 459 to 188. The city government began on the first Monday in June, 1832. During the pendency of the charter question before the assembly, a petition from certain inhabitants of the western suburbs of the town was made, asking that the charter should not include that portion west of the junction of Broad, West- minster and High streets, and that the remainder should be set off and incorporated as the town of Westminster.2
The acts for the relief of insolvent debtors were again tinkered in January, 1832, by which the acts of 1828 and 1830 were revised, and an appeal was granted from the Supreme Judicial Court to the greater supremacy of the assembly. Some amendments were made to the Boston and Providence railroad act, by the provisions of which the state could purchase the road, after twenty years, under certain financial conditions, and if the net receipts of the road exceeded 12
1 Staples, Annals of Prov. p. 397-399. There is also an account of the Olney's Lane riot in the Prov. Journal for August 23, 1884.
2 This seems to have been a recurrence of a similar petition presented as early as Feb. 26, 1770 (see Arnold, History of R. I. ii, 301). 21-1
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
per cent. the general assembly could require a reduction of the road's "tolls". The elcetion law was amended at this session, so as to pro- vide, in case of no clection of Governor and other officers on the state ticket, that new cleetions should be ordered within thirty days, until a choiee should be effected. This amendment was doubtless made in anticipation of the result of the three-eornered eampaign which had already begun. The huc and ery against Free Masonry, resulting from the alleged exposures in the famous Morgan ease, was now in full volume in this state. A legislative committee, of which Benjamin Hazard of Newport, James F. Simmons of Johnston and William Sprague, jr., of Warwick, were members, had been appointed in 1831 to investigate the order in Rhode Island. It had summoned a large number of Masons, from Royal Arch and Grand Lodge officers down to "entered apprentices", and had required them to make a "clean breast" of the workings, the oaths, and the other secreeies of the order. The information obtained was probably not exhaustive, but it was sufficient to fill 222 octavo pages of a printed report, which was sub- mitted by a majority of the committee to the assembly in 1832. While the report exonerated the Masonie organizations of the state from most of the grave charges against them, it advised them to discontinue their lodge work. William Sprague, jr., who apparently was not in harmony with the other members of the committee, and did not attend all of its sessions, presented a minority report, in which he censured the order, and recommended the revocation of Masonic charters. The report of the majority, which was ascribed to Mr. Hazard, the chair- man of the committee, received considerable criticism from the Anti- Masons, and some of the charges of unfairness were repeated in a private letter-which soon found its way into the publie prints-by ex-President John Quincy Adams. Mr. Hazard, who was no mean antagonist, either with his pen or his voiee, resented the imputation upon his fairness. He addressed a series of letters to the distin- guished ex-President, in which he defended the report, and taunted the man for whom he had twice voted in presidential campaigns, with being "a friend of his enemies and an enemy to his friends". The investigation did not seem to have much cffect either for or against Masonry. The Grand Lodge issued an address to the public, denying the prevalent charges made against the order.1
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