USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 39
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Mr. Dorr returned to Providenee on October 31, 1843, with the intention of submitting to arrest and standing trial. He went to the City Hotel and calmly awaited the action of the authorities. He was soon arrested, under an indietment for high treason, and was placed in jail without bail. His trial was held at Newport, although the offenses with which he was charged were committed in Providenee eounty. In the absence of his principal counsel, Samuel Y. Atwell, who was detained at home by illness, and who died a few months later, Mr. Dorr eondueted his own defense, although he was assisted by Walter S. Burges of Providenee and George Turner of Newport. The trial began on April 26, 1844. The jury was drawn from a panel of 108 persons, all but one of whom were members of the Law and Order party, and that one was not drawn. It is now generally conceded that the prisoner was treated with seant courtesy. Some of the judges at times displayed an enmity toward him that would have been considered
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THE DORR WAR AND ITS RESULTS.
brutal had he been an acknowledged murderer. Every ruling was against him, and his conviction was certain from the beginning. He was found guilty of treason, was sentenced to imprisonment for life on June 25, and was immediately incarcerated in the state prison at Providence.
The general assembly again came to the aid of Colonel Blodget and Stephen Hendrick, who were being prosecuted by the Massachusetts courts for violation of Massachusetts territory in the Bellingham affair two years before. At the time of its occurrence, Governor King had disavowed the conduct of the two men, and had surrendered them to Massachusetts upon a requisition from its Governor. The general assembly now passed a resolution appropriating money to pay all costs and fines in the case, declaring that the trespassing officials were obey- ing orders, and were hence blameless, and requesting Massachusetts to seek redress from Rhode Island rather than from its irresponsible agents.
The national house passed a resolution by a vote of 78 to 71 to send for persons and papers regarding the suffrage question, and a commis- sion of investigation proceeded to Pawtucket in May, established its headquarters at Abell's tavern, on the Massachusetts side of the river, and proceeded to take testimony. The evidence collected, however, was largely of a partisan character, as the Law and Order men gen- erally paid no attention to the commission.
The Dorr trial had attracted wide attention throughout the country. The Democratic press united in condemning the proceedings, and Dorr was heralded as a martyr to the principles of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Nor did the Law and Order people receive much comfort from the Whig papers of other states. Their defense of their Rhode Island political associates was mainly perfunctory-based upon the principal of non-interference with the internal affairs of a sister state, rather than upon the intrinsic justice of the Law and Order cause. Outside newspapers raised a great clamor and demanded Dorr's re- lease. Democratic legislatures and conventions passed resolutions to the same effect, and Whig statesmen, who were fighting for the party in a doubtful presidential campaign, were anxious to be relieved from a situation which was helping to make votes for the enemy. All man- ner of rumors were spread over the country regarding this political prisoner's treatment in prison. He was kept in solitary confinement in a noisome dungeon ; he was not allowed to communicate with or see his wife and children ;1 he was not allowed the use of a Bible, et cetera, et cetera. All this outside comment, interference and slander was extremely exasperating to the Law and Order politicians, but it could not be entirely ignored. At the June session of the assembly resolu-
1 Dorr was a bachelor.
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tions were passed forbidding further prosecutions for treason, and ordering the release of parties awaiting trial in treason eases on writs of nolle proscqui.
The two great parties were forming their alignments for the presi- . dential campaign. Polk, the Demoeratie candidate, was from Jaek- son's state, and he had been nicknamed "Young Hiekory." Demo- eratie campaign gatherings in Rhode Island would parade, plant a hiekory pole, and shout for "Polk, Dallas and Dorr!" A great mass meeting to further the eause of liberation, and ineidentally of the Demoeratie presidential nominee, was held on September 4. It was a big affair for that time. Large delegations were present from New York, Massachusetts and Conneetieut. Governor Hubbard of New Hampshire and ex-Governor Mareus Morton of Massachusetts were in attendance. Ex-President Jaekson and Van Buren, Presidents-to-be Polk and Buchanan, and other leading Demoeratie statesmen sent letters of regret, expressing their sympathy with the eause. The pro- eession paraded the streets and marehed to a grove on Smith's hill, where a hiekory pole was planted, and speeches were made. It is noticeable that among the most aggressive of the orators upon this oeeasion was a young man from Waltham, Massachusetts, who after- wards became a prominent figure in the country's history- Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. The Demoeratie organ, the Re- publiean Herald, estimated the crowd in attendance at be- tween 40,000 and 50,000, but the Providenee Journal deelared that there were only 3,999 people-of whom 550 were women -in the parade, and that no more than 8,000 were at the grove. Such as it was, however, the demonstration alarmed the state authorities. Governor Fenner ordered a regiment of militia under arms, and some of them placed in the prison as a guard ; and the application of Walter S. Burges, counsel for Mr. Dorr, for permission to visit his elient, was refused.
Failing in the attempt to secure Mr. Dorr's release at this time, the Demoerats had to be content with a lesser martyr. One Martin Luther, early in 1842, had been guilty of the heinous offense of presiding at a "People's" meeting after the assembly had deelared such aetion to be eriminal, and he had been haled before the Algerine "Diet of Worms" and senteneed to pay a fine of $500, in default of which he was ineareerated in the jail at Bristol. Shortly before the presidential eleetion the amount of Luther's fine and costs was raised by the Demo- erats, and a party of them went to Bristol with the money and seeured his release. The party in passing through Warren, on their return, were stoned by the Whigs, were refused refreshments by the Whig innkeepers, and were obliged to eross the line into Massachusetts to obtain food.1
1 His arrest gave rise to the celebrated case of Luther vs. Borden, in which
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THE DORR WAR AND ITS RESULTS.
The electoral vote of the state was cast for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. He received 7,322 votes to 4,876 for James K. Polk, and 107 for James G. Birney, the Liberty candidate.
At the opening of the January session of the assembly in 1845, Governor Fenner transmitted to the two houses a copy of resolutions passed by the New Hampshire legislature regarding the trial and imprisonment of Dorr. The resolutions in substance charged the Rhode Island authorities with unfairness and persecution, and a spe- cial committee to which they were referred drew up resolutions in reply, resolving that the said resolutions "marked, as they are, by the grossest falsehood, ignorance and impertinence, are at once dis- graceful to the legislature of New Hampshire, and insulting to the government and people of Rhode Island". Resolutions equally irri- tating from the Maine legislature, which had been referred to Rep- resentatives John H. Clarke and William G. Goddard of Providence, were answered in June in terms equally strong but much more elegant. The congressional investigation of the suffrage question in the state had been completed, and the testimony, known as "Burke's Report," comprising a volume of a thousand pages, was being discussed by people and papers of other states.1 As the report was practically condemnatory of the proceedings of the charter authorities, a commis- sion was appointed by the assembly to "prepare an authentic account of the recent struggle in the state in the cause of constitutional free- dom." At the same time a resolution was adopted to liberate Dorr on condition that he should take an oath of allegiance to the state and swear to support the constitution. He declined to accept the condi- tions.
The assembly passed resolutions at the January session condemning the annexation of Texas.2 The problem of providing sufficient revenue for the expenses of the state government had always been a difficult one, and the increase of the state in population and the rapid expan- sion of its industries added to the gravity of the situation. A new expedient to increase the revenue at this session was tried by means of an act requiring fees of from one to ten dollars on all petitions and
Luther brought an action of trespass against the person sent to arrest him. The case finally came before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1848, when the chief question at issue resolved itself as to the legality of the People's government in 1842. Although the court refused to decide the case on the ground that it was not within the authority of the court, the testimony and arguments in the trial, together with the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Wood- bury as to martial law, make the case of considerable importance. (See Bibli- ography at close of last volume under DORR WAR, under the names of Luther, Webster, Whipple. See also Rider's Book Notes, xvii, 33.)
'S. S. Rider has noted certain bibliographical memoranda concerning Burke's Report in Book Notes, vol. 5, p. 1. A minority report, called Causin's Report, a . document of 172 pages, was also rendered.
2In this connection see an Address to the people of R. I., upon the course of Hon. E. R. Potter, upon the question of the annexation of Texas [1845].
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memorials to the general assembly. The license fees for hawkers and peddlers were also raised to from $75 to $200, the maximum rate being charged to sellers of gold jewelry. At the May session the license law was amended so as to allow municipalities to vote upon the question of licensing the sale of intoxicating liquors at their annual elections. In June, 1845, acts were passed, electing a commissioner of public schools ; providing that in thic event of the neglect of a school district to provide schools, the school committee might do so on its own responsibility ; and providing for the employment of prisoners in jails.
As Dorr was fast becoming a national martyr in the popular mind, the Law and Order legislators at last gave way, and a resolution passed both houses on June 27, releasing him and other treason-convicts un- conditionally and forbidding further prosecutions under the treason act of 1842. News of the passage of the amnesty act reached Provi- dence at half past three on the afternoon of the 27th, and Walter S. Burges immediately drove in a carriage to the prison and took Dorr to his father's house. As he left the prison cannon boomed from Smith and Federal hills, bells were rung, and a procession of carriages and pedestrians followed the hack which contained the "people's martyr." In the evening Dorr was taken in a carriage to the residence of a friend in the Cranston suburbs. Market Square was packed with his sympa- thizers as he drove through, and a vast crowd surrounded the house of his entertainer and listened to congratulatory speeches. The stories of the brutal treatment of Dorr in prison were doubtless greatly exaggerated, and many of them were pure fabrications, but the jails and prisons of half a century ago were not healthful residences. Mr. Dorr left prison broken in health and he never recovered his former vitality.
On January 15, 1845, Albert C. Greene was elected United States senator to succeed John Brown Francis. He received 52 votes in grand committee, while Lemuel Arnold and Olney Ballou-the latter the Democratic candidate, were given, respectively, 25 and 18 votes.
The Democrats received many accessions from the Whig ranks in the gubernatorial campaign of this year, chiefly from those who favored the release of Dorr. Charles Jackson, one of these Liberation Whigs, was nominated for Governor by the Democrats, and was elected by a majority of 149. Byron Dimon, however, the Whig, or Law and Order candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, was elected over Robert Hazard, the Liberation candidate, and all of the other candidates on the "Rhode Island Prox" defeated their coalition opponents. In this campaign ex-Senator Lemuel H. Arnold and Senator James F. Sim- mons espoused the cause of liberation, and the former was nominated by the coalitionists for Congress in the western district against Elisha R. Potter, and was elected by a small majority. In the eastern district Henry Y. Cranston was re-elected without opposition.
CHAPTER XXI.
FROM THE DORR WAR TO THE CIVIL WAR.
The liberation of Dorr weakened the coalition against the Whigs, as they regained by that act many Whig votes that had been cast against them in April, 1845. The Democrats, however, renominated Charles Jackson in 1846. Jesse L. Moss of Westerly was their candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. Ex-Governor Fenner was in feeble health,1 and being no longer available as a candidate, Lieutenant-Governor Diman was nominated for Governor by the Whigs, while Elisha Harris of Coventry was named by them for Lieutenant-Governor. The Liberty (Abolition) party nominated Edward Harris of Woonsocket and Stephen Wilcox of Hopkinton, for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, respectively, and although they received very few votes, their candi- dature prevented an election by the people. The vote stood, Diman, 7,477; Jackson, 7,389; Harris and scattering, 155. Diman and the other Whig candidates were elected in grand committee, Diman by a vote of 61 to 39.
The general assembly passed resolutions in opposition to tariff reduction at the January session in 1846, while it approved of the reduction of postage rates. The resolutions regarding the latter, as presented in the house, commended Senator Simmons for his successful efforts in behalf of cheap postage, but the senator was not yet forgiven for favoring the liberation of Dorr, and, as they were finally adopted, he was entirely eliminated from the resolutions. A committee was appointed at this session to inquire and report concerning the old registered state debt. The annual tinkering of the license law took the form this year of an amendment providing for the election, at the option of the individual municipalities, of officials to complain of violations of the law. At the June session resolutions passed the assembly congratulating General Taylor for the victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma over the Mexicans. The Providence and Fall River and Providence and Plainfield railroads were incorporated in 1846, and their charters authorized them to erect toll-houses and establish toll-gates on their respective roads.
John H. Clarke of Providence was elected on October 29, 1846, to the 1 Governor Fenner died on April 17, 1846. He was born in 1771. 23-1
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United States senate, to succeed John Brown Francis. He received 59 votes, while 34 Democratic assemblymen cast their ballots for Thomas W. Dorr.
Olney Ballou of Cumberland and John D. Austin of North Kings- town were the Democratic nominees for Governor and Lieutenant- Governor in 1847. The Whigs put Lieutenant-Governor Harris at the head of their ticket, with Edward W. Lawton of Newport in the second place. Edward Harris was again the candidate of the Liberty party, and a "License" party entered the field with Willard Hazard of South Kingstown, and Israel Crocker of Newport as its candidates. The Whigs had over 1,200 majority, and nearly 2,000 plurality over their Democratic opponents. The License, Liberty and scattering votes for Governor aggregated only 743. The Prohibitionists entered the polit- ical field in Providence this spring. They nominated Amos C. Barstow for mayor, in opposition to Mayor Burgess, and Benjamin Cowell, a Democrat, was also nominated. Burgess won easily over both oppo- nents, and the city voted for license by a narrow margin. In the congressional elections Robert B. Cranston, Whig, was elected in the eastern district by 24 majority over Fenner Brown, Democrat, John Boyden, jr., Liberty, and the scattering vote. In the western district Wilkins Updike, Whig, received 2,035 votes; Benjamin B. Thurston, Democrat, 1,928; Lemuel H. Arnold, Whig, 451, and Lauriston Hall, Liberty, 172. There was no choice, but Thurston defeated Updike in August by a plurality of 65 votes.
An act authorizing justices of the peace to join persons in marriage was laid on the table in the house by a vote of 26 to 16 at the January session, 1847. Resolutions, condemning the reduction of tariff rates, the sub-treasury system, and the war with Mexico passed the house by a vote of 29 to 20, and the senate by 17 to 12. The assembly, however, appropriated $2,500 to assist in the equipment of Captain Pitman's Providence company in Colonel Ramsay's regiment of New England Volunteers. An act was passed at this session giving probate courts jurisdiction over sales of real estate belonging to minors, and the Supreme Court was authorized, at its discretion, to dispense with the three years' residence requirement in divorce cases.
At the May session, in accordance with the recommendation of a committee of investigation, a radical change was made in the law regu- lating the management of the state prison. By its terms the prison inspectors were shorn of much of their authority, many of the officials and attendants were discharged, and the convict labor system was discontinued. There had been some complaint regarding prison man- agement, and there was considerable agitation against prison labor. It does not appear that the complaints were well-founded, and it was charged that the investigating committee ignored the prison inspectors and did not make a thorough and impartial investigation; that their
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FROM THE DORR WAR TO THE CIVIL WAR.
report was hurriedly made and hurriedly acted upon by the assembly, and that the protests and statements of the inspectors and prison officials in answer to criticisms were ignored. The facts were pretty thoroughly ventilated in the newspapers in the interval between the May and June sessions, and the former law was practically restored at the latter sitting. An act granting Newport a city charter was sub- mitted to the voters of that town on May 15, this year, and was re- jected, the vote standing 339 to 388.
In June a general incorporation law was enacted. One of its salient features was the provision that owners should not be individually liable for more than the amount of their capital in incorporated com- panics. The first telegraph company organized in the state was incor- porated this year. It was authorized to build and operate lines from Providence to connect with outside lines running to Boston, New York, Fall River and Newport.
The annual resolutions of the assembly regarding national affairs in 1848 were rather more elaborate than usual. While it acknowledged the principle of a tariff for revenue rather than protection-an un- usual concession by a New England legislature-it believed that the duties should be levied upon articles that came into competition with home productions, and that articles of general consumption, particu- larly tea and coffee, which could not be produced at home, should be free of duty. Slavery was condemned in the District of Columbia, and President Polk was censured for not managing negotiations with Mexico so as to avoid war.
An act was passed at the January session forbidding the assistance of sheriffs and other state officials in the capture or detention of alleged fugitive slaves. An amendment of the law for the relief of poor debtors provided for their discharge if their creditors neglected to pay for their board. It also provided, after a debtor had been in jail over six months, for his being put to labor for the benefit of his creditor. An ineffectual attempt was made at this session to abolish capital punishment.
The Supreme and Common Pleas courts were reorganized in May. The side judgeships of the latter courts were abolished, and they were thereafter to be presided over by the justices of the Supreme Court. An attempt was made by the assembly to ameliorate the dryness of "no license" towns by an amendment authorizing the town councils in such cases to license one or more "discreet persons" to sell ardent spirits for "medicinal and artistical purposes." In prosecuting cases of violation of the license law exclusive jurisdiction was given to justice courts, without appeal. The constitutionality of this feature of the law was questioned. No attempt was made to enforce it, and it was repealed at a subsequent session. The general assembly at the May session thanked Rhode Island officers of the regular and volunteer
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forces who served in the war with Mexico, and it congratulated France for its adoption of a republican form of government. The advocates of a city form of government in Newport procured the passage of another act of incorporation in May, and the people rejected it on October 16, 1848, only 230 voting for it, while its opponents numbered 325.
Harris and Lawton were re-elected in April by about 1,500 majority over Adnah Sackett of Providence and John D. Austin of North Kingstown, the Democratic candidates, and in November, Taylor casily secured the clectoral vote of the state, the vote being Taylor, 6,779; Cass, 3,646; Van Buren, 730.
In 1849 the Whigs placed Henry B. Anthony, editor of the Provi- dence Journal, in nomination for Governor, with Judge Thomas Whip- ple of Coventry for Lieutenant-Governor. Mr. Anthony, who was then thirty-four years of age, had been editor of the Journal since 1838, and had made it one of the most frequently quoted of New England newspapers. The Democrats again nominated Sackett, with Thomas J. Hazard of West Greenwich, an influential member of the assembly, as their candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. Edward Harris and Jacob D. Babcock of Hopkinton were the Free Soil candi- dates. The campaign was a tame one, as the Democrats made little effort. The only real contest was over the office of secretary of state, which had been held continuously by Henry Bowen since 1819. He was defeated for renomination in the Whig state convention by Chris- topher E. Robbins, a representative in the general assembly from Newport, and then ran as an independent candidate. There was no choice by the people, but Robbins was chosen by the general assembly. George G. King, Whig, was elected to Congress in the eastern district, by 1,558 majority over Fenner Brown, Democrat, John Boyden, jr., Free Soil, and the scattering votes. There was no choice in the west- ern district. Benjamin B. Thurston, the Democratic candidate, received twenty plurality over Sylvester G. Shearman, Whig, but the Free Soil party had a candidate in the person of Lauriston Hall, and his vote, although only 160, was sufficient to prevent a choice. A second trial took place in August, when Nathan F. Dixon of Westerly, the Whig candidate, Mr. Shearman having withdrawn, was elected by a plurality of 615.
An attempt was made at the January session in 1849 to do away with the October session. An act to that effect passed the senate by a large majority, but was laid on the table in the house. An important measure passed at this session, and made necessary by the completion of the Providence and Worcester railroad, was an act providing for the close of the Blackstone canal and the revocation of its charter. The canal had never been a paying venture, and the railroad would now deprive it of what little business it had been able to secure. Acts were
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FROM THE DORR WAR TO THE CIVIL WAR.
passed to prevent clandestine marriages: to tax machinery, lumber, tools, the stock in livery stables, and similar personal property in the towns in which such property was located; and to provide for the taking of a new estimate of property in the state. The general assem- bly expressed a desire for the abolition of ardent spirits and flogging in the navy, for the prohibition of slavery in the territory recently acquired from Mexico, and for the abolition of slave marts in the District of Columbia.
An elaborate school law, prepared mainly under the direction of the commissioners of public schools, and which was designed to revise and consolidate the whole system of public schools, was lost at the January session in 1850 by the disagreement of the two houses regarding the method of raising the necessary school revenue. The senate, by a vote of two to one, required the state to provide the whole amount, while the house, by a vote quite as emphatic, insisted upon retaining the existing system, which obliged the individual municipalities to appro- priate a sum equal to one-third of the amount they were to receive from the state in behalf of the public schools. An elaborate militia law, retaining the features of the voluntary system, and containing strin- gent provisions regarding the collection of commutation money, passed the senate, but was lost in the house: The existing law, however, was amended by the adoption of the Massachusetts system of compensation for militia service. Acts were passed allowing Providence to establish a reform school ; providing a more efficient system of registering births, marriages and deaths: and amending the license law by requiring complainants, other than regularly authorized officials, to give surety for the cost of prosecution, when making complaints of violations of the law. The act passed a few years before requiring the payment of fees upon petitions and memorials to the general assembly was repealed.
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