USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 42
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The representation of the several towns in the house of represen- tatives was reapportioned at the January session in 1861, the step hav- ing become necessary in consequence of the changes of population, as shown by the census of 1860. North Providence, Cranston, Westerly and Fall River each gained a member, Warren, North Kingston and Glocester each lost one, and Tiverton lost two.1
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
The part that the state of Rhode Island took in the suppression of the Rebellion of 1861 was alike creditable to her citizens and to her public men then in positions of authority. No half-hearted measures were pursued, but a quick response was made to all demands for troops or money. An active patriotism. animated the people, which found vent in the rapid equipment of regiment after regiment, until in the end it was found that the state had sent into the field more than her quota of troops.
A peace convention was held at Washington from February 4 to February 27, at which ex-President John Tyler presided, and twenty- one states represented. The Rhode Island delegates were Samuel Ames, Alexander Duncan, William W. Hoppin, George H. Browne, and Samuel G. Arnold. In the interests of peace a compromise was adopt- ed and presented to Congress, but no action was taken by the national legislature. The northern delegates to this convention willingly voted
1Tiverton, which had three members by the apportionment of 1851, owed its third member to a large fraction. When a portion of the town was set off, in 1856, and made the town of Fall River, each town was given one member, and the third one was not apportioned to any town.
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for concessions that they were opposed to, because by so doing they desired to avoid the greater evils of disunion and war. They thus illustrated the conservative and fair dealing attitude of mind that animated them, and which was general at the north.
While these efforts at conciliation were in progress inany rumors were current of contemplated attempts to seize Washington in the interest of the southern states. Governor William Sprague, in view of the danger of sueli an attaek, offered to President Buchanan the use of the Rhode Island militia to defend the capital, but the President refused to accept this aid. The Rhode Island secretary of state, John R. Bartlett, made substantially the same offer early in January, 1861, in a letter to the secretary of war, but no response was received to this letter. In accordance with a letter of instructions from Governor Sprague, dated January 24, 1861, Major William Goddard, aeeompan- icd by Senator Henry B. Anthony, called upon General Scott, then commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, and offered the services of the entire body of the Rhode Island militia "to aid in pro- tecting the constitution and laws," with the assurance that they eould be at onee sent on to Washington. General Scott evidently would have been glad to avail himself of this offer, but could not do so without being instrueted by the President and the seeretary of war. As this authority was not forthcoming, the projeet fell through. This affair, however, illustrated the willing patriotism of the Rhode Island men, and the harmony that prevailed among them on this great ques- tion of the preservation of the nation.
With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, November 7, 1860, the rebellion of the southern states may be said to have begun, as the work of organizing the Confederacy assumed definite shape from that day. One after the other, the southern states passed ordi- nances of seeession, and proceeded to raise and arm troops. All prop- erty, arms and munitions of war within their limits, belonging to the United States, were seized and appropriated to the use of the rebels. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Confederate States of America, February 18, 1861, and three days later General Twiggs of the United States army surrendered 6,000 men and $1,200,000 worth of property to the state of Texas. The Civil War, however, did not actually begin until after the inauguration of President Lincoln. Notwithstanding the action of the southern states in organizing an independent government, there was a feeling at the north that perhaps after all some way might be found of patching up the difficulty without coming into actual conflict. This idea was rudely dispelled by the attaek on Fort Sumter, April 12, by General Beauregard, and its surrender after a gallant resistanee by Major Anderson, two days later. This event created wide spread indignation in the north and eonvineed the northern people that war was inevitable.
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
The day after the surrender of Fort Sumter, April 15, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 men to volunteer for three months, in which time it was thought that the rebellion could be stamped out. The President had previously announced his determi- nation to maintain the Union at all hazards. This attitude on his part inspired the people of the north with confidence, while the attack on Fort Sumter proved that energetic and prompt action was necessary if the President was to be sustained. The response to the call of the President for men was immediate and spontaneous in all the northern states, and Rhode Island was in the forefront in equipping and for- warding troops.
On April 16, the day after the President's proclamation, Governor Sprague issued an order for the organization of the First Regiment of Infantry. This was accomplished so promptly that on April 20 the first detachment left Providence under command of Colonel Ambrose E. Burnside, and the second on April 24, under command of Lieuten- ant-Colonel Joseph S. Pitman. The scenes and incidents of the organ- ization of this regiment are thus graphically described by a local writer :
"The streets of Providence now resounded with the tramp of armed men and the notes of martial music. The vestrys of the churches, halls and private dwellings were filled with women at work upon the outfit of the soldiers. The country towns vied with Providence and Newport in the good work. Twenty-five hundred men volunteered for service in this regiment, and the fifteen hundred not allowed to depart in it felt as if they had met a personal loss. The regiment was selected from this array of volunteers as follows: Six companies from Providence, one from Newport, one from Pawtucket, one from Westerly, and one from Woonsocket."
Great credit is given Governor Sprague for his course during the early days of the war, not only for the energy he displayed in raising and equipping troops, but also for the great financial assistance he furnished at the same time. Much money was needed, and the state was not in a position to provide it immediately. The firm of A. & W. Sprague at once offered to guarantee the payment of all accounts for equipping the troops, and as the credit of this manufacturing house at that time was unlimited, there was no difficulty under such circum- stances in organizing regiments and securing all the necessary supplies.
Governor William Sprague was untiring in his efforts to secure troops, and his zeal and enthusiasm contributed largely to the success that was attained in filling the Rhode Island regiments. He resigned as Governor to take his seat as senator from Rhode Island in the United States Congress, March 3, 1863, and his unexpired term as Governor was completed by William C. Cozzens, who held the office
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from Mareh 3 to May. James Y. Smith was then eleeted and held that office until 1866. Governors Sprague and Smith were eonse- quently the war governors of the state. During Governor Sprague's term the troops went to the front, while during Governor Smith's ineumbeney recruiting went on to keep the regiments up to their war footing, and the executive had also mueh to do with regard to ques- tions of aeeounts, details of administration and the straightening out of various finaneial tangles.
Rhode Island was subjected to its most trying test of patriotism in the great struggle between the states, during the last two years of the Civil War, when James Y. Smith was Governor. The war was at its height. Call after eall for troops followed in rapid sueeession, and drafts were ordered in most if not all of the loyal states. The demand for men by the government was continuous and imperative, but Rhode Island had had all the experience with a draft its people desired, and its Chief Executive, sharing the general feeling, determined that all ealls should be filled by voluntary and not by enforeed serviee. As the ealls already made had taken off from her soil the major portion of its real fighting material, who by their bravery and devotion were winning a golden opinion for the state, the task of avoiding a second draft was arduous if not well nigh impossible. Hereulean as the labor was, however, it was aeeomplished at last, but not without the expenditure of large sums of money for bounties, recruiting agents, and other expenses, which were cheerfully voted, for money was as nothing in those days compared with the apprehension of enforeed military serviee.
Politieal exeitement ran high at that time, and these heavy expendi- tures awakened eritieism of and reflection upon the Governor in un- friendly quarters. A legislative committee to investigate reported, to use their own words, "that they do not believe that he (the Gov- ernor) has intentionally done anything wrong in the reeruiting busi- ness, or that he has directly or indirectly profited therefrom," while the popular verdiet was rendered at the next annual eleetion when he received a majority in every town and ward in the state, a ease rarely if ever paralleled in the annals of the state.
This interesting episode in our history is thus summarized, the day after Governor Smith's death, by the Providenee Journal, which was politieally opposed to him during his life :
"From 1863 to 1865-6, inelusive, he served the state with ability, fidelity and patriotism as its Chief Magistrate. The period eovered by this serviee was a very trying one, from the faet that it was the most gloomy period in the history of the Civil War. The quota re- quired from this state, under the several ealls for troops, amounted during Governor Smith's administration to above thirteen thousand five hundred men. The people of the state were adverse to a draft,
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
and this whole number of men were secured by voluntary enlistment, but necessarily at a great cost in the way of bounties and services of recruiting agents. In the strife which political excitement engenders, it is not strange that with so many conflicting and adversary interests to reconcile or to contend against, Governor Smith did not altogether escape the shafts of partisan censure and attack, but the sober judg- ment of the people in reviewing his administration will accord to him an honest and sincere desire to uphold the honor and patriotism of the state.''
A branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was established in Providence, October, 1861, and it did good service in collecting and forwarding medicines and supplies. The Providence Ladies' Volun- teer Relief Association made and forwarded garments and clothing, and many of the women of the city were actively engaged in the work of this organization, which accomplished a great deal of good. In the spring of 1863 this society became known as the Rhode Island Relief Association, and worked as auxiliary to the Sanitary Commission. Various other associations with similar objects existed in Providence and in every town in the state, and they all performed noble work.
Rhode Island sent into the field during the rebellion 24,042 men, including 10,382 infantry, 4,394 cavalry, 5,642 heavy artillery, 2,977 light artillery, and 645 men for the navy. These figures, however, include re-enlistments, and the actual quota has been given as 23,778. Of these 10,440 enlisted during Governor Sprague's administration, and 13,338 while Governor Smith was in office. The casualties were : 255 killed, 1,265 died of wounds or disease, and 1,249 were wounded. Eight regiments of infantry were enlisted, three for three months, two for nine months, and three for three years; three regiments of cavalry for three years, and one squadron for three months; three regiments of heavy artillery and one regiment of light artillery for three years, two light batteries for three months, and a company of infantry as hospital guards.
The total expenditure of the state of Rhode Island and of the cities and towns on account of the war, amounted to $6,500,000. Of this amount the United States government refunded $933,195.45 ; the cities and towns spent directly, for which they were not reimbursed, $1,156,- 589.86; and the state spent directly $3,610,000, in addition to reim- bursing the towns and cities to the amount of $465,690, thus making the total state expenditure $4,075,690, exclusive of claims against the United States of $335,287.74. Considerably more than half of the expenditures of the cities and towns, $820,768.80 was for bounties.1
These facts in regard to the men sent out and the money spent dem- onstrate that the Rhode Island people manifested a vigorous and self- sacrificing patriotism, which is worthy of all praise and honor. The
1 Adjutant-General's Report for 1865, pp. 8-9.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
seandals in regard to the bounty frauds and the financial irregularities in the aeeounts were due to the erimes or errors of a few men, whose actions, while lamentable, are such an inconsiderable part of the whole reeord that by contrast the magnificent attitude of the people and the state stand out in elear relief for nobility, honor and self-saerifiee.
The ereation of a large military population brought about eertain alterations in suffrage conditions, and considerable of the time of the assembly during the war was spent in trying to alter the constitution to suit these changes. An amendment to the constitution giving nat- uralized soldiers and sailors in Rhode Island commands equal voting rights with the native-born population was passed by the legislature in 1862, and for the second time in 1863. When it was submitted to the popular vote, it failed to receive the necessary three-fifths vote and was rejected. In the following year, the same amendment, coupled with two others-one substituting a poll tax for the registry tax, and the other allowing eitizen soldiers in the field to vote-passed the assembly. When submitted to the people, only the last one of the three was aeeepted, which was aeeordingly entered as the
4th amendment. The most important matter outside of war measures during the period was the settlement of the boundary agree- ment with Massachusetts, whereby Pawtucket and East Providenee were turned over to the state, and the new town of Fall River was surrendered to Massachusetts.
Immediately sueeeeding the period of the war there was the attempt made to extend the eleetive franchise to naturalized eitizens of Rhode Island who were exeluded by the constitution of 1843. Aeeording to this instrument, a eitizen of foreign birth, even although he had eom- plied with all the requirements of the United States naturalization laws, could not vote unless he possessed a freehold. Those who de- sired a change in the Rhode Island constitution to offset this disqualifi- eation asserted that "the naturalization laws of the United States are, within the State of Rhode Island, nullified, and the whole politieal power of the state vested in the native population, while the natural- ized eitizens, who have renouneed all elaim to the protection of the country of their origin, and either are, or are entitled to be eitizens of the United States, are rendered, unless in exceptional eases, utterly alien to the institutions of their adopted country".1 In 1867 and 1868 attempts were made to remove these restrictions by framing a new constitution, petitions being headed by Governor Burnside in behalf of naturalized veterans, and by Mayor Doyle for naturalized
1C. E. Gorman's Elective Franchise, p. 21. The judiciary committee of the U. S. senate had decided that R. I.'s property qualification clause was not in conflict with the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. (See H. B. Anthony, Defense of R. I., p. 10).
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
citizens. Although the house did pass these proposals as amendments to the constitution, the senate rejected them and the attempt failed.
During the administration of Seth Padelford, who succeeded Burn- side in 1869 and was governor for four years, similar bills were intro- duced providing for a constitutional convention, but failed of passage. The legislature was not quite ready for such an abrupt move, although it did show its favor to the proposed changes in the form of amend- ments to the constitution. Thus in 1871, the assembly voted to submit to the people the following amendments: That the property qualifi- cation clause should be repealed so far as related to foreign-born citi- zens, that the registry tax should be repealed and that state appropria- tion for sectarian purposes should be prohibited.1 These all failed to reccive the necessary three-fifths vote of the people, the third amend- ment alone obtaining even a majority.
During the last two years of Padelford's administration and that of Governor Henry Howard, who succeeded him in 1873 and 1874, several boundary questions of a local nature were settled. In March, 1871, the large town of Smithfield, which comprised the whole northeastern quarter of Providence county, was divided. A portion was set off to Woonsocket, while the remainder was split up into three towns- Smithfield, North Smithfield and Lincoln. In 1873 a portion of Cranston was annexed to Providence and formed into a public park, now known as Roger Williams Park.2 In the following year North Providence was divided into three portions, a part being annexed to Providence, another part being joined to Pawtucket, while the third and smallest portion retained the town name. It was also proposed that a portion of the town of Johnston should be annexed to Provi- dence, but the Johnston taxpayers, by a small majority, voted against the scheme.
Governor Howard was succeeded in 1875 by Henry Lippitt, who headed the administration for two years and was followed in 1877 by Charles C. Van Zandt. Attempts to change certain provisions in the constitution during this period were frequent, although generally unsuccessful. In 1873 a motion to introduce a woman's suffrage amendment failed, as did a conditional motion of a similar nature, championed by Amasa M. Eaton in the following year. This same subject, as well as that of the registry tax, was often introduced, but nothing effectual was accomplished. In 1876, after considerable dis- cussion in the assembly, three articles of amendment were passed and submitted to the people in December. They were the repeal of the
1 January schedule, 1871, p. 204.
2 Another portion of Cranston had previously been annexed to Providence in 1868. The park property had come from the bequest of Betsey Williams. who left the land for the purpose at her death, November 27, 1871. In 1872 the as- sembly authorized the city to establish a public park.
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PROVIDENCE FROM THE SPIRE OF THE FIRST BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE. TAKEN BEFORE THE BANIGAN BUILDING WAS ERECTED.
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
clause in the constitution regarding corporations, the repeal of the registry tax, and the enfranchising of the foreign-born soldiers and sailors on the same terms as native-born citizens. These all failed to receive the necessary three-fifths vote. Governor Lippitt, in referring to the matter said : "Our people are very conservative, and justly so, in their action on any amendments to the constitution, but these amendments had been carefully considered by the legislature, and I think were worthy of a vote of approval. That relating to the regis- try tax particularly, if it had been adopted, would have enabled the legislature, to provide for a tax in some other form, and thereby re- move from our state politics a source of corruption which has in- creased wonderfully of late years."1
The year 1876 was a memorable one in the history of the country as being the centennial of the nation's birth. Rhode Island's share in the great exhibition at Philadelphia was a notable one. Her indus- tries and products were very generally represented, and notwith- standing her small size, only seven other states entered larger applica- tions for space. Especially prominent among exhibits was the great Corliss engine. This great triumph of mechanical skill, which fur- nished all the power required for Machinery Hall, was one of the most notable features of the exhibition and reflected great credit on the state in which it was invented. The first week in October was known as Rhode Island week, when a reception was held in the state building, and Rhode Islanders from all over the country gathered to renew old ties and form new ones. Both the legislature, through generous appropriation, and the citizens, through their exertions, worked hard to place Rhode Island in an honorable position by the side of other states of a much larger extent.2 The year 1876 was also productive of a renewed interest in the history of the state covering the centennial celebrations of many important events and causing the publication of historical sketches for many of the towns.
Governor Van Zandt, whose administration began in 1877, was suc- ceeded by Alfred H. Littlefield, 1880-83, Augustus O. Bourn, 1883-85, and George P. Wetmore, 1885-87. In this decade the attempts to alter the constitution were chiefly in regard to the introduction of woman's suffrage, the repeal of the registry tax, the prohibition of liquor, and the extension of the franchise to naturalized citizens who served in the Union army or navy during the Civil War. Only the last two propo- sitions met with favor. Liquor legislation had often been a subject of discussion before the assembly. Although a sort of prohibitory law had been tried for a short period, the state had been under some form of license for practically its whole existence. There had been a grow-
1 Governor's Message, 1877, p. 18.
2 Governor's Message, 1877. See Greene's Short history of R. I., p. 286, for a list of products in which R. I showed conspicuous excellence.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ing feeling that the license system had not accomplished the best results, and of course absolute lack of any restraint was too dangerous a procedure. As one writer said, "If, then, license is inefficient and freedom unwise, we are forced to the conelusion that prohibition at least deserves a trial commensurate with the importance of the end to be obtained. There has been no such trial in this state as yet, for no great moral or soeial reform can be effeeted in a few months or in a few years."1 With the hope of thus bettering the situation, the legis- lature, in 1886, voted to submit to the people the following amend- ment: "The manufacture and sale of intoxieating liquors to be used as a beverage shall be prohibited. The general assembly shall
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CITY HALL, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
provide by law for carrying this artiele into effect." In the April eleetion the people sealed their approval of the new system by a vote of 15,113 to 9,230. But the prohibitory method proved far from satisfactory. The violation and defiance of the law were general, and cases were rarely pressed. In January, 1889, the assembly voted that the previous prohibitory amendment should be annulled, and in June the people concurred in their opinion by a vote of 28,315 to 9,956. A special session of the legislature was called in July, when a new license law was passed.
1 J. H. Stiness, R. I legislation against strong drink, 1882, p 48.
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
At the same session of March, 1886, that passed the prohibitory amendment, the following amendment was also passed for the second time and offered to the approval of the people: "All soldiers and sailors of foreign birth, citizens of the United States, who served in the army or navy of the United States for this state in the late Civil War, and who were honorably discharged from such service, shall have the right to vote on all questions in all legally organized town, district or ward meetings, upon the same conditions and under and subject to the same restrictions as native born citizens." At the election in April, it was formally approved by the people by a vote of 18,903 to 1,477.
During this decade, from 1877 to 1887, among thie acts passed of some importance was that abolishing tribal authority and tribal rela- tions of the Narragansett Indians. This tribe had been undergoing a gradual process of degeneration, and for many years the annual appro- priation for the Indian school had proved of no practical benefit. Accordingly, on March 31, 1880, all distinctive legislation connected with them was repealed, and a few months later the state purchased their tribal lands, which were sold at auction.1
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