USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 43
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An important movement, initiated by the harbor commissioners in 1877, was that of improving the harbor facilities in Narragansett Bay and its estuaries. Congress, by 1883, had appropriated $355,000 for this purpose, and thereafter made such further appropriations as the necessity of the work required. During the process of operations, the channel of the bay, and also of the Providence and Pawtucket rivers, was widened and dredged, Newport harbor was deepened, work on the Block Island breakwater and harbor was begun, and improvements were made in several of the smaller rivers. This aid given to the facili- ties for navigation was well placed, and resulted in increased commer- cial enterprise. Other important measures of this same period were the final adjusting of the two boundary questions-the northern line with Massachusetts in March, 1883, and the western line with Connec- ticut in May, 1887.
At the January session in 1887 a motion was successfully intro- duced, promising the long sought for extension of the suffrage. Sen-
1See Governor's Message, 1881, p. 31. See also the four reports of the Commis- sion of the Affairs of the Narragansett Indians, 1880-85. Nearly 20 years after the dissolution of the tribe some of its former members, having been en- couraged by the advice of counsel to believe that a demand upon the State might be successfully maintained by attacking the act of 1880, dissolving the tribe and authorizing the sale of its lands, the opinion of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the state was obtained, which opinion, fully considering the relations of the tribe to the state from the first settlement of the colony down to and including the passage of the act, and the provisions thereof, and pro- nouncing the act constitutional in all its parts, is believed to constitute the final chapter in the history of the once famous Narragansett Tribe of Indians.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ator Bourn of Bristol presented an amendment to the constitution, providing for the substitution of a poll-tax for the registry tax, and the removal of discriminations against naturalized citizens.1 It again passed both houses at a special November session in 1887, and when submitted to the people on April 4, 1888, it was adopted by a vote of 20,068 to 12,193. A difference of opinion then arose as to the opera- tion of this amendment upon the registry laws mentioned in Chapter VII of the Public Statutes. Upon requisition of the Governor as to the subject, the Supreme Court decided that any provisions in the constitution conflicting with the amendment were annulled and that the present registry law was fully operative.2 Thus this long retarded act of justice to naturalized citizens, which had been in process of development for nearly three-quarters of a century, was brought to pass. It was perhaps the most important political change since the forming of the new constitution.
The recent growth of the manufacturing towns in the northern part of the state caused many of their inhabitants to desire a change to a city form of government. Accordingly, on March 27, 1885, the assembly submitted to the people of Pawtucket an act of incorporation as a city. On April 1 this was accepted by a vote of 1,450 to 721, and Pawtucket was created as the third city in the state. In like manner, on June 13, 1888, the town of Woonsocket was incorporated by the assembly as a city, which act was accepted by the people of that town on November 6 following. In March, 1888, the District of Narragansett was taken from South Kingstown and given all the powers of a town, except representation in the general as- sembly.3
During the years from 1889 to 1893 the requirements of a majority instead of a plurality vote secmed frequently to defeat the choice of the people in their election of a Governor. In 1887 Governor Wet- more had been defeated for re-election by John W. Davis, the Demo- cratic candidate, who in turn was defeated in 1888 by Royal C. Taft,
'The payment of the registry tax had always been a prerequisite to the electoral privileges of the registry class. This feature was not attached to the poll tax, which was independent of the ballot. This, as well as the removal of the real estate discrimination against naturalized citizens, was a distinct en- largement of the electoral privileges of the registry voters; but, on the other hand, the Bourn amendment deprived the registry voters of Newport, of Paw- tucket, and of all cities incorporated after its adoption, of the right to vote for members of the city councils.
2 The text of the amendment is given as Article of Amendment VII in recent editions of the statutes The new amendment was very similar to the provision on the same subject as drawn up by Dorr in the People's constitution in 1842, although even more liberal. (See Rider's Book Notes, v, 56). The opinion of the Supreme Court upon the operation of the amendment is given in the Governor's Message for 1889, p. 17.
3 In March, 1901, the District of Narragansett was incorporated as a town with the same privileges as other towns.
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THE LAST FOUR DECADES.
the Republican candidate. In 1889 the popular vote was considerably increased by the enfranchisement of naturalized citizens under the Bourn amendment, and ex-Governor Davis received a large plurality, but he failing to receive a majority over all, the Republican candidate, Herbert W. Ladd, was elected by the grand committee. Ex-Governor Davis again received a plurality over Governor Ladd in 1890, and failing of a majority was elected by the grand committee. In 1891 he received a plurality again, but the Republicans having a majority in grand committee, ex-Governor Ladd was elected Governor. In 1892 D. Russell Brown and William C. T. Wardwell were the candi- dates respectively of the Republicans and Democrats, and the former was chosen by the people. The next year Governor Brown's opponent was David S. Baker, who was given a small plurality of the popular vote. Owing to a disagreement of the two houses, one of which was controlled by the Republicans and the other by the Democrats, they did not meet in grand committee, and the old state officials held over.1 This frequent defeat of the popular will showed that some change was needed. Accordingly a constitutional amendment providing for plurality instead of majority elections was passed and submitted to the people in November, 1893. It was approved by a vote of 26,703 to 3,331. Henceforth there was much more simplicity in methods of election, and the aggravation and expense characterizing the majority rule were removed.
In November, 1892, two constitutional amendments, having been passed by both houses, were submitted to the people. One, giving to the general assembly power to provide by general law for the creation and control of corporations was approved, 17,959 to 10,632. The other, providing for biennial instead of annual elections, failed to receive the necessary three-fifths vote. It was thought, however, that the opinion of the people was not fully expressed in regard to this latter amendment. Governor Brown, in recommending a re-submis- sion of the question, said: "Rhode Island and Massachusetts stand alone among the states in their adherence to the antiquated practice of annual elections, a practice which weakens authority and discourages all effort to develop and improve the public service."" But the people were not quite yet ready for the change, and when the proposition was again placed before them in September, 1895, they rejected it by a vote of 10,603 to 7,449.
Governor Brown was re-elected in 1894 and was succeeded in the following year by Charles Warren Lippitt, who remained in office for two years. From 1897 to 1899 Elisha Dyer was elected Governor, and
1 See Augustus S. Miller, The conspiracy which overthrew constitutional govern- ment in R. I. in 1893, and also the Remarks upon this pamphlet by Hon. Edward L. Freeman.
2 Governor's Message, 1895, p. 37.
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in 1900 and 1901 William Gregory was chosen to the office. All these officers were Republiean eandidates. During this period many new eon- ditions and important events required legislative aetion. When the project for the great World's Fair at Chicago was suggested, the Rhode Island legislature made a primary appropriation of $10,000 that the state should be properly represented, and subsequently in- ereascd this amount to a total of $60,000. A beautiful state building was erected, and the state iteslf displayed two comprehensive exhibits -one illustrating educational work and the other menhaden and shell- fish industries. There were about one hundred and thirty exhibitors from the state, representing machinery, manufactures of iron and wood, woolen and cotton textiles and jewelry. Scareely another state in the Union furnished sueh a varied collection of interesting and important exhibits.1
In 1893, the assembly passed an aet of considerable importanee, which had been under diseussion for two years. Under the title of "An act to simplify the duties, equalize the burdens, and increase the efficieney, of the Judiciary of the State," an aet was passed altering those chapters of the public laws that related to the judiciary, repeal- ing those measures that were obsolete, and harmonizing conflicting statutes.2 The most important act of 1894 was the factory inspection law, passed on April 26. This provided for the appointment of two factory inspeetors, regulated the employment of ehild labor, and re- quired better sanitary arrangements in factories. On May 23, 1895, an act was passed for the improvement of state highways. A eom- mission had been appointed in 1892 to inquire into this matter, and upon their report, it was enacted that a state highway commissioner should be appointed whose duty it was to provide for the improvement of highways and to encourage better methods of roadmaking. Pro- vision was also made for the more effective maintenance and repair of highways and bridges.
In February, 1895, Central Falls, then with a population of nearly 16,000, was taken from Lincoln and incorporated as a city. A long aet was framed providing for the investing of mayor and council and for the installation of the new form of government. In May of the same year the "eity boomers" in Cranston had a similar act passed through the assembly for their town, but when it was submitted to the voters it was defcated by the narrow majority of 24. A like attempt in May, 1897, to incorporate Johnston as a city was defeated by the voters of that town by a majority of 75. In May, 1898, however, by legislative
1 Governor's Message, for 1894, p. 36; J. C. Wyman, R. I. at the World's Fair (In N. E. Mag. new ser. x, 427).
" This act, generally referred to as the Judiciary Act, and its amendment of May 17, 1895, were both published separately from the regular series of num- bered chapters of public laws.
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act, the more populous portion of Johnston was annexed to Provi- dence.
The most important events of the year 1898 were those connected with the war with Spain. At the very beginning of the struggle, the general assembly, on April 21, 1898, appropriated $150,000 "to defray such military and naval expenses as may be necessary by reason of the existing conditions between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain." Wlien, on April 23, 1898, President Mckinley issued the call for troops, recruiting offices were immediately opened in Provi- dence, Newport, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Westerly. A regiment was quickly enlisted, known as the First Rhode Island Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, and was quartered at the state camping ground at Quonset Point. This regiment, numbering 12 companies of 77 men each, and commanded by Col. Charles W. Abbot, jr., started for Camp Alger, Va., on May 26, with the expectation of being immediately transferred from there to the actual scene of hostil- ities. This hope, however, was not to be gratified.
On May 25 came the second call for volunteers. By the 22d of the following month, 329 soldiers had been enlisted and departed to join their comrades at Camp Alger. Occasional rumors and false orders kept the men in hourly expectation of going to the front, but such was not to be their fortune. On August 3 the regiment broke camp to march to Thoroughfare Gap, Va. Here they encamped until August 22, when they were transported to Camp Meade, in Middletown, Pa. On November 3 another move was made and the regiment removed to Camp Fornance, Columbia, S. C., where it remained until mustered out of service in March, 1899. On April 1 the regiment reached Providence where it was disbanded, many of its officers and men seeking a further military carcer in volunteer regiments that were enlisted for service in the Philippines.1
The propositions to amend the constitution now submitted to the people comprehended a larger scope than merely the revision of cer- tain clauses. There was an increasing sentiment for a general revision of the constitution. After several motions for a constitutional con- vention had failed of passage, in May, 1897, Senator Freeman pre- sented a resolution providing for a bi-partisan commission of nine persons, to be appointed by the Governor, to revise the constitution, which passed without division. The resolution was amended in the
1 In response to the second call for troops on May 25, 1898, Battery A and the Machine Gun Battery both offered to serve as light artillery organizations They enlisted recruits, went into camp at Quonset Point, but, not being needed in active service, were granted honorable discharges on October 26. The various official documents and letters relating to the Spanish war were gathered by Governor Dyer into a volume entitled R. I. in the war with Spain. Brief ac- counts of R. I.'s relations to the war are in Prov. Jour. Almanac for 1899 p. 70, and for 1900, p. 41.
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house at the January session, 1897, by striking out the word bi-parti- san, and inereasing the membership to fifteen, and the senate accepted the resolution as amended. The commission, composed of fifteen lead- ing men of both party affiliations, held frequent hearings, and reported the revised document on February 23, 1898. It was speedily put through both houses, and was also aeeepted by the sueeeeding legisla- ture in May. When submitted to the people, however, in November, it failed to receive the necessary three-fifths vote, the vote being, ap- prove, 17,360, and rejeet, 13,510. With some slight changes it was submitted again on June 20, 1899, and was again rejected by a vote of 4,097 to 12,742. The people had evidently deelared their mind to eling to the old method of only voting upon specifie amendments to the constitution, at least until some better plan was provided.
The propositions for a constitutional convention had received some- what of a drawbaek through the opinion rendered by the Supreme Court in 1883, that the constitution could be amended only in the way provided for by the instrument itself.1 The only feasible method in order to remove objectionable features in the constitution, was for one legislature to submit to the succeeding legislature specifie amend- ments to separate provisions. At the January session of 1900 a series of amendments were introduced abolishing the May session and there- fore Newport as a state eapital; inereasing the pay of assemblymen to five dollars a day, for not more than sixty days in a year ; ehanging the date of the state election from April to November, extending the time for registration of voters to June 30 of each year; and making several minor provisions for the election of general officers. This motion passed both houses at the January session and again at the following May session. In November, 1900, it was submitted to the people, and was accepted by a vote of 24,351 to 11,959.
In many ways the most important movement inaugurated toward the elose of the eentury was the building of the new marble State House. The old structure on Benefit street, ereeted in 1760, had proved entirely inadequate for the purpose. For half a century attempts had been made from time to time to seeure the necessary
1 The court had decided that a constitutional convention, "if called, would be confined by the Constitution of the United States to the formation of a consti- tution for a republican form of government, and our present constitution con- tains the fundamental provisions, the great ground plan, of such a form of gov- ernment as it is known throughout the Union. Any changes which are in con- templation are merely changes of superstructure or detail. Our constitution, too, contains in its bill of rights the great historic safeguards of liberty and property, which certainly no convention would venture either materially to alter or to abolish. Any new constitution, therefore, which a convention would form, would be a new constitution only in name; but would be in fact our pres- ent constitution amended. It is impossible for us to imagine any alteration, consistent with a republican form of government, which cannot be effected by specific amendment as provided in the constitution." (R. I. Reports, xiv, 654).
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RHODE ISLAND STATE HOUSE.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
legislation for the erection of a new capitol. In 1846 a plan had been formulated for a building to cost about half a million dollars, and many times from then until 1873 active effort was made to bring thic matter up for discussion. In the latter year a committee had reported elaborately on a site, but then the matter was dropped for many years. In 1890 a committee was finally appointed to consider and report upon the subject. In accordance with the recommendation, a state-house commission consisting of thirteen men was chosen by the assembly with full powers to select a site and build a new capitol. An enabling act, authorizing the assembly to provide for the issue of $1,500,000 in state-house bonds was passed and in November, 1892, was sealed with the popular approval. Additional issues of bonds to the amount of $800,000 in April, 1898, and $700,000 in Novem- ber, 1900, brought the total up to $3,000,000. Ground was broken for the building on September 16, 1895, when Gov- ernor Lippitt removed the first spadeful of earth, and the corner-stone was laid with impressive Masonic ceremonies on October 15, 1896. The assembly held its first session in the new building in January, 1901. The completion of this beautiful marble palace and the creation of Providence as the sole capital city mark an epoch in Rhode Island's history. For the first two centuries of the state's existence, when the towns were more nearly equal in size, the assembly had been making a circuit of Narragansett Bay in its en- deavor to hold legislative sessions. In 1854, the number of capitals was reduced from five to two. Providence and Newport were the two largest towns, and henceforth Rhode Island indulged in
the peculiar distinction of having two capitals. But as the manufacturing population in the northern part of the state gradually increased, the business of government centered more
in that section and especially in the rapidly growing city of Providence. At the very close of the century, when Provi- dence showed such gains as to have a population nearly five times as large as any other city in the state, the inevitable change came. Newport, the former "metropolis of the colony," was com- pelled to witness the loss of its cherished "election day" and the removal of its distinction as a state capital. It is the old story of his- toric sentiment yielding to the march of progress.
Clarence S. Brigham.
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The Wars and The Militia.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE WARS AND THE MILITIA.
At the beginning of the settlements in New England a military force was considered essential to the safety of the community. The wrongs which had been inflicted upon the Indians by the early visitors to the shores of New England, long before settlements had been pro- jected, had aroused the suspicion, if not the enmity, of the natives, and while they were in many localities peaceably disposed and even on most friendly terms with the settlers, the uncertainty of their temper made it necessary for the public weal that some provision be made for defense in the event of their becoming hostile. The first action by the people of Rhode Island providing for such protection was at Portsmouth, when it was ordered "that on the 12th of this 9th month (1638) ther shall be a general day of Trayning for the Exercise of those who are able to beare Arms in the arte of military disapline, and all that are of sixteen years of age and upwards to fifty shall be warned thereunto".
This provided for the simplest kind of a military force; an occasion when each townsman was required to report at a place designated by the town authorities, equipped with his own gun and accoutrements. Here the townsmen were formed into companies, put through the crude military evolutions then in vogue, after which they were dismissed to pass the remaining portion of the day in a general good time.
The next year after this action of the town of Portsmouth the town of Newport provided for its military officers by ordering that "the Body of the people viz: the Traine Band shall have free libertie to select and chuse such persons, one or more from among themselves, as they would have to be officers among them, to exercise and train them and then to present them to the Magistrates for their approbation". William Foster, at the same time, was appointed Clerk of the Train Band, and was ordered to view the arms in the hands of the townsmen and report the defects to the town court. Robert Jeffries was selected to command on these occasions and instruct the Train Band in tactics and discipline. Not only did the townsmen arrange for an organized force for common defense, but it was ordered "that no man shall go two miles from the Towne unarmed, eyther with Gunn or Sword; and that none shall come to any public Meetings without his weapon.
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Upon the default of eyther he shall forfeett five shillings". This law was rigorously enforeed, for, the next month, one of the members of the General Court that had passed this order, Mr. Easton, was prompt- ly fined five shillings "for coming to the publie meeting without his weapon aeeording to that order".
On the 6th of August, 1640, at a session of the General Court, held at Portsmouth, a law was passed providing for the conduct of military affairs in a more elaborate manner than had heretofore been done, for it was agreed and ordered, "that all Men allowed and assigned to beare armes, shall make their personall appearanee completely armed with Muskett and all its furniture; or pike with its furniture, to attend their Coulers by Eight of the eloek in the morning, at the second beat of the Drum, on sueh dayes as they are appointed to Traine. And further it is ordered, that eight severall times in the yeare the Bands of each Plantation shall openlie in the field be exercised and diseiplined by their Commanders and Offieers. And further it is ordered that there shall betwo General Musters in the yeare, the one to be diseiplined at Nieuport, the other at Portsmouth; and that if any shall faile to make their personal appearance as aforesaid, aeeording to time and plaee aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of five shillings into ยท the hands of the Clark of the Band. And further it is ordered, and by this present authority established, that if any person shall eome to the said Training or Generall Muster, defeetive in his armes or fur- niture equivalent, he shall pay forthwith the sum of twelve penee; and further it is ordered, that when the Generall Muster shall be held at the one Towne, there shall be a sufficient Guard sett and left at the other Towne with the Constable or his deputy. And further, it is ordered, that the Commanders Vidg't, Chieftaine and Lieutenant, shall appoint the dayes and times of their s'd meetings; And further it is ordered, that all men who shall eome and remaine the spaee of twentie days on the Island, he shall be liable to the injunetions of this order ; provided, that if eyther heardsmen or Lighter men be otherways de- tained upon their necessary employments, they shall be exempted, pay- ing only two shillings and six penee for that day, into the hands of the Clarke: And further be it established, that the two Chiefe Offieers of each Towne, to witt: the one of the Commonweal, the other of the Band; and these two offieers upon the exhibition of the Complaint by ye Clark (which shall be within three dayes after the faults eom- mitted), shall Judge and determine of the reasons of their exeuses, who upon the hearing thereof, shall determine whether such person shall pay five shillings and six penee, or nothing. And further it is ordered, that Libertie be granted to Farmer or Farmers to leave one man at the s'd Farme, he paying the sum of two shillings and six pence into the hands of the Clarke. And further it is ordered, that the Clarke of each Band shall receive the monies off any Man to provide and make
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