Rhode Island Historical Society. - F y Rhode Island's Adoption OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION I 790- 1890. DISCOURSE BEFORE THE Rhode Island Historical Society AT ITS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF RHODE ISLAND'S ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, In Providence, R. I., May 29, 1S90, BY H OR ATIO ROG ERS, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY TOGETHER WITH OTHER PROCEEDINGS ON THAT OCCASION. Published by the Society. Snoav & Faknham, Pkinteks. 37 Custom House Street. 1S90. ■..._/■ At the Qj^iarterly Meeting of the Rhode Ishiiui Historical Society, lielii Juiv I, iS(;o, tlie thanks of the Society were tendered to the President of 1»ro\vn l'niversit\' tor tlie use of Sayles Memorial Hall; to Piofessor B. W. Hood antl the lligh School Choir t'or their tine music: to the r)ra- tor for his eloquent and scholarly discourse; and to all other participants in the Centennial Celebration, by the Societ\-, of Rhode Island's Adoption of the Federal Constitution, for their alile anil satisfactoi-_\' ser\"ices : and it was \oted that one thousand copies of the discourse and the other pro- ceedings Vie printetl for the use of the Society. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION RHODE ISLAND'S ADOPTION FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, At the Quarterly Meeting- of the Rhode Island Historical Society held April 2, 1889, Messrs. William D. Ely and John A. Howland and Rev. W. F. B. Jackson were appointed a committee to make arrangements for a suitable celebration by the Society of Rhode Island's Adoption of the Federal Constitution, May 29, 1890. Upon the death of Mr. How- land, the Rev. Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews was appointed to fill the vacancy, and the committee subsequently reported the following order of commemorative proceedings to be holden in Sayles Memorial Hall, at 7J2 o'clock p. m. The Hon. George M. Carpenter, First Vice-President of the Society, and United States District Judge for the Dis- trict of Rhode Island, to preside. Singing of patriotic songs by a choir of pupils from the Providence High School, under the direction of Professor B. W. Hood. Prayer by the Rev. Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, Second Vice- President of the Society, and President of Brown University. 4 RHODE ISLAND S ADOPTION Discourse by General Horatio Rogers, President of the Society. Benediction by tlie Rev. Dr. Andrews, "America," by the choir. At the time and place appointed "there was," in the words of the Providence Journal, " a large and notable gathering," and the prescribed programme was successfully carried out. A half-hour of song by the choir was succeeded by the fol- lowing Prayer r.v the Rev. Dr. E. Benjamin Andre\v.s. Eternal Sjurit, the Creator of Man and the Ordainer of History, we would reverently recognize Thee as we meet this evening to set up a memorial pillar upon the great highway of time. We thank Thee for the marvellous career of the Com- monwealth in which we dwell. We believe it to have been of Thy divine counsel and goodness that here upon these beautiful shores, from the hrst, and earlier than at any other spot upon our planet, men were permitted to worshi}) God according to the dictates of their own consciences ; and that the lively experiment was here put forth in faith of erecting- a constitutit'ui of govenmicnt to have \-alidit}' only in civil things. Almighty God, it is because this tree of religious liberty was })lanted by Thv own right hand that it did not wither and die, l)ut rather sent out noble branches graciously to beshadow all the States of our beloved land ; yea, and even yielded fruit for the life of the other nations of the earth. Fnrgive us, () Righteous Judge, if some pride should mingle with our thanksgiving, as we reflect that the one clear and unchallenued contribution which America has made to the \ OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 5 civilization of mankind has proceeded from the favored com- munity to which we belong. O God, our fathers were not always wise. They could not on all occasions see the right way or read the signs of their times. They could not perfectly make out the future. May we, and may all men, judge them with circumspection and with charity. They were conscientious ; and we bless Thee that Thou didst lead them better than they knew, at last to cast in their lot with the great sisterhood of States in com- pany with whom they had fought out their liberties. Bestow abundance of Thy Spirit upon Thy servant who shall at this time array before our thoughts the events of that critical period ; so that from his words all present may take deeper reverence for the past and firmer hope regarding the future. May we learn to trust in principles, even when they are new and unpopular ; knowing that as the world is ruled by the God of truth, they who are of the truth and of the light shall assuredly triumph in the end. Bless the Nation of which, happily, we now form part. Bless our State. Be with its civil officers from highest to lowest, and with all its people. May righteousness, public spirit, and lofty ideas and ideals so prevail among us that when in another hundred years men gather, as we now gather, to review the past, we may not seem altogether unworthy to be thought of along with the mighty departed whom we delight to honor. Amen ! The Hon. George M. Carpenter, who presided, introduced the Orator of the occasion in these words : Ladies and Gentlemen : It is to commemorate the accession of the State of Rhode Island to the National Government that we have invited your presence this even- 6 RHODE ISLAND S ADOPTION ini;", — an event of the greatest impoit to our own people, and not without consequence to the Nation. I say, atlvisediy, the accession of our State ; because the atloption of the Constitution liy our State was not onl\' later in point of time but different in character from the action of most of the original States. We joined ourselves to a Nation already established and in the full exercise of governmental i)Ower, and in so doing we }'ielded our existence as an independent and sovereign State. Fully appreciating the character and the consequences of this action, we chose a time later than that which seemed convenient to other States. Having made ourselves part of the new Nation, we mav say, without pre- sumption, that we have not failed in our allegiance and that we have not been wanting to the Nation in council or in the field of battle. But we think it becoming that, on this anni- versary, and under the direction of this Societv, there should be made a definitive and authoritative statement of the reasons which impelled us first to hesitate with anxious deliberation, and afterwards freely and fully to abandon our intlependent character and become an integral part of an indissoluble Nation. This declaration should be made in such form that it shall be the end of controvers)', and that the future student of history may require no further material for a just and dis- criminating conclusion. For the delixery of such a state- ment I now have the hon()r to present the President of the Society, General Horatio Rogers. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. General Rogers's Discourse. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : We have met to celebrate a <^reat event in the history of Rhode Island. On this centennial anniversary of her adoption of the fed- eral constitution I shall endeavor to trace the causes of her delay in ratifying that instrument, for she was the last of the original thirteen states to avail herself of its provisions, and she has been bitterly assailed for not more speedily part- ing with that independent sovereignty which some of her more rapid sister states have since spent four years in bloody warfare in seeking to regain. Rtiode Island, to borrow the language of her General Assembly, in 1845, when resenting the interference of the Legislature of Maine in matters growing out of the Dorr War, so called, " can never . . . forget her past history — her early struggles in the cause of religious freedom — her toils, and sufferings, and sacrifices, in the W' ar of the Revolution, and her jealous determination, at all times, to secure to the peo- ple of Rhode Island the exclusive right to manage their own affairs in their own way." ^ These words of her official representatives afford the key to Rhode Island's action on more than one occasion, and, broadly speaking, furnish the explanation of her conduct in regard to the federal constitution. 1 Proceedings in the Rhode IsLind Legislature on Sundry Resolutions of the State of Maine, 5; also R. I. Acts and Resolves, June Session, iS^5, p. 49. 8 RHODE island's ADOPTION Our first settlers were, in a double sense, the children of oppression, "wee beinge an outcast people," they wrote, when addressing Richard Cromwell, the Lord Protector, in 1659, " formerly from '*"^' iiiother nations in the Bishops' dales, and since from the rest of the new English over zeal- ous collonys." ^ Roger Williams and the other founders of Providence, the Antinomians who settled at Newport, Samuel Gorton, of Warwick, and still later the Quakers, were all thrust out of I\Iassachusetts-Bay for conscience sake. The hand of oppression reached them even m exile. The United Colonies of New England, which, in 1643, formed a league for mutual protection, absolutely refused to admit Rhode Island to their fellowship. - When the charter of 1643-4 was granted to this colony the same old })ersecuting spirit of her neighbors prevented for three }'ears an organiza- tion under it. Governor W'inthro}), of Massachusetts-Bay, in his History of New England,-^ tells us that Plymouth sent one of her magistrates to Aquidneck Island to forbid the exercise of any pretended authorit}' there, claiming it to be under her jurisdiction. " Our court," he continues, "also sent to for- bid them to exercise an}' authority within that })art of our jurisdiction at Pawtuxent and ]\Iishaomet ; and although they had b()asted to do great matters there by virtue of their char- ter, yet they dared not to attempt anything." Connecticut claimed jurisdiction o\"er Rhode Island territorv west of Narragansett Bay, and Massachusetts over that east of it, and not until ij2f)^ was the former obliged by the decision 1 1 R. I. Col. ReconU, 414. - 2 H.T^ard's State Papers, 20, 91). s Ed. of 1S53, vol. i, 2711. ■* The order of the Kiny in Council was jiassed Febrnarv S, 172') : 4 R. I. Col. Rec, 370. The boundary line was not run by coniniissioners aiipointetl by the two colonies until 172S: 4 K. I. Col. Kec, 41x1, 411, and 413. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 9 of the King in Council to withdraw her assumption ; and it was 1746 1 before the latter, likewise, was compelled to yield up her usurpation, when the territory embraced within the towns of Tiverton, Little Compton, Bristol, Warren, Bar- rington and Cumberland, passed from the jurisdiction pi Massachusetts to that of Rhode Island. Notwithstanding the hands of her neighbors were against her, the little colony survived and sustained herself. When our founders ascertained that they could not preserve their liberties within the limits of Massachusetts-Bay, bitter experi- ence taught them they could do so beyond her borders. When the United Colonies refused to receive the outcast colony into their confidence and under their protection, she found she could exist without their aid and notwithstanding their opposition. These early experiences, and the isolating effects of her steadfast adherence to the principle and prac- tice of soul-liberty, despite all pressure brought to bear upon her, developed in Rhode Island, beyond all the other original American colonies, a self-reliance, a force of character, and an independence of feeling and action, that enabled her to successfully resist influences that would have absorbed or overthrown a less sturdy colony. At one period Rhode Island was the most radical, and at another, the most conservative, of all the old thirteen colonies or states. At a bound she leaped far in advance of them all in her cardinal principle of soul-liberty. Every one worshiped God as he pleased. Baptist, Quaker and Arftinoraian, Jew and Gentile, the obserx'er of the first day of the week, and 1 The order of the King in Council was passed May 2S, 1746. The Rhode Island Com. missioners appointed to run the eastern bound.ary line in accordance with the Royal deter- mination, reported to the General Assembly at its January session, 1746-7 : 5 R. I. Col. Rec. 197 and 199. lo RHODE island's adoption the. observer of the seventh day, and members of all other creeds, here found a safe harbor of refuge. The law called on no one to contribute to the support of a minister of religion ; and herein, for more than a century and a half, the little colony was utterly out of touch and sympathy with her neighbors, for in Massachusetts and Connecticut, strange as it may seem, not until after the ad\"ent of the present cen- tui-y were church and state entirely divorced. The colonial charter of Rhode Island, likewise, was unsurpassed in liber- ality. That of Connecticut alone approached it, anel in these two colonies onl\-, until after independence, were the governors elected by the people. So liberal were the royal charters of these two colonies that they alone sur\'ived the Revolution, Connecticut abandoning her charter in iSdS, and Rhode Island clinging to hers until 1S42. The peoj^le of Rhode Island and their representatives have always exerted a stronger direct influence on governmental affairs, and still e.xert it, than in any other colony or state ; and nowhere was or still is there a greater jealousy of official or other central- izetl power. Until within a few years the people directly, or through their renresentati\"es in General Assembly, elected nearly all their officers, and only recently has the Governor, to any considerable extent, been invested with an appoint- ing" power. He never had the veto power, and in man\' other respects his authority is much more circumscribed than in other states. This jealousv of centralized power that has alwa}-s existed in colony and state has in some degree sur- vived to our dav, and is well illustrated in our present consti- tution. Each town and cit\' has one senator in the upper branch of the General Assembly, and there, Jamestown with less than a thousand inhabitants, is the peer of the city of Providence with more than 130,000. In the lower house OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. I I each town has at least one representative, and no town or city can have more than twelve, or one-sixth of the whole, the body being limited to seventy-two members ; and yet Providence contains nearly two-fifths of the whole population of the state. ^ No act of incorporation, other than for religious, literary, and charitable purposes, or for a military or fire company, can be passed by the General Assembly to whom it is first presented, but must be continued over another elec- tion of members, so that the will of the people may have an opportunity to be expressed upon it. In no other state, until eighteen months ago, was the elective franchise so restricted. Nowhere has town government been so rigidly adhered to. Even in Connecticut, state senators are now elected from districts regardless of town lines ; and in Massachusetts, county officers have charge of probate matters and the re- cording of deeds. Nowhere on the face of the earth to-day, Great -Britain and her colonies not excepted, do the old Eng- lish common law forms of procedure and practice prevail to such an extent as in the courts of Rhode Island. The very liberality of her cardinal principle and of her royal charter seems to have made her fearful of losing what of liberty she 1 Priiir to the cdnstitulifui of iS^2, ten assistants wt-re annually elected, who, together with the governor, or, in his ahsence or bv his iierniission, the deputv-governor, con- stituted the upper house of the General Assembly. The composition of tbe lower house, until the constitution of 1842 went into operation, afforded a most notable illustration of Rhode Island conservatism, tor by King Charles's charter it was provided that Xewjiort sliouki have six representati\ es. Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick, four representa- tives each, and every other town and city two representatives each. However fair this may have been in I'xi,^, wlien tlie charter was granted, it became utterly disproportionate in less than half a century tliercafter, as tlie census of 170S shows that Providence then had more than twice as many inhabitants as Portsmouth, and more tlian thrice as many as Warwick. In iSoo Providence had more inhaliitants than Newport, more than three times as many as Warwick, more than four times as many as Portsmouth, and more than fifteen times as many as Jamestown; and as time went on, the disproportion grew greater and greater, but no change was made in the number of representatives till 1842. 12 RHODE island's ADOPTION had gained ; so the radicalism of her early days has reacted upon her, producing an intense conserwatism. With such conserx'atism, and with such jealousy of central- ized power, let us turn our eyes to the period of the Revolu- tion and see how it manifested itself. Early in May, 1776,1 the General Assembly withdrew its allegiance from the King of Great Britain and enacted that all writs and pr()cesses in law should thereafter issue in the name and under the authority of " the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," to which authorit\' alone public officers were to swear fealty. Rhode Island having thus become an independ- ent colony, her members of congress, elected at that same May session, found in their commissions that year an injunction which showed plain!)' how jealously independence, even of her sistei" colonies, was to be guarded ; for the com- mission after authorizing them to consult and advise upon measures for the public weal and, in conjunction with the delegates from the other colonies, to enter into and adopt such measures, contained this significant pro\-ision. \-iz. : "-taking the greatest care to secure to this colony, in the strongest and most j^erfect manner, its i:)resent established form, and all the powers of government so far as relates to its internal police and conduct of our own affairs, ci\'il and religious." This jM-ovision contained the political ci'eed of the state ; and the real underlying cause of ■ Rhode Island's tai'iliness in accepting so radical a change as the concession required by the federal constitution called u}ion her to make, was her jealous}- of centralized })ower and the \'ein of intense conservatism that has run through her later character, mani- festing itself so consi)icuousl\' by her tenaciously clinging, ' r H. I. Col. Hlc, ;jj. - 7 K. I. Col. Rcc, 1C26. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 1 3 until less than half a century ago, to the old colonial charter with its greatly restricted suffrage ; to primogeniture — for the eldest son was allowed to vote in preference to other sons ; to semi-annual elections of representatives in the Gen- eral Assembly ; and to many other antiquated methods ; paper money upon which some have laid so much stress being merely an incident and not a cause. This jealousy of cen- tralized power and this conservatism, it will be observed, manifested itself chiefly in the country and not in large towns ; exactly in the localities where the same traits of character have most manifested themselves on other occa- sions. With her bitter experience, Rhode Island was dis- trustful of her neighbors. But forty years before, had she succeeded in recovering jurisdiction over several towns, after having been unjustly deprived of it for more than a century. For one hundred and fifty years she had enjoyed utter eman- cipation in religious affairs, but the neighbors that bounded her by land on every side, were still requiring their inhabit- ants to contribute to the support of religious ministers for whom many of them cared nothing. When Rhode Island was called to merge herself with a dozen other states, of which she was the least, and from her diminutive territory must, perforce, ever remain so ; when she remembered that from her nearest neighbors she had suffered much, and that with them, in some respects, she was still not in accord ; when she reflected that after she had made the concession she could never recall it, and that this new and untried bond of union might prove a fetter upon that freedom she had braved so much to secure, — perhaps it is not to be wondered at that she should have been slow to decide. Detractors have sometimes ascribed Rhode Island's pro- crastination in adopting the federal constitution to a gen- 14 RHODE ISLANDS ADOPTION eral low plane of patriotism pervadini;- her character. Her record diirin;;- the memorable strugi;]e for independence from Great l^ritain jM'oves that such an assinni)tion is utter!}- with- out foundation. Rhode Iskuul has alwa\'s been intensel)' patriotic. ''^ This State," wrote William ])i-adford, Speaker of the Ivhode Islanel House of Representatives, to the Presi- dent of Congress, in November, 1782, " may be justly ranked among the foremost in the commcui cause, ha\"ing" furnished in suppoi"t of it as man\' men and as much mone\", in ])ro- ]iortion to its abilities, as anv state in the Union, and much more than most of them, and it is still (.lisposed to continue its exertions." In 1 783, the Continental I_.oan Office accounts show that onl\' four states had contributed more to the public treasury than Rhode Island, diminutixe as she was, and in lu'cjiortion to i)o])ulation none could couiijaix' with her. With less than a quarter of the inhabitants of MarN-knul she held half again as much of the ])ublic debt. Though oid}- one-eighth as populous as \urginia she was a pul)lic ci'cditor in more than double the amount of that great state ; ;ind while North Carolina and South Carolina each j^ossessed more than three times the number of inhabitants of Rhode Island, ^■et this state held ujnvards of six times moi'e of the ])ublic debt than the forniei', and u])waixls of sewn times more than the latter.'^ 3 Stiiplr^'s Ulii.ili- Island in IIr- C.nitiiRnlal C( .n^ic-s. jm. : Macli-aiii I'aiRis, (;il|iinV j-Id., 304, 4 V : I liamioft';- II is|( ,iv of the Consiitiit ii .11 1 .1" till- Ciiiird States, Si. \t lor any i.as,>n ixcrpti.in be taken t.> the i.oan OlFue aecnn nls as a liasis of compari s. in, then it may he staled that , aeca.nlinu tnthe lep.nt nl the llnaicl cf I Cinni issj, ,,iers appointed h\- C..n-i-ess tn settle the aciimnts i.f the i-espeeti\e stales I'cr expi ii.es ineniied dminu the Uexolulinnary War, ul'llie seven slates in \vli..in the I 'nile.l M.ites , ,«<■.! hal- anei-s .,11 the last day id' 17s.,, Id whieli tlie aei dnnl- were made np, tliose o\ hut three slates were larL'er than that .dlUicdc J -hind ; w liile si\ stales were largely indeliled p. tlie I'nited Slates. _> I'itlun's I'ldilieal and Civil lU-lnry .it llie Cnited Stales, ;,|('i, ; (S. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 1 5 But it has been urged that the delegates from Rhode Island were very delinquent, at the last, in attending the Con- tinental Congress. This was rather the fault of the mem- bers than of the state, for the delegates were duly elected, and if they neglected their duties, they but followed the ex- ample of members from other states. William Ellery, one of our delegates in Congress, in a letter to Governor Greene, dated February i, 17S4, relating to the ratification of the treaty of peace with Great Britain,' said: — " For the want of nine states we have not been able to transact busi- ness of importance. After having wrote many pressing letters, and sent off two expresses, nine states were at length collected, and the definitive treaty ratified. As soon as this was done, one of the Delaware members left Congress ; and there have been only eight states represented since his de- parture. Georgia has not had a delegate on the floor for a twelve month. New Hampshire has had but one ever since I have attended. New York is not at present represented, and New Jersey has but one member." To the multiplicity of causes for Rhode Island's delay in adopting the federal constitution, no one, perhaps, made a larger contribution than David Howell, and yet, paradoxical as it may seem, he was in favor of it. Fie was a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Princeton. Removing to this state soon after graduation, he was first a tutor and then a professor in Rhode Island College. He studied law and be- came famous for his wit, learning and eloquence. For three years he was a member of Congress, and in 1786 he was one of the judges of the court in the great case of Trevett ^'s. Weeden, that adjudged some of the extravagant paper money legislation of that year unconstitutional. Subsequently he 1 Staples, 46S. 1 6 RHODE island's ADOPTION was at different times Attorney-General of the State, United States District Attorney, and for the last fourteen years of his life United States District Judge. From 1790 to 1S24 he held the chair of law in Brown University. He was a mem- ber of Congress from 1782 to 1785, and there, it was, that his unflinching advocacy of state rights, often contending single- handed against the whole house, roused bitter opposition both to him and to his state. Strong and i^ronounced in his views, he was fearless and outspoken in maintaining them. Policy and conciliation formed no part of his character. He was uncompromisingly opposed to granting to the Confedera- tion the right to lay a duty on imports. The system then in force of calling upon the states for requisitions of money had proved a miserable failure. Through lack of funds to carry on the government the utter dissolution of the Confederation seemed imminent. On the third day of February, 1781, Con- gress had recommended to the states to grant it the power to lay an impost of five per cent., and by the articles of confeder- ation each state must agree to its adoption. All but Georgia and Rhode Island granted the jiower ; the former never acted on the recommendation, but the latter utterly refused tosanc- tion it. Appeals were dispatched from Congress to this state, and finally a committee was raised to come in person, but at this juncture the great state of Virginia repealed her assent, so the mission was abandoned, for while a little state, like Rhode Lsland, could, perha}is, have been forced to yield to pressure, no one dreamed of attempting" it with a great state like Virginia. The impost question continued a bone of contention until the adoption of the constitution. So bitter was the feeling in Congress against Howell for his part in the matter, that attempts were made to break down his char- acter and reiHitation and to drive him from that body. At OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. IJ one time a vote of censure was sought to be passed because of a letter he had written ; at another an effort to unseat him was made ; but though these attempts proved futile, yet a prejudice was excited in some quarters which was never erad- icated.^ A few extracts from his letters will illustrate the tenacity of his purpose, the intensity of his utterances, the success of his efforts, and the bitter opposition and personal hostility he awakened. " - 1 cannot find words strong- enough," he says, " to express my indignation at the base means, the intrigue, the chicanery, the deceit, the circumven- tion, the fetches, the side winds, the bye blows, the am- bushes, the stratagems, the manoeuvring, the desultory attacks, the regular approaches, the canting and snivelling, as well as swearing and lying, and, in short, the total prostitution of every power and faculty of body and mind and office, to carry a point, which I need not name." Again he writes : "3 The states are now generally astonished that they should ever have been led into such an error as to give Congress the vast and uncontrollable powers contained in this ordinance. Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina repealed their hasty grants, as did the lower house of Massachusetts. Georgia and Rhode Island never granted the request of Con- gress." The intense hostility Mr. Howell roused by his course is jjortrayed in this final extract from his corresi)ond- ence. " ■* I have been in hot water," he writes, "for six or seven weeks, — ever since business has been taken up in ear- nest. Thank God, we have hitherto carried every point. I have received two written challenges to fight duels ; one from Col. Mercer, of Virginia, the other from Col. Spaight, of 1 Writings of William G. Goikiard, Vol. I, 166, note: Howell's Correspondence in Staples. 2 Staples, 4S9. s Staples, 4S7. * Staples, 514. 1 8 RHODE island's adoption North Carolina. The Joui'nal.s will j;ive their }iolitical char- acters. I an.swered thcni that I meant to cha.stise any insult I might receive, and laid their letters before Congress." That I may be sure not to oxerstate the'influence exerted by Mr. Howell at this imixirtant period, I shall borrow a few sentences from Chief Justice Stajjles, and thus fortify my- self with the authorit}' of his profound knowledge of Rhode Island affairs. " 'The proceedings of this State in relation to the five per cent, impost," sa\'s the late Chief Justice, " were in perfect accordance with her political creed, pub- lished in May, 1776, and reiterated in October, 1782. The grant in the terms proposed, interfered very materially with ' the internal police and conduct ' of State affairs ; for the impost projxised, was to be collected within the state by officers not appointed b\' its authority and not under its con- trol. The discussion of State rights, which grew out of it, confirmed the citizens of the State in their original creed. The arguments of Mr. Howell, in favor of these rights, acquired a greatei" force from the ai)parent attem}it in Congress to put him down because of his 0}:)inions honestl}' and ear- nestly expressed. . . Is it not more than probablethat the state right doctrine so eloquently urged bv Mr. Howell, in- flamed and gave strength to the prejudices which imbued a majority of the citizens of Rhode Island to oppose that Con- stitution, when it was proposed for their acceptance ? " The price paid bv the American states for independence, in addition to the blood shed, was impoverishment and ex- haustion. The expense of carrying on the war had been vast : currency had depreciated : taxation had been heavy ; and the channels of industry had l^een greatly disturbed, J St;iplcs, ^jg. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 1 9 and, in some cases, destroyed. The flow of specie from the United States was alarming. The imports from Great Britain in 1784 and 1785 amounted to $30,000,000, while the exports thither did not exceed $9,000,000, leaving a balance of $21,000,000 against us.^ In some states laws to stay the collection of debts were passed ; in others tender laws were made, or enactments to enable the transfer of property in settlement of debts. In Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire an insurrectionary spirit was rife, and in the former the famous Shay's Rebellion was only put down by the shedding of blood, and after the sessions of the courts had been interfered with, and other excesses committed. Rhode Island was no exception to the rule, and she was worse, rather than better off than her sister states, as her suffer- ings during the Revolutionary War had reduced her to sad straits. For three years during the war a British army had occupied the island of Rhode Island and some other por- tions of the state, and a British fleet had held the mouth of Narragansett Bay, thus practically sealing up the state. Bristol and Warren had been partially destroyed. Commerce had been annihilated.- The ancient and once wealthy town of Newport, which had rivalled Boston and New York in commercial importance, was ruined, and out of nearly one hun- dred and fifty sail she sent to sea in 1774, three only were at sea in March, 1782.^ "Near two thousand persons,"'* wrote Governor Greene from Providence, in 1779, "who have been driven from Rhode Island by the enemy, are now among us, the greater part of whom subsist by charity. The most obdurate heart would relent to see old age and childhood, 1 Pitkin's Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States, 30, 31. - Staples, 1S2, 309, 212, 213, 220; S R. I. Col. Rec, 49S-500. 3 Howell to Gov. Greene : Staples, 3S2. *S R. I. Col. Rcc, 500. 20 RHODE ISLAND S ADOPTION from comfortable circumstances, reduced to the necessity of begging for a morsel of bread ; and even that they cannot often obtain ; not for the want ol: a sympathetic feeling in the inhabitants for their distresses, but merely from their inability to relieve them." In the same year the Board of War wrote : — " ' The State is burdened with debt, reduced to poverty, . . . and we are almost upon the verge of a famine." In the terrible pressure succeeding the struggle for inde- pendence, some of the states again resorted to emissions of paper monc}' in the hope of relief. Among these were New Jerse}', Penns}-lvania, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. When the Bank of the United States re- fused to receive Penns}'lvania's l;)ills as of equal value with its own, the state rei)ealed the bank's act of incoi'pora- tion.~ The Rhode Island General Assembh', early in 1786, had granted assent to Congress to enact an im})ost law, and at the same time had refused to grant a petition for an emis- sion of paper money. At the election in April of that }-ear the 0})ponents of the impost and the friends of paper money coalesced and cai'ried the state. -^ An emission of ^,100,000 in paper currenc}' was then \'oted, and drastic measures were adoi)ted to secure its being received in jxayment of debts and in exchange for merchandise. During the summer and early autumn of 1786 great confusion was caused by the attempt to enforce these harsh and unjust measures, Init in the famous case of Trevett vs. Weeden, tried in C)ctober of that year, the court, comi")Osed of judges, some of whom were avowed paper money men, and all of whom had been elected by the General Assembh- that passed the acts, unanimously pronounced some of their provisions unconstitutional. After this decision stores which had been closed, were re-opened, ' Sl:iplcs, 221. = I Buncriift, ;5;,-;37. " Stajik-s, 5^9. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 2 1 and trade went on much as usual. i One would suppose from what has been written relatin^i; to paper money in Rhode Island, and the effect of it upon her action in regard to the federal constitution, that she was the only state that had issued such currency, and that those states that had not emitted any since the Revolution, were prompt and unan- imous in their adoption of the federal compact. The Confederation had proved weak and inefficient. Trade was languishing, and there was no uniform system for commercial regulation. Public credit had sunk to the lowest ebb, and anything worthy the name of government was more delusive than real. Every one agreed that some- thing should be done to strengthen the government, and to this end the State of V'irginia, in January, 1786, proposed a convention of states to be held at Annapolis in the follow- 1 The late venerable Wilkins Updike (brother of the secretary of the Rhode Island convention (hat ratified the federal constitution), in his History of the Xarragansett Church, at page 250, in writing of the Hon. Joseph Hazard, says : — " He was elected to nianv imjiortant offices by tlie people, and sustained them with honor. Although a deter- mined partisan, he never permitted his political attachments to sway him from the princi- ples of right. His motto was ' to do right, and let consequences take care of themselves.' He was on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, when the General Assembly enacted the celebrated 'Paper Money Laws' of 17S6, and was one of the paper money partv. As the party put the judges into office, it was expected that the judges wovild support the party. But when the question of the constitutionality of those laws came before the court for decision in the case of Trevett TS. Weeden, in which cause Gen. Varnum made his great and eloquent effort, tliis court stood firm in the defence of the cause of law in their country, and declared tlie Paper Money Tender Laws unconstitutional and void. Their fiery partisans in tlie General Assembly ordered tlie court to be arraigned before them for •a contempt of legislative power, and they were required to give their respective reasons for overthrowing the laws of the Legislature that had created them." When the five judges of the " Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Gaol-Delivery " were summoned before the General Assembly, at its September session, 17S6, to render their reasons for adjudging an act of the General Assembly un- constitutional and void, only three of them attended, the oilier two being unwell, so they were directed to appear at the October session. At this latter session of the General Assembly, according to Gen. V.arnum's report of the case of Trevett vs. Weeden, and the case of the judges growing out of the same, at page 43, fudge Hazard delivered the following remarks : — " My brethren have so fully declared my sentiments upon this occa- 22 RHODE ISLANDS ADOPTION ing September, for the purpose of framing- such regulations of trade as might be judged necessary to promote the general interest,' and our so-called paper money General Assembly, at its June session in that \'ear, promptl}- elected dele- gates.- The result of the discussion in Congress on the report of the Annapolis Conx^ention was the passage in February, 1787, of a resolution calling for a convention of delegates to meet at Philadelphia in May, for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation and reporting such alterations and provisions therein as should render them adequate to the exigencies of the gov- :-i()ii, tluit I liavL- notliiiig til add hy way of aru;unicnt. It gives nu- pain that the coiuluct of tlie Court seoHis to luivc iiiut the displeasure of tile Adininistiation. I^ut their r)lili-a- tions were of ttro sacred a nature lV>r them to aim at pleasing Init in the line of their dut\-. " It is well know n that my sentiments have fully accorded with the general system of the Legislature in emitting the jiaper eunency: but I neser did. I never will, depart from the character of an hone-t man. to >uiiport any mea'~ures, however agreealile in them- selves. If there could have been a prepov>ession in my mind, it mu-t have been in favour of the act of the General Assembly ; but it wa> not po-->ible to re~i?t the force of eon. viction. The cipinion I g.ne upon the trial w:is dictatid by the energ\- of truth : I thought it right— I still think s... Be it as it may, we deri\ eil imr understanding tVom the Almighty, and to Him only are we accountable for (uir judgment." General \'ainnm, in reterrini; to the re--ult of Tre\elt vs. AVeeilen, in his report of that case, says on page _^7 : — "The consequences of the tV>re<;iiing determination were imme- diately telt. The shops and store-: were generally opened, and Inisines- assumed a cheer- ful aspect. Few were the exceptions to a general congratulation, and la\ ish indeed were the praises liestowed u]ion the Court. 'I'he ilread and the idea of inlormatii ms w ere banished together, while a most perfect confidence w as placed in judicial security. 'I'he paper currency obtained a nKU'e exteiisixe circul.it ion, as every one found himself at liberty to receive t, 242, 251. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 29 accord with the Rhode Island idea, so in February, 1788, the General Assembly voted to submit the question whether the constitution of the United States should be adopted, to the voice of the people to be expressed at the polls on the fourth Monday in March. 1 The federalists fearing they would be out-voted, largely abstained from voting, so the vote stood two hundred and thirty-seven for the constitution, and two thou- sand seven hundred and eight against it, there being about four thousand voters in the state at that time.- Governor Collins, in a letter to the president of Congress written a few days after the vote was taken, gives the feeling then existing in Rhode Island, in this wise : — "Although this state has been singular from her sister states in the mode of collecting the sentiments of the people upon the constitution, it was not done with the least design to give any offence to the respectable body who composed the convention, or a disregard to the rec- ommendation of Congress, but upon pure republican princi- ples, founded upon that basis of all governments originally derived from the body of the people at large. And although, sir, the majority has been so great against adopting the Con- stitution, yet the people, in general, conceive that it may contain some necessary articles which could well be added and adapted to the present confederation. They are sen- sible that the present powers invested with Congress are incom- petent for the great national government of the Union, and would heartily acquiesce in granting suliticient authority to that body to make, exercise and enforce laws throughout the states, which would tend to regulate commerce and impose duties and excise, whereby Congress might establish funds for discharging the public debt."-' A majority of the voters of the country was undoubtedly 1 staples, 5S6. : staples, 590. 3 jo R. i. Col. Rcc, 291. 30 RHODE ISLAND S ADOPTION against the constitution, but convention after convention was carried by the superior address and management of its friends.^ Rhode Island lacked great men, who favored the constitution, to lead her. In X'irginia, for the constitution, were George Washington and James Madison, John Mar- shall, and Edmund Randolph, the governor of the state. James ]\Ionroe wrote to Thomas, Jefferson : — " Be assured, Washington's influence carried this government." - Gouver- neur ]\Iorris. in a letter to Washington himself, sa}-s : — "I have observed that your name to the new Constitution has been of infinite service. Indeed. I am convinced that if you had not attended that Convention, and the same paper had been handed out to the world, it would have met with a colder reception, with fewer and weaker advocates, and with more and more strenuous opponents. As it is, should the idea prevail that you will not accept the Presidency, it would prove fatal in man}' parts." -^ And yet, with this great leader- ship in \"irginia. the constitution in that state was adopted - i Bancroft, 25S, 265, 266, 277, 317. 340. 354. 360. 469, 47?, 495 if /ost. 4 Hiklrcth"s History of tile United St.-itcs, 35. Chief Ju.-^Ute Marsiiall, himself a member of the Philadeljjhia Convention, savs : — " So bahmced were parties in some of them," (/.«•. the states) •' that even after the subject had been discussed for a considerable time, the fate of the constitu- tion could scarcely be conjectured: and so small, in many instances, was the majority in its favfir, as to afford strontr ground for the opinion that had the influence of character been reiucived, the intrinsic merits of the instrument would not have secured its adoption. Indeed, it is scarcelv to be doubted tliat in some of the adopting: states, a majoritv of the people were in the opposition. In all of them, the numerous amendments which were pro- posed, demonstrate the reluctance with which the new government was accepted : and that a dread of dismemberment, not an approbation of the particular system under consider- ation, hail induced an acquiescence in it.'" 5 Marshall's Washington, 132. The foilowing sentence from Bancroft shows the bitterness of the opposition in some qu.irters. Referring to Pennsyivanja"s ratification, he writes: — "The ratitication gave unbounded satisfaction to all I'ennsylvania on the eastern side of the Susqueliaiina ; bevond that river ioud murmur^ were mintrled with threats of resistance in arms."' 2 Bancroft, i^2. - 2 Bancroft, 317. = I Elliot, 506. OF THE FEDERAL COXSTITUTIOX. 3 1 by but ten majority, after sundry amendments had been rec- ommended. In New York there were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and Robert R. Livingston for the constitution; and in Massachusetts, Theophilus Parsons, Theodore Sedgwick • and Fisher Ames, Ex-Governor Bowdoin and Generals Heath and Lincoln ; and then, too, there were John Hancock and Samuel Adams ; the latter two having been far from strons: for the constitution at the start, were all the better adapt- ed to carry others to the conviction at which thev finally arrived. Who was there of towering prominence in Rhode Island for the constitution, to lead the people at that trying period "■ Gen. Nathaniel Greene had removed to Georgia where he had died. Gen. James M. Varnum, a gallant Revolutionary officer, an eloquent lawyer, and a member of Congress, might, perhaps, under other circumstances, have exerted much influence for good, but he removed to Illinois in June, 1788, having been appointed by Congress one of the judges of the North West Territory ; and there he died in 17S9, at the early age of forty years.^ A thorough partisan, he ruined any influence he might have had with Rhode Island anti- federalists by writing a violent letter to the president of the Philadelphia Convention denouncing the General Assembly and many citizens of the state. - In some close states, where the leaders were wise, gentle means were resorted to. Thus Bancroft tells us : — " The federalists of Philadelphia had handled their opponents roughly ; the federalists of Massachusetts resolved never in debate to fail in gentleness and courtesy." ^ i^ regard to the Virginia Convention he writes : — "The discussions had been temperately conducted till just at the last," and then he pro- 1 UpJike's Memories of the Rhode Island Bar, 145 et fast. - 5 Elliot, 577. 3 2 Bancroft, 261 . 32 RHODE ISLANDS ADOPTION ceeds to narrate an ebullition b)' Patrick Henry. Again he says : — "After the vote was taken, the successful party were careful not to ruffle their opponents by exultation." • In Rhode Island the federalists, instead of trying to conxert their opponents by "gentleness and courtes)-." as in Massa- chusetts, heaped abuse upon them, like Varnum ; and the whole federal party of the country joined in the same spirit of denunciati 2 Bancroft, 3i.(, 31(1. : 2 Bancroft, 420. = i Liiitis, r«,;. OF TIIR FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 33 year, sent a long letter! to Congress explanatory of the situ- ation in Rhode Island, and its importance warrants my quoting a part of it. "The people of this state from its first settlement," ran the letter, "have been accustomed and strongly attached to a democratical form of government. They have viewed in the new constitution an approach, though perhaps but small, toward that form of government from which we have lately dissolved our connection at so much hazard and expense of life and treasure, — they have seen with pleasure the administration thereof from the most important trusts downward, committed to men who have highly merited and in whom the people of the United States place iiiiboiiudcd confidence. Yet, even on this circum- stance, in itself so fortunate, they have apprehended danger by way of precedent. Can it be thought strange, then, that with these impressions, they should wait to see the proposed system organized and in operation, to see what further checks and securities would be agreed to and established by way of auietiduicnts, before they would adopt it as a con- stitution of government for themselves and their posterity ? These amendments we believe have already afforded some relief and satisfaction to the minds of the people of this state. And we earnestly look for the time, when they may with clear- ness and safety, be again united with their sister states under a constitution and form of government so well poised, as neither to need alteration or be liable thereto by a majority only of nine states out of thirteen, a circumstance which may possibly take place against the sense of a majority of the people of the United States. We are sensible of the extremes to which democratical government is sometimes liable ; something of which we have lately experienced, but we esteem them tem- 1 10 R. I. Col. Rec, 3s6- 34 RTIODF. ISLANDS ADOI'TION poraiy and partial evils, conijiarcd with the loss of liberty ami the rights of a free pe()i)le." Rhode Island never suj)posed she eould stand alone. In the words of her General Assembly in the letter jnst re- ferred to : — "They know themselves to be a handfid, com- paratively viewed." This lettei", as well as a former one I have quoted fiDm, showed that she, like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Vir,i;inia, and North Carolina, hoped to see the constitution amended. Like the latter state she believed in getting the amendments before ratifi- cation, and so strong was the pressure for amendments that at the very first session of Congress a series of amendments was introduced and passed for i-atihcation by the states, and Rhode Island, though the last state to adopt the constitu- tion, was the ninth state to ratify the first ten amendments to that instrument now in force ; ratifying both constitution and amendments at practically the same time.* One can hardly wonder at the pressure for amentlments to the orig- inal constitution when the amemlments have to be resorted to tor prox'isions that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or jjrohibiting the free use thereof, oi" abridging the freedom of speech, oi" of the press, or the light of the people peaceably to assemble and to I lli( Ucv'n C'oiKslituliiiii nl Ihr I ■ nil I'll Stiilis, J-), ,;|. 'I'hc ((.ii^liliilinii oT till' L!i,ilc(l Slates was r.itili.il, iinl li\' ll.c lu-i.pli- votiiiii' directly upon till' c|ii,>tion lit laliii. .ilioii, as is llic cast- w itli aiiKn.liiu iits I,, ,,iir l!li..ilc Island stair C(Mistilnli..n, l)nl l.y coininl ii>ns of .lelr-alcs cUi (rd liylln- |.<(iplo, and became operative upon llie slates ralilyin- it, when lalilied by llie c.nvenlions ot nine slates. Ann ndnients, liowever, were, by the terms of llie consi il nl i. .n, l.> be ralilied by state le-islalnres, and wlu-n lalilied by llie let; islalnres ct I hree-l. iin ills ol the slates were to bebinilin- upon all the slab's (Aeii Ihouuli llie legislatures of some of the slates iicser ralifie.l them at all. ■]'lie Ithode Island lomeulion latilieil llie federal eoiistilntlou, May Jo, 1790, ami the lei^isfilnre of ftliode Island ralilied Ihe first ten ainendmenls June 15, 1790, lu-ini; at thu tirsl session of the Gener.d .Vssembly after the ralitication of the constiUilion. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 35 petition the government for a redress of grievances ; that excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted ; for right of trial by jury in civil cases; and for other highly important provisions. 1 North Carolina, despairing of obtaining the desired amendments, ratified the constitution November 21, 1789, and entered the constitutional union, so Rhode Island stood alone. How long could she continue so to stand, and could she, single-handed, hope to obtain amendments before ratification ? The two leaders of the dominant party in Rhode Island were John Collins, the governor of the state, and Jonathan J. Hazard, a member of the House of Representatives from South Kingstown. Governor Collins had been patriotic during the war, had been a member of Congress for five years, and was a thoroughly honest and high-toned man. - Jonathan J. Hazard took an early and decided stand in favor of liberty in the struggle for independence. In 1776 he appeared in the General Assembly from Charlestown, and the next year he was elected paymaster of the Continental Battalion and joined the army in New Jersey In 1778 he was re-elected a member of the General Assembly and con- stituted one of the Council of War ; and he continued a member of the House most of the time during the Revolu- tion. He was likewise a delegate in Congress in 1787 and 1788. He was a natural orator, with a ready command of lan- guage, and was subtle and ingenious in debate. He was for a long time the idol of the country interest, manager of the 1 See Appendix. - Applcton's Cyclopajdia of Am. Rioff. See also Governor Collins's Correspondence in Staples, and in R. I. Col. Records. 36 RHODE island's ADOPTION state, k'iuler of the legislature, aiul, indeed, the political dictator of Rhode Island, lie was tlie most efficient leader of the paper money party in 1786 and their ablest debater in the General Assembly. Later he was the leader of the anti- federalists and a fiery opponent of the const itiit ion. ^ The situation in Rhode Island had become critical indeed. The Congress of the new United States had declared that after January 15, 1790, Rhode Island was to be treated as a foreigner and a strangei-. Newport, Pro\idence, Bristol and Westerly were clamorous for the constitution. Something- must be done and that cpiickly. In October, 1789, before North Carolina had ratified, the motion for a convention had been voted down in the Rhode Island General Assembly by a vote of thirty-nine to seventeen, but when that body ne.xt met in January, 1 790, the aspect of affairs had \'astl)' changed. Five days after the beginning of the January session the House by five majority voted to call a con\ention, but the Senate non-concurred, and passed an act requesting the fieemen to instruct their representatives in the General Assembly whether a convention should be called. In this the House refused to concur by fourteen majority, and thus matters stood when the Assembly adjourned until the ne.xt day. Great excitement prevailed on Sunday and the unusual spec- tacle of the General Assembly sitting on the Sabbath and the great interest in the measure under consideration drew a throng to the State House. Another bill for a convention to be held March 1st was introduced in the House antl passed by thirty-two to eleven. About noon the vote was taken in the Senate on concuirence, and, as the senators were evenly divided, all eyes were turned towartls Governor Collins, as with him rested the decision. After reviewing the proceed- ' Uinlikc's HislDi-y of llic Nun-i-aiiscU C'hmxli, 32S el post. OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 37 ings in relation to a convention and the action of other states, he concluded by referring to the peculiar situation of this state and cast his vote for concurrence ; and so it was settled that a convention to consider the question of ratifying the federal constitution was to be called. In view of the progress made, the time for treating Rhode Island as an alien was deferred by Congress until April I5th.i February 8th, the delegates were elected, and the conven- tion assembled at South Kingstown on the day designated, all of the seventy members being present. Forty-two were members of the General Assembly, comprising the leaders of both houses, among them Jonathan J. Hazard. Four had held the office of deputy-governor, five had been delegates to the Continental Congress, and the whole constituted a thoroughly representative body.- The convention sat from March ist to March 6th making little progress, when it ad- journed to meet at Newport on the fourth Monday in May.^ During the recess all the leverage and influence that could be brought to bear to affect votes, were put in operation. One of the most remarkable results of the adjournment was the changed attitude of Jonathan J. Hazard, who had up to that time been the leader and forefront of the opposition. Though he voted against ratification to the last, yet his opposition had become so neutralized that he ceased longer to take an active part."* The convention re-assembled at Newport May 25th, and as the State House was utterly insufficient for the accommoda- tion of the great numbers that manifested their interest by their attendance, the convention removed to the Second Baptist Church, where for three days the great debate went 1 staples, 625-630. . - Staples, 633, 634. •'' Staples, 640, 656. ■» irpilike's History of the Narragaiisett Clniich, 329. Staples, 663-666. 38 RHODE island's ADOPTION 1)11, until at last on Saturda)', May 29th, at twenty minutes past ti\'c ill tlic afternoon, the vote was taken and tlie con- stitution was ratified by a vote of thirty-four to thirt)-two, and at the same time a series of ameiuhnents was recom- mended.' The Providence (Jarscttc of June 5, 1790, tells us: — "Many more iiieml)ers of the convention were con- vinced of the pro[ii'iety of so ado[)ting the constitution, and the majority would, it appears, have been much larger, had not a number of the members been restricted by instruc- tions. Mad it been compatible with the pubhc good to have adjourned the decision for a short time only, these instruc- tions would, undoubtedly, have been reversed ; but as there was a majority for the adoption, and the situation of the state extremely critical, it was deemed expedient to take the question." The news of the ratilication arrived in Provi- dence by express at eleven o'clock at night and was immedi- ately announced by the ringing of bells and the firing of can- non.- Rhode Island speedily elected senators and repre- sentatives to Congress, and thus became a member of the constitutional union. Rhode Island has been attacked and abused for her tardi- ness, beyond all bounds of reason. She was a sovereign state, the mistress of her own destiny, and she had both a technical and a moral right to inusue such course as she deemed for her own best good. .She had violated no right of her sister states ; she had broken no jiledges to them. On the other hand all the states had solemnly jiledged their faith that the union formetl under the articles of confeder- ation should be perpetual, and that no alteration should at any time be made in any of those articles unless confirmed ' staple-^, (i;;ij, 67i-'')S:i. _> AimdIJ's Ilistmy nl' KIiihIc r^ilaiiil, 502. 2 I'roviilfHic Ga:ieilc,]\\\\c e^, i/y"- OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 39 by the legislature of every state. However satisfactory the express provisions of the constitution might have been, yet it was provided that three-fourths of the states might amend them at pleasure, and, truly, the conferring of such power was a leai) in the dark. Rhode Island never opposed union. On the contrary she always favored it, being among the first to propose it ; and as we have seen she was the second of all the states to instruct her delegates in Congress to ratify the articles of confederation providing for a perpetual union. She had performed her duty as well as most of the states, and in the struggle for independence she had been second to none. Her state sovereignty had been planted in exile and fostered by persecution : its corner-stone rested on soul- liberty ; and its preservation and integrity had been assured only by her sturdy resistance to the aggressions of her neighbors, and she was unwilling to transmit to posterity either that sovereignty impaired, or with the right to impair it vested in three-fourths of her sister states. To the many writers failing in a just perception of the true state of affairs, that have heaped reproaches upon Rhode Island, especially during the last few years embraced within the centennial period of our government, I would commend these words of George Bancroft : — " Neither of the two states which lingered behind remonstrated against the establishment of a new government before their consent ; nor did they ask the United States to wait for them. The worst that can be said of them is, that they were late in arriving."^ Having once entered the constitutional union, Rhode Island has loyally adhered to it, and the blood of her sons has been 1 2 Bancroft, 350. 40 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. lavishly shed, and the money in her treasury has been boun- tifully expended in preserving;- it. Rhode Island may be eon- seivative and ])eculiar, l)ut, if a tree is to be judged by its fruit, where can a richci" harxest be found th.an here within her borders ? Thriving towns, cities and villages stud her rugged soil. Her rivers on their course from the hill-side to the sea excrywhere pay tribute to industiy. Her whirling spindles and flying shuttles pi'oduce fabrics of suri)assing excellence. Her forges and her workshops furnish alike the most ponderous machines and the most delicate mechanisms. The skill of her artisans, in unrivalled profusion, fashion forms of beauty out of silver and gold. Churches and schoobhouses aboimd, educating for this workl and pointing onward and upward to the next. Literally in no state in the union are there so many inhabitants to the square mile of land area, as here upon her teiritory.i Carpers may cavil at her, detractors may traduce, — but as well might they strive to pluck the love of soul-liberty from the heai'ts of men, as permanently to be-little her character or obscure her fame. ' I'.v the (•.--l .k-ii-^clv |io|Mil:it.-,l slate, lia.l hilt j.>j.7S iri|i;[|,i|;,,it> |.> a square milt ..f lan.l snrtacc. ConiiuiHl luiu ..Itlir •rLiith IViisii- i.f tlir I'jiit.il states, iS'Nii. I'ait _•, i 11.5. APPENDIX The statement has sometimes been made that inasmuch as the United States possessed no powers except those conferred hy the constitution, the prohibitions contained in a number of the first ten amendments of that instrument wei"e practical! v nugatory, and tlierefore unnecessary. The ■wisdom of our fathers, however, in insisting upon tliose prohibitions, would seem to be bevond question in view of the fact that what are termed the incidental, or implied, or auxiliary powers embraced in the constitu- tion, have proved to be the ones most open to dispute and fraught with the greatest danger. Chief Justice Marshall, in McCulloch vs. Maryland, in the United States Supreme Court, 4 Wheaton's Rep., 407, said : — "A constitution, to contain an accui-ate detail of all the subdi\isions of which its great powers will admit, and of all the means by which they may be carried into execution, would partake of the prolixity of a legal code, and could scarcely be embraced by the human mind. It would probably never be understood by the public. Its nature, therefore, requires that only its great outlines should be marked, its important objects designated, and the minor ingredients which compose those objects be deduced from the nature of the objects themselves." Mi-. Justice Strong, in the famous Legal Tender Cases, so called, also in the United States Suprenxe Court, 12 Wallace's Rep , 532, used these words : — ' We do not expect to find in a constitution minute details. It is necessarily brief and comprehensive. It prescribes outlines, leaving the filling up to lie deduced from the outlines." Later in the same opinion, on page 550, this language occurs: — "We are accustomed to speak for mere convenience of the express and implied powers conferred upon Congress. But in fact the auxiliary powers, those necessary and appi"opriate to tlie execution of other powers singly described, are as expressl}' given as is the power to declare war, or to establish uniform laws on the su')ject of bankruptcy. They are not catalogued, no list of them is made, but they are grouped in the last clause of section eight of the first article, and granted in the same words in which all other 4- APPENDIX. powers art- '4iantod to Congress." Tlie last clause ot' section eight ot' tiie first article ol' the teiieral constitution, retei'i'eti to, reatis as tbllows :— '•And to make all laws which shall he necessary ami jiroper I'nr carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or ofHcer thereof." The wiiie di\ei"gence of opinion otten existing among the judges ot tiie Uniteil States Supreme Court, upon cpiestions of C()nstitutional law, engenders gra\e liouhts whether the federal constitution has not at times been con•^true^i to mean exactly the reverse of what its tVamers inteiuied. This divergence is strikingly illustrated in the decisions relating to paper nione\", or legal tender, so calleel. In 1S70, the United States Supreme Court decided that the Acts of Congress known as the Legal Tender Acts, ■were unconstitutional when applied to pri\-ate contracts made before their passage: that is to say, that Congress could not constitutionally ]iass a law making paper money a legal tender for the pavment of debts contracted before the passage of such law. Hepburn r',<. Griswold, S Wallace's Rep.. 603. In 1S71. the same court, with a somewhat changed member- ship, overi'uled the tlecision of the \ear before and tlecided precisely the contrary. Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wallace's Rep., 457. The utter contradiction and cont'usion often attending iuiiicial construc- tion ()f constitutional pro\"isions, is signally tiisplaveii in Juilliard z's. Greenman. another Legal Tender Case, deciiletl in the United .States Supreme Court in 1SS4. •'^''"■l repoited in iio V. S. Sup. Ct. Rep., 421. Mr. lustice Gra\', in tielivering the opinion of the court in that case, on page 447, used this language : — " It appears to us to t'ollow, as a logical and necessary consequence, that Congress has the ]i()wer to issue the obligations of the Unitetl States in such t'orm, ami to impress upon them such qualities as currency t'or the purchase of merchandise and the pay- ment of tiebts, as accord with the usage of sovereign governments. The power, as incident to the power of borrowing monev and issuing bills or notes of the government for money borrowed, of impressing upon those bills or notes the quality of being a legal tender for the payment of private delits, was a power universally understood to belong to so\ereignt\', in Europe and .Vmerica. at the time of the f'raming and adoption of the Constitution of the L'nited States. ^; * * The power of issuing liills of credit, and m.aking them, at the discretion of tiie legislature, a tender in payment of private ilebts, had long been exerciseil in this country by the several Colonies and States ; and during the Revolutionary War the States, APPENDIX. 43 upon the recommendation of the Congress of the Confederation, had made the bills issned by Congress a legal tender. The exercise of this power not being prohibited to Congress by the Constitution, it is included in the power expressly granted to borrow money on the credit of the United States." On the other hand, Mr. Justice Field, in delivering a dissenting opinion in the same case, page 466, et post, spoke in this wise : — " But beyond and above all the objections which I have stated to the decision recognizing a power in Congress to impart the legal tender quality to the notes of the government, is my objection to the rule of construction adopted by the court to reach its conclusions, a rule which fully carried out would change the whole nature of our Constitution and break down the barriers wiiich separate a government of limited from one of unlimited powers. When the Constitution came before the conventions of the several States for adoption, apprehension existed that other powers than those designated might be claimed ; and it led to the first ten amendments. When these were presented to the States they were preceded by a preamble stating that the conventions of a number of the States had at the time of adopting the Constitution expressed a desire, ' in order to prevent misconception or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added.' One of them is found in the Tenth Amendment, which declares that ' the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.' The framers of the Constitution, as I have said, were profoundly impressed with the evils which had resulted from the vicious legislation of the States making notes a legal tender, and they determined that such a power should not exist any longer. They therefore prohibited the States from exercising it, and they refused to grant it to the new government which they created. Of what purpose is it then to refer to the exercise of the power by the absolute or the limited governments of Europe, or by the States previous to our Constitution. Congress can exercise no power by virtue of any supposed inherent sovereignty in the general government. =*= * * There is no such thing as a power of inherent sovereignty in the government of the United States. It is a government of delegated powers, supreme within its prescribed sphere, but powerless outside of it. In this country sovereignty resides in the people, and Congress can exercise no power which they have not, by their Constitution, intrusted to it; all else is withheld. It seems, however, to be supposed that, as the power was taken from the States, it could not have been 44 APPENDIX. inteiuied that it should disappear entireiv, and therefoi'e it must in some way adhere to the general government, notwithstanding the Tenth Amendment and the nature of the Constitution. The doctrine, that a power not expressly forbidden ma\- be exercised, woidd, as I have obser\ed, cliange the character of our government. If I ha\ e lead the Constitution aright, if there is any weight to be given to the uniform teachings of our great jurists and of commentators pre\ious to the late ci\il war, the true doctrine is the very opposite of this. If the power is not in terms granted, and is not necessary and proper for the exercise of a power which is thus granted, it does not exist." The uncertainty and contusion too often attending constitutional construction, as already shown, clearly demonstrate the wisdom of our fathers in insisting that religious lil)ert_\', freedom of speech and of the press, the right of the people peaceubl\' to assemble and petition the government tor a redress of grievances, of trial by jury in ci\il cases, that excessive bail should not he required, nor excessi\e fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted, together with other important rights, — should be e.v/i/-t\«5/i' guaranteed to the people as thev are in the first ten amendments to the federal constitution, and that they should not be left to any mere implication. When Rhode Island adopted the constitution eigiit states iiad ratified the first ten amendments, religious libert\', so far as the United States were concerned, being guaranteed in the first amendment. Rhode Island was the ninth state to ralif\- those amendments, but it was known when she took action, that the requisite number of states to make them oper- ati\e would be obtained. When, therefore, Rhode Island's attitude towards soul-libert_\' is taken into consideration, is there not good ground to t|uestion whether the little commonwealth, after all, could have con- sistenth' i-atified tiie constitution earlier tlian she did .' nx I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0014 111 315 A t mmmwn JSAi ^■^'y^^ •y-^