V

FROM SOUL-LIBERTY TO ABSOLUTECIVIL LIBERTY

Rhode Island’s Gift

Last of the thirteen, smallest of them all,What canst thou bring to this world’s festival,Where all thy sisters come with pride and power,And bring each one a princess’ generous dowerOf gold and gems, and fruits and precious woods,And joyous tribute of their costly goods?What can we bring? No outward show of gain,No pomp of state; we bring the sons of men!Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow gold,And gems, and all that’s fair and fine,And heap them all, the new, the old,Before our country’s stately shrine.Bring hardihood from north and east,Bring beauty from the south and west,Bring valor to adorn the feast,Bring all that has withstood time’s test.We grudge you not the riches rare,We grudge you not your acres broad,We bring you for our noble shareThe liberty to worship God.

Last of the thirteen, smallest of them all,

What canst thou bring to this world’s festival,

Where all thy sisters come with pride and power,

And bring each one a princess’ generous dower

Of gold and gems, and fruits and precious woods,

And joyous tribute of their costly goods?

What can we bring? No outward show of gain,

No pomp of state; we bring the sons of men!

Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow gold,And gems, and all that’s fair and fine,And heap them all, the new, the old,Before our country’s stately shrine.Bring hardihood from north and east,Bring beauty from the south and west,Bring valor to adorn the feast,Bring all that has withstood time’s test.We grudge you not the riches rare,We grudge you not your acres broad,We bring you for our noble shareThe liberty to worship God.

Bring gold, fair sisters, yellow gold,

And gems, and all that’s fair and fine,

And heap them all, the new, the old,

Before our country’s stately shrine.

Bring hardihood from north and east,

Bring beauty from the south and west,

Bring valor to adorn the feast,

Bring all that has withstood time’s test.

We grudge you not the riches rare,

We grudge you not your acres broad,

We bring you for our noble share

The liberty to worship God.

—Caroline Hazard, Poem read on “Rhode Island Day” at World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October 5, 1893.

THE ideal of democracy grew in all the New England colonies and led eventually to the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States of America. Rhode Island, however, in the century prior to the Revolution, had never given up her advocacy of soul-liberty, and thus the Revolution was to her a greater struggle than to the other colonies. This distinct feature will be seen in a study of the real successors of Roger Williams, in the struggle for religious liberty. Therefore it is interesting to note some of the outstanding events in the history of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, previous to the Revolutionary War.

In June, 1700, a lot was set aside for a training-ground, a burial-ground, and other public uses. Thus originated the North Burial Ground, the first public burial-ground in the colony. Before this each family had buried on its own land. Not until 1760, when Benefit Street was laid through the burial-grounds of many of the citizens, including the land where Roger Williams first settled, did they come to use in a general way this North Burial Ground. Then many bodies were removed to the new place for burial.

The second house of worship to be erected in the colony, in 1704, was the Friends’ Meeting House, in what is now Lincoln. It is still standing, although with an extensive addition. The Friends’ Meeting House in Providence was erected about the same time. The First Congregational Church was organized in 1720, a meeting-house being erected in 1723. It was on the site of the present county court-house. In 1722, the Episcopalians erected their first church building. It was called King’s Church, and was on the site of the present St. John’s Church on North Main Street. In 1798, the Methodists organized their first church, building their first meeting-house in 1816 at the corner of Aborn and Washington Streets. The Roman Catholics commencedtheir work in 1827, meeting in Mechanics’ Hall, afterward in the old Town House. From the very start no discouragement was given to any church to organize in Rhode Island. During this same period of time Baptists were hindered in other colonies.

In 1660, the proprietors of the colony ordered the setting aside of one hundred acres of upland and six of meadows to be reserved for the maintenance of a school. In 1696, a piece of land on Dexter Lane, or Stamper’s Hill, was set apart for a school. This schoolhouse was built about the year 1697, about fifty feet north of Olney Street, on the east side of Stamper’s Street. It was used for about fifty years. The schoolmaster probably received all of his compensation from the scholars. A lot on the end of the Court House Parade was left for a school building. The first reference to a school house on this lot is found in the town records for 1752. The town leased this schoolhouse to a schoolmaster. In 1769, the first free school was established on King’s Street, now Meeting Street. This building is used now as a fresh-air school.

Brown University

As early as 1762 a movement was instituted by James Manning of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, to establish in Rhode Island a university on the broad basis of religious freedom, but under the special care of the Baptists. A charter, to be presented to the General Assembly in 1763, was prepared by Rev. Ezra Stiles, a Congregational minister at Newport. When the document was ready for presentation, it was noticed that the governing power was to be given to a presbyterian body. That occasioned postponement. A charter was granted, however, in February, 1764, under the name of “The Trustees and Fellows of the College or University in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England in America.” The corporation was given power to change its name. It organized with James Manning as president. Active teaching work was commenced at Warren in 1766. The founding of this university was an event touching not only the life of Rhode Island, but of the whole country. As a Baptist movement, it was first proposed by Morgan Edwards in 1762, at the Philadelphia Baptist Association. JamesManning came from the little church at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and from a Baptist Association to the only place in America, at that time, where a Baptist university could be established. The Baptists desired the controlling power, but not the whole power of administration, in order to preserve their great principle of religious freedom. According to the original charter, twenty-two of the thirty-six trustees were to be Baptists, five Quakers, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians. Of the twelve fellows, eight were to be Baptist, the rest indefinitely of any or all denominations. The following extract shows the Baptist ideal:

into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests, but, on the contrary, all the members hereof, shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted liberty of conscience; and that the places of professors, tutors, and all other officers, the President alone excepted, shall be free and open for all denominations of Protestants, and the youths of all religious denominations shall and may be admitted to the equal advantages, emoluments, and honors of the university; and that the sectarian differences shall not make any part of the public and classical instructions.

Its early history is interesting. There was but one student during its first year, the Rev. William Rogers, of Newport, then fourteen years old. In 1767, four new students enrolled. The first years of the college were spent at Warren, where Dr. James Manning, the president, was the acting pastor of a Baptist church recently organized. In 1769, the first class of seven was ready for graduation and the first commencement was held on September 7, 1769.

The various towns of the colony contended earnestly to have the college permanently located with them. Newport considered that her large gifts to the college were sufficient to give her the preference. Providence, being a stronger center for the Baptists, won, and, in 1770, the college was moved to that city. The old brick schoolhouse, near the foot of Meeting Street, was the first building used by the college. The students boarded in private families at a dollar and a quarter a week. The building committee soon selected a better location for the school and a better place for housing the student body. Morgan Edwards said of the site finally selected:

Commanding a prospect of the Town of Providence below, of the Narragansett Bay and Island and of an extensive country, variegated with hills and dales, woods and plains.... Surely this spot was made for a seat of the Muses.

The first building, one sufficient for the needs of the college for the following fifty years, was University Hall, modeled after Nassau Hall of Princeton. The upper two stories were added after the Revolutionary war. For six years, during that great struggle, the hall was used as barracks and hospital for the combined American and French troops. In 1775, the present First Baptist Church Meeting House was erected, “for the public worship of Almighty God and to hold commencements in.” Since 1775 until the present time, with the exceptions of the years 1804 and 1832, this church has been used for the commencement exercises. On its platform illustrious students have received their degrees and have gone forth to bless the world. The presidents of Brown University, seated in the James Manning chair, have presided at the commencements in the historic Baptist Meeting House, and have given public honor to men who in turn have honored the university and city. George Washington received the honorary degree of LL. D. in 1790. Among her illustrious graduates none is greater than Adoniram Judson, our pioneer American and Baptist foreign missionary.

Doctor Manning died in 1791, and was buried in the North Burial Ground. The corporation voted that same year,

That the children of the Jews may be admitted into this institution and entirely enjoy the freedom of their own religion, without any constraint or imposition whatever.

The name of the college was changed from Rhode Island to Brown University, in 1804, in honor of Nicholas Brown, whose liberal gifts to the college were much appreciated. He was a trustee and in his lifetime gave about $100,000 to the college. In 1821 the increasing number of students made another building imperative, and Nicholas Brown gave this needed structure, Hope College, as a gift to the institution.

Original Home of Brown University, in Providence, R. I.

Brown University in Early Nineteenth Century

The second president of Brown University was Jonathan Maxcy, who served from 1792 until 1802. In these ten years two hundred and twenty-seven were graduated, sixty-six claiminglaw as their profession, and fifty-six entering the ministry. Asa Messer was the third president, serving from 1802 until his resignation in 1826. His membership was in the First Baptist Church, but his views, after 1815, were Unitarian. Acts of vandalism, such as breaking into the library, beating down the pulpit, and breaking windows, were such that he took it as a protest against his position and finally resigned.

The next president was Francis Wayland. He completely reorganized the University. He introduced the elective system, and offered several practical courses. The college grounds were laid out. Two new buildings were erected. Manning Hall, a gift of Nicholas Brown, and named in honor of the first president, was built in 1840. In this Doric structure the library found a home on the first floor and the chapel on the second. Rhode Island Hall was erected shortly afterward, $10,000 being raised by Rhode Island men and women, and the balance of $12,500 being largely the gift of Nicholas Brown. Doctor Wayland’s presidency came to an end by his death in 1855. He was buried in North Burial Ground. Following him came Barnes Sears, Alexis Gaswell, Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, Elisha Benjamin Andrews, and the present president, W. H. P. Faunce, since June, 1899. Today the college has more than a thousand students, about thirty buildings, and an endowment of more than four million dollars. Brown University was the pioneer of the hundreds of schools, colleges, and universities which the Baptists were destined to have in the years that followed. These are not limited to one State, but are scattered all over our country.

Pilgrims to Providence, the birthplace of religious liberty in America, should not fail to visit those buildings which contain sacred relics of the long and hard struggle for soul-liberty and political freedom in America.

The present million-dollarCity Hall, at the west end of Exchange Place, in Providence, was erected in the period 1874 to 1878. In the office of the Recorder of Deeds can be seen “the original deeds” from the Indian chiefs to Roger Williams in 1636, also his letter transferring to his loving friends, “a share of the new territory.” The original Compact of Government is here also, and there is a bust of Roger Williams over the entrance.

The Old State House, situated on Benefit Street, is a building which can well vie with Faneuil Hall in Boston and Independence Hall in Philadelphia as a “Cradle of Liberty.” Built in 1763, it was originally occupied by the Rhode Island Colonial Assembly, who here on May 4, 1776, two months previous to the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, adopted the famous act renouncing allegiance to Great Britain. This fact is commemorated by a bronze tablet and also by an annual commemoration in all the public schools of Providence.

The New State House, or “Marble Palace,” on the crest of Capitol Hill, completed in 1902 at a cost of $3,200,000, is built of white Georgia marble, and has for a distinguishing feature one of the few marble domes existing in the world. This inscription is on the south front of the Capitol:

To hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained, with full Liberty in Religious Concernments.

On the north side, we read,

Providence Plantations, Founded by Roger Williams, 1636, Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, incorporated by Parliament, 1643, Rhode Island, Providence Plantations, obtained Royal Charter 1663. In General Assembly declared a Sovereign State, May 4th, 1776.

The inscription around the interior of the dome is a Latin quotation from Tacitus. Translated it is:

Rare felicity of the times when it is permitted to think as you like, and say what you think.

In the State Chamber is Gilbert Stuart’s rare full-length portrait of General Washington. In the Secretary of State’s office is the original charter, granted in 1663, under which the colony and State were governed until 1843. In a subbasement there is a collection of State historical exhibits, originally collected for the Jamestown Exposition. On the dome of the State House there is a colossal bronze statue of “Independent Man, or the Genius of Religious Liberty,” designed by Brewster.

The Court Houseis on the corner of Benefit and College Streets. In its corridor there is a historical painting by C. F.Grant, picturing “The return of Roger Williams with the first charter for the Colony in 1644.”

Capitol Building in Providence, Where the Charter is Kept

City Hall, Providence, Where the Compact, Indian Deed, andLetter of Transference are Kept

Rhode Island in the Revolutionary War

Rhode Island was the first to strike a blow for civil liberty as she was the first in the struggle for religious liberty. She was last, however, to adopt the Constitution of the United States. She hesitated to surrender to the federal government the liberties enjoyed under her charter, the most liberal ever granted to a colony. She has a right to be proud of her record, before, during, and after the Revolutionary war. E. Benjamin Andrews opened his case for Rhode Island’s recognition with these words:

States are great or small according to their miles, and as the little birth town of the Christ, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, was not least among the princes of Judah, so Rhode Island, diminutive as she is physically, is far from least among the princely Constituents of this republic.

The history of Rhode Island proves that the best compatriot political liberty ever had was absolute religious liberty.

Rhode Island was the first to strike the name of king from the charter of her liberties, thus becoming the first sovereign independent State in all the New World.

Rhode Island was the first to recommend the permanent establishment of a Continental Congress, in town meeting assembled, May 17, 1774, and in General Assembly, June 15, 1774, she appointed Samuel Ward and Ezek Hopkins her first delegates thereto.

Rhode Island was also the first, by overt act, to renounce allegiance to George III of England. She was first to instruct her officers to disregard the Stamp Act and to ensure them indemnity for so doing. In 1765, she explicitly declared that in herself alone was vested the right of local taxation.

Rhode Island was first to fire a gun against the dominion of England. The first blood of the Revolutionary war was spilt in Narragansett Bay. Lexington was fought April 19, 1775; the Boston Tea Party was on December 16, 1773; Providence men, after perfecting their plans at the Sabin Tavern, Planet and South Main Streets, rowed down the river, and on June 10, 1772, sent up the Gaspee in flames.

On July 19, 1769, the men of Newport sunk His Majesty’s sloop, Liberty. Rhode Island was the first to establish an American navy. She gave the command to Abraham Whipple, who forthwith captured the first war prize (the tender of the frigate Rose, then off Newport). After the war of independence was under way, Rhode Island was the first to recommend and urge upon Congress the establishment of a Continental navy. Congress chose a Rhode Islander to work out the plans. Ezek Hopkins, a Providence man, was appointed commander-in-chief. Three-fourths of all the officers were from Rhode Island. These men were the vikings of the American Revolution. Ezek Hopkins’ home is still preserved on Admiral Street. There is a monument to him at his grave in Hopkins Square, corner Branch Avenue and Charles Street.

In proportion to her size none of the other States can compare with Rhode Island in the amount given to the Continental loan. Her citizens, unlocking their purses, freely furnished the sinews of war. She contributed seven times as much as South Carolina, whose population was three times as large; one and a half times as much as Maryland, whose population was four times as great; twice as much as Virginia, with a population eight times larger.

Rhode Island contributed proportionately her share of men to the great struggle. Rhode Island men were in every great battle under Washington. Rhode Island has been greatly criticized for not quickly adopting the Constitution. She was the last to adopt it. Her conception of religious and civic liberty in combination was such that she was not willing to lose easily the liberty which she had obtained for herself and which she freely advocated for others. Her part in the great struggle was so great that her motive for delay in adopting the Constitution should never be questioned. Her ideal of liberty, unique to Rhode Island then, is the generally accepted one now throughout America and back of every great politicial reform in lands beyond our borders.

Ex-Governor Russell Brown, on Rhode Island Day at the World’s Columbian Exposition, said:

The history of our State is a birthright which neither lands nor gold can buy, for full as it is of stirring and passionate events, there is not anincident in our annals that can bring the scarlet of shame to the cheek of civilized man. Roger Williams the first settler, the thrice-exiled friend of the weak and oppressed, by his revolt against Puritan intolerance and his sacrifice for soul liberty, baptized Rhode Island’s early days with glory sufficient for any State.

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