Small As The State Is,
Rhode Island Itself Forms But A Small Portion Of It.
The
authorized and proper name of the State is Providence Plantation
and Rhode Island.
Roger Williams was the first founder of the
colony, and he established himself on the mainland at a spot which
he called Providence. Here now stands the City of Providence, the
chief town of the State; and a thriving, comfortable town it seems
to be, full of banks, fed by railways and steamers, and going ahead
quite as quickly as Roger Williams could in his fondest hopes have
desired.
Rhode Island, as I have said, has all the attributes of government
in common with her stouter and more famous sisters. She has a
governor, and an upper house and a lower house of legislature; and
she is somewhat fantastic in the use of these constitutional
powers, for she calls on them to sit now in one town and now in
another. Providence is the capital of the State; but the Rhode
Island parliament sits sometimes at Providence and sometimes at
Newport. At stated times also it has to collect itself at Bristol,
and at other stated times at Kingston, and at others at East
Greenwich. Of all legislative assemblies it is the most
peripatetic. Universal suffrage does not absolutely prevail in
this State, a certain property qualification being necessary to
confer a right to vote even for the State representatives. I
should think it would be well for all parties if the whole State
could be swallowed up by Massachusetts or by Connecticut, either of
which lie conveniently for the feat; but I presume that any
suggestion of such a nature would be regarded as treason by the men
of Providence Plantation.
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