656 



RHODE ISLAND. 



requirement of tae Federal law, that the first 

 vote shall be taken on the second Tuesday of 

 the session. General Ambrose E. Burnside was 

 reflected to the Senate of the United States, 

 the vote being as follows: In the Senate, A. 

 E. Burnside, 25 ; George H. Brown, 7 ; C. 0. 

 Van Zandt, 2. In the House, Burnside, 54; 

 Brown, 9; Van Zandt, 2; and J. Lewis Di- 

 mond and William P. Sheffield, 1 each. 



The legislation of the May session was of 

 small amount and little importance. The re- 

 port of the State Board of Charities and Cor- 

 rection on the question of dealing with juve- 

 nile offenders was received, and an act was 

 passed locating the new Reform School on the 

 State farm at Cranston, and providing for the 

 erection of the necessary buildings. An act 

 was also passed to prevent deception in the 

 sale of butter, requiring " oleomargarine " to 

 be labeled with its proper designation. A reso- 

 lution was adopted authorizing the Governor 

 to appoint a committee to revise and digest 

 the public laws of the State. John F. Tobey, 

 Joshua M. Addeman, and George M. Carpen- 

 ter, Jr., were appointed on this commission, 

 and their work was completed and submitted 

 to the Legislature at the adjourned session in 

 January, 1881. The plan adopted in regard to 

 changes in the laws is thus stated in their re- 

 port: 



1. To make all amendments, whether by addition, 

 removal, or substitution, which are required by the 

 language of all amendatory statutes passed since 1872, 

 ana by the literal interpretation of those statutes. 



2. To make such amendments as seem to be required 

 by a fair construction of the meaning and intent of 

 those amendatory statutes, and sucli as seem to be re- 

 quired in order to carry them into practical effect. 

 Under this class the changes are comparatively few in 

 number, but of several distinct kinds, and, perhaps, 

 do not need to be enumerated. Prominent among 

 these are the change, in some instances, of the formal 

 and subordinate duties of various town officers, in or- 

 der to conform to the systems of registration, and of 

 militia enlisting and returns which iiave lately been 

 made, and the various changes rendered necessary by 

 the establishment of certain administrative boards. 



3. To make a revision of the form and language of 

 the General Statutes as thus amended, so as to secure 

 greater clearness of arrangement and ease of refer- 

 ence, and to make the language more concise, uni- 

 form, and accurate in those particulars where, in con- 

 sequence of the necessary haste in which some acts 

 have been passed, it seemed desirable. 



State Conventions were held in October for 

 the nomination of candidates for electors of 

 President and Vice-President of the United 

 States, and district Conventions for the nomi- 

 nation of candidates for members of Congress. 

 The Republican State Convention occurred on 

 the 8th, at Providence, and speeches were made 

 expressive of the party sentiment on national 

 questions, but no formal declarations were 

 adopted, and no business was transacted ex- 

 cept the nomination of electors. The Con- 

 gressional District Conventions were held the 

 same day and at the same place. The dele- 

 gates of the first district nominated Nelson W. 

 Aldrich without opposition, but those of the 

 second took eighty-eight ballots before effect- 



ing a nomination, and the result was then 

 brought about by the withdrawal of W. A. 

 Pierce, one of the prominent candidates before 

 the Convention. The name finally agreed upon 

 was that of Jonathan Chase, of Lincoln. 



The Democratic State Convention took place 

 at Providence on the 13th, and its action was 

 confined to the selection of candidates for Presi- 

 dential electors. The Eastern District Conven- 

 tion nominated Isaac Lawrence, of Newport, as 

 a candidate for Congress, and the Western Dis- 

 trict Convention agreed upon Mr. Treat, of 

 Warwick. 



A State Convention of the Greenback party 

 was held at Providence on the 19th of October 

 for the nomination of electors, and the follow- 

 ing platform was adopted : 



1. The Greenback-Labor party of Eh ode Island 

 affirms the Chicago platform of June 9, 1880, and 

 heartily supports the candidates nominated thereon. 



2. It demands the payment of the bonded indebted- 

 ness of the United States without unnecessary delay ; 



3. The substitution of non-interest-bearing green- 

 backs, in place of double-interest-bearing national- 

 bank notes ; 



4. That the national Government alone shall issue 

 currency, and shall control its volume, and preserve 

 unchanged its purchasing power as sacredly as meas- 

 ures of weight, length, and kindred measures are pre- 

 served, and for like obvious reasons ; 



5. Universal suffrage without distinction of sex, 

 and universal education. 



6. That the Congress of the United States perform, 

 without evasion and without delay, its sworn duty to 

 invest the naturalized citizens of the United States in 

 Khode Island witli the privileges and immunities, as 

 well as permit to be imposed upon them the duties 

 of citizenship, to this end refusing, if necessary, to 

 seat any representative from Rhode- Island till the 

 oligarchy here shall observe the supreme law of the 

 land in this regard. 



Candidates for Congress were also nominated 

 by the delegates from the districts. That for 

 the First or Eastern District was Henry 0. 

 Cram, of Providence ; for the Second or 

 Western District, John Francis Smith, of 

 Cranston. 



At the November election the total vote for 

 Presidential electors was 29,235, of which 18,- 

 195 were for the Republican ticket, 10,779 for 

 that of the Democrats, 236 for the Greenback, 

 20 for the Prohibition, 4 for the American 

 candidates, and 1 was reported as "scatter- 

 ing." The Republican plurality over the Dem- 

 ocratic vote was 7,416; majority over all, 7,- 

 155. In the first Congressional District Al- 

 drich was elected by a vote of 9,510 to 4,586 

 for Lawrence, and 188 ''scattering-'; in the 

 second, Chase was elected by a vote of 8,515 to 

 6,027 for Treat, and 139 "scattering." 



The population of Rhode Island, according 

 to the new Federal census, is 276,528, of which 

 104,850 is in the city of Providence, 19,030 in 

 Pawtucket, 16,053 in Woonsocket, 15,693 in 

 Newport, 13,765 in Lincoln, and 12,165 in 

 Warwick, or 181,554 in the six cities, leaving 

 but 94,974, or little more than one third, for 

 the rest of the State. 



The receipts of the State Treasury for the 

 year were $837,323.43, including a balance on 



