The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FIIIDAV EVENING, MAY 7, 181i9.

THE lIAPPY FAMILIES OF RHODE
ISLAND.

(From the .-Irwlo-Anzerican Thus.)

Senator Anthony addressed the Chamber with
the card of Brown and Ives, of Rhode Island before
him, which was read to the Senate. The general
opinion is against Senator Sprague, whose extra-
ordinary speeches have astonished the Union and
raised the ire of Rhode Island. Governor Burn-
side has been asked to accept a public ovation in
response to the aspersions of the Senator on the Ist
Rhode Island Regiment at the battle of Bull Run.
The State is split, like Rome, into factions, and the
followers of the two great contending houses have
been roused into active enmity. The Spragues are
the young( r, the more pushing, if not the richer.
Brown and Ives are the older. and the prouder,
having birth and breeding, deeper root in the soil,
and greater culture. The latter preceded the Re-
volutionary War, and therefore the times of cotton-
spinning which made the Spragues, and to this
day their old account-books are marked " The
wasl77 ,o
on
lei
sPCi of
troytol o.
eni
Providence party
n cef icaptured tJhoehGn a's/lir::: inn
River, and he
hi
his son,
Browndi,h
on a
sUBn enr:
Boyn-
ton Ivrs, composed the firm, and they were suc-
ceeded by their sons, John Carter Brown and
Robert H. Ives, now sole partners. Mr. Brown is
about 70 years old, and Mr. Ives, perhaps, 65, and
both are refined and cultivated men, but strongly
Conservative. All the family in its various branches
are familiarly spoken of in Rhode Island as Brown
and Ives. Mrs. Goddard, a sister of the latter, has
five sons, Thomas, William, Moses B. 1., Frank, and
Robert, and two daughters, one of whom married
Thomas B. Sheppard, and the other William
Binney, a son of Horace Binney, Esq., of Philadel-
phia. A daughter of Mr. Ives married Professor
Gammen, formerly of Brown University, and now
supposed to influence the Journal newspaper wher-
ever the interests of Brown and Ives are concerned.
John Carter Brown and Robert H. Ives may be
the sole partners, though it is asserted that Mrs.
Goddard's money remains in the house, and the
Godclards are the agents of the great mill at Lens-
, dfCe, but these are the people whom Sprague had
in his mind as Brown and Ives,
the great family, the
million dollars. The person referred to by Sena-
tor Sprague as losing his life in the late war by
a mistake of "the million dollars," on the char-
acter of the man on whose staff he was placed, was
a son of Mr. Robert 11. Ives, who served with Gen.
Rodman of Rhode I.sland,and was killed at An tiet.tm.
Amasa Sprague, the grandfather of .Amasa, and
Wiliam, now its tepresen tat ices, founded that house.
At the death
_of Williatn Sprague, their uncle, in
1856, it had not assumed its present proportions.
Then there were but six calico-printing machines
in the factory at Cranston, now there are thirty,
driven by six ergincs, with twenty-five donkey-
engines scattered over the mills, which form an ex-
tensive village, built on a uniform model, where the
wants of all the operatives are supplied by an ad-
able combination of capital, so as to furnish the
best things at the cheapest rates. Amasa Sprague
resides at Cranston, about a mile from the city of
Providence; but William lives with his mother in the
town. Amasa hates politics, as did his father ; but
William Sprague, the uncle, and William Sprague,
the nephew, have been Governors of the State and
Senators to Congress. Although Cranston is the
head-quarters, where 2,000 hands areemployed, the
Spragues have numerous other mills scattered over
the country, as well as a controlling influence in
several great companies. Every body asks why did
Sprague attack Burnside. The Rhode Island cor-
respondent of the Tribune, from whom we have
drawn largely for these particulars, says :—" The
First Rhode Island Regiment was organized under
the personal superintendence of Sprague, who was
then Governor. Burnside was given the command
of the men, but Sprague accompanied them to the
front, and with the impatience of youth and the in-
trepidity of his nature, was anxious to see them do
something worthy of the encomiums they every-
where received. It is even said he ordered Burn-
side to move forward and attack the en ,my, but
that Burnside flatly informed him that he, and not
Sprague, was in command of the regiment, and did
not move an inch. Ilow this is I cannot say. Per-
haps Sprague was ready and anxious to attack the
enemy without the orders of the General command

ing the army, and perhaps not ; but this Ido kn-,w

that what he says about the first Rhode Ldand
Regiment, just before and after the battle of Bull

Run, is true. -It is not only set down in Sprague's
speeches, but it is irrevccably printed upon
the pages which contain our country's his-

tory. It is unnecessary to repeat one word
of all this here, but whatever were his official

orders in relation to Burnside afterwards, it is cer

tain that Sprague was personally dissatisfied wit

that officer from the start. He regarded Burnside

as incompetent even before he was tried, and if
Sprague had had his way Fredericksburg would

never have happened, at least under Burnside's
guidance. And the Senator, then Governor. did
not wait until the other day to vent his dissatisfac-
tion. It is not generally known, but it is true,
that he at once preferred charges against Burnside
to General Scott for inefficiency and incompetency.
These charges were smothered in the War Depart-
ment, but the smouldering fire rankled in Sprague's
bosom. It is the breaking out of this fire which
makes him exclaim : " The regiment went home ;
paid claqueurs were ready, and an ovation fol-
lowed." It is this that makes him ask, "How did
the country, and my colleague, and the Senate, re-
ward this action ? By a commission as Brevet Bri-
gadier-General." The claqueurs were of course in
Sprague's mind the adherents of Brown and Ives
—the tools of the million dollars--the men whom
he describes as receiving stipends at the hands

of the great family who sneeze when the
great family sneezes, and shake their heads
_ _ _

When the hydra-heads of the great family shake.
Senator Sprague declared that his colleague Senator

.... __
Anthony held his place by bis bounty; and it is

_ .
stated that the hostility of Governor Smith at the

time to his return was only overcome by a free
expenditure on Mr. Sprague's part. Mr. Anthony,
the correspondent asserts, was then secretly un-
friendly, and this feeling has grown into open hatred.

Now Senator Sprague opposes his re-election next
year, when a fierce contest will occur between the
Capulets and Montagues of Rhode Island, and for

this fight both families are already preparing.

Sprague maintains that the Providence Journal lost
no opportunity of damaging his commercial credit,

and to this one of his remarks in the Senate alluded

Anthony is a sharp newspaper paragraphist and hasa
polished and sarcastic way of speaking which demo-
. .

fishes his opponent's theories, and he has been able to
dismiss contemptuously as crude the study and con-

vi,vi
were
rt
ei onn 0 oft
wSeplrl agne w
put.
,which,however
t
mentioned
aoscfourntielee in
these
wc ireality,wrceu emk
8
weeks ago, before we k new anyt
st
itoa
nn coefs
R, that
sSe
ne nt
aa
ttiovre Sprague ,
share of the aspersions so freely c asp, for he's declare
opposewlio cdo tmhyes ri
in -ef
ol ercda-
to have covered the business interests of the State
with disgrace. "The re-election of Mr. Jenckes
to Congress, and the circumsta ices attending it,
undoubtedly helped to sour Sprague, and contri-
buted to the animus of his recent speeches. At the
time of Jenekes's renomination Sprague was con-
fined to his room with a broken leg. That he was
opposed to Jenckes everybody knew, but he took
no direct or indirect interest in defeating him. I
Still, Jenckes barely received the nomination by
one majority, three memb(rs of the Convention
who were pledged a;rainst him voting for hint mirk r
the eye of Mr. Robert .11. Ivi.s. Probably Sprague
expected 'Tenths to be defeated without his appear-
ing to take an interest in the matter, but if so, Mr.
Ives's personal effort turned the scale. The victory
was honestly won so far as Mr. Ives is concerned,
but it did not ,Indear the great family to Sprague
any the more.

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MISCELLAAEOUS NEWS.

- 40.

POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANES.

It is not surprising that the banking interest is
jealous of the Post Office, and strongly opposed to
the bill which the Marquis of Hartington had
intended to bring in, but has now, in consequence of
the pressure brought upon him, withdrawn. It
appears that in .larch 1864, two years and a half
after the Post Office undertook the banking business,
the deposits amounted to £4,000,000 ; at the end of
1866 they exceeded £8,000,000; while at the end of
last year they were rapidly approaching £12,000,000.
The old savings banks in the meantime steadily
declined. Though they offered three and a quarter
per cent, in lieu of only two and a half per cent.
to their depositors, they were unable to compete
with the more convenient arrangements and the
indisputable security which the Post Office was
able to offer. Last year alone £341,003 were
transferred from the old savings banks to the
Post Office, while only £15,462 were transferred
from the Post Office to the savings banks. The
new scheme is in fact slowly destroying the old one.
It is further remarkable that in spite of the depres-
sion of trade and the commercial crisis the deposits
have steadily increased. It would seem as if the
Post Office had been used not only as a savings bank
but as an ordinary bank, for since 1861 there have
been no fewer than 2,745,000 deposits withdrawn.
In other words, as the Morning Post well observes,
the Post Office has taken the place of the old stocking,
and the money fructifies in the Post Office instead of
lying idle in the workman's pocket. Obviously
there is more chance of a balance on the right side
at the end of the quarter if it be drawn out from
time to time when it is actually required, than if it
be allowed to remain an ever-present temptation
to extravagant expenditure. Thus, although the
jealousy of the bankers is very natural, it is a fair
question if it ought to be permitted to influence the
Government. The Government wished to extend a
system which the public find very advantageous.
The Government is compelled to abandon its inten-
tions because a small section of the community fear
it will interfere with their interests. In a word, the
many are sacrificed for the supposed benefit of the
few.

tower, which will bear carvings of the Crucifixion,
O'Connell's arms, the Ir;sli wolf-dog, the Irish
crown and shamrock, and various suitable inscrip-
tions. The expense will be borne by the Cemetery
Board, and the removal of the body from its present
to its new receptacle will be made an occasion for a
" becoming ceremony and accompaniments." It may
be added that Foley's sculpture of O'Connell will
shortly be placed in situ at Dublin. Thus the
Government have before them the prospect of two
demonstrations which are sure to assume a political
character.