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

THE SUN, LONDON, rimuy EVENING, MAY 7,. 1869.

TEE 7A. 'l'Y FAMILIES op PIiODE
ISLAND.

(Proin the Anglo-American Times.)

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 younger, 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
Colony of Rhode Island." John Brown was one
of the party which captured the Gaspee, in 1772, on
Providence River, and he founded Brown Univer•
sity. Nicholas Brown, his son, and Thomas Boyn-
ton DNS, composed the firm, and they were suc-
ceeded by their sons, John Carter Brown and
Robert 11. 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, anon of Horace Binney, Esq., of Philadel-
phia. A daughter of Mr. Ives married ProfesiOr.
Gammell, 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
Goddards are the agents of the great mill at Lons-
da!e, 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 lo=ins 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 Island,and was killed at Antietam.
Amasa Sprague, the grandfather of Amasa and
Wiliam, now its representatives, founded that house.
At the death of William 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 engines, 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-
mit a')le 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 are employed, 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 natura, 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.any, but
that Burnside flatly informed him that be, and not
Sprague, was in command of the regiment, and did
not move an inch. How 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 know,
that what he says about the first Rhode Island
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 irrevocably printed upon
the page, 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 with
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 c/ciquetols 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 c/aqueura 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 his 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 boat
no opportunity of damaging his commercial credit,
and to this one of his remarks in the Senate alluded.
Anthonyis a sharp newspaper paragraphist and hasa
polished and sarcastic way of speaking which demo-
lishes his opponent's theories, and he has been able to
dismiss contemptuously as crude the study and con-
viction of Sprague, which, however acute in reality,
were not well put. We mentioned some few weeks
weeks ago, before we knew anything of these circum-
stances, that Senator Sprague opposed the re-elec-
tion of Representative Jenckes, who comes in for a
share of the aspersions so freely cast, for he is declared
to have covered the business interests of the State
with disgrace. "The re-election of Mr. Jenckes
tthe n
eak animus
to Congress, and the circumsta,lces attending it,
undoubtedly helped to sour Sprague, and contri-
biumt eed of to
J:usuf his
renomination recent
Spraguespeeches.
was co
At then -
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.
Still, Jenckes barely received the • •
nomination by
one majority, three members of the Convention
who were pledged against him • votin, for him under
the eye of Mr. Robert 11. Ives. Probably
Sprague
expected Jenckes to be defeated without his arP ellr -
ing to take an interest in the matter, but if so, Mr.
Ives's personal effort turned the scale. )e Tt
victory
was honestly won so far as Mr. Ives is concerned,
hut it did not endear the great family to Sprague
any the a ore.

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MISCE UAL\ BO US NEWS.

to,Ter, bear carvings of the Crucifixion,
O'Connell's arms, the Irish 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.