2011 -- S 0371 SUBSTITUTE A

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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2011

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S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N

MEMORIALIZING THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

TO PARDON JOHN GORDON

     Introduced By: Senators McCaffrey, and Lynch

     Date Introduced: February 16, 2011

     Referred To: Senate Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs

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     WHEREAS, On New Year’s Eve in 1843, Amasa Sprague, a Yankee factory owner, was

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beaten to death. He had been bludgeoned so brutally that his face was barely recognizable; and

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     WHEREAS, At the time, Rhode Island was rife with anti-immigration hysteria and

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hatred. Local Yankees, who had maintained tight control on industry and politics in the state, felt

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unjustifiably threatened by the Irish Roman Catholics, who were the first group to immigrate to

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Rhode Island in large numbers; and

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     WHEREAS, The Spragues were wealthy and powerful, and held posts such as governor

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and United States senator. Amasa Sprague oversaw the family’s textile empire; and

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     WHEREAS, The Gordon brothers, Irish immigrants, ran a store and tavern. Authorities

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maintained the Gordons plotted to do away with Amasa, after he engineered the suspension of

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Nicholas’s liquor license, to curb drinking by Sprague factory workers; and

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     WHEREAS, Anti-immigrant emotions inflamed the case, and after a trial based solely on

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circumstantial evidence and false testimony, John Gordon was found guilty of murder in the

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shooting and bludgeoning death of Mr. Sprague; and

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     WHEREAS, On Valentine’s Day, February 14th of 1845, John Gordon was hanged for a

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murder he did not commit.  He became the last man to be executed in the state. Seven years after

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his death, Rhode Island abolished the death penalty; and

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     WHEREAS, The conviction and subsequent hanging of John Gordon was racially

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motivated and discriminatory and stands as a black mark on our great state’s judicial history;

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now, therefore be it

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

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hereby requests The Honorable Lincoln Chafee, Governor of the State of Rhode Island, to

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posthumously pardon John Gordon for the 1843 murder of Amasa Sprague; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That should the governor pardon John Gordon, then the passage of this

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resolution by the Senate shall be deemed to constitute its advice and consent of the pardon; and

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be it further

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     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

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transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to The Honorable Lincoln Chafee, Governor of

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the State of Rhode Island.

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