Rhode Island. General Assembly. Senate

Government in Rhode Island began as a written agreement between its original settlers in 1637. The agreement stated that the colonists would act in accordance with rules and orders agreed to by a majority of the colonists. The colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its first Colony Charter from England in 1644. Due to the fact that the charter did not explicitly describe how a government should be organized, the men of the colony did not officially formulate a government until 1647. Instead, they continued to operate under their prior agreement made in the late 1630s. By 1647, however, it was clear that in order to govern the constantly growing colony, there would need to be more than a simple agreement amongst the original colonists. Therefore, in 1647 the first General Assembly, which included the majority of the inhabitants of the colony in the style of a town meeting, convened and formulated a set of Acts and Orders regarding colony rules and laws. These Acts and Orders called for the annual meeting of a “Courte of Election,” the predecessor of the General Assembly. While this Court seemingly unified the towns of the colony, in effect it continued to vest the majority of power in the towns. Indeed, according to William Staples in his book, Annals of the Town of Providence, “the towns, as such, parted with no more power than they deemed the exigency of the case required. They can scarcely be said, to have consented to anything more than a confederation of independent governments” (Staples, 67-68). This early iteration of the General Assembly functioned more like a town meeting than a modern legislative body.

It was not until 1663, and the receipt of the Royal Charter from King Charles II, that the General Assembly was officially entitled the General Assembly and took the majority of the power still left with the towns. This General Assembly, however, was not like the General Assembly with which we are familiar today. A unicameral body, the original General Assembly constituted the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. In fact, “the charter established a form of pure government by an elected assembly presided over by a nearly powerless, elected governor” (http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/studteaguide/genhist.html). Although there existed a Court of Trials, which dealt with the majority of the judicial affairs of the colony, for the General Assembly, “almost any part of the judicial process was open to its inspection and possible correction” (Conley, 9). This cumbersome General Assembly, at its biannual meetings, handled all of the government duties and problems that arose. In 1696 the General Assembly split and became bicameral; “structurally the Assembly was essentially unicameral until the 1690s, with the so-called assistants who were elected at large, sitting with the town representatives. At that point, however, the two groups began to meet separately, thus producing the Senate in embryonic form and launching the state on a bicameral pattern” (http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/studteaguide/genhist.html). The deputies and assistants (former names of current Representatives and Senators) acted as direct representatives of their districts and acted in the interests of their specific constituents. The Revolution did not change the formation or function of the General Assembly, and the bicameral structure created in 1696 has not changed to the present. There have, however, been changes in the apportionment and size of the two houses.

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