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07.21.2004
1840. Henry Anthony: A one-man powerhouse in R.I. politics
Henry Bowen Anthony was born rich, in Coventry, Rhode Island, on April 1, 1815.
His parents were Quakers. His father, William, owned one of the largest cotton mills in the state. Henry Anthony was a child when his father invested with industrialist Samuel Slater in the newspaper that would become The Providence Journal.
After prep school, Henry Anthony graduated from Brown University, Class of 1833, and followed his father into the textile business. In 1838, Anthony's cousin, George W. Jackson, who had become publisher of The Journal, persuaded Anthony to be his editor. Anthony was 23.
Two years later, Anthony bought into the paper's ownership, and later became the majority owner. He controlled the paper until his death in 1884.
Anthony supported the established state government during the Dorr Rebellion of 1842; his office became an unofficial meeting place for leaders of the Law and Order faction that opposed Dorr. Rich and influential men continued after the insurrection to gather on Sundays at the Journal office to argue about public policy and politics. The meetings were known as the Journal "Sunday School."
Anthony became more personally involved in politics. While The Journal's editor, he was elected governor of Rhode Island, in 1849, and then was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1859, where he served until he died. Throughout his years in office, Anthony continued to direct the paper. He was Republican, and so was The Providence Journal.
A Journal history published in 1904 described the Anthony years this way:
"The Journal was the organ of the Republican party, and as the Republicans were dominant the two became associated in the public mind; so the newspaper was known as the mouthpiece of the power that was shaping the destiny of the State and that had a large share in decisions on national questions."
After Anthony died on Sept. 2, 1884, a Journal editorial tried to characterize the loss:
"To the Journal it is the loss of one who had long been identified with its life and existence, who had not indeed founded it, but who had taken it in charge in his early manhood and given it the best fruits of his brilliant intellect, his keen wit and gracious humor, and which represented his unswerving political integrity and personal honor. For many years Henry B. Anthony was the Journal, and its and his political and intellectual identities were almost merged."
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