Protestors with signs and flags turn out to the State House Wednesday afternoon to protest taxes and what they see as excessive government spending at the state and federal levels. Similar rallies were held nationwide.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE — At least 2,000 people rallied Wednesday in front of the State House to protest the unprecedented level of federal spending to help overcome the recession.

For those who took off work to come downtown on a sunny but windy afternoon, it was a way of saying that the country is moving in the wrong direction. That government is growing too big, too fast. That too much is being spent that will have to be borne by future generations.

“It’s unconscionable to have to send this bill to our grandchildren,” said Marcia Camp, a retired librarian from Scituate who held up a sign saying “Save Trees, Stop Printing $$.”

“As a family, when our funds decrease, we reduce our spending,” said John Tousignant, who came from Coventry with his wife, Yvonne, and their two young sons. “But when the government’s funds go down, it just spends more. That just doesn’t work.”

The protest was one of many rallies held across the nation in an effort timed with the deadline for filing federal and state income taxes. Tens of thousands of Americans attended the 300 or so “Tax Day Tea Party” protests held in each of the 50 states, according to news reports.

At its peak, the State House crowd filled the capital steps and the plaza below, with many more taking up spots along the main path leading downtown. Handmade signs called for cutting spending and taxes and decried the federal bailout of the mortgage, banking and auto industries. Attendees waved large flags with the Revolutionary War-era slogan “Don’t tread on me.”

The crowd broke into chants of “No new taxes” and, in criticism of the state’s congressional delegation and General Assembly leadership, “Kick them out.”

Radio commentator Helen Glover, who was the event’s emcee, estimated the crowd at “between 2,000 to 3,000;” others counted 5,000. The Journal counted at least 1,000 in attendance halfway through the event.

“They laughed at us and said this would not be a big turnout,” Glover said. “But look at us. They won’t be laughing when we go to the polls next year.”

Besides the State House rally, “tea party” protesters also took to the street in Westerly, where they gathered in the early afternoon on Main Street. A rally organized by Ocean State Action — not connected to the “tea party” movement — also took place Wednesday in front of a post office in Providence, to protest the high cost of war.

Organizers say the “tea party” events echoed the spirit of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when Colonists, angered at the English imposition of a tax on tea, rioted and dumped tea into Boston Harbor.

In Rhode Island, organizers say the tea parties were nonpartisan. Many of those who attended, however, were supporters of Republican candidates and/or fiscally conservative advocacy groups such as the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition and the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, which covered some of the costs of the event.

Patricia Christiansen, a librarian from Tiverton, said the rally was about more than taxes. “It’s about going back to the Constitution,” said Christiansen, who held up a sign saying “Give us Liberty not Debt” and “Government flows from the states, not the federal government.”

Many of the day’s 20 speakers –– who included local political commentators, bloggers and Republican politicians –– urged the crowd to take the anger and frustration expressed at the rally to continue to push for change.

“In my 25 years doing this sort of work, I’ve seen that movements like this come to a head and then they go away,” said Robert Healey, a former Cool Moose Party candidate for lieutenant governor who was one of the featured speakers. “Don’t let that happen with this.”

Colleen Conley, the event coordinator, said at least 10 more tea parties are planned nationally. “The next big one will be on July 4.”

The “tea party” movement was inspired by comments from CNBC reporter Rick Santelli on Feb. 19, in which he called for a July 4th tea party-like protest in Chicago. Santelli’s “rant” became a YouTube phenomenon.

But national frustration over high levels of government spending — from the banking and auto industry bailouts to President Obama’s federal stimulus plan — had been simmering even before then.

Coordinated largely via blogs and social networking sites, an organized protest popped up in Seattle on Feb. 16, and was followed the next day by rallies in Denver and in Mesa, Ariz. “Tea-party” protests and marches soon cropped up in other cities.

pmarcelo@projo.com