Class. Book ■^a^j:a.\ci rrom a Ai^^aiJiTooUpe MiruaUire iTy A.I. Du-k c cyy^^^^^. lii,ni-jui-,Ttc(i (;f)\'( Secretary's Office, January 6, 1844. ) I, Henry Bo wen, secretary of said state, and keeper |- I of the records and the seals thereof, do certify, •- ■ '-' that the whole number of votes for general offi- cers, as reported by the counting committee appointed by the General Assembly at the May session, for the years after named, was as follows, viz. : — For the year 1832, five thousand six hundred and fifteen. For the year 1833, seven thousand three hundred and one. For the year 1834, seven thousand two hundred and thirty-four. 5 50 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF For tlie year 1835, seven thousand six hundred and seventy-four. For the year 1836, seven thousand one hundred and sixty-eight. For the year 183T, four thousand two hundred and seventeen. For the year 1838, seven thousand seven hundred and forty-six. For the year 1839, six thousand two hundred and seventy-three. For the year 184:0, eight thousand two hundred and ninety-two. For the year 18-il, two thousand seven hundred and thirteen. All which appears of record. This vote gave the fullest assurance that a very large majority of all the people of the state were in favor of the constitution, and the convention therefore proceeded to declare it adopted, and issued and caused to be pub- lished the following proclamation : — STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLAN- TATIONS. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas the convention of the people of this state, at their last session, in the city of Providence, on the 13th day of January, A. D. 1842, passed the following resolutions, to wit : — " Whereas, by the return of the votes upon the con- stitution proposed to the citizens of this state by this convention, on the 18th of November last, it satis- factorily appears that the citizens of this state, in their original and sovereign capacity, have ratified and adopt- ed said constitution by a large majority ; and the will THOMAS WILSON DORR. 61 of tKe people thus decisively made known, ought to be implicitly obeyed and faithfully executed : — *' We do, therefore, resolve and declare, that said con- stitution rightfully ought to be, and is, the paramount law and constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. " And we do further resolve and declare, for our- selves, and in behalf of the people whom we represent, that we will establish said constitution, and sustain and defend the same by all necessary means. " Resolved, That the officers of this convention make proclamation of the return of the votes upon the con- stitution, and that the same has been adopted and has become the constitution of this state, and that they cause said proclamation to be published in the newspa- pers of the same." Now, therefore, in obedience to the above vote of said convention, we, the undersigned, officers of the same, do hereby proclaim and make known to all the people of this state, that said constitution has been adopted by a large majority of the votes of the citizens of this state : and that said constitution of right ought to be, and is, the paramount law and constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. And we hereby call upon the citizens of the state to give their aid and support in carrying said constitution into full operation and effect, according to the terms and provisions thereof. Witness our hands, at Providence, in said state, this ISth day of January, A. D. 1843. Joseph Joslin, President of the Convention. Wager Weeden, \ y. p^-j.^^^ AMIJEL H. Av ALES, Wm. H. Smith, ) ^ . • John S. Harris/| ^^^''^^«^^^^- 52 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF The constitution provided that the new government should commence and be organized at the expiration of the then existing political year. Article XIY. con- tained the following provisions : — The present government shall exercise all the powers with which it is now clothed, until the said first Tues- day of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty- two, and until their successors, under this constitution, shall be duly elected and qualified. All civil, judicial, and military officers now elect- ed, or who shall hereafter be elected by the General Assembly, or other competent authority, before the said first Tuesday of May, shall hold their offices, and may exercise their powers, until that time. All laws and statutes, public and private, now in force, and not repugnant to this constitution, shall con- tinue in force until they expire by their own limita- tion, or are repealed by the General Assembly. All contracts, judgments, actions, and rights of action, shall be as valid as if this constitution had not been made. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the state as if this constitution had not been made. The convention, before they adjourned, directed the committee which counted the votes to present to his excellency the governor a certified copy of the same, and also an attested copy of the constitution which the people had adopted, with a request that he should communicate the same to the two Houses of the General Assembly then in session. That communication was made accordingly, signed by the following committee : — THOMAS WILSON DORR. 53 William James, Chairm. Willard Hazard, John R. Waterman, Welcome Ballou Sayles, Dutee J. Pearce, Sylv. Himes, David Daniels, Israel Wilson, Oliver Chace, Jr., Jonathan Remington, Robert R. Carr, Christ. Smith, Ariel Ballou, Elisha G. Smith, Thomas W. Dorr, Samuel Luther, Samuel T. Hopkins, Erasmus D. Campbell, Alfred Reed, Nathan Bardin, Wm. C. Barker, Joshua B. Rathbun, Abner Haskell, Nathan A. Brown. Alexander Allen, Wm. H. Smith, ) Secretaries. John b. Harris, ) Providence, January 13, 18^3. Every step that had been taken had been done open- iy and boldly, with all due respect to the existing gov- ernment. No attempts were made to disturb or im- validate any acts of the existing legislature, or other laws of the state, unless they should be found incon- sistent with the constitution. The new government was not intended to overthrow, but to succeed the old. No state constitution was ever formed and adopted in a more quiet and orderly manner, or met a more hearty approval from the people. But it soon became evident that those who held the government would not willingly surrender their authority. The constitution and its framers and advocates were treated with a haughty contempt, and all available means were made use of to deter the people from supporting it. 5* 54 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTEE IV. landholders' constitution foumed and rejected, proceedings of the general assembly. the right of the people to form constitutions considered, and authorities quoted. In the mean time the landholders' convention, which was composed of delegates chosen only by freemen, met and formed their constitution, which was ordered to be submitted to such only as were ascertained to be en- titled to vote under its provisions. The 21st, 22d, and 23 d days of March, 1842, were fixed upon for its adoption, and the General Assembly, at their January session, ordered five thousand copies of that constitu- tion to be printed, and with twenty-five thousand bal- lots, to be distributed throughout the state, and the most strenuous efforts were made by the charter gov- ernment to induce the people to go forward and adopt it. At length the time for voting arrived, the polls were kept open three days, and when the votes came to be returned and counted, it was found that this consti- tution had been rejected by a majority of six hundred and seventy-five votes. The result of this contest may justly be considered as a second demonstration in favor of the people's constitution. As we have said before, the convention which THOMAS WILSON DORR. 55 counted the votes given for the people's constitution communicated their doings to the legislature then in session in Providence, and thereupon the Hon. Samuel Y. Atwell, then a member of the House, and one of the most able and high-minded statesmen that Ehode Island has ever had, introduced a bill which provided for the surrendering of the charter government at the expiration of that political year to the government that was to be organized at that time under the constitution which had been adopted. An opportunity was now of- fered the charter authorities honorably and quietly to sur- render the government to the rightful authorities. Such had been the case at every change that had before taken place in the government of that state. When the first charter was received, each of the colonial governments readily and cheerfully surrendered to the government under the charter ; and again, when the government under the first charter was superseded by the charter from Charles II., the old government surrendered its authority to the new one the very next day after the charter was received. Therefore, in compliance with former usage, and by every principle of law and reason, — by every principle of honor, justice, and humanity, — every member of that legislature was bound to sup- port the resolution offered by Mr. Atwell. But that proposition was unceremoniously rejected ; and when doubts were expressed about the majority of votes given for the people's constitution, Mr. Atwell proposed to the legislature to go into an examination of - those votes, which had been carefully preserved by the convention, and were tendered to the General Assembly 5g THE LIFE A^S^r* TlMBB OT for that purpose. That proposition was^ treated -with scorn, and promptly rejected. The legislature held that it was of no consequence whether a majority had or had not voted for the constitution. We may well presume that every member of the legislature was perfectly satisfied that votes enough had been given for it, and that nothing could be gained by an investigation. At the same time the Assembly saw that if they should take that issue, and find the votes correctly returned and counted, that body %vould be expected to yield up its authority. The refusal to examine the votes was an implied acknowledgment of their correctness, and therefore the legislature were driven to the necessity of resting their case upon another horn of the dilemma. The whole of the proceedings of the people in the formation and adoption of their constitution were declared void ah initio for want of legislative authority, and this is the point upon wliich the whole case, with all its conse- quences, rests ; it therefore deserves to be duly con- sidered. Had the legislature any authority to require or authorize the people to form and adopt a constitu- tion ? The charter gave them no such authority, nor had the people at any time or in any manner conferred such power upon the General Assembly ; therefore, if the legislature had pretended to have or exercise any such authority, it would have been usurpation, and in itself illegal. Those who knew any thing about it, knew^ veiy well that the Assembly had no power to pass any act that should be of binding force, or confer upon the people any legal power to take measures for THOMAS WILSON DOltK* 07 forming a constitution. It will be seen by an examina- tion of the doings of the legislature at the January session, 1841, tliat the act of that session relative to the calling of a convention was merely advisory ; it did not order or direct, but requested the " freemen " to meet and choose delegates to form a constitution. The words " Be it enacted/' in themselves, are of no au- thority, therefore all that was done by that act was sim- ply to recommend to the '* freemen " to take the course pointed out ; nobody was bound by it, and a refusal to comply would have been no breach of law. Nor had the eighty-four individuals who composed that Assem« bly any more right to request the '* freemen " so to proceed, than the same number of respectable individ- uals in private life ; therefore the town meetings that were held pursuant to that request, were just as illegal as the meetings which were held for a similar purpose in compliance with the request of a mass convention ; and, therefore, if the landholders' constitution had been adopted, it would have had no more authority than that which the people did adopt. Nor does the validity of a constitution depend at all upon any initiatory meas- ures ; it is the adoption alone which gives it authority. But there is another feature in the case. The call of the Assembly was directed to the freemen only, and these, as we have seen, constituted only about one third of the people, so that the invitation was not ex- tended to all the people, or a majority, but to a known minority ; so that a majority of the people could not, if they chose, comply with the request. They were, therefore, left free to take their own course, without 58 THE LIFE A^'D TIMES OF any legislative instruction. But we are told that the people are not the people in a legal sense ; that men have no natural inherent rights, but that political rights are gifts from the governmentj and bestowed upon such only as the government sees fit to point out as objects of favor. This is anti-republican doctrine, and directly oppo- site to the declared principles upon which all the Amer- ican governments are founded. If this doctrine is true, the Declaration of American Independence is a lie, and the patriots of the revolution shed their blood for noth- ing. Some appear to be unable to understand that men have certain natural rights which are before, and inde- pendent of, all social compacts. They cannot under- stand that the consent of the governed is the only true source of political power ; yet no philosophical problem is capable of clearer demonstration. All who are the subjects of a government possess an indefeasible right to give or withhold their consent. A consideration of the greatest good of the greatest number has led to the adoption of the rule that the will of the majority should be considered the will of the whole, and be obeyed accordingly ; and so long, therefore, as any government enjoys that consent, it may justly exercise its authority ; but whenever that consent is decidedly withheld, the government becomes arbitrary and unjust. Tyrants may cavil at this, and interested men find many objec- tions ; but it is nevertheless the true doctrine of Ameri- can democracy. In its commencement, every free gov- ernment has been established by mutual agreement. The compact formed on board tlie Mayflower is a good THOMAS WILSON DORE. 69 example, and the colonies established by Koger Wil- liams at Providence, and by John Clarke at Newport, were of the same character. Such were also many other infant settlements in this country. The records of the colony of Koger Williams for many years show that the declaratory clause in their legislative proceed- ings was, *^ It is agreed," instead of " Be it enacted," as now used. Although those who held the govern- ment of Rhode Island under the charter, in 1841-2, resorted to the sacrilegious measure of denying the truths set forth in the Declaration of American Inde- pendence, yet the whole frame of government in the United States, and every single state, rests upon that declaration of rights as upon a corner stone which can never be overthrown, except with the freedom of the government. In our statute books, it takes precedence of every other document ; its principles are incorpo- rated into every state constitution ; and at every return- ing anniversary in every town, city, and hamlet through- out the United States, it is publicly read and renewedly and solemnly acknowledged as the basis of our political faith. At such a time, to deny or doubt its truth would be regarded as political infidelity, and bring upon every such individual the hatred and scorn of every true American. It is idle to say that that instrument was a revolutionary document, and that we have no further use for it, or that it was made up of rhetorical flourishes and unmeaning declamations. Its principles, which were true then, are true now, and will continue to be so to the end of time. Tyrants may storm and rave against them — despotism may crush them out or burv them in 60 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF obscurity — ignorance or irresolution may allow them to be forgotten or trampled upon; but the truths them- selves, as irrefragable as the doctrine of the solar sys- tem, will remain forever. If any one state more than another cherished these principles, it was Ehode Island. They governed her earliest institutions, and are recog- nized in all her subsequent history, and were publicly proclaimed by a solemn enactment of her General As- sembly in 17T6. So jealous was that state of those rights, and so anxious to guard them against any inno- vation, that her delegates in Congress would not ratify the constitution of the United States until they had filed with it the following declaration : — - We, the delegates of the people of the State of Ehode Island and Providence Plantations, duly elected and met in convention, having maturely considered the constitution -for the United States of America, agreed to on the seventeenth day of September, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, by the con- vention then assembled at Philadelphia, in the Com- monwealth of Pennsylvania, (a copy whereof precedes .these presents,) and having also seriously and deliber- ately considered the present situation of this state, do declare and make known, — I. That there are certain natural rights, of which men, when they form a social compact, cannot deprive or divest their posterity ; among which are the enjoy- ment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtalninfT happiness and safety. . 11. That all power is naturally vested in, and conse- quently derived from, the people ; that magistrates, therefore, are their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable to them. THOMAS WILSON DOUR. 61 III. That the powers of government may be reas- sumed by the people whensoever it shall become neces- sary to their happiness. The suffrage party did not ignorantly and rashly adopt the course which they pursued in order to estab- lish a written constitution. The subject was thorough- ly examined and considered by all its leading members, and the decisive step was not taken until all other means had failed. They saw the course which they had marked out justified by the history of their own government; they saw the principles which they had adopted publicly incorporated into the constitutions of more than twenty of their sister states ; they consult- ed able jurists in different parts of the United States ; they also found themselves justified by the written declarations of the ablest statesmen and highest judges, Mr. Jefferson said, " It is not only the rights but the duty, of those now on the stage of action to change the laws and the institutions of government, to keep pace with the progress of knowledge, the light of science, and the amelioration of the condition of society. Nothing is to be considered unchangeable but the in- herent inalienable rights of man." Justice Iredell, of the Supi-eme Court of the United States, declared that " the people may remodel their government whenever they think proper, without the consent of the govern- ment itself, not merely because it is oppressively exer- cised, but because they think another form is more con- ducive to their welfare." Justice Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the convention that 6 6^ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF framed tlie constitution of the United States, and after- wards one of the judges of the Supreme Court, says, " Of the right of a majority of the whole people to change their government at will there is no doubt." Again he says, '' The people may change their consti- tution whenever and however they please.'' The late Hon. Thomas H. Benton said in the Senate of the United States, " The people of any state may at any time meet in convention without a law of their legislature, and without any provision, or against any provision, in their constitution, and may alter or abolish the whole frame of government as they please." The convention which formed the present constitution of the State of Virginia, by a vote of sixty-eight to twenty-five, decided that no clause providing for amendments should be inserted in their constitution, because it was held " that a majority of the people had the power at any time and in any manner they pleased to amend that constitution, or make a new one." By that act sixty-eight men, nearly three fourths of the whole number of the members of that convention, sol- emnly declared that the people themselves could not be bound by any constitutional provisions, but might at any time, and without any law, amend that constitution, or make a new one. Among those who voted with the majority were Chief Justice Marshall and Ex-President Madison, and, strange as it may seem, the name of John Tyler, Avho was afterwards president of the United States, appears in the same catalogue ; and if he had not forgotten his own solemn act in that instance, he would never have been induced to lend the military THOMAS WILSON DORR. 63 forces of the United States to overthrow a constitution which a large majority of the whole people of a sover- eign state had adopted. A long catalogue of illustrious names of the highest authority might be produced to show that Mr. Dorr and the suffrage party had an undoubted right to take the course which they did in forming and adopting a constitution, and in setting up a government under it. This step was not taken unadvisedly ; it was no quixotic enterprise, or sudden ebullition of passion, nor was it occasioned by slight causes which had just trans- pired, but was a course to which the people were driven by a long train of abuses and insults, '^ all tending to the same end." The great body of those who voted for the people's constitution, honestly relying upon the justice of their cause, anticipated little or no opposition to its final accomplishment; they supposed that they were doing what they had an undoubted right to do, and they expected to receive the approbation of all in- telligent men ; they could not believe that a constitu- tion, so just in its provisions, so well adapted to the condition and wants of the people, and so urgently demanded by so decided a majority, would be resisted with the bayonet. But the result showed that they counted too much upon the honor and magnanimity of their opponents, and far too much upon their own firm- ness and fidelity. 64 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTER V. THE ALGERINE ACT. APPLICATION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR TROOPS. CORRESPOND- ENCE BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR KING, AND OTHERS. MR. DORr's ELECTION. HIS MESSAGE, ETC. As soon as it was ascertained that the landholders' constitution had been rejected, an extra session of the General Assembly was called, and convened in Provi- dence, on the 28th of March, at which time the follow- ing act was passed : — An Act in relation to Offences against the Sovereign Power of this State, Whereas in a free government it is especially neces- sary that the duties of the citizen to the constituted au- thorities should be plainly defined, so that none may confound our regulated American liberty with unbridled license ; and whereas certain artful and ill-disposed persons have, for some time past, been busy with false pretences amongst the good people of this state, and have formed, and are now endeavoring to carry through, a plan for the subversion of our government under assumed forms of law, but in plain violation of the first principles of constitutional right, and many have been deceived thereby ; and whereas this General Assembly, at the same time that it is desirous to awaken THOMAS WILSON DORR. 65 tlie honest and well meaning to a sense of their duty, is resolved by all necessary means to guard the safety and honor of the state, and, overlooking what is past, to punish such evil doers, in future, in a manner due to their offences : Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follotvs : — Section 1. All town, ward, or other meetings of the freemen, inhabitants or residents of this state, or of any portion of the same, for the election of any town, county, or state officer or officers, called or held in any town of this state, or in the city of Providence, except in the manner, for the purposes, at the times, and by the freemen by law prescribed, are illegal and void; and that any person or persons who shall act as moderator or moderators, warden or wardens, clerk or clerks, in such pretended town, ward, or other meet- ings^ hereafter to be held, or in any name or manner, receive, record, or certify votes for the election of any pretended town, county, or state officers, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by indictment with a fine not exceeding one thousand nor less than five hundred dollars, and be imprisoned for the term of six months : Provided, however, that this act is not intended to apply to cases in which, by acci- dent or mistake, some prescribed form or forms of call- ing town or ward meetings of the freemen of the sev- eral towns of this state, and of the city of Providence, shall be omitted or overlooked. Sec. 2. Any person or persons who shall in any manner signify that he or they will accept any execu- tive,- legislative, judicial, or ministerial office or offices, by virtue of any such pretended election in any such pretended town, ward, or other meeting or meetings, or shall knowingly sufier or permit his or their name or names to be used as a candidate or candidates therefor, shall be adjudged guilty of a high crime and misde- 6* 66 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF meanor, and be punished by indictment in a fine of two thousand dollars, and be imprisoned for the term of one year. Sec. 3. If any person or persons, except such as are duly elected thereto, according to the laws of this state^ shall under any pretended constitution of government for this state, or otherwise,, assume to exercise any of the legislative, executive, or ministerial functions of the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, senators, members of the House of Eepresentatives, secretary of state, attorney general, or general treasurer of this state, or within the territorial limits of the same, as the same are now actually held and enjoyed, either sep- arately or collectively, or shall assemble for the purpose of exercising any of said functions, all and every such exercise of or meeting for the purpose of exercising all, any, or either of said functions, shall be deemed and taken to be a usurpation of the sovereign power of this state, and is hereby declared to be treason against the state, and shall be punished by imprisonment during life, as is now by law prescribed. Sec. 4. All offences under this act shall be triable before the Supreme Judicial Court only. Any person or persons arrested under the same, and also for treason, against the state, may be imprisoned or held in custody for trial in the jail of such county of the state as the judge or justice issuing the warrant may order or di- rect ; ancl the sheriff or other officer charged with the service of such warrant, shall, without regard to his precinct, have full power and authority to take such person or persons and him or them to commit to any county jail in this state, which may be designated by such judge or justice ; and it shall be the duty of all sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, town sergeants, constables, and jailers, to govern themselves accordingly. All indict- ments under this act, and also all indictments for trea- son against this state, may be preferred and found in THOMAS WILSOX DORR. 67 any county of this state, without regard to the county in which the offence was committed ; and the Supreme Judicial Court shall have full power, for good cause, from time to time, to remove for trial any indictment which may be found under this act, or for treason against the state, to such county of the state as they shall deem best for the purpose of insuring a fair trial of the same, and shall, upon the conviction of any such offender or offenders, have full power to order, and from time to time to alter the place of imprisonment of such offender or offenders to such county jail within this state, or to the state prison, as to them shall seem best for the safe custody of such offender or offenders, any act, law, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. While this act, in the spirit of the Furies, outrages all moral considerations, it is believed also to be con- trary to the common law of all civilized nations, and in direct violation of the constitution of the United States. This act was immediately published and circulated throughout the state, its framers hoping that it would so terrify the people as to prevent them from proceeding to elect a legislature under their constitution. Now, why was the charter government so extremely anxious to defeat that constitution ? Did they not know that the people had publicly and positively de- clared it to be their will that a government should be organized, and go into operation according to its pro- visions ? And was it not the solemn duty of every good citizen of Ehode Island, whether in or out of ofhce, quietly and cheerfully to yield obedience to that known will ? Or was there any thing in the constitu- tion itself to which any serious objections were made ? Certainly not ; because the charter party, in urging the 68 THE LIFE AND HMES OF people to vote for the landholders' constitution, had de- clared that the latter was "just about the same thing as that adopted by the people, and that all the essential difference was, that one was legal, while the other was not." All at once the charter government became very sensitive about nice technical points of law ; they would have nothing done illegally, and, therefore, they set at nought the will of the people, and set up their own as the supreme law ; yet, as has already been shown, the General Assembly^ under the charter, could not, by any act of binding force, prescribe the mode by which the people must proceed in order to form a writ- ten constitution, and^ therefore, any democratic consti- tution regularly formed and adopted by the people was just as legal and binding without as with any such legislative provision. It should be understood that, although the legislative power was nominally in the General Assembly, yet there were powers outside which often, to a great extent, controlled that body, so that after all, the General Assembly was little more than the mouthpiece of an aristocracy, invisible to the masses ; when, therefore, we speak of the General Assembly, it should be remembered that its members were not always their own keepers. After the General Assembly had passed the act afore- said, sometimes called the " Algerine Act," the charter authorities looked about to ascertain how far its menaces would go to deter the people from sustaining their own constitution. It soon became apparent that, although a portion of the irresolute and timid might be terrified and induced to abandon their course, yet that a majority THOMAS WILSON DORR. 69 at least would remain faithful. Every charter function- ary was on the qui vive. Something more must be done, or the government under the new constitution would go quietly into operation. Samuel Ward King was the acting governor of the state, but his authority was only nominal ; for not only behind him, but above, around, and beneath the throne, were powers greater than his. Any one may command a ship in a calm, but when the storms come and the winds blow, the old salts take her in charge. On the 4th of April, 1842, about two weeks before the time appointed for the elec- tion of state officers under the constitution, his excel- lency Governor King despatched the following letter to the President of the United States : — Providence, April 4, 1842. Sir : The State of Rhode Island is threatened with domestic violence. Apprehending that the legislature cannot be convened in sufficient season to apply to the government of the United States for effisctual protec- tion in this case, I hereby apply to you, as the execu- tive of the State of Rhode Island, for the protection which is required by the constitution of the United States. To communicate more fully with you on this subject, I have appointed John Whipple, John Brown Francis, and Elisha R. Potter, Esquires, three of our most distinguished citizens, to proceed to Washington, and to make known to you, in behalf of this state, the circumstances which call for the interposition of the government of the United States for our protection. I am, sir, very respectfully. Your obedient servant, Samuel W. King, Governor of Rhode Island. The President of the United States. 70 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF On the same day the governor wrote another long letter to the president, informing him that the gentle- men whom he had commissioned to proceed forthwith to Washington, and crave audience with the president, were ** three of the most distinguished citizens of the state," also notifying the president of the imminent dan- ger which the crazy old charter government was in. He stated that notwithstanding the act which his legis- lature had passed, " in relation to the sovereign power of the state," the suffrage party appeared determined to sustain their constitution ; that " in some portions of the state, and in the city of Providence particularly, they might constitute a majority of the physical force." And he urges the president to provide immediate meas- ures to prevent the government from passing into the hands of the people. He says, " The protective power would be lamentably deficient, if the beginning of strife which is like the letting out of waters, cannot be pre- vented, and no protection can be afforded the state until, to many, it would be too late." The commission proceeded to Washington with all possible haste, procured an interview with the president, and at length succeeded in making him beheve that he was the rightful arbiter between contending govern- ments in a sovereign state, and that it was a duty in- cumbent on him to employ the military forces of the United States to sustain a minority government holding under a dead charter, and to overthrow a repubUcan government, which the sovereign people had ordained and established. The gentlemen commissioners re- turned with the glad news, and it was soon proclaimed THOMAS WILSON DORR. 71 that the president of the United States would furnish such troops as the charter government might require to sustain itself against the people's constitution. This information was immediately spread over the state, and the most strenuous efforts were made to in- duce suffrage men to believe that an army of national troops, with bristling bayonets, only waited the call of the governor to strike down every man who dared to go forward and vote for officers under the people's con- stitution. Now, why were all these unparalleled efforts made at home and abroad to defeat the government under the people's constitution ? "Was there any thing essentially wrong in that document, or in the proceedings which had taken place under it ? Did the new government threaten to overthrow or disturb any wholesome and cherished institutions of the state ? Certainly not. No objections were made or fears raised on any of these accounts. But the old government brought all their ostensible opposition to a single focus«»5 their sensibili- ties had become very acute, and they saw, as they pre- tended, with deep concern, that the people's constitu- tion was illegal ! And if that party are to be believed, it was on that single ground that they opposed it. Now, if we trace back their own history a few years, we shall find that, in 1833, this same charter government, to all intents and purposes, legally fell through and termi- nated, and every particle of legislative authority under that instrument came to a final end. And if the coali- tion which controlled the state had been half as scrupu- lous in 1832, as they professed to be in 1842, the 73 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF whole government should have been surrendered, like a sinking ship to the underwriters. The facts are these. The charter required that the governor, lieutenant gov- ernor, and the ten senators, or assistants, as they were called, should be " newly chosen " every year. There- fore, on the first Wednesday of May annually, the official functions of the governor and Senate for the pre- vious year expired, and the " newly-elected " incum- bents, whether they were the same or different indi- viduals, were engaged and sworn to discharge the du- ties of their respective offices for the ensuing year, and no longer. Now, it so happened, that in 1832 there was no election of governor, lieutenant governor, or Senate for that entire year. The House of Represent- atives had no authority except in concurrence with the Senate. Therefore the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was destitute of a legislature. The good old charter had aborted, and the govern- ment had expired. Where were the fastidious " law and order " men at tfeat time, and what did they do in that extremity ? Why, they declared that the government must not thus unceremoniously fall through, and the dear people be put to the trouble of instituting a gov- ernment de novo ; therefore they brought back the last year's governor, and last year's senators, placed them in their seats, and ordered them to go on as if nothing had happened, until a new election could be brought about. Might not the whole people, if they had thought proper, during this interregnum have rallied round and formed a constitution, and set up a govern- ment in room of the charter government ? And if they THOMAS WILSON DORR. 73 had done so, would the national executive have sent his troops to demolish such a democracy ? Would he rash- ly have stained his own hands with the blood of men striving for freedom ? "When we recollect that Andrew Jackson, and not John Tyler, was president of the United States at that time, the question is answered; he would have taken upon himself the responsibility of sustaining the democracy of the people against all its enemies. Notwithstanding the combined efforts of the state and national authorities to terrify the people, and induce them to abandon their constitution, when the third Wednesday of April arrived, regularly-organized town meetings were held, and a full complement of state officers elected. And on the od day of May following, the members elect of the legislature, as required by their constitution, met in the city of Providence. Eight or nine hundred state troops in uniform, and two or three thousand citizens, attended the procession. As it had been previously ascertained that the charter authorities had closed and barred the state house, the people's legislature proceeded to hold their session in another place. On counting the votes, it was found that the whole number, 6359, had been given for Thomas Wilson Dorr, of Providence, for governor, and that Amasa Eddy, Jr., had been also elected to the office of lieutenant governor, William H. Smith, secretary, and Jonah Titus, attorney generaL These officers were then duly sworn, as provided in the constitution. As soon as the ceremonies of inauguration were completed, the governor was requested to notify the 7 74 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF president of the United States- of the organization of a government under the constitution, and also to notify the presiding officers of both Houses of Congress of the same fact, and request them to lay the information be- fore their respective Houses; and also to notify the governors of the several states of the same, to be com- municated to their legislatures. In the afternoon of the same day Governor Dorr de- livered the following Message to both Houses in joint session: — Senators and Representatives: It is with no ordinary emotions that I proceed to discharge the duties imposed upon me by the constitu- tion of this state, in submitting such suggestions for your consideration as the occasion requires. This is the first session of a legislatiu'e ever convened under a written constitution of government, proceeding from the people of Rhode Island. That a majority of the people should have been so long debarred from a participation in those rights which are elsewhere so well recognized, and that we have been so slow in arriving at a point long since attained in other states, are facts ill adapted to elevate our feelings of state pride, as suc- cessors of those venerated men who here proclaimed, for the first time, the just principles of religious and political freedom which are now the common inherit- ance of American citizens. On the other hand, the peculiar circumstances in which the people of this state have been placed, and the extraordinary difficulties with which they have had to contend, render the establish- ment of their constitution a subject of the deepest sat- isfaction to the people themselves, and to all who sympathize in the progress of rational liberty. If the people of Rhode Island are true to themselves, the de- THOMAS WILSON DORR. 75 mocracy of Eoger Williams lias this day been restored in the place where it originated. The sacred fire, so lonfj* extinguished, has been rekindled upon our altar. The sovereignty of the people has been vindicated. The distinctions of caste and privilege have been abolished. Our institutions are rendered conformable to the stan- dard of our sister republics. While the rights of those heretofore denominated the freemen of the state have not been impaired, the rights of others have been placed on a sure basis, by constitutional provisions securing the common welfare of the whole people. On this peculiar occasion, it is due to ourselves, and to our fellow-citizens abroad, wdio entertain so lively an interest in our affairs, to pass briefly in review the his- tory of Our proceedings, and to submit them to the scrutiny of public opinion — the arbiter of political questions in a free country, and to which, in the con- fidence inspired by a righteous cause, we are ever ready to appeal. The idea of imposing a government on the people of this state by mere power, and without right, is one which will be promptly discarded by the consti- tionalists of Ehode Island. They maintain the ground that they are not only a majority, but that they have proceeded rightfully to alter and reform their govern- ment, according to well-defined principles in our repub- lican system. The people of Rhode Island have, for many years past, complained of manifest defects in their form of government ; the most serious of which w^ere the lim- itation of the right of suffrage, an unequal representa- tion, and the absence of all fundamental laws to limit and regulate the powers and functions of the General Assembly. The operation of the suffrage law of this state has for a long time excluded from the right of voting three fifths of its adult population. The largest vote ever polled by the freeholders was at the election of the president in 1840, when eisfht thousand six 76 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF hundred and sixty-two votes were cast, in a total adult male population, of permanently resident citizens of the United States, exceeding twenty-three thousand. It is impracticable for the disfranchised majority, even if of pecuniary ability and so disposed, to qualify themselves as voters upon real estate. Although the Senate, con- sisting of ten members, was elected upon general ticket by the freemen at large, yet a majority of the House of Representatives was chosen by towns containing less than one third of the population of the state ; so that the conjoint effect of suffrage and representation in this state has been to place all political power in the hands of a minority of its citizens, and to hold out the great- est temptation to that minority to resist all changes which would divest the few of the exclusive control of affairs. But if these evils had not existed, if suffrage had been extended, and representation had been equal- ized, still the want of fundamental laws to regulate the legislature itself, and to protect the citizen against legis- lative tyranny or caprice, would alone have afforded ample justification to the strong impulse among the peo- ple in favor of a state constitution — such a constitu- tion as should define the rights of the citizen, establish the departments and powers of government, and lay down definite and permanent rules for its administra- tion, to which all might appeal. The charter government of this state had no counter- part in any state of the Union. We have never had a constitution, in the American sense of the term. The substitutes for it were a charter granted by Charles II. of England ; various statutes to explain, define, and alter the charter, and to supply its deficiencies ; and certain usages ; all which, taken together, composed our form of government, and were all subject to the will and pleasure of the General Assembly. The charter of 1663 was the creation, in ordinary form, of a political corporation, with general powers of THOMAS WILSON DORR. 11 self-government to the colony ; and it granted to the colonists the utmost freedom in all religious concern- ments. The zeal and perseverance manifested by Roger Williams and John Clarke in obtaining this charter en- title them to our lasting gratitude. Our ancestors de- clared themselves a democracy long before the date of the charter, and they lived as such under it; and, although their proceedings were subject to the govern- ment at home, they enjoyed their institutions, with little interruption, to the time of the revolution. It is not the charter with which we find fault. In the day when it was granted, it was a noble monument of freedom, and M%el\ adapted to the circumstances of the people at the time. It has long since performed its office, and ought to have been laid aside in the colonial archives when our connection with the mother country was sev- ered. It is the action of the General Assembly under this charter, and since the revolution of 1776, which has occasioned all our difficulties. It has been in the power of the General Assembly, at any moment, by their entire control over the right of suffrage, and by extending it, to remove every existing cause of com- plaint among the people ; inasmuch as a liberal exten- sion would have led to the adoption of a liberal consti- tution. The charter empowers the Assembly to admit persons free of the company, and prescribes no terms or qualifications whatever. Before this charter, and under that of 1643, the rule of. admission was "being found meet for the service of the body politic." After the charter of 1663, the laws make mention of " competent estates," without defining their nature or amount; and in 1666 the admission of the freemen was transferred, for greater convenience, to the several towns, who were authorized to make admission of those who were " deserving thereof." It was not till the year 1724, eighty-eight years after the settlement of the state, that a definite property qualification was es- 7* 78 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF tabllshccl by a law of that year, wliicli enacted tliat no man should be admitted a freeman unless possessed of a freehold estate of the value of one hundred pounds, or forty shillings a year, or unless he were the oldest son of such freeholder. The amount of the qualifica- tion was afterwards raised to two hundred, then to four hundred pounds ; and in the year 1763 it was dimin- ished to forty pounds, equivalent, in our present cur- rency, to one hundred and thirty-four dollars, at which point it has ever since remained. Whatever may have been the original inducement for the passage of such a law, it does not appear to have been regarded at the time as a serious inconvenience, any more than such a law would be regarded in any state purely agricultural. At the time of the revolu- tion, and for some years subsequent, the voters of the state were a majority of the inhabitants. The state be- came deeply involved in the war of the Revolution. The attention of the people was turned from their own institutions to matters of more general and absorbing interest ; and the old charter system remained, as before, the government of the state. As population increased, and the inhabitants became more and more diverted from agriculture to other pursuits, the evil of this sys- tem became more manifest — the number of voters bear- ing a constantly decreasing proportion to the whole number of adult male citizens. The vote polled fifty years ago, at ordinary elections, was not, as has been stated, two thousand less than the average vote at our elections at the present day, in a population nearly double in numbers. A political injustice so marked as this did not fail to suggest the proper remedy by an extension of suffrage. In the course of time, the apportionment of represent- atives, which was fairly made in the charter, according to population, had become extremely unequal. A move- ment in favor of a constitution was made near the close THOMAS WILSON DOKR. 79 of the last century, but y\^ithout any practical results. In the year 1811 a bill to extend suffrage to all citizens who paid taxes and performed military duty was passed in the Senate, but was lost in the House of Representa- tives. In the year 1819, and the three following years, the subject of a state constitution was again agitated, and the oppressive inequality of our present system was clearly demonstrated, but with the usual want of suc- cess. In 1824 a convention of the freemen was called by the General Assembly to form a constitution. This convention proposed to the freemen a constitution which redressed, in part, the inequalities of our representa- tion ; but a resolution to extend suffrage to others be- sides landholders received only three votes. This con- stitution was voted down by a large majority. In 1829 a renewed interest upon the question of their rights was awakened among the disfranchised inhab- itants, especially in the city of Providence. Frequent meetings were held, and a petition numerously signed was addressed to the General Assembly. It was so far deemed worthy of notice as to be referred to a commit- tee, and to be made the subject of a report, drawn up by a very distinguished member of the House of Repre- sentatives. This committee treated the application of the petitioners with scorn and contumely; described them as a low and degraded portion of the community ; and reminded them that, if they were dissatisfied with the institutions of the state, they were at liberty to leave it. The report was received and printed,' and considered, with much exultation, as the most effective rebuke ever administered to the advocates of liberal suffrage in Rhode Island. In 1832 an attempt to obtain a participation in the elective right shared a similar fate. In 1834 a party was organized for the express pur- pose of accomplishing the same object by direct politi- cal action on the electors of the state. After a resolute 89 THS -LIFE AST) TIMES OF" straggle of four years, this party became extinct, witli' ont having apparently created much impression upon the freemen, or having tended, in any perceptible de- gi'ee, to change their fixed determination never to- abandon the existing suffrage laws. But the movement of this party gave occasion for some alarm; and the General Assembly forthwith called a convention of freemen, who met at Providence^ in September, 1834, to propose amendments to the existing institutions of the state, or to form a constitu- tion, as they might deem expedient. A motion to ex- tend suffrage beyond the landed qualification was de- cisively negatived, only seven members voting in it& favor. The convention was unable to maintain a quorum, and adjourned without proposing a constitu- tion, or any part of one, to their constituents. A whole generation had thus passed away in fruitless efforts to obtain, as a grant from the chartered authori- ties, those rights which are every where else, through- out the length and breadth of this great rej^ublic^ regarded as the birthright of the people. The legislature had been repeatedly approached in terms of respectful petition, and the applicants had been driven away as intruders upon the vested rights of the ruling political class. The General Assembly, which was invested with as full power to alter the law of suffrage in favor of the people, as to establish the law originally, without any prescription in the charter, had turned a deaf ear to the reiterated and most earnest remonstrances of a long in- jured and oppressed majority. The conventions of the freemen had manifested, if possible, a still greater hostility to the claims of the majority. The anxious inquiry of the people began to be raised — Is there no remedy for these manifest grievances ? Must we submit forever to be trodden under foot by men no better than ourselves ? Is the law of a minority, who happen to possess the control of THOMAg -WlLSOJf DOIlK. 81 a state, like the laws of the Modes and Persians, to be the immutable standard of right and justice, in despite of ail the changes which have been occasioned by time and circumstances in the condition of the state and its inhabitants ? Was this designed to be a government of the few^ or of the many ? Have we gained or lost by the boasted emancipation of our state from colonial sub- jection ? Questions like these were naturally inter- changed among those who felt the pressure of a com- mon injustice ; and they became bound together in attachment to a common cause, and in a struggle for the same just and equal rights. And who were these men? They were the younger sons of farmers, the great body of the mechanics and of the workingmen of the state. They found among their number nearly all the sur- viving patriots of the revolution, who felt themselves impelled to assert, in the period of venerable age, the same cause to which they had devoted the freshness and vigor of their youthful days. The men thus hopelessly disfranchised were those to -^vhom the defence of the country is committed in time of war, who protect the community against the ravages of conflagration, who sustain their equal amount of the burdens of commu- nity, and who sustain, by indirect taxation, the govern- ment of the United States. They were sensible of no inferiority of nature or condition, which marked them for the subjects rather than the citizens ^of a nominally republican government. They were the descendants of ancestors who had proclaimed to the world, for the first time in its history, the first principles of a democratic government, or of the men who contributed their sub- stance, their honor, and their lives to the freedom and independence of their country. Could they hesitate in the course which they were bound to pursue ? It was idle to tell them that they were well governed, and that the existing authorities were better qualified to provide for O^ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ^ tlieir interests^ than they were to take care of them- selves. They felt in their inmost hearts the proud re- sponse of American freemen, conscious of their rights, and daring to maintain them. While it is 'the right of a British subject to be well governedj they believed it to be the right of American citizens to govern themselves ; and they determined to remove the badge of servitude fastened upon them by a landed oligarchy. In the latter part of the year 1840, an association of mechanics, mostly non-freeholders, was organized in this city, for the final attainment of their political rights ; and similar associations were soon formed in many other towns of the state. A portion of the members of these associations, still retaining a hope that the General As- sembly might lend an ear to the remonstrances of the people, presented once more a petition at the January session, 1841, for a redress of their political grievances. The petition w^as not acted upon. At the same session, a memorial from the town of Smithfield, praying for an increase in its representation, received the attention of the House, and a committee once more reported a bill for a freemen's convention to form a constitution. The experience of the past had forbidden disfranchised citi- zens to expect, from a convention so organized, any favorable result ; and they soon after proceeded to call a mass convention of the people to consider the condi- tion and prospects of their cause. This convention met in Providence on the 18th of April, 1841. A second mass convention was held at Newport on the 5th of May, when it was resolved that a convention of the people at large should be called for the formation of a republican constitution : and a state committee was ap- pointed to issue the call. The General Assembly met in May, 1841, and passed a law for the more equal apportionment among the towns of the delegates to the freeholders' convention in November. At the ad- THOMAS WILSOX DORR. 83 journed session in June, a bill was introduced in tlie House to admit tax-payers to vote with the freemen in the choice of delegates to the November convention. This bill was negatived by the same decisive vote that had been before given against all propositions for an extension of suffrage. On the 5th of July, 1841, the Newport mass conven- tion held an adjourned meeting at Providence, and, having become satisfied that there was no longer any hope from the General Assembly, issued instructions to the state committee to proceed forthwith in the call of a popular convention ; which instructions were com- plied with, by issuing to all the towns in the state a request to elect delegates, in the proportion, as nearly as possible, of one to every thousand inhabitants, to assemble at Providence in October for the purpose aforesaid. Meetings of the citizens were duly held, pursuant to notice, in nearly all the towns of the state, in the latter part of August, moderators and clerks were appointed, and delegates were elected in the usual form for such occasions. A large majority of the dele- gates assembled in convention, at Providence, on the 4th day of October ; and, after having formed the plan of a constitution, adjourned till the next month, in order that their labors might be submitted to the inves- tigation of the public. The convention reassembled in ^ ovember ; and after making several amendments, finally passed upon the constitution, and proposed it for adoption, or rejection, to the adult male population, who were citizens of the United States, and had their per- manent residence, or home,- in the state. The question upon the constitution was taken on the days appointed in the same, in the month of December, 1841 ; and the result was, the adoption of the constitution by a large majority. The freeholders' convention met in November, and, after preparing the plan of a constitution -— in which. 84 THE LIFE AND TIMES OV however, there were some provisions proposed only^ and not acted upon, — adjourned to the month of Feb- ruary, 1842. Their adjournment took place prior to the second meeting of the convention of the people. The freeholders' convention^ at their first session, ex- tended suffrage beyond the existing freehold qualifica- tion, to the possessors of personal property of the value of five hundred dollars. This convention met again, according to adjournment, in February, completed their constitution, and submitted it to those of the people who were qualified to vote under it ; by whom, in the month succeeding, it was rejected. This constitution was voted against by a large majority of the friends of the people's constitution — not because it was made by the freemen, and not by themselves, but be- cause its leading provisions were unjust and anti-repub- lican, and tended to prolong, under a different guise, some of the greatest of those evils which had been the occasion of so much complaint under the old charter system. It is a fact which challenges contradiction, and is familiar to every man in this state, that the fiiends of political reform and equal rights have ever been desirous, previous to the adoption of their consti- tution, that all changes in their form of government should be made through the action of the Assembly, or the body of the freemen. The course adopted by them during a long series of years - — their respectful applica- tions to the Assembly — their delay in the call of a popular convention, until every probability of redress had been cut off", and patience had ceased to be a virtue, will satisfy all candid men that the minority are in" the wrong on this point, and that the people have pursued the only course consistent with a proper regard to their rights as citizens of a free country. Two questions here arise, to which it is our duty to reply — a question of right, and a question of fact. Had the people of this state a right to adopt a constitu- THOMAS WILSON DORK. 85 tlon of government in tlie mode they have pursued ? and, if so, have they adopted this*constitution by a majority of their whole number ? That the sovereignty of this country resides in the people, is an axiom in the American system of govern- ment, which it is too late to call in question. By the theory of other governments, the sovereign power is vested in the head of the state, or shared with him by the legislature. The sovereignty of the country from which we derive our origin, and, I may add, many of our opinions upon political subjects inconsistent with our present condition, is in the king and Parliament ; and any attempt on the part of the people to change the government of that "country would be deemed an insurrection. There all reform must proceed from the government itself, which calls no conventions of the people, and recognizes no such remedy for political grievances. In this country, the case is totally the re- verse. When the revolution severed the ties of allegi- ance which bound the - colonies to the parent country, the sovereign power passed from its former possessors — not to the general government, which was the crea- tion of the states ; nor to the state governments ; nor to a portion of the people ; but to the whole people of the states, in whom it has ever since remained. This is the doctrine of our fathers, and of the early days of the republic, and §hould be sacredly guarded as the only safe foundation of our political fabric. The idea that government is in any proper sense the source of power in this country, is of foreign origin, and at war with the letter and spirit of our institutions. The mo- ment we admit the principle that no change in govern- ment can take place without permission of the existing authorities, we revert to the worn-out theory of the .monarchies of Europe : and whether we are the sub- jects of the Czar of Russia, or of the monarch of Great Britain, or of a landed oligarchy, the difference to us 8 86 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF is only in degree ; and we have lost the reality, though we may retain th# forms, of a democratic republic. If the people of Khode Island are wrong in the course they have pursued, they will nevertheless have con- ferred one benefit upon their countrymen by the agita- tion of this question, in dissipating the notion that the people are the sovereigns of the country, and in con- signing to the department of rhetorical declamations those solemn declarations of 1776, which are repeated in so many of the state constitutions, and which are so clearly and confidently asserted by the most eminent jurists and statesmen of our country. By sovereign power, we understand that ultimate power, which must be vested somewhere,, and which prescribes the form and functions of government. It is, of course, superior to the legislative power, which can be properly exerted only according to rules laid down for its action, in that expression of the sovereign will called a constitution. This sovereignty is a per- sonal attribute, and belongs to the man himself, and not to the soil or property with which he may be endowed. It is a power seldom visible ; which ought to be, and can be, but rarely exerted. The making and altering of laws, which lie at the foundations of society, should be a work of great care and caution ; and when done, ought to be well done, that it may be effectual and per- manent. It is our misfortune in this state, that as no expression of the sovereign will has been, until re- cently, made in the adoption of a constitution, and no index of this will constantly before the public eye, the distinction between the two powers has become obliter- ated among us ; and the legislature has been regarded not only as the immediate acting power, but as the sole power of the state ; and all who maintain the right of the people, in their original, sovereign capacity, to alter the present government, and render it conformable to their just rights, have been represented as hostile to THOMAS WILSON DORR. 87 law and order, and as putting in jeopardy the stability of government. On the other hand, we contend that the people have a right to change the government when necessary to their welfare ; that they are the judges of that necessity ; that' " time does not run against the people, any more than against the king," and that they have not forfeited this right by any acquiescence ; that a power to assent, involves another to dissent ; that even if a past generation had surrendered to a minority their political rights, (which they never have done,) they did not, and could not, bind their successors, or prevent them from reassuming their sovereignty. If time permitted, I should take great satisfaction in laying before you the most abundant evidence that these are the well-recognized principles of our republican system, and are not to be regarded as revolutionary. The Declaration of American Independence asserts that governments derive their just powers from the con- sent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people (meaning the whole people, the governed) to alter or abolish their government whenever they deem it expedient, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. This Declaration Avas expressly adopted by the General Assembly of this state in July, 1776. The constitutions of many of the states, while they contain specific provisions for the mode of their amend- ment, set forth, in the strongest terms, the right of the people to change them as they may deem expedient. Any other construction would render a portion of the declarations of rights in these constitutions entirely nu- gatory. The convention which framed the constitution of the United States 'acted as the representathves of the sov- ereignty of the people of the states, without regard to 88 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF the limitation attempted to be imposed by the Congress of the confederation. That the whole people, by an ex- plicit and authentic act, — the great body of society, — have a right to make and alter their constitutions of government, is a principle which lias been laid down by the fathers of the constitution, and the ablest ex- pounders of our political institutions — by Washington, Hamilton, and Madison. The strong opinions of Jef- ferson on this point are too well known to need a par- ticular repetition. Chief Justice Jay says, " At the revolution the sovereignty devolved on the people ; and they are truly the sovereigns of the country." "The citizens of America are equal as fellow-citizens^ and as joint tenants in the sovereignty." Justice Wilson, of the same court, says, ''Of the right of the majority of the whole people to change their government, at will, there is no doubt." It is this " one great principle, the vital principle," " which diffuses animation and vigor through all the others." He says, " The principle I mean is this — that the supreme or sovereign power of society resides in the citizens at large ; and that, therefore, they always re- tain the right of abolishing, altering, or amending their constitution, at whatever time, and in whatever man- ner, they shall deem expedient. " " In our govern- ment, the supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power re- mains in the people. As our constitutions are supe- rior to our legislatures, so the people are superior to our constitutions." The consequence is, that the people may change the constitution, whenever and however they please. This is a right of which no positive institutions can deprive them. Mr. Rawle, a distinguished commentator on the con- stitution of the United States, in speaking of the mode of amending a constitution, remarks, " The people re- tain — the people cannot, perhaps, divest themselves of THOMAS WILSON DORR. 89 — tlie power to make such alterations." ** The laws of one legislature may be repealed by another legislature, and the power to repeal them cannot be withheld by the power that enacted them. So the people may, on the same principle, at any time alter or abolish the con- stitution they have formed. If a particular mode of effecting such alterations have been agreed upon, it is most convenient to adhere to it ; but it is not exclu- sively binding." It is impossible to misunderstand language like this. It might be suggested that the people referred to are those who are recognized as voters by constitution or laws ; but the language used is too clear to admit of such an inter- pretation. It is the whole people, the people at large, who have the right to change the institutions under which they live. Nor is this a dangerous doctrine in its prac- tical application. This, I believe, is the only state in which the majority of the whole people do not partake of the electoral privilege. All other states have written constitutions, with precise provisions for their amend- ment. It is hardly possible for a case to occur in any other state, which would require the interposition of the people in any other than the prescribed mode. In all others suffrage has been enlarged, and all complaints respecting a limitation of suffrage or inequality of rep- resentation have been redressed without any very pro- tracted delay. The constitution will here also be re- garded as a final measure. While we assert the sov- ereign right of the people in our own case, and presume not to limit its exercise under possible exigencies not now foreseen, and of which every generation must judge for itself, we have no reason to believe that Rhode Island will be an exception to the general rule in other states, or to doubt that its constitution will become a perma- nent as well as paramount law, to be altered or amended according to its prescribed mode. But, whatever opinions may be entertained respecting 8* 90 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF the right of the whole people to change a constitution in any other than the prescribed mode, where such a mode exists, there is a point in our case to which the attention of every one should be closely invited. Until the adoption of the present constitution, there has been no mode prescribed in this state, either by the charter or by any law or usage, for amending our form of gov- ernment. The charter contains no such direction ; be- ing a royal grant, the power to amend by a supple- mental charter remained in the grantor, and needed no specification. The charter contains a very general au- thority to make all necessary laws ; but they must be consistent with the royal prerogative, and with the rights of Parliament. The power of amending the charter passed over to the people of the state, as an in- cident to their sovereignty, at the revolution. In the absence of any such provision, it is a totally unfounded assumption in the charter Assembly to pre- tend that the proceedings of the people are null and void for want of a compliance with law, when no legal or other provision exists upon the subject. All that the General Assembly have ever done, has been to request, in their own form, the freemen to assemble and elect delegates to form a constitution. The freemen, if they saw fit, might at any time have chosen such delegates, without such a request, in their own form, and with an equally valid efifect. Is it not apparent that the people at large have a still greater right to do the same thing in this state ? They have demanded in vain that any valid legal objections to their proceedings should be produced. It is to the last de- gree imgenerous and unjust that the freemen should set up their own neglect in years past to provide a consti- tutional mode of amendments as a bar to the action of the people, in the only mode in which they can act at all. When any disposition is manifested to amend our constitution in a different mode from that prescribed in THOMAS WILSON DORR. 91 it, it will be time for alarmists to suggest the danger and instability that may possibly occur from any irregu- lar action of the people. But was this sovereign power of the people exer- cised, in flict, by a majority of the whole people of the state ? We assert, with entire confidence, that it was. The voting was conducted as fairly as at any election ever held in this state. All challenges of voters were received and entertained. The moderators of the meet- ings, who received the votes, were not under oath ; neither are those of the freemen's meetings. The town clerks, and wardens, and ward clerks, in the city of Providence, act under an engagement ; and this is the only difference between the meetings of the free- men and those of the people. This difference will create no serious objection, when it is stated that the name of every man who voted for the people's consti- tution was written on his ticket ; and that the ticket of every man who did not attend the polls on the three last of the six days of voting, in addition to his sig- nature, was attested by that of some person who voted at the polls on the three first days. These proxy votes were but a small portion of the whole. Still further : the name of every man who voted was registered ; and a copy of the register in every town and ward was duly certified with the votes. All the votes have been pre- served in their envelopes for any subsequent reference. The votes were duly returned to the people's conven- tion, and were examined and counted by a large com- mittee. The committee reported that, as nearly as could be ascertained, the number of males in this state over the age of twenty-one years, citizens of the United States, and permanently resident, deducting persons un- der guardianship, insane, and convict, was 23,142, of whom a majority is 11,572; and that the people's con- stitution received 13,944 votes — being a majority of 4747. After making every reasonable allowance for 92 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF questionable votes, from which no election can be en- tirely free, it is impossible to entertain a reasonable doubt that a large majority of the whole people fairly voted for this constitution. The report of the counting committee was transmitted to the General Assembly at the January session, 1842, and a motion was made to inquire into the return of the votes polled ; but it was negatived, as usual, by a large majority. An attempt to impeach the retui-n has been made, by drawing an unfavorable inference from the subsequent diminished vote against the constitution of the free- holders. But the attempt fails at once, when it is un- derstood that a considerable number of those who voted for the people's constitution, and are now friendly to it, voted also for the freeholders' constitution, as a mode of obtaining a part of their rights and of terminating all controversies. Many who voted for the first-named constitution were excluded from a vote against the second by its suffrage provisions ; and there were others who were qualified, but declined to vote at all. At the election of state ofiicers under the people's constitution, there were no opposing candidates ; and, notwithstanding the powerful influences brought to bear upon the election, there was a larger vote by 1600 than was polled for the officers of our opponents at the elec- tion held by the freemen. At this election, a portion of those^ freeholders who are the friends of the people's constitution, and who had voted for ofiicers at the elec- tion held under that constitution on Monday, voted again for a constitutional candidate, and have been very strangely claimed, in consequence, by the party who sustain the old charter system. When the constitution of the people is examined, without reference to its origin, it is found that there are few objections made against it. It guards with great care all civil and political rights ; it establishes as equal a representation as the circumstances of the state will THOMAS WILSON DORR. 93 permit, and a Senate to be chosen in districts under such an appointment as to secure to a majority of the pop- ulation a majority of its members. The freeholders' constitution, on the other hand, was rejected for many reasons — one of which was its defective provisions relating to suffrage, and its exclusion of the vote by ballot. The main objection was, that it entirely abol- ished the majority principle in our government. Under it, both the House of Representatives and the Senate were to be elected by towns and districts containing less than one thhd of the inhabitants of the state. The senators were also assigned to the districts, without scarcely any reference to their population. By the nature of the provisions relative to amend- ment, any subsequent improvement of this instrument was rendered nearly impracticable. At the session of the Assembly in March, 1842, the people's constitution came under the consideration of that body, twice ratified — directly by the votes of the people in its favor, and indirectly by the rejection of another instrument. But these repeated manifestations of the popular will were totally disregarded. A bill to conform the general election to the provisions of this constitution, and another to submit it to those who were qualified to vote under the constitution of the freehold- ers, were promptly rejected. A proposition was made to extend suffrage ; and a second proposition was offered at the adjourned session in April, for the call of another convention to form a constitution — the delegates to which convention were to be voted for by a constitu- ency not much extended beyond the present freeholder. Both propositions shared the fate of the preceding. Your attention will be required to the force law and resolutions recently adopted by the General Assembly for the suppression of the^ constitution. Laws like these, which violate in some of their provisions the well-known privileges enjoyed by the subjects of the 94 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF British monarchy, could hardly find flivor in the land of Roger WiUiams. These enactments have been re- garded by the considerate men among our opponents as most impohtic and unjust, and by the people as null and void, because conflicting with the paramount pro- visions of the constitution. Military preparations have been made by direction of the Assembly, and the people have been conse- quently put upon the defensive. But this is not the age nor the country in which the will of the people can be overawed or defeated by measures Uke these. There is reason to beheve that a letter addressed to Governor King by the president of the United States was written under a mistake of the facts, occasioned by the misrepresentation of the character, motives, and objects of the constitutionahsts of this state. Our fellow-citizens in other states will perceive, from the exposition which has been made, without further comment, that the people of this state are engaged in a just and honorable cause, and that they have taken the only coui'se for the attainment and security of their just rights. We are assembled in pursuance of the constitution, and under a sacred obligation to carry its provisions into effect. Knowing the spirit which you have man- ifested throughout this exciting controversy ; the mod- erate, but determined, course which you have pursued ; your love of order, and respect for all constitutional laws, and for the rights of all other persons, while engaged in the acquisition of your own, I hardly need to remind you of your duty to cast behind you all in- juries or provocations, and to leave them to the retribu- tive justice of public opinion, which will ultimately appreciate every sincere sacrifice to the cause of truth, of freedom, and humanity.* Entertaining the deep and earnest conviction that we are engaged in such a cause, and conscious of our own imperfections, let us implore THOMAS WILSON DORR. 95 the favor of that gracious Providence which guided the steps of our ancestors, upon this our attempt to restore, and permanently secure, the blessings of that well- ordered and rational freedom here established by the patriotic founders of our state. The provisions in the constitution, relating to the se- curity of the right of suffrage against fraud, and to the registration of voters, will require your immediate ac- tion. The state demands of its government an econom- ical administration of affairs, and will justly complain of any increase of its ordinary expenses at the present period. I cannot more appropriately conclude this commu- nication than in the words of the constitution, which declares that " no favor or disfavor ought to be shown in legislation towards any man, or party, or society, or religious denomination. The laws should be made, not for the good of the few, but of the many ; and the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens." Thomas W. Dorr. Providence, R. I., May 4, 1842. Rhode Island, at this moment, presented a strange anomaly. While the legislature at Providence were holding a regular session, as provided by the con- stitution, the old charter General Assembly was sit- ting at Newport. There were two separate Assemblies, sitting at the two capitals, and exercising distinct legis- lative functions ; each claiming to be the legitimate government. In view of what has been stated, it must be apparent that the people of the state had declared it to be their wish and determination, that the old charter gov- ernment should cease, and come to a full end^ on the 3d of May of that year, and that the government under their 96 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF constitution should take its place, and be organized in its stead ; and to that unmistakable expression of the people's will every good citizen was bound to yield. But all history shows that when men, either justly or unjustly, become clothed with political authority, they part with it. with extreme reluctance ; physical force has almost always been necessary to transfer political power from one class of men to another. The natural propensity of mankind was strengthened in this case by another consideration. The state had, for a long time, been governed exclusively by freeholders, and those who held important offices in the government of the state had always opposed every effort made by the non- freeholders to obtain their political rights ; and as the number of non-freeholders was known greatly to ex- ceed the number of freeholders, it required no prophet to tell that unless the non-freeholders could be brought to accept the franchise as a special favor from the gov- ernment, the old official incumbents would not be likely to be retained in office. This was the source, and the only source, of that danger, which the Rhode Island authorities saw and so much feared; not a danger which threatened the interests of the state or the people, but which threatened to bring down the office holders from their high places, and consign them to private life. Such men now entertained a most fastidious regard for " law and order," and were sorely pained at the thought that the state was in danger of being disgraced by allowing the sovereign people to wrest the govern- ment from their hands, and place it in the hands of men of their own choosing. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 97 CHAPTER VI. REASONS FOR BELIEVING THE CHARTER GOVERNMENT TO BE HELD BY A MINORITY. THE NEGLECT OF THE people's legislature TO TAKE POSSESSION OF THE PUBLIC PROPERTY, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES CON- SIDERED. AN EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. We have seen that, as early as the 4th of April, 1842, two or three weeks before an election took place under the people's constitution, the chief magistrate of the State of Rhode Island applied to the president of the United States for assistance to put down the gov- ernment which the people were preparing to organize under the constitution which they had just adopted. The charter authorities well knew that theirs was a minority government, and they were well aware of their inability to resist the free will of an intelligent people, and therefore took the early precaution to engage assist- ance from abroad, notwithstanding they had at the same time the full possession of all the public property — the control of the treasury, the keys of the state house and court rooms, the command of the arsenal, and the control of the prisons — notwithstanding they had both the sword and purse firmly clinched in their own hands. With all these advantages on their side, 9 98 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF they publicly declared to tlie president an^ to tli'e world that, unless they had assistance from abroad, their gov- ernment was in danger of being overthrown by the peo- ple under their own constitution. These facts, which cannot be denied or hushed out of sight, go to establish the point, beyond all controversy, that the number in favor of the people's constitution far exceeded the num- ber of those who were opposed to it. It is obvious that while the people were left free to follow the plain dic- tates of their own convictions, — before they were drawn away by promises, or terrified by threats, — three fourths, at least, chose to lay aside the old charter, and submit the government of the state to a written con- stitution of their own making. The wonder is, that an intelligent and resolute people did not sooner rise in their might and shake off the cords by which they were enslaved. On the day previous to the organization of the legis- lature under the people's constitution, Mr. Dorr and the members elect of his legislature held a special meeting for deciding upon measures proper to be pursued. It had been already ascertained that the state house in Providence had been closed and barred against them, and the great question to be settled was, Should they proceed to take immediate possession of that, and all the other public property of the state, or should they suffer it to remain in the hands of their opponents ? Mr. Dorr strongly urged the propriety and necessity of taking the former course ; and it is presumed that no one now, friend or foe, will say that that advice was not judicious ; but he and others, who thouc^ht as he did. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 99 were overruled, and that all-important step was not taken. Here was a fatal mistake, which no subsequent measures could remedy. Had Mr. Dorr's advice pre- vailed, the people's government would by that single step have become master of the forces and finances of the state, and instead of being a government in form only, it would have been a government in fact and in power, respected at home and abroad, and might have regarded with indifference any measures which the na- tional executive might adopt. For nearly half a cen- tury the people of Ehode Island had been striving to obtain their just political rights. The momentous ques- tion had become wrapped up in the decision of a single hour — the die was cast, and the cause was ruined. This was the cruel rock upon which the ship was lost. From that moment an unbroken train of disasters followed. Had the course been pursued which Mr. Dorr pointed out, no important opposition would have been made to his government, and many of those, who, in his reverses, were most anxious to destroy him, would have been among the foremost to seek for honor and patronage under his government. No one who witnessed the powerful military escort and long procession of citizens which attended the in- auguration of the government under the people's con- stitution could doubt for a moment the abihty of Governor Dorr at that time to take undisputed posses- sion of all the public property of the state. Those who voted for the members of that legislature expected that they would really and fully assume and exercise all the powers and functions of a de facto government. 100 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF This was their imperious duty. No tiftiid, irresolute man, no one panting for empty distinction, should have been there to assume the responsibilities of that im- portant occasion : this was no time for vain show and empty boasting. None but men of high motives and undaunted courage should have mingled in the dehber- ations of that momentous crisis. Before the legisla- ture convened, many honest but timid men had become terrified and induced to desist from all further proceed- ings ; and now, when the whole party saw their legis- lature ingloriously shrink away into a private hall to exercise the high functions of a state legislature, they were disappointed and disheartened. The tide, which before had only slackened, instantly began to ebb with irresistible force. High-minded men could not be proud of a government so meek and so powerless ; they could not be persuaded that this was the government for which they had labored so ardently ; and in view of that spectacle, hundreds retired in disgust from the party. The following is an extract from the Journal of the House of Representatives, which met in Providence on the 3d day of May, 1842. Journal of the House of Eepjiesentatives of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, first held in the City of Providence, under the Constitution of said State, on Tuesday, the 3d day of May, in the year 1842. On this third day of May, 1842, (being the first Tuesday of said May,) the House of Representatives of said state, elected under and by virtue of the constitu- tion of said state, met, and proceeded to its organization by a vote that the Hon. Dutee J. Pearce, of Newport, take the chair for that purpose. THOMAS WILSON DoiUi. 10 1 The towns find representative districts were called^ and the credentials of their respective representatives, in the following order, were presented : — City of Providence : First representative district. — William M. Webster. Second representative district. — Samuel H. Wales, J. F. B. Flagg. Third representative district. — - William Coleman, J ohn A. Howland. Fourth representative district. — Perez Simmons, Frederick L. Beckford. Fifth representative district. — • Benjamin Arnold, Jr., Franklin Cooley. Sixth representative district. — William L. Thornton, John S. Parkis. Newport. —Dwtee J. Pearce, Robert R Carr, Henry- Oman, Daniel Brown. Warwick. — John G. Mawney, Sylvanus C. New- man, Isbon Shearman, Alanson Holley. Portsmouth. — Thomas Cory, Parker Hall. Westerly. — William P. Arnold, Thomas G. Hazard, New Shoreham. — Simeon Babcock, Jr., George E» S. Ely, Smithfield. — Elisha Smith, Kathaniel Mowry, Wel- come B. Sayles, AVilliam B. Taber. Charlestown. — Joseph Gavit, Job Taylor. Scituate. — Simon Mathewson, David Phillips, 3d, James Yeaw. North Providence. — - Stephen Whipple, Pobert G« Lewis, Alfred Anthony. Richmond. — Wells Reynolds*, George Niles. North Kingstown. — - Sylvester Himes, Samuel C» Cottrel. Exeter. — George Sprague, Cranston Blevin. Tiverton. — Charles F. Townsend. Bristol. — William Munro, Jeremiah Bosworth. 9* 102 THE LIFE AXB TIMES OF Warren. — Elisha G. Smith, Jeremiah Woodmancy, Barrington. — - Nathaniel Smith. Glocester. — Jeremiah Sheldon, George H. Brown. Cumberland. -— Nelson Jencks, Columbia Tingley, Barton Whipple. East Greenwich. — Peleg E. Bennet, Sidney Tilling- hast. West Greenwich. — - Nathan Carr^ Peter T. Brown. Coventry. - — George Fairbanks, Israel Johnson. Foster. — - Obadiah Fenner, Anan Aldrich. Burrilhille. — Alfred L. Comstock, Esten AngelL Cranston. — - Ebenezer Barney, Albion N. Olney. Johnston. — Ephraim Winsor, Edwin C. Kelley. Upon a call of the names returned by the credentials, as aforesaid, all were present and answered, excepting Mr. Samuel C. Cottrel, of North Kingstown. Sixty- six members were present and answered. A quorum being ascertained to be present, the chair- man announced the fact ; and thereupon Welcome B. Sayles, Esq., a representative from the town of Smith- field, was nominated, and duly elected speaker by a unanimous vote. The speaker, on taking the chair, made a short but pertinent speech, returning thanks for the honor con- ferred upon him ; and thereupon engaged himself to the faithful discharge of his duties in the words and as re- quired by the constitution, and in the presence of the House. The speaker called every member by the list returned, and those present were engaged in the manner and form and in the words prescribed in the constitution. John S. Harris and Levi SaHsbury were unanimously elected clerks, and were duly engaged by th^ speaker. On motion of Mr. Pearce, it was Voted, that ISIessrs. Cooley, S. H. Wales, Elisha Smith, Lewis, Simmons, George H. Brown, and Jencks, from the county of THOMAS WILSON DORR, 103 Providence ; Daniel Brown and Townsend, of the county of Newport ; Himes and Arnold, of the county of Washington ; Tillinghast, Holley, and Newman, of the county of Kent ; and Bosworth and E. G. Smith, of the county of Bristol, be a committee to count the votes for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, general treasurer, attorney general, sheriffs, and senators, and report the result. The towns and representative districts were called, to return the votes of the electors for governor, &c., when no returns were made by the follovring towns : Portsmouth, Hopkinton, South Kingstown, Little Comp- ton, Middletown, and Jamestown. Said votes were de- livered to the aforesaid committee to count and report. The House took a recess for one hour. At three o'clock^ P. M., the speaker resumed the chair. Gilbert Chace, Esq., a representative from the town of Newport, appeared, produced his credentials, and was qualified by the speaker. Mr. Simmons, on behalf of the committee appointed to count the votes, made the following report, which was received. House of Representatives, May 3, 1842. The committee to whom was referred the counting of the votes given at the election under the constitution, April 18, 1842, for governor, lieutenant governor, sen- ators, secretary of state, general treasurer, and attorney generiil, and also the votes for sheriffs in the several counties, respectfully report, — That the whole number of votes given in for governor is 6359 ; that of this number 6359 were given in for Thomas W. Dorr, of Providence, and he is therefore elected. That the whole number of votes given in for lieuten- ant governor is 6361 ; that of tliis number 6361 were 104 TTTE LIFE' Al^r^ TIMES O:^ given in for Amasa Eddy, Jr.^ of Glocester^ and lie ify therefore elected. That the whole number of votes given in for secre- tary of state is 6360; that of this number 6360 were given in for William H. Smith, of Providence, and he is therefore elected. That the whole number of votes given in for attorney general is 6360 ; that of this number 6360 were given in for Jonah Titus, of Scituate, and he is therefore elected. That the whole number of votes given in for general treasurer is 6360 ; that of this number Joseph Joslin^. of Newport, received 6360, and is therefore elected. That in the first senatorial tlistrict the whole number of votes given in for senator is 820 ; that of this num- ber 820 are for Eli Brown, of Providence, and he is therefore elected. That in the second senatorial district the whole num-- ber of votes given in for senator is 1315 | that of this number 1315 are for Hezeldah Willard, of Providence^ and he is therefore elected. That in the third senatonal district the whole num- ber of votes given in for senator is 652 ; that of this number John Paine received 652, and is therefore elected. That in the fourth senatorial district the whole number of votes given in for senator is 907 ; of which Abner Haskell received 907, and is therefore elected. That in the fifth senatorial district the whole number of votes given in for senator is 856 ; of which Solomon Smith received 856, and is therefore elected. That in the -sixth senatorial district the whole num- ber of votes given in for senator is 648 ; of which 648 are for Benjamin Nichols, and he is therefore elected. That in the seventh senatorial district the whole num- ber of votes given in for senator is 237 | of which 237 are for John Wood, of Coventry, and he is therefore elected. THOMAS WrLSO:^ BORK. 105 That in the eighth senatorial district the whole num- ber of votes given in for senator is o24 ; of which Benjamin Chace received S24, and is therefore elected. That in the ninth senatorial district 119 votes were given in for senator; of which 119 are for John B. Cook, and he is therefore elected. That in the tenth senatorial district 234 votes were given in for senator ; of which Joseph Spink received 234 votes, and is therefore elected. That in the eleventh senatorial district 135 votes were given in for senator ; of which 135 were for WilUam James, and he is therefore elected. That in the twelfth senatorial district 210 votes were given in for senator ; of which Christopher Smith re- ceived 210, and is therefore elected. That in Providence county the whole number of votes given in for sheriff is 4718 ; that of this number 4717 are for Burrington Anthony, and he is therefore elected. That in Newport county the whole number of votes given in for sheriff is 444 ; all for Joshua B. Rathbone^ and he is therefore elected. That in Bristol county the whole number of. votes given in for sheriff is 210 ; all for Nathan Bardin, and he is therefore elected. That in Kent county the whole number of votes given in for sheriff is 613 j all for Hazard Carder^ and he is therefore elected. That in Washington county the whole number of votes given in for sheriff is 307 ; all for Benjamin Blcvin, and he is therefore elected. That no votes were received in season to be counted by the committee from the towns of Hopkinton, Little Compton, Jamestown, New Shoreham, and Portsmouth ; in the two last towns votes w^ere polled, but not returned to the House of Representatives. Respectfully submitted. Fraxklix Coot.ey, For the Committee, 106 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Voted, That Messrs. Pearce, B. Arnold, Jr., and Mawney, be a committee to inform the governor, lieu- tenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, general treasurer, and the senators elect, of their elec- tion, and learn of them at what time they will be ready to take the oath of office. Mr, Pearce, from the committee appointed to inform the general officers and senators of their election, made report : That they had waited upon the governor, lieu- tenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and senators Brown, Willard, Haskell, Paine, S. Smith, Nichols, Chace, James, and C. Smith, and that they had severally signified the acceptance of their respective offices, and would immediately be engaged by oath; that the general treasurer was not present, and John Wood of the seventh district, Joseph Spink of the tenth district, and John B. Cooke of the ninth district, were not present, and it is said had declined to serve. The governor, Thomas W. Dorr ; the lieutenant gov- ernor, Amasa Eddy, Jr. ; William H. Smith, secretary of state ; Jonah Titus, attorney general, came into the House, and severally took the oath prescribed in the con- stitution, administered by the speaker in the presence of the House. Eli Brown, senator of the first district ; Hezekiah Willard, senator of the second district; John Paine, senator of the third district ; Abner Haskell, senator of the fourth district ; Solomon Smith, senator of the fifth district ; Benjamin Nichols, senator of the sixth dis- trict ; Benjamin Chace, senator of the eighth district ; WilHam James, senator of the eleventh district ; Chris- topher Smith, senator of the twelfth district, severally came into the House, and took the oath of office pre- scribed in the constitution, administered by the speaker in the presence of the governor, lieutenant governor, and of the House. Voted, That Messrs. Simmons and Pearce be a com- THOMAS WILSON DORR, 107 mittee to wait upon the governor^ with such others as the Senate may add, and inquire whether he has any communication to make to the General Assembly. The vote came down concurred, with the addition of Eli Brown, senator of the first district, to said committee. Mr. Pearce, from the committee to ask the governor if he has any communication to make to the General Assembly, reported : That the governor would forth- with, in person, meet the two Houses, and communicate a message. The two Houses having joined, the governor, in per- son, communicated his message. The governor, lieutenant governor, and Senate re- turned from the House. Mr. Simmons offered a set of rules, which were read and voted to be laid on the table. Mr. Simmons, of Providence, offered the following resolutions, to wit:— - Resolved, That the governor be requested to inform the president of the United States that the government of this state has been duly elected and organized under the constitution of the same, and that the General As- sembly are now in session and proceeding to discharge their duties according to the provisions of said constitu- tion. Resolved, That the governor be requested to make the same communication to the president of the Senate and to the speaker of the House of Representatives, to be laid before the two Houses of the Congress of the United States. Resolved, That the governor be requested to make the same communication to the governors of the several states, to be laid before the respective legislatures. The resolutions above were read twice and voted unanimously, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Pearce offered the following resolution, to wit : — Resolved, That the governor be requested to make 108 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF known, by proclamation to the people of this state, that the government under the constitution thereof has been duly organized, and calling upon all persons, both civil and military, to conform themselves to said constitution and to the laws enacted under the same, and to all other jurisdiction and authority under and by virtue of the same. Read twice, and voted to pass unanimously, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Brown, of Glocester, moved than when this House adjourn^ it will adjourn to meet at this place at nine o'clock, A. M., and that, in the mean time, the sheriif be directed to prepare the state house for the reception of this House. The motion, after debate, was adopted. Mr. Simmons, of Providence, offered the following act, to wit : -— Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follows : — - The act entitled " An act in relation to offences against the sovereign power of the state," passed at the March adjourned session of the General Assembly, 1842, is hereby repealed. Read once ; and, on the second reading, Mr. Olney, of Cranston, moved to lay the bill on the table until to-morrow. The motion was negatived without a count. The bill passed as an act, and was sent up for con- currence. The secretary of state returned the resolutions voted by this House to inform the president, Congress, &c., of our organization, duly concurred in by the Senate and approved by the governor. The secretary of state also returned a resolution voted by this House to request the governor to issue his proc- lamation, &c., duly concurred in by the Senate and ap- proved by the governor. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 109 The secretary of state also returned the bill repealhig the act entitled ** An act in relation to offences against the sovereign power of the state," duly concurred in and approved by the governor. The house adjourned until nine o'clock to-morrow Attest: J. S. Harris, Clerk. Wednesday Morning, May 4, 1842. The House met at nine o'clock, A. M. The speaker in the chair. The House is called to order. The roll is called, and a quorum is present. Mr. Olney, of Cranston, addressed a note to the speaker, asking to be excused from attending in his seat to-day, in consequence of severe sickness in his family. Voted to excuse Mr. Olney. Mr. Wales, of Providence, offered the following res- olution, to wit : ■ — Resolved, by this General Assembly, (the Senate concurring with the House of Representatives therein,) That a committee of be appointed to proceed to Newport, and to request a conference with a similar committee of the General Assembly now convened at that place, for the immediate and honorable adjustment of the controversy now existing in this state. This resolution was read ; and, after debate, was, on motion, voted to be laid on the table. Mr. Jencks, of Cumberland, offered a bill entitled " An act providing for the registration of electors, and directing the manner of voting by ballot in town and ward meetings." Read ; and, on motion, it is voted to take said bill up and pass upon it by sections. The first section is read, and passed to be enacted. The second section is read, and passed to be enacted. 10 110 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF The third section is read, and passed to be enacted. The fourth section is read, amended, and passed to be enacted. The fifth section is read, amended, and passed to be enacted. The sixth section is read, and blanks are filled, and passed to be enacted. The seventh, eighth, and ninth sections are read, and passed to be enacted. The bill, as engrossed, passed to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Brown, of Glocester, moved a bill entitled " An act to revive the charter of Glocester and Burrillville Greene Artillery." The above bill was read twice, and passed to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Pearce presented a bill entitled " An act to re- peal an act entitled ' An act in amendment of an act entitled An act to prevent routs, riots, and tumultuous assemblies, and the evil consequences thereof,' " passed by the General Assembly at their April session, 1842. Read twice ; and, after debate, the same passed to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. Joseph Joslin, the general treasurer elect, came into the House, and having signified his acceptance of said office, took the oath in the words and form prescribed by the constitution, administered in the presence of the House. Voted, on motion of Mr. Pearce, That Messrs. Simmons, Brown of Glocester, Gavitt, Cory, Holley, and Bos- worth, be a committee to report a bill fixing the pay of members of both Houses at one dollar per day. Mr. Pearce presented a bill entitled " An act to re- peal certain resolutions passed by the General Assembly at their April session, 1842." The resolutions to au- thorize the governor to preserve the public property, to recall any arms loaned by the General Assembly, to THOMAS WILSON DORR. Ill authorize the governor to fill vacancies in the offices of the militia, and the appointment of a board of counsel- lors, were read, and passed to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. On motion, the rules of the House were taken up, and being read under each head, were debated, amend- ed, and passed, as they appear on the files of the House. Mr. Simmons, of Providence, from the committee on the compensation of the members of the General As- sembly, reports the following bill, to wit : — Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follows^ to wit: — Section 1. The several members of the Senate and House of Representatives shall hereafter receive, as a compensation for their services, the sum of one dollar for each day in which they shall be in actual attendance during any session of the Assembly. Sec. 2. The several members of the Senate and House of Representatives shall be entitled to receive the sum of ten cents per mile, each way, for their travel, in attending at each session. The above bill is read, debated, and passed to be enacted, and sent up for concuiTence. Voted, That Messrs. Arnold of Providence county, Arnold of Washington county, Pearce of Newport county, Bosworth of Bristol county, and Newman of Kent county, be a committee to consider to what time it is proper for the Assembly to adjourn. Adjourned until two o'clock, P. M. J. S. Harris, Clerk. Afternoon Session. The House met at two o'clock, P. M. The speaker in the chair. 112 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Upon a call of the roll, a quorum is present. Mr. Gavitt offered the following joint resolution, to wit : — Resolved, by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring herein,) That Messrs. Simmons of Providence, and Mowry of Smithfield, be a committee to demand, receive, and transfer the records, books, and papers, appertaining to the office of the secretary of state, and transfer the same from Henry Bowen, late secretary of state, to his successor, William H. Smith. Voted, and sent up for concurrence. The committee on the time to which the legislature should adjourn, report by Mr. Arnold, and recommend that the General Assembly hold an adjourned session on the first Monday of July. Report accepted ; and it is voted, that when this General Assembly adjourn, (the Senate concurring herein,) it will meet again on the first Monday in July next. Resolutions drawn and sent up. Mr. Pearce offered the following resolutions, to wit: — Resolved, That the governor be further requested to call on all persons who are, or may become, indebted to the state, to make payment to the duly appointed offi- cers and agents, under the provisions of said constitu- tion ; and to make known to all persons that no payment to any other officers or agents than those aforesaid will Hbe considered as a discharge of their obligations. Resolved, That the governor be requested to call on all persons who are in possession, or have charge of any of the public property, to deliver the possession or charge of said property to the authorities and officers acting under the constitution and laws'of the state. Read and passed, and sent up for concurrence. The act repealing the amendment to the riot act, passed this morning, came down concurred in by the Senate, and approved by ihe governor. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 113 The act providing for the registration, &c., of voters, came down with an amendment, changing the time, &c., of registry. Voted to concur with the Senate in the amendment. On motion, it is voted that the two Houses join in committee to proceed upon the election of officers. Mr. Brown, of Glocester, moved the following bill, to wit: — Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follows: — Section 1. If any person or persons, or body corpo- rate, from whom any sum or sums of money may be- come due and payable to the general treasurer of this state, elected under the provisions of the constitution of this state, as adopted by the people thereof, accord- ing to the provisions of the act to which this is in addition, or of other acts in addition or amendment to the same, should refuse or neglect to pay said sum or sums of money as by law directed, he or they so refus- ing and neglecting shall be liable to pay interest for the retainer of such sum or sums of money, at and after the rate of one per cent, of the amount due for each month's neglect and refusal as aforesaid. Sec. 2. If any person or persons, or body corporate, holding in their possession any other money or property whatsoever belonging to the state, shall refuse to pay over and deliver the same to any officer or agent of the state duly authorized to receive the same, after being duly required hereto, he or they so refusing shall be liable to be sued therefor in any court of competent jurisdiction, in the name of the general treasurer afore- said ; and on rendition of judgment in any such case against the defendant or clefendants, the court before whom such judgment may be rendered shall assess dam- ages thereon at double the amount of the money or value of the property found due, with costs. Read, and passed to be enacted, and sent up for con- currence. 10* 114 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF The act reviving tlie charter of the Greene Artillery, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The act repealing the act establishing volunteer police companies in Providence, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The act repealing certain resolutions passed in April last, investing the governor with great power, and ap- pointing his council, came down concurred, and ap- proved by the governor. The two Houses having joined, on motion, his honor the lieutenant governor was called to preside. The elections of all civil officers were postponed until the next session of the General Assembly. Several military officers were appointed, the record of which Vt'ill appear on the secretary's minutes. The two Houses separated. The act submitted to enable the governor to appoint and commission officers, and to organize the militia, was taken ujd, debated, and committed to Mr. Brown of Glocester. Mr. Brown made report, that the act referred to him, giving the governor certain power in appointing and orcfanizins^ the militia, is unconstitutional, and asks to be discharsred from, the further consideration of the o same. Voted to discharge the committee, and the act is laid on the table. Mr. Brown offered the following resolution, to wit : — Resolved, That the thanks of this House are due to their constituents, civil and military, for the zeal they have displayed, and efficient aid rendered, in assisting this General Assembly in organizing the government under the constitution. Voted unanimously. Mi\ Simmons offered a resolution authorizing the gov- ernor to send commissioners to Washington, to make known to the president our position^ &c» Voted that the same be laid upon the table. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 115 Mr. Simmons moved the following resolution, viz. r — Resolved, by the House of Representatives, (the Sen- ate concurring herein,) That Messrs. Pearce and Chace be a committee to demand, receive, and transfer all the moneys, bonds, securities, records, books, and papers, and every other article appertaining to the office of the general treasurer of this state, from Stephen Cahoone, late treasurer, to Joseph Joslin, his successor. Voted, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Wales moved the following act, to wit : — Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follows : — Section 1. The charter of the United Independent Company of Volunteers, of the city of Providence, is so amended as that said company is authorized to receive and enrol additional members to the number of two hundred, exclusive of commissioned officers. Voted to be enacted, and sent to the Senate for con- currence. Voted that the House take a recess for one hour, it being now 5 o'clock, P. M. At 6 o'clock, P. M., the House reassembled. The speaker and a quorum present. The act authorizing the volunteer company to increase the number of their men, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The resolutions transferring the effects of the offices of the late secretary of state and general treasurer, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The act to collect the revenue, and secure the pay- ment to, and the possession of the state's property, and the consequences and liability in paying and delivering the same to officers under the constitution, came dow^n concurred, and approved by the governor. The act relating to the pay and travel of the mem- bers of the General Assembly, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. • 116 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF The act relating to the duties of those indebted to the state, (marked No. 1,) came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The resohition to adjourn until the first Monday in July next, came down concurred. Mr Taber, of Smithfield, moved the following bill : — Be it enacted by the General Assembly as follows : — Section 1. In all elections of the captains and subal- terns of militia companies, at their annual elections, the elections shall be made by the members of said compa- nies delivering their votes, with the name of the person voted for thereon, to the officer of the company in com- mand on the day of election ; and all companies who may have neglected to choose their officers at their last annual election, may proceed to choose the same as aforesaid, on any day before the next annual election. Sec. k. The chartered military companies who have not made their returns, may make the same at any time previous to the next adjourned session of this Assembly. Sec. 3. The governor is hereby authorized to com- mission the officers chosen by volunteer companies in this state for a term not exceeding one year from this time. Voted to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Simmons, of Providence, moved the following resolution, viz. : — Resolved, by the House of Representatives, (the Sen- ate concurring therein,) That the governor be author- ized to appoint suitable persons as commissioners in behalf of this state, to proceed to Washington, to make known to the president of the United States, that the people of this state have formed a written constitution, and elected officers, and peaceably organized a govern- ment under the same, and that said government is now in full operation. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 117 Voted, and sent up for concurrence. Mr. Nathaniel C. Smith, a member from Barrington, sent to the speaker his resignation. Voted, That the same be accepted, and that the speaker issue his warrant to the electors of said town, requiring them to elect another representative in his place. George Niles, a member from Eichmond, resigned his seat. Voted,^ That the same be accepted, and that the speaker issue his warrant to the electors of said town, requiring them to elect another representative in his place. Voted, That the clerks be directed to make out cer- tificates of attendance for the pay of each member, according to the act of this session ; and to deliver the same to them respectively. On motion of Mr. Pearce, Mr. Simmons was appointed a committee to wait upon the governor, and inform him that this House is ready to adjourn if he has no further communications to make to them. Mr. Simmons, the committee appointed to wait upon the governor, made report that he had performed that duty, and that the governor had nothing further to communicate. The act relating to the election of military officers, to commissioning the same, and to charter companies, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. The resolution appointing commissioners to proceed to Washington, came down concurred, and approved by the governor. Voted, That John S. Harris be allowed, and paid out of the treasury, for his services as clerk this session, six dollars. Voted, That Levi Salisbury be allowed, and paid out of the treasury, for his services as clerk this session, six dollars. 118 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Voted, That Burrington Anthony be allowed, and paid out of the treasury, for attendance as sheriff, and other expenses this session, the sum of five dollars and fifty cents. Voted, That Seth Howard be allowed, and paid out of the treasury, for attendance of himself and other offi- cers at this session, the sum of ten dollars. On motion of Mr. Newman, of Warwick, it is unani- mously Voted, That the thanks of this House be pre- sented to the Speaker for the able, dignified, and impartial manner in which he has presided over its deliberations. Voted and resolved, That all officers not reelected, and in whose places others have not been appointed, be, and they are hereby, continued in their respective offices until the adjourned session of this General As- sembly, to be holden at Providence on the first Monday in July, 1842, with as full power and authority as they have at any time had. Voted and resolved. That all business lying before this Assembly unfinished, be referred to the adjourned session to be holden on the first Monday in July, 1842 ; that the secretary cause the acts, orders, and resolutions passed at this session, to be published, with a suitable index, and distributed according to law ; and that this Assembly be, and the same is hereby, adjourned to the first Monday in July, 1842, then to convene in the city of Providence. Voted to be enacted, and sent up for concurrence. The vote of adjournment came down concurred ; and thereupon, the speaker informed the House that they were adjourned accordingly. Attest: J. S. Hariiis, Clerk. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 119 CHAPTEE yil. THE RIGHT OF THE CHARTER GOVERNMENT TO HOLD OUT AGAINST THE PEOPLE CONSIDERED. CAUSES OF COMPLAINT SET. FORTH, ETC. CONFIDENTIAL LETTER FROM PRESIDENT TYLER. It has already been shown that on the ocl of May^ 1842, there were two organized political governments in Rhode Island, each claiming the exclusive right to the exercise of legislative functions ; they could not both be right. One claimed under an exploded British charter, which the people had never adopted, and which no free, intelligent people ever would adopt ; the gov- ernment under which had been held by sufferance after the royal parchment had become a dead letter. The other claimed to derive its authority directly from the people. A very large majority of the whole people had, in the exercise of their inalienable sovereignty, conferred upon the latter legislative powers, and by the same act had forever abrogated and withdrawn all authority from the former. Under the charter the whole government of Khode Island expired and was renewed every year, and the duties and powers of all officers, from the highest to the lowest, ceased and terminated at the end of every year, if they were not 120 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF reelected, and the government under the people's con- stitution was intended to commence at the time the old government expired by its own limitation. The charter legislature was nothing more than a tenant at will. This being the case, it follows of course that the gov- ernment which had been set up by the people them- selves had an undoubted right to make use of all necessary means to sustain itself. The people had committed their political interests to this new legisla- ture, and it had become the duty of that legislature to protect and defend them. This each member of that legislature had sworn to do ; therefore if any govern- ment ever had a right to defend and sustain itself by physical power, the people's legislature had that right, and must stand perfectly justified in the use of any measures necessary for that purpose. The question is simply this. Was the people's government set up upon the true principles of American democracy ? The ad- vocates for the charter government have told us that the people had no right to set up a government or to take any measures for that purpose without permission from the General Assembly. We have seen that four- teen thousand out of twenty thousand gave their votes for the constitution under which the people's govern- ment was organized ; but we are told that that is of no consequence so long as the legislature did not give the people a license to proceed in the manner they did, and that therefore the old government must be considered as the rightful government until the General Assembly should authorize the people to set up a different form of government. Now if a government which had been THOMAS WILSON DORR. 121 set up by three fourths of the people was illegal and void because the legislature refused to sanction it, then if every man in the state, except the eighty -four who composed the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island in 1841, had voted for the people's constitution and agreed to support it, it would still have been just as illegal, and the eighty-four men who composed that legislature might just as rightfully have declared the whole proceedings of the people void, and still claimed their right to rule the state, and have called upon the president of the United States, or any foreign power, to sustain them ; and if, by means of menaces from abroad, and concessions and promises at home, that body found themselves able to subdue the people, they would main- tain their power by the same right that the charter gov- ernment was maintained in 1842. If three fourths of the people could ^ not rightfully set up a government without the consent of the legislature, then all the peo- ple could not. It was upon that ground alone that the charter government held on to power in 1842 ; and we ask if there is a single unprejudiced individual living under the democratic institutions of the United States, who has any claim to common sense, who agrees to that doctrine ? But we are told that the people of Rhode Island had no reason to complain of the government under the charter. Has it not been shown that more than half of the male citizens of that state over twenty- one years of age were by law excluded from all partici- pation in the affairs of the government, whilst at the same time they were required by law to do duty in mil- itary and fire companies, and also to pay their full pro- 11 12S THE LIFE AND TIMES OF portion of all public taxes ? Has it not been shown also that the laws of that state gave non-freeholders no remedy against any wrongs that they might sustain un- less they obtained the assistance of freeholders ? Has it not been shown that they were denied the right of trial by a jury of their peers ? If they were satisfied to be thus disparaged and out- lawed, why did they petition the legislature, time after time, during almost half a century ? What was meant by the petition presented to the General Assembly in 1829, signed by two thousand citizens ? What meant the suffrage organizations throughout the state in 1838 and 1839 ? What brought together the immense mass meetings in the summer of 1841 ? For what purpose did ten or twelve thousand men meet in convention in the city of Providence ? What did these people mean by their loud complaints against the oppressive acts of the charter government, and what did their strong reso- lutions declare ? Is it not true that " all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufFerable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed " ? And might not the disfranchised citizens of Khode Island have said, in the language of their revolutionary fathers, " In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms ; our repeated peti- tions have been answered only by repeated injury." Although the president was over-persuaded and mis- advised, yet the following " private and confidential " letter to Governor King, dated May 9, 1842, shows THOMAS WILSON DORR. 123 that he was desirous that the controversy shouki be amicably settled by the parties themselves. May 9, 1842. Sir : Messrs. Randolph and Potter will hand you an official letter ; but I think it important that you should be informed of my views and opinions as to the best mode of settling all difficulties. I deprecate the use of force, except in the last resort ; and I am persuaded that measures of conciliation will at once operate to produce quiet. / am well advised, if the General As- sembly would authorize you to announce a general am- nesty and pardon for the past, without making any exception, upon the condition of a return to allegiance, and follow it up by a call for a new convention upon somewhat liberal principles, that all difficulty would at once cease. And why should not this be done ? A government never loses any thing by mildness and for- bearance to its own citizens ; more especially when the consequences of an opposite course may be the shedding of blood. In your case, the one half of your people are involved in the consequences of recent proceedings. Why urge matters to an extremity ? If you succeed by the bayonet, you succeed against your own fellow-citi- zens, and by the shedding of kindred blood ; whereas, by taking the opposite course, you will have shown a paternal care for the lives of your people. My own opinion is, that the adoption of the above measures will give you peace, and insure you harmony. A resort to force, on the contrary, will engender, for years to come, feelings of animosity. I have said that I speak advisedly. Try the exper- iment ; and if it fail, then your justification in using force becomes complete. Excuse the freedom I take, and be assured of my respect. John Tyler. Governor King, of Rhode Island. 124 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF But the charter authorities, elated with the idea of putting down the suffrage party by force of arms, were not inchned to make any concessions or adopt any con- ciliatory measures, and the president's advice was dis- regarded. THOMAS WILSON DOHiU 125 CHAPTER VIII, MR. dorr's visit TO WASHINGTON AND NEW YORK. HIS RETURN TO PROVIDENCE. ATTACK UPON THE ARSENAL. Immediately after the adjournment of the constitu- tional legislature, Mr. Dorr proceeded to Washington, and laid his case before the chief magistrate and heads of the departments. But he soon found, to his mortifi- cation, that the administration had become strongly pre- judiced against him in consequence of misrepresenta- tions which had been made by the envoys of the charter government. Southern men had become imbittered against him and his cause by being told that it was wholly an anti- slavery movement. This was false ; not a particle of abolitionism was mingled in the controversy. At home the vilest slanders and most egregious falsehoods were conjured up and put in circulatiqn by the obsequious minions of power ; the desk and the forum assisted to give them currency, and they were echoed and reechoed from high places. At one time it was rumored that Mr. Dorr was coming with murderous legions from abroad, and at another that he and his men intended to rob all the banks in the state, to pillage and burn the city of Providence, and ravish its fair inhabitants. II* 1^6 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Such reports were not only entirely without foundationj but so extremely absurd and improbable^ that no honest man ought to have given them currency. Again, to pacify the people, they Avere told that the government had consented to accede to their demands, and would, as soon as possible, give them a legal constitution, with free suffrage, and about every thing else they asked for. On his return from Washington, Mr. Dorr was re- ceived in the city of New York with strong demonstra- tions of respect and confidence, and was assured that, if the president should oppose him with the national soldiery, that city would furnish troops enough to withstand all that the general government might send. Keturning home, Mr. Dorr arrived at Stonington on Sunday morning, the 15th of May. As soon as it was known that he was at Stonington, a large party of citi- zens, with about thirty men under arms, proceeded to that place to greet him and renew their assurances of fidelity. On his arrival in Providence, he was met by a large escort of military and private citizens ; a splen- did barouche drawn by four fine white horses had been prepared for his reception, and as the procession moved through the principal streets of the city, shouts of wel- come were heard on all sides. The pageant appeared more like the triumphant entry of a victor than that of a returning exile. The multitude thronged about his person to greet and encourage him, and renew again and again their promises of fidelity. But alas ! many of these promises were hollow and fiilse, and made by irresolute, fickle-minded men, who did not know them- selves ; and Mr. Dorr was destined soon to witness THOMAS WILSON DORR. 127 scenes of an opposite character. During his absence, a large number of arrests were made under what was denominated the Algerine laws. Alarmed and disheart- ened, nearly all the members of his legislatures who had not been arrested, soon resigned. These resignations fell upon the ears of Mr. Dorr like the rumblings of an earthquake. No language can describe the emotions of his heart, when, in that critical moment, he saw the pillars upon which he had rested for support shaken and falling thick around hinL It required the firmness of a Cato to withstand the shock. But relying on the justice of his cause and the rectitude of his own intentions, and still confiding too much, far too much^ in the integrity and fidelity of the people, he never faltered for a moment ; whatever his reason and his conscience told him was right he would do to the utmost of his power, and whatever was wrong he would not do. Call this obstinacy, or wilfulness, or by whatever name you please, it is nevertheless the most prominent trait in the character of every truly great man. It required no ordinary heroism to sustain the mind under reverses like' these. He that could remain firm and unmoved, self-poised and self-sustained, in a crisis like this, must possess a transcendent moral magnanimity. ' During Mr. Dorr's absence, the charter authorities were busily occupied in making preparations to resist, by force of arms, the constitutional government. Mili- tary companies were reorganized, filled up, and drilled, and required to be in readiness to obey any orders which might be given them. It had become apparent to every one that the existing political controTersJ would never be settled vrithout a resort to arms. When Mr. Dorr became advised of the notes of preparation in progress against him^ he saw that a crisis had arrived when decisive measures must be taken. The state arsenal, in the vicinity of the city, was an object of indis- pensable importance ; this was a strong stone buildings containing, at that time, six or eight pieces of ordnance^, with a great part of the muskets and ammunition be- longing to the state. An additional guard had recently been placed within it, of which Mr. Dorr had not been advised ; but he saw at once that he must gain posses- sion of that, or abandon his position immediately, Thi& was a most trying moment. A large number of those men upon whose courage and counsel he had depended had left him and retired. The whole responsibility of a cause which fourteen thousand men had instituted, was now thrown upon the shoulders of a single individual. He must give up the cause, and retire in disgrace, or make an attempt to take possession of the arsenal. The hearty greetings and imposing demonstrations with which he had been met on his return to the city seemed to give him assurance that the people were determined to sustain him. Who could have witnessed the long procession of men, both armed and unarmed, that escort- ed him through the city the day before, and heard their cheerful greetings and repeated assurances of fidelity, and not have believed that any assistance which he might require would be forthcoming at the first call ? He could not and he would not cease to confide in the integrity of his friends. On the morning of the 17th THOMAS WILSON DOMi, 129 of Ma}% Mr. Dorr issued his orders to the niiHtary of the several towns to repair forthwith to head quarters and wait further orders. That call met with but a very- imperfect response^ and many who did obey it departed before evening. At one of the clock on Wednesday morning. May 18th, the signal for an attack upon the arsenal was given by the firing of an alarm gun. After nearly an hour's delay, Mr. Dorr found that only about two hundred and fifty men waited his command. At the head of that little band, armed with muskets and two pieces of artillery, he marched on foot, stationed his forces in fi'ont of the arsenal, and summoned its com- mander to surrender. The summons was returned with an indignant refusal. The night was so extremely dark that it was difficult for friends and foes to distinguish each other, and it was soon found that Mr. Dorr's two pieces of artillery had been rendered inefficient by un- seen hands, and he and his small force returned to head quarters without firing a single gun. When morning came, and it was satisfactorily ascertained that Mr. Dorr's forces had dispersed, several companies of mili- tia, armed with muskets and field pieces, marched boldly up to his head quarters : but before their arrival Mr. Dorr left in company with a friend, and fortunately escaped the grasp of his enemies. Thus ended a blood- less tragedy, which had caused the city of Providence dire forebodings. This transaction has been the sub- ject of animadversion and ridicule, and Mr. Dorr's con- duct looked upon as the feat of a maniac. But it should be recollected that it is much easier to find fault than to command a burning steamer. Mr. Dorr, by the ISO THE LIFE AND TIMES OF resignation and desertion of his men, had been unex- pectedly forced into the perilous position which he occupied ; he made no pretensions to military knowl- edge or skill, but a tremendous responsibility was thrown upon him, and he was not the man td shrink from it ; and if he did not display the wisdom and acu- men of a veteran officer no one need be surprised. It is easy now to see that the attack upon the arsenal was injudicious ; but this point is more easily decided now than it could have been at that moment. Mr. Dorr was not aware of the defection which was rapidly tak- ing place in the suffrage ranks ; he had an overweening confidence in the integrity and fidelity of mankind ; he had not yet learned by his own sad experience that ^^ all men are liars." He was not aware of the power of the arsenal to resist attacks. He did not stop to consider the force which the charter government could almost instantly bring against him. But he vainly imagined that a large portion of all the military of the state would rally around his standard at the first call. Yet when the signal was given and the demand made, like the " spirits of the vasty deep," they were called, but did not come. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 131 CHAPTEK IX. MARTIAL LAW. GOV. KINg's PROCLAMATION. GOV. dorr's return and proclamations. outrages committed under the pretext of martial law. During the absence of Mr. Dorr, after the 18th of May, and while he was supposed to be residing under the protection of his friend Chauncy F. Cleveland, then governor of the State of Connecticut, Gov. King issued the folio wing, proclamation : — By His Excellency Samuel Ward King, Governor, Captain General, and Commander-in-Chief of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Whereas Thomas Wilson Dorr, of Providence, in the county of Providence, charged with treason against the said State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a fugitive from justice, and supposed to be now within the limits of our sister State of Connecticut ; and from credible information, is still pursuing his nefarious en- terprise, against the peace and dignity of said State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; and where- as I made a requisition, on the 25th day of May last, addressed to his excellency Chauncy F. Cleveland, governor of said State of Connecticut, for the appre- hension and delivery of the said Thomas Wilson Dorr, according to the constitution and laws of the United States in such case made and pj;ovided ; which requi- 133 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF sition his excellency Chauncy F. Cleveland, governor of said state, has hitherto declined to comply with ; — = I do, therefore, pursuant to authority in me vested, and by advice of the Council, hereby offer a reward of one thousand dollars for the delivery of the said Thomas Wilson Dorr to the proper civil authority of this state, within one year from the date hereof, that he may be dealt with as to law and justice shall appertain. Given under my hand and the seal of said state at the city of Providence, this eighth day of June, [l. s.] in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred and forty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the sixty-sixth. Samuel Ward King. By his Excellency's command : Henry Bowen, Sec'y of State. But this proclamation had no effect, and Mr. Dorr fearlessly returned to the state on the 25th of June, and issued the following proclamation : — STATE OF KHODE ISLAND AND PEOVIDENCE PLAN- TATIONS. A Proclamation, by the Governor of the same. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the con- stitution, I hereby convene the General Assembly which was adjourned to meet at Providence on Monday, the 4th of July next, at the town of Glocester, on the same day, for the transaction of sjich business as may come before them. And I hereby request the towns and districts, in which vacancies may have occurred by the resignation of representatives or senators, to proceed forthwith to supply the same by new elections, according to the pro- visions of the constitution. THOMAS WILSON DORll. 133 Given under my hand and seal of state, at Glocester, the 25th day of June, A. D. 1843. Thomas W. Dorr. On the same day, June 25, 1842, the charter Gen- eral Assembly, then in session at Newport, passed the following act declaring the state under martial law : — An Act establishing Martial Law in this State. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, as follows : — Section 1. The State of Rhode Island and Provi- dence Plantations is hereby placed under martial law ; and the same is declared to be in full force until other- wise ordered by the General Assembly, or suspended by proclamation of his excellency the governor of the state. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, r T and affixed the seal of said state, at Provi- ' I L S I • '- * ■-' dence, the day and year above written. Samuel Ward King. By his Excellency's command : Henry Bowen, Sec^y of State. And about the same time Mr. Dorr issued the fol- lowing proclamation : — General Orders. Head Quarters, Glocester, E.. I., ) June 25, 1842. 5 I hereby direct the military of this state who are in favor of the People's Constitution, to repair forthwith to head quarters, there to await further orders ; and I request all volunteers and volunteer companies so dis- posed to do the same. It has become the duty of all citizens who believe that the people are sovereign, and have a right to make 12 134 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF and alter their forms of government, now to sustain, by all necessary means, tlie constitution adopted and estab- lished by the people of this state, and the government elected under the same. The only alternative is an abject submission to a des- potism, in its various practical effects, without a parallel in the history of the American states. I call upon the people of Rhode Island to assert their rights, and to vindicate the freedom which they are qualified to enjoy in common with the other citizens of the American republics. I cannot doubt that they will cheerfully and promptly respond to this appeal to their patriotism and to their sense of justice ; and that they will show themselves in this exigency to be the worthy descendants of those ancestors who aided in achieving our National Inde- pendence. Thomas W. Dorr, Governor and Commander-in-Chief. By order of the Commander-in-Chief. Wm. H. Potter, Adjutant General. Before this time, troops, with an additional supply of arms and ammunition, had been sent forward by Presi- dent Tyler, and were stationed in the forts on Rhode Island, ready to obey the requisition of the charter gov- ernment. When martial law was announced, a wild consternation spread over the whole state ; business be- came in a measure suspended ; a thrill of horror seemed to touch all hearts, and men looked aghast upon each other. This act was passed on Saturday, and early on Sunday morning, June 26, a band of armed and unarmed men of the " law and order " party entered the office of the Daily Express, in the city of Provi- dence searched the office throughout, and commanded THOMAS WILSON DORR. 135 the publishers to evacuate the building immediately. A fearful mob collected in the street, and threatened to destroy the building. Under these circumstances the publishers were compelled to give notice that their paper would be discontinued. This was the only office which had up to that time continued to advocate the people's cause. As soon as martial law was made known, every law and order man and every heartless ruffian appeared to suppose himself licensed to commit all such depredations as he might choose, and armed bands soon sallied forth in various directions, and com- menced their outrages. The following depositions will give the reader a few samples of their proceedings. Deposition of Leonard Wakefield. I, Leonard Wakefield, of Cumberland, in the State of Rhode Island, forty years of age, depose and say : That I am, and have been for about fourteen years, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. I have resided in Rhode Island, and been a local preacher there for about fourteen years. On the loth of June, 1842, I was at home in my office ; I acted at that time as assistant to the postmaster at Cumberland. The state troops were returning from Woonsocket to Providence — about three hundred. Two of the soldiers came into the office where I was then engaged, and inquired if I had any fire-arms, and demanded the same. I deliv- ered to them a small birding gun, which I had had for many years, and they went away with it. I then went into my house to dinner ; my wife was tending a sick infant child, which was not expected to live, and which died in a few weeks after. As I sat eating my dinner, three soldiers came into the room, and two of them were stationed over me as a guard ; they were armed with 136 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF muskets ; the other searched every part of the house, from the garret to the cellar, not excepting the lodging room. They found nothing, and I was then ordered to go with 'them ; was not told where, nor for what. Two of the soldiers took me by the arms, one on each side, and marched me across the street to the tavern. I was carried into the hall of the tavern, and from thence, without any examination or inquiry, put into a wagon with other prisoners ; there were twenty-one prisoners in wagons. We were then conveyed to Providence, a distance of twelve miles. The wagons containing the prisoners were in front of the body of the troops, who followed them. In each wagon there were soldiers guarding the prisoners ; two on each side of me with muskets ; and, so far as I could see, that was the mode each prisoner was guarded ; none of them were bound. When we reached the precincts of Providence, we were taken from the wagons ; the prisoners ranged two and two in file, flanked with soldiers on each side — the body of the troops in the rear ; and in this order we were marched through the principal streets to one of the armories. While we were passing through the streets, garlands were thrown from windows to the sol- diers ; and there were shouts, and jeering, and insults heaped upon the prisoners. I heard, repeatedly, ex- clamations, " There goes the minister ! " and in one instance, " D — n him, the next time he preaches, it will be in the state prison ! " I was generally known in Providence as a clergyman. We remained at the armory about half an hour. There was no examina- tion or inquiry of the prisoners. Some one of the officers, as I supposed, asked what should be done with the prisoners. General Edward Carrington (who, I understood, was one of the governor's council) said, " God d — n them, take them oft* to the state prison-*' The City Guards then took us in custody, having first been ordered to load with ball cartridge ; which they THOMAS WILSON DORR. 137 did. We were then placed between two files of sol- diers, the remaining troops in the rear, and were marched to the state prison. There were twenty-one prison- ers, and the company of soldiers was a full one. We were put into the cells in the state prison. The cell that I was in had sixteen persons in it. Its dimensions were about twelve feet by nine. Under the edge of the roof there was a loophole, and in the door a hole about seven inches by five. A pipe for ventilating led from the floor through the outer wall. We were put into the cell about sunset, and the six- teen continued confined there from Thursday evening until Sunday about noon — being let out once a day in the yard, under a giiard. We slept on the floor — lying in a heap together, as we best could. The suf- fering from want of air and space was severe. On Sunday the prisoners were separated ; and, after that, there were eight in the cell I was put in. I was con- fined six days, in all. I was taken before the commis- sioners in one of the rooms in the jail building, Ste- phen Branch was the chairman, and there were three others. No charges whatever were brought against me. I was asked my name, age, and residence ; if I had been at Chepatchet ; if I had run bullets for Dorr's men; to which last question I answered no. I was also asked about a discourse I had preached on the Sabbath at the Albion village. Mr. Branch made the inquiry. I asked him if he wanted a synopsis of the discourse, which I was ready to give. He said he only wanted what I had said about fighting. I replied that I had exhorted the people not to fight at all on either side. He asked no further question. Christopher Rhodes, who was present, but not one of the commis- sioners, said he knew nothing about it ; but his agent at the Albion village had told him something about it. He did not state what. In answer to the question whether I had been at Chepatchet while Dorr was 12* 138 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF there, I answered that I had -, that I went at the re- quest of a number of my neighbors, to induce the Cumberland men, who were there on the suffrage side, to come home ; that I had no arms. It was true that I had gone to Chepatchet, and had an interview with the Cumberland company on the suffrage side ; and, in consequence of my representations, as I believe, they left the ground and returned home. After these inquiries were made by the commission- ers, the chairman asked if any person appeared for or against me. There was none on either side. I had four of my neighbors present, to testify in my favor if necessary ; but there being no charges against me, I did not call on them. I was then remanded to prison^ no reason being given for that course, and remained in confinement till the next day in the afternoon, when I was again carried before the commissioners, with some fifteen others, to whom an address was made, and we were discharged. From the time I was arrested, and until discharged, nor ever after, did I hear or iearn from the authorities the grounds, or charges, or suspi- cions, upon which I was arrested. During my impris- onment, our fare was two rations a day of stale bread and meat, and nothing else but water. I had done nothing on the suffrage side, except to express my opinions freely and fearlessly, with a temperate zeal. I had done nothing to induce, but all I could to prevent violence. The sermon alluded to, which I preached at Mr. Ehodes^s village, (the Albion,) was decidedly pa- cific, and discouraged any attempt to take up arms. Leonard Wakefield. Commonwealth of Massachusetts^ Bristol, ss. ^ Paavtucket, Mai/ 4, 1844. ^ Personally appeared the above named Leonard "Wake- field, and made oath to and subscribed the forego- TTIOMAS WIIi?ON DORR. 139 Ing, reduced to writing by me in his presence. Be- fore me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner y and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth. Deposition of Eliab Whipple, I, Eliab Whipple, of Cumberland, in the State of Rhode Island, farmer, thirty-six years of age, depose and say; On the 6th of July, 184^, I was arrested by Samuel Currey and two others, on a warrant of the governor and Council, on a charge of treason. I was brought to Providence, and put into prison. At the end of eight days I was examined by the commission- ers and remanded — nothing appearing against me. After I had been in prison twenty-four days, I was told I was discharged ; but, before I left the prison, I was arrested again by the civil authorities, and the next day sent to the jail at Newport. At the end of six days I was allowed bail in ten thousand dollars, with sureties, which I procured. At the next term of the court, the grand jury found no bill ; but my recognizance was not discharged until the next term, when I was informed that the grand jury had found no bill, and the recogni- zance was discharged. This information I had from the attorney general. I was imprisoned thirty-one days, and under recognizance for ten thousand dollars from August, 1842, to March, 1843. The only reason for my arrest, that I ever knew of, was, that I had voted for the people's constitution and for Governor Dorr. I had never taken up arms, nor taken any part in the conflict. I went to Chepatchet solely from curiosity on Friday, the 24th of June, and returned home the next day ; was unarmed, and took no part. I continued at home about my ordinary business until I was arrested. Eliab Whipple. 140 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bristol, ss.. ? Paavtucket, May 9, 1844. > Personally appeared the above named Eliab Whip- ple, and made oath to and subscribed the foregoing, re- duced to writing by me in his presence. Before me,, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner y and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth, Deposition of Henry Lord. I, Henry Lord, of Providence, in the State of Ehode Island, depose and say : That I am nearly sixty years of age. I was taken by the charter troops at Acote's Hill on the morning of June 29, 1842, and was unarmed. I was the only person on the hill ^vhen the advance of the troops came up ; I saw no other ; this was about eight o'clock, I should judge ; it might have been seven. When I saw a horseman coming, I went down the hill and met him. It was Colonel George Eivers. He asked me, (pointing to the hill,) " Will they fire ? "' I answered no ; that there were no troops there. He then went up, two soldiers following, and gave three cheers when he took possession of the fort. There was no resistance made, for there was no one there to make it. I went down into the road, and there encountered the main body of the troops, and was taken prisoner. They then had in charge over a hundred prisoners ; none were tied. The troops did not go up the hill, but marched to Sprague's hotel with the prisoners. The next morning we were mustered, and tied together with large bed-cords. The rope was passed in a close hitch around each man's arm, passing behind his back, and fastening him close up to his neighbor, there being eight thus tied together in each platoon ; we had no use of the arm above the elbow. In this way we were marched on foot to Providence, sixteen miles, threat- THOMAS WILSON DORR. 141 eiied and pricked by the bayonet if we lagged from fatigue, the ropes severely chafing the arms ; the skin was off of mine. In two instances, when the soldiers were halted to refresh, we were refused the use of their cups to get water from the brook which passed the road, and had no water till we reached Greenville, about eight miles. It was a very hot day ; I had had no water or breakfast that morning, and I received no food until the next day in Providence. We were marched thus tied through the streets, and, after being exhibited, were put into the state prison. Fourteen were put into my cell, which was seven feet by ten. After remaining in prison twenty-four days, I was released on parole. Henry Lord. Commonwealth of Massachttsetts, Bristol, ss. ? Pawtucket, May 10, 1844. . > Personally appeared the above-named Henry Lord, and made oath to and subscribed the foregoing, reduced to writing by me in his presence. Before me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth. Deposition of Mehitahle Howard. I, Mehitable Howard, of Cumberland, in the State of Ehode Island, wife of Joseph Howard, of said Cum- berland, depose and say : That on the 29th of June,. 1842, in the morning, between five and six o'clock, Alfred Ballon, with seven other men, all armed with guns, came to my house and entered it — I forbidding them to enter. Myself and grandchildren were the only ones in the house ; he broke the door open, and drove it off the hinges. As Ballon came in, he seized me by the shoulders, and shook me hard, leaving prints where he took hold of me. He then pushed me, and 14^ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF pushed me against a post about three or four feet fi'om where I was standing, which bruised my shoulder very much. He came up to me again, seized me, and pushed me again towards the window, saying, " Get out of the way," in a loud voice. He then gave me a shake, and left me, saying, " Where is Liberty ? " meaning my son, and " where is the gun ? '* He went up stairs, and searched the chambers, turning the beds over in which the little children were. He then came down, and went into my lodging room, and took a gun and carried it off. I was much overcome ; but when he came out, I said, " I don't fear you, Mr. Ballou." He then came up to me, laid his hands on me, and shook me, and said, in a very loud voice, ^' Do you know that you are under martial law ? " He then took his bayonet, and put the point of the bayonet against the pit of my stomach ; he pressed the bayonet against me, and said, " I will run you through," looking very angry and spiteful. The point of the bayonet went through my clothes and fractured the skin, but did not break it, but caused the blood to settle the size of a ninepence, or larger. I verily believed at the time that he intended to run me through. With my hand I knocked the bay- onet away, and he stepped back, and stood and looked at me with a stern look, and then went out of the house. Ballou appeared to be the leader of the band. Some of his men were in the house ; I saw two in the house with him, armed. He said nothing to me about his authority, or why he treated me so. My husband was a suffrage man, which is the only reason I know for this treatment. Ballou had been a neighbor of ours for near forty years ; he was a charter man. I was hurt very bad, and unable to do my work for several days after, and have never recovered from the effects of the shock upon my system. I am sixty-two years of age. The gun has not been returned. Mehitable Howard. THOMAS WILSOX DORR. 143 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bristol, ss. } Pawtucket, May 4, 1844. ^ Personally appeared the above-named Mehitable How- ard, and made oath to and subscribed the foregoing, reduced to writing in her presence by me. Before me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth. Deposition of Otis Holmes. I, Otis Holmes, of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, brewer, fifty years of age, depose and say : That on Sunday, the 26th of June, 1842, my house in Prov- idence was entered by a body of armed men. They searched the house, breaking the locks, diough I offered to give them the keys. I was lying on the bed, and was taken by two men, who seized me by the collar. One was named Samuel Thomas ; the other I did not know. Charles Harris, at the same time, put a pistol to my breast. They found nothing at my house but my training musket, which I had had many years ; they took it, and have never returned it. They carried me to my brewery, and broke in there ; I had previously offered them the keys of my premises. In the brewery they found two old ducking guns, without locks, and one old musket with a shattered lock and no ramrod. They took these, and they have never been returned. There was also a hunting powder-horn, with about half a pound of powder, and a canister of about a pound of powder, which belonged to another man who left it there. They also broke into my store and counting room, and ransacked that, my private papers, and then marched me to the office of Henry L. Bowen, Esq., justice of the peace. I was carried through the streets by two men having hold of my collar, and another in front with a pistol. There were about thirty men 144 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF with muslvets ; I made no resistance. The course lay through the principal street of the city. I heard no char"'es, and was not examined before Mr. Justice Bo wen, but was marched to jail, with a file of soldiers, in company with ten others. I was put in a room in the jail, and remained there seven days, and then, with- out examination, put into one of the cells of the state prison, with seven others. It was large enough for us to lie down, by lying heads and points. I remained there twenty-one days. The suffering was extreme, from heat and want of air, with plenty of vermin. The health of the prisoners suffered materially. During this time I was examined by the commissioners. They charged me with keeping arms to aid the suffrage cause. No proof was shown. I was remanded. I then got a writ of habeas • corpus before Judge Staples, of the Supreme Court, and went before him in a room in the jail, and, upon a hearing, was discharged. I was then immediately committed by the deputy sheriff, on a war- rant from Henry L. Bowen, on a charge of treason. I then applied for another writ of habeas corpus, which Judge Staples ordered to be heard before the whole court at Newport. I was there heard, and allowed bail in the sum of twelve thousand dollars, with sureties. At the next sitting of the court in the county of Prov- idence, the grand jury found no bill against me, and I was discharged. I was in close prison fifty-nine days. Otis Holmes. C0MM0N"WEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, Bristol, SS. > Pawtucket, 3Iay 9, 1844. ) Personally appeared the above-named Otis Holmes, and made oath to and subscribed the foregoing, reduced to writing by me in his presence. Before me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth, THOMAS WILSON DORR. 145 These minions of law and order appeared to believe tliat they might deal as they chose with the person and property of any individual who had been known to ex- press himself in favor of Mr. Dorr or the people's con- stitution ; and many appeared to glory in their ruthless exploits. Commissioned and non-commissioned officers and private soldiers vied with each other in their law- less enterprises. All the streets in Providence were placed under guards of armed men, and sentinels were stationed at every cprner. The faculty of Brown Uni- versity dismissed the students, and gave the college buildings to the soldiers for barracks. The jails of Providence, Newport, and Bristol were soon filled with men who had been arrested, and bound, and brought to prison by armed freebooters. And even the cells of the state prison, designed only for convicts for capital offences, were jammed as full of innocent vic- tims as ever was the Black Hole of Calcutta. If we had not witnessed these scenes we could never have believed that men could be so instantly converted into demons ; men, who but yesterday enjoyed a neighborly intercourse, by the first touch of martial law fell upon each other like angry tigers. No one who had ever been known to be in favor of suffrage was safe in his own house, and no sick room or female retreat was pro- tected from violation. Ministers and deacons of the " law and order party " advised and assisted in arrest- ing members of their own churches ; neighbors turned a,^ainst neighbors, and Christians against Christians. The Sabbath was profaned and the church desecrated ; priests and deacons readily surrendered the temple of 146 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF the Most High to bands of rapacious men, and brutish soldiers took up their abode in the holy tabernacle. The stilln^s of the sanctuary was broken with the loud clanks of armor and the rude trampings of an infidel soldiery. The church was converted into an arsenal, weapons of death were piled in the chancel, and men thirstin^T for blood surrounded the altar. Instead of anthems of praise and orisons of peace, the sacred choir resounded with beastly orgies, and the house of prayer became a den of thieves. Gangs of armed men, as ruthless as ever sacked a conquered city, patrolled the state ; dismay went before them, and shame followed after. Men acting under the supposed authority of martial law appeared to think that their jurisdiction was as boundless as their power. They were not satisfied to confine their operations to the narrow precincts of Rhode Island, but broke over its boundaries into Massachusetts, as the following testimony will show : — Deposition of Drajjer Carpenter. I, Draper Carpenter, of Pawtucket, in the State of Massachusetts, physician, fifty years of age and up- wards, depose and say : That on the day on which Alexander Kelby was shot, I was in Pawtucket, on the Massachusetts side. In the evening there were a num- ber of discharges of muskets from the bridge, which is the dividing line between Massachusetts and Phode Island. ■ The firing appeared to be in volleys. There were troops stationed on the bridge, said to be the Kent- ish Guards — Phode Island troops. I did not see a suffrage man in arms that day or evening ; and I have no doubt these troops were the Rhode Island charter THOMAS WILSON DORR. 147 troops. Soon after the firing commenced, a woman was brought into my office, supposed to be wounded ; but it appeared that she had fainted from fright. At that time the firing ceased, but soon after commenced again, after an interval of about ten or fifteen minutes. Soon after the firing began the second time, a man came into my office, slightly wounded in the knee from a musket shot ; but it was a slight wound, and I did not dress it. I did not know the person, and cannot name him ; I was standing at the front window of my office, with a view to see or hear what was transpiring at the bridge. The distance from the bridge was about twenty rods, on Main Street, leading from the bridge. While standing in this position, a musket ball passed through two panes of glass in the two sashes forming the show window of the shop, passing near my head, and lodging in the shelf, which it penetrated about four inches from the edge where it entered. [The witness produces the ball, which he says he took from its lodgment, and it appears to be a musket ball of the size used for United States muskets, and not a rifle ball.] A few minutes after this, I was called on to go and see a man, Alexander Kelby, who Avas reported to have been shot. I directed them to bring him directly to the office, as it was no place for an examination there. They went away for that pur- pose ; but immediately information came that he was dead. I was well acquainted with Alexander Kelby, and had generally been his family physician. He had a wife and five or six children, and had resided in. Pawtucket, on the Massachusetts side, for some nine or ten years. He worked in the factory, and was rather nn intellectual man, and read a great deal. I often loaned him books. He was a man of good character, and always peaceable and inoffensive. Other buildings, not in the direction of my office, on another street loading from the bridge, were fired into, as appears from the marks of the balls lodged therein, or having bounded 148 ' THE LIFE AND TIMES OF from the brick walls. The bridsre is the most central o part of the village, and the two streets leading from it the most populous on this side. Draper Carpenter. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bristol, ss. ) Pawtucket, MciT/ 2, 1544. \ Then the said Draper Carpenter, being duly cau- tioned and sworn, made and subscribed the foregoing, reduced to writing in his presence, by and before me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace through the Commonwealth. It appears from the testimony of the widow of Alex- ander Kelby that her murdered 'husband was a dresser tender, was about forty years of age, and worked in a manufactory on the Massachusetts side, and that by his death she was left a widow with eight small children, and without sufficient means for their support. It should be recollected that all the wicked and revolting deeds which have been mentioned, and hundreds more of the same kind, were committed under the banner of " law and order," and under the direction and in open view of a elass of men professedly scrupulous about nice points of law — a class of men who claimed nearly all the piety, talent, and morality in the state, in which were found most of the public officers and a large num- ber of the clergy ; and yet this same party, with shame- less impunity, trampled upon all laws, human and di- vine. By turning to the constitution of the United States it will be seen that Article I. of the Amend- ments was violated and broken by *' abridging the free- THOMAS WILSON DORK. 149 dom of speech and the press ; " Article II. by " infring- ing the right of the people to keep and bear arms ; " Article III. by '' quartering soldiers in houses without the consent of the owners ; '* and Article lY., which de- clares that " the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and ejBfects, against unreason- able searches and seizures, shall not be violated," was wholly disregarded. If the president of the United States had been as desirous to guard its constitution from violation as he was to protect a repudiated charter aristocracy, instead of aiding and abetting in these nefarious violations, he would have hindered and sup- pressed them. If the height to which he had been, by accident, so suddenly raised had not made him giddy, and if he had not forgotten his own official oath, he would not at the same time have violated the rights of the people of a sovereign state and the constitution of the nation. It is impossible to describe the scenes of more than savage barbarity which were of almost daily occurrence during this reign of terror. When the whole commu- nity is given up to the tender mercies of a lawless sol- diery, no bounds can be set to their criminalities. When the father of a family finds that his house is no longer his castle, that his own sacred fireside is no protection against the violent encroachments of armed men — when he sees his home desecrated and plun- dered, his property destroyed, and his books and papers scattered in the street — when his wife and daughters are dragged from their beds or closets, with scarcely a garment upon them, submitted to the taunts and jeers 13 150 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF of vile men, driven about their own house with the muzzle of the musket or pistol, and the merciless bay- onet is made to penetrate the bosom of the innocent female — when the husband and father is plunged into the dungeon or driven into exile, and his home and his family left without support or protection — when the young mother, as she clasps the tender infant to her bosom, trembles lest some brutish soldier should violate her sacred retirement — - when the chamber of the sick or dying is no security against sacrilegious intrusion, and when magistrates and clergymen justify and ap- prove of all these things, — a tragedy is enacted which no language can describe or pencil paint. It crushes the resolutions of the brave and the hopes of the true. We stand aghast at the spectacle ; it is the triumph of malice, aud carnival of devils. THOMAS WILSON DORK, 151 CHAPTER X. PROCLAMATION. DISMISSES HIS MEN, AND LEAVES THE STATE. PROCEEDINGS OF CHARTER TROOPS. ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENT OF SUFFRAGE MEN. Leaving, for the present, this part of the history, we return to Mr. Dorr. His proclamation for convening the people's legislature at Chepatchet on the ensuing 4th of July was issued on the 25th of June. He had been absent from the state since the 18th instant, and had given no orders or advice concerning the fortifica- tions at Acote's Hill ; and before he decided that it was his duty to give the people another opportunity to rally in support of their constitution, he was assured, by a deputation sent him, that a large number of people had already collected at that place, who were deter- mined, notwithstanding all their reverses, and all that threatened them at home and abroad, to persist in sup- port of their own constitutional government. With these renewed assurances of fidelity, Mr. Dorr came to the conclusion that it was his duty to aid them in a further effort to accomplish that object,. and therefore issued the afore-mentioned proclamation. It was evi- dent that the people's legislature could not now be con- 15^ mil LiFE ANl) TfMfiS OF' vened in Providence. Cliepatchet was a quiet countvf Tillage,, situated sixteen or seventeen miles from Prov- idence, where it was thought that Mr. Dorr's legislature might convene, and,, unmolested, proceed to pass such orders and acts as might he deemed expedient. 'No possible harm could arise from such a meeting ; but it soon became apparent that no such session could be held even there, unless the place was defended by a strong military force. It was known that, on the 2Sd of June^, whilst Mr. Dorr was absent from the state, and nothing was doing any where by the frienda of the constitution, except the small collection at Cliepatchet, Governor King issued his orders as commander-in-chief to all the military of the state to put themselves in readiness for immediate service, and on the S4th of June a steamboat was ordered from Providence to bring up all the mil- itary forces from Newport, Warren, and Bristol. The boat returned the same evening, bringing several com- panies of artillery and seven or eight pieces of field ordnance. This boat was again ordered back the next day, and returned v/ith several companies of infantry, numbering, in all, three or four hundred men. In the mean time orders were given to all the military forces of the state to repair forthwith to Providence. The state troops were soon brought in from all the neighbor- ing towns, and on the next day, which was Sunday, the entire Washington brigade, five or six hundred strong^^ came in over the Stonington Railroad. A company of Carbineers from New York city was brought in, each man being armed with one of Colt's six-ban-elled rifles. A company of Sea Pencibles, hav- THOMAS W1I.S0N DOtUL 153 ing ill charge a long Paixhan gun, (a thirty- two pounder,) arrived from Newport, By Sunday evening, June 26, the forces collected at Providence amounted to from three to four thousand men, with fifteen or twenty pieces of artillery. The city of Providence was filled with soldiers and their appliances, and nothing was heard or seen on either side but the dread array and din of war. Now, what had caused all this terrific dis- play of hostile preparations ? Was there any formi- dable foe in sight, any abroad or at home, to warrant these warlike preparations ? Might it not have arisen from a constitutional cowardice in some, or a fear that arises from conscious guilt in others, urged on by pow- ers behind the throne, compared with which the chief magistrate was himself a mere cipher ? or had the charter authorities actually become alarmed by the false- hoods and bugbears which they had themselves conjured tip and put into circulation ? "Where was the foe with which this formidable charter army was to contend ? Mr. Dorr was at Chepatchet, where he had attempted to convene his legislature. Some of his abiding friends had gathered around him, and a few were provided with arms. The neighboring citizens visited the place out of curiosity, and went and returned as they chose ; but it has been shown, by good testimony, that only about two or three hundred men were under arms at that place at any one time. Mr. Dorr very soon became satisfied that the people's cause had become prostrated and their rights crushed by the iron heel of despotism. He saw that further efforts •would be useless and improper, although the little band 13* 154 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF of brave men under arms manifested a desire to dispute the ground to the last, and, if necessary, to pour out their blood as a libation to freedom ; yet Mr. Dorr be- lieved that no such sacrifice was required of them or him, and therefore, on Monday, the 27th of June, he issued the following order : — Glocester, June 27, 1842. Believing that a majority of the people who voted for the constitution are opposed to its further support by military means, I have directed that the military here assembled be dismissed. I trust that no impediments will be thrown in the way of the return of our men to their homes. Yours, T. W. Dorr. This order was issued about four o'clock in the after- noon, and forthwith communicated to the men under arms by Gen. DeWolf and Col. Comstock, who com- manded the station. Immediately on receiving the order, the military dispersed. Let not this little band of brave men be disparaged because they were few in numbers. Theirs was not the empty daring that goes with the multitude and boasts loudest when no enemy is near. Their courage arose from an abiding sense of right. The spirit of 1776 glowed in their bosoms and nerved their arms ; they were true men, whom no bribes could purchase, nor threats terrify. Mr. Dorr re- mained at his quarters until about seven o'clock that afternoon, when he left the place. But no language can describe his heart-rending emotions when he found himself obliged to abandon a cause in which he had labored so long and sacrificed so much — a cause so THOMAS WILSON DORR. 155 big with momentous consequences to himself, to his state, to the American people, and to the world. On that eventful night a lurid halo seemed to suiTound the sun as he sunk beneath the horizon. A star in the American constellation, once bright and shining, now became darkened as with an eclipse : patriots wept, and strong men looked dismayed. We will now return to the royal charter army at Providence, and take a brief notice of their movements. As soon as Mr. Dorr had given orders for the dismission of the men under arms at Chepatchet, he sent a copy of that order to Prov- idence for immediate publication in the New Age ; but that communication was intercepted, the seal broken, and the paper passed over to the governor and Council. They kept it in their possession until the next day, when they gave it up to those to whom it belonged. But the New Age, in which Mr. Dorr designed the order to be published the day before, had been sup- pressed, and the proprietors durst not now publish any thing without a permit from the governor or his Council. At length a written permit was obtained, and the order was published in an extra from that office. But the governor and his councillors had taken advantage of the information which they obtained by the seizure of the letter the day before, which contained the order, and had hastily and slyly despatched several military squad- rons, which were directed to take separate routes and proceed to Chepatchet with all possible haste, in order to capture as many men as possible before they could get home to their families. These "law and order" troops had now become very courageous — men who. 156 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF the day before, were frightened at then* own shadows, now became bold as lions, and on they rushed towards Chepatchet ; but when they arrived there, they found nothing but an empty breastwork. Not a man re- mained to oppose them : therefore this heroic army marched boldly up, and took possession, and imme- diately despatched the following bulletin to the com- mander-in-chief at Providence. Orders, No. 54. Head Quarters, &c., ? June 28, 18i2. ^ The village of Chepatchet and fort of the insurgents were stormed at a quarter before eight o'clock this morning, and taken , with about one hundred /prisoners, by Colonel William "W. Brown. None killed — none wounded I The one hundred men, more or less, mentioned in that bulletin, were none of them found at the fortifica- tion, or any where else, under arms, but were such men as their scouts and marauding parties had picked up and taken prisoners on the route. The village of Chepatchet was situated on a public mail route between Providence and Norwich in Connecticut ; and Jedediah Sprague, a very respectable man, kept a large stage hotel in the village. Knowing that Mr. Dorr had been entertained there, these rapacious " law and order " troops proceeded to take possession of and plunder the premises. The following is the deposition of Mr. Sprague : -— Deposition of Jedediah Sprague. I, Jedediah Sprague, of Glocester, in the county of Providence, State of Rhode Island and Providence THOMAS WILSON DOUR. 157 Plantations, aged forty years, do depose and say : That I now am, and have, for the space of about four and a half years past, been the innholder of the Chcpatchet hotel in said town of Glocester ; that I was the keeper of said hotel in June, A. D. 1842, at the time of the encampment of the suffrage party, or. a portion thereof, on Acote's Hill, near said village of Chepatchet. On Thursday, June 23, 1842, late in the afternoon, the suffrage people aforementioned commenced encamping on said hill ; early Saturday morning following, (to wit, the 25th of June,) Governor Dorr arrived and took rooms in my house. Two or three days previous to said 25th of June, persons known to be in the interest of the charter party, (so called,) and hostile to the suffrage party, were reconnoitring this section of the state, both in the day and night time. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, the 21st and 22d of June, 1842, expresses arrived from Providence, bringing the intelligence that armed companies were forming in Providence for the purpose of making an attack on the village of Che- patchet ; in consequence of this information, a portion of the citizens of said village, together with a few per- sons from other towns, formed a patrol to watch and protect the place. On Wednesday night aforesaid, (which was the first night of the streets being generally guarded,) information was received that large numbers of persons had passed the turnpike gate, about four miles east of this village, on the direct road to Prov- idence, who were approaching the village at about twelve o'clock at night, which is an unusual time for travellers to be on the roads in this part of the country. About one o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 23d of June aforesaid, Messrs. Shelley, Keep, Harris, and Peckham were apprehended, all armed with pistols ; about which time, several carriages, apparently approaching from to- wards Providence, hastily turned oft' from the main or turnpike road, some eighty or one hundred rods below. 14 158 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF The persons taken by the patrol aforesaid were supposed to be an advanced guard of the company, which, from the intelHgence received, it was expected would attack the village ; and it was supposed that the discharge of cannon, which took place in the village immediately after the arrest of said persons, deterred others from entering the village. It being believed that the village of Chepatchet would not be strong enough to hold out against any considerable number of armed men or strong force, the persons apprehended were marched, with said company of patrol, to Woonsocket, where said Shelley, Keep, Harris, and Peckham were dis- charged. On Thursday, the 2od aforesaid, said patrol returned, accompanied by a part of two military com- panies from Woonsocket, and commenced the encamp- ment on Acote's Hill, as before stated. Said Acote's Hill was in possession of the suffrage party, as aforesaid, until the afternoon of Monday, June 27th. During the occupancy of said hill and the village, the suffrage peo- ple were quiet, orderly, and peaceable, and the personal rights of the citizens were respected. On Saturday morning, the 25th of June, the bar of my house, where liquors were sold, was by me, at the request of Governor Dorr, closed, and remained so until Tuesday morning, the 28th. On the afternoon of Monday, the 27th, the military on Acote's Hill disbanded, and nearly all of them quietly retired from the village. An ex- press started from my house on Monday afternoon, bear- ing a communication from Governor Dorr to Walter S. Barges, Esq., of Providence, acquainting said Purges with the fact that the forces on Acote's Hill were to be disbanded, and requesting said communication to be published in the Express, the organ of the suffrage party, published in Providence. About seven o'clock, (according to the best of my rec- ollection,) on the morning of Tuesday, June 28, the advance guard of Colonel Brown's regiment arrived at my THOMAS WILSON DORR. 159 house in carnages, under the command, as I understood at the time, of Lieutenant John T. Pitman, (clerk of the United States Court for the district of Rhode Island,) who was well known to me at that time, and for several years previous. There were in my house, at the time said advance guard arrived, only eight male persons, besides my own family and domestics, three of whom were gentlemen from Boston, who had arrived that morning ; one gentleman from Long Island, and three persons with him, who had stopped with me over night as travellers, and who had not, to my knowledge, had any thing to do with the matters at that time agitating the state ; and a Mr. Lyman Cooley, who had left the village the night before, and had returned that morning to my house, through fear, as he stated, that he could not make his escape. Said Cooley was from New York city ; was taken prisoner in my house that morning ; imprisoned in the county jail and state's prison in Prov- idence in a state of insanity, and soon after died an in- mate of the asylum for the poor in said Providence. Mr. Cooley was formerly a Providence man. I con- sidered him to be in a state of insanity from his appear- ance and conversation on the morning of the 28th, before he was taken prisoner. None of- the persons in my house, at the time of the arrival of the advance guard as aforesaid, were, to my knowledge, in any way armed ; there was no such instrument as a musket, gun, pistol, sword, or the like, to be seen in said house. As said advance guard drove up in front of my house in carriages, the citizens of the village soon collected in the front piazza, and about the doors, to the number of ten or a dozen, which number gradually increased for a few minutes ; none of whom were, to my knowledge, armed. I was standing on the piazza in front of the entry door leading to the bar room ; the persons com- prising said advance guard, having alighted from their carriages, came along scatteringly, and advancing to- 160 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF wards me. I observed one shaking hands with Mr. Alexander Eddy, a citizen of this pkce ; heard them in conversation while approaching the spot where I was standing. As they came on to the piazza, I, turning partly around, invited them to walk in ; they not heed- ing my invitation, I repeated it. At this juncture they all stood apparently hesitating what course to take. I stepped over the threshold of the door, and again in- vited them to walk in. At the last invitation, one of • the advance guard placed his musket across the door afore alluded to, in the act of guarding it. Mr. Alex- ander Eddy at that moment attempted to pass in at the door, and the guard dropped the muzzle of his gun to prevent him from passing in ; the guard then turned his left eye over his left shoulder to the street, and whilst he was looking to the street, Eddy raised the muzzle of said guard's musket, and passed into the entry. When said person who was guarding the door as aforesaid turned his face fronting the house, and saw Eddy in the entry, he brought his musket to bear upon him, (said Eddy,) and, calling him a God damned rascal, told him to come out, or he would shoot him down. At this time there was a general cry amongst the persons of the advance guard — " God damn 'em, shoot 'em down," and simultaneously a rush for the doorway. I was standing near the person who first brought his piece to bear upon Eddy, and raised the muzzle above the head of any one in the entry, by putting my hand under his gun. There was a general rush at this time of the armed soldiers and unarmed citizens and spectators for the doorway, and the entry was immediately filled with both classes — the armed soldiers attempting to shoot the unarmed, and continually keeping up the cry of *' God damn 'em, shoot ^em down^ I was in the midst of the scene, and was continually raising and brushing oflf the muskets, pistols, carbines, &c., with which they THOMAS WILSON DOUR. 161 were armed ; commanding them not to slioot ; tellino- them they were not resisted by any armed force ; stat- ing to them that they produced the whole confusion and disorder, and that if they would be quiet, order would ^ be restored ; that I could and would maintain order in my house, I should think that, during this confusion, I brushed from my own person, and other unarmed persons, muskets, guns, pistols, and the like, as much as a dozen times. During the squabble afore- mentioned, I was pushed some seven or eight feet from the doorway into the entry, into about the midst of the crowd. In the mean time the door was pushed to, and locked by an unarmed man, and held by unarmed per- sons ; the armed persons on the outside attempted to break said door down. Knowing that the unarmed persons in the entry could at that time protect them- selves against those that were , armed, I passed through the bar room from said entry, and went on to the piazza outside of the house, through one of the bar room windows, thinking I might be serviceable in pre- venting mischief on the outside. As I passed the first bar room window from the entry, in my attempt to ^et outside, some one of the soldiers thrust a pistol through a pane of glass in said window, directed or aimed at me. I passed to the next window, raised it, and went out. Being outside, and on the piazza aforesaid, the first thing that attracted my attention was said John T. Pitman with the muzzle of his musket or carbine at the key-hole of said entry door, and attempting to get it off. I was within about fifteen feet of said Pitman when I alighted from the window, and immediately approached him, and ordered him not to fire ; my lan- guage was, "For God's sake, don't you fire in there.'' This expression I think I made directly as I alighted from the window as aforesaid. I intended, if I c^ould, to prevent said Pitman from firing in, and approached him for that purpose; but his piece was discharo-ed 14* "'> 162 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF wlien I was within about three feet of him. I recollect said Pitman's language at the time of firing was, ** J don^t care a God damn; I mean to kill somebody.'^ After said Pitman had discharged his piece as aforesaid, he rushed a few steps to the north, on the piazza, and then back towards- the door, rapidly, appearing per- fectly frantic, infuriated, and fiendish. About this time the main body of Colonel Brown^s regiment were in sight, mid such as had arriyed proceeded to surround the house. I entered the front door, which is about twenty feet north of the one aforementioned, passed through one of the front rooms into the aforementioned entry^ and unlocked the door through which said Pitman had discharged his piece. The ball which was fired through the key-hole as aforesaid, passed through the thigh of Mr. George H. N. Bardine, making a deep and severe flesh wound. Said Bardine was at the time in said entry, and near the door. Up to this time I heard no other discharge of fire-arms near or about my house, and am very positive there had been none ; had there been any, I must have heard and known it. In a very few minutes my house was completely filled with armed men, and was entirely in their possession — every door guarded by soldiers. Soon after, or about the time the matters just spoken of were transpiring, I retired into the back part of the house, and discovered a soldier standing at one of the back doors with his musket cocked and bayonet fixed, and aimed into the housOy and ordering the males and females to march into the back yard, one at a time. This, however, was aban- doned by my assuring them that the ladies were un- armed, and would most certainly do no harm to any of them. The soldiers who took possession of my house were abusive and rou2rh in their lan^rias^e and behavior* from the time they entered as aforesaid, during my con- tinuance on the premises, which was up to four o'clock,, P. M., of Wednesday the 29tlL This I do not mean THOMAS WILSON DORR. 163 to apply to all of them ; but it was the fact with very many. They took possession of every room in the house, and of all my effects, and ransacked from garret to cellar. There were neither arms nor munitions of war in the house, to my knowledge, at the time, except a small bird gun or fowling-piece, which was taken and cai-rled off. Soon after the main body of Colonel Brown's regiment arrived, about half a dozen pieces of cannon were planted on the south and west sides of my hous-e, and aimed towards it. They (that is, the sol- diers) swore the}^ would "blow us all to hell." They were prevailed upon not to fire into the house, by the interposition of two of the citizens of the village, who informed them that they were for " law and order, '^^ but disapproved of their firing into the house. The guns were afterwards wheeled about, and fired a number of times, to the great destruction of windows in my house and of other houses in the immediate vicinity. There are sidelights to the door, (through the key-hole of which said Pitman discharged his piece,) with glass nine by twelve, through which he might easily see every thing which was going on in the entry aforesaid, there being four lights on each side of said door, of the aforementioned size ; and the aforementioned front door, about twenty feet further north on said piazza, was open during the aforementioned squabble in the entry. Noth- ing prevented any one^ if he chose, from passing through said last-mentioned door. About sunrise on the morning of Tuesday, the 28th, I directed my domestics to set the table the whole length of the dining room, (one range of tables in said room will accommodate about sixty persons at a time,) and to put upon it all the victuals it would hold, and to be prepared to supply it as soon as need might require it ; all of which was accordingly done. Immediately after the arrival of the troops, as aforesaid, the table aforesaid was filled, and continued to be filled from the 164 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF time of their arrival in the morning, until between four and five o'clock in the afternoon : as fast as one got up another would supply the vacant place. In addition to those seated at the table eating, others were standing and eating victuals, which they took and had reached, to them from the table. There were also persons in the kitchen when the cook- ing was going on, who were taking victuals as the same were cooked^ and others helping themselves from the closets and cellar. The table was also set for them again that evening, and a great many were victualled as aforesaid on the two succeeding days. In taking possession of my barns, stables, and gran- ary, they took possession of about twenty tons of hay, between eight hundred and one thousand bushels of oats, and from fifty to seventy -five bushels of corn, and between one and two tons of rye straw, — aU of which was used and destroyed, with the exception of some- thing less than one ton of hay. They also took pos- session of six horses at that time in the stable, five or six carriages, and as many harnesses, buffalo robes, and whips ; five of the horses were used, and I believe the other one, by the charter party, (so called ;) two of said harnesses have never been returned ; four of the bufl[ldo robes, and some half dozen or more of whips which were taken, have not, as yet, been recovered. During the Tuesday and Wednesday aforementioned, up to the time of my departure from the village, my house, barns, &c., were constantly guarded, and I was denied access to my barns and stables, and to many of the rooms in my house. The troops of the charter party (so called) also had full possession of my liquor bar and cellar, and helped themselves to cigars, wines, and ardent spirits, accord- ing to their pleasure ; several hundred dollars worth of property was consumed or destroyed in liquors and THOMAS WILSON DORR. 165 cigars. I was generally a spectator to the scenes before described, after they had taken possession of my house ; but was occasionally ordered about, at the muzzle of a presented musket or pistol, to perform some service about the house or bar. One man, in two instances, or- dered me, in an authoritative tone, with a pistol presented at me, *^ to feed his horses ; " previous to this, all of the white males in my employ had been taken prisoners, and put under guard. On Wednesday morning, the 29th, my wife and the females in the kitchen were put under guard, and set to work cooking ; said guard was armed. Immediately after this, I was taken prisoner, but was released on parole, with my promise to be in Providence at six o'clock, P. M., of that day. I was arrested by Colonel W. W. Brown aforementioned, soon after which he left the village with between one and two hundred prison- ers who had been taken at Chepatchet and the country round about. I saw said prisoners tied together in front of my house, with ropes, previous to their departure for Providence. An houi* or two after my arrest, and after the departure of Colonel Brown with the prisoners, Ex- Governor William C. Gibbs sent for me to come to his room, which was in my house, when he gave me an examination as to my participation in the Rhode Island affairs ; and the following is a true copy of an instru- ment thereupon given to me, which was in my presence written by the Rev. Francis Vinton, of Newport, and in my presence signed by said Gibbs ; which instru- ment is now in my possession, and at this time before me, and is exactly in the following letters, words, and figures : — Jedediah Sprague (after due examination) is hereby released from arrest. Wm. C. Gibbs, General of Staff. Jujie 29, 1842. 166 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Having pledged myself to Colonel Brown to be in Providence at six o'clock in the afternoon, I, notwith- standing the release from Governor Gibbs, went into Providence to report myself according to promise, hav- ing with me said discharge from Governor Gibbs. I understood, after I arrived at Providence, that there was talk of having me again arrested. On inquiry by me. Who is going to have me arrested ? the reply was, Henry L. Bowen. I exhibited my discharge or release to Governor Samuel "Ward King, stating to him that I was threatened with another arrest. His reply was, in regard to the release which I had exhibited to him, "/ donH knoio but what it is suifficient — donH know about it — don't know,"" I then went to the office of Henry L. Bowen, Esq., a justice of the peace in and for the city of Providence. I went voluntarily, not having been arrested or apprehended, saving by Colonel Brown, as aforestated. I understood that said Bowen was acting as a commissioner under martial law. He asked me a number of questions, which I answered ; no witnesses were examined. Mr. Bowen finally ordered a consta- ble in attendance to take me to prison ; which was accordingly done. Said Bowen stated to me, at the time, upon my inquiring what the charge was against me, that " it was treason," and that " the evidence was, that I had entertained at my house Thomas W. Dorr, and the persons associated with him." I remained in prison twenty-two days, and suffered much from indis- position ; I was in feeble health when committed — was just recovering from a long period of illness. After I had been in prison about two weeks, I was taken before a court of commissioners, as it was styled, and exam- ined by interrogatories directed to me only. I was not confronted by witnesses, nor were any examined on the occasion, to my knowledge. After the examination as aforesaid, I was remanded to prison. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 167 The following is a true copy of certain papers now before me, which I procured this spring from the keeper of the county jail and warden of the state's prison, and are exactly in the following words, letters, figures, and characters, to wit: — To the Keeper of the Providence County Jail : You are hereby required to receive, and safely keep, until further orders, Jedediah Sprague, in the debtor's apartment. By order of the Commander-in-Chief Henry L. Bowen. June 29, 1842. Providence, ss. Committed the bodies of the within-named Jedediah Sprague to the Providence county jail, as within com- manded. Fees, 74 cts. Peleg Johnson, Constable, June 29, 1842. Providence, ss. Committed the bodies of Jedediah Sprague and Jo- seph Hogans to the Providence county jail, by order of the governor and council, and have made my return on the mittimus, and left it with the jailer, together with the prisoner. Fees — 2 commitments, . . $1 48 Carriage, .... 1 00 2 48 Peleg Johnson, Constable, Protidence, Jult/ 21, 1842. Jedediah Sprague, named opposite, was discharged on an order from the governor and council. Thomas Cleveland, Jailer, 168 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Head Quarters, Council Chamber, ) Providence, Jul>/ 21, 1842. $ Sir: You are ordered to discharge Jedediah Sprague, prisoner of war, and allow him to go at liberty. By order of his Excellency, Samuel W. King. L. H. Arnold, one of his Council. To Thos. Cleveland, Esq., Keeper of the State Jail, Providence, The above is a true copy of the original order on file. Thos. Cleveland, Jailer. Providence, April 6, 1844. April 6, 1844. The above are correct copies of the original order of commitment, officer's return thereon, commitment and discharge of Jedediah Sprague. Thomas Cleveland, Jailer. This deposition was sworn to before Jesse S. Tourtel- lot, justice of the peace. In 1844, Mr. Sprague applied to the legislature for a remuneration for the property which the state troops had so taken, used, and destroyed. This application was rejected in the House of Representatives by a vote of 35 to 17, and in reply to his demand Mr. Sprague was told that " he had been taken and imprisoned as an insurgent, and had been let out of jail on sufferance, and ought to be thankful for being let off so easily." The brave Colonel Brown, with the band of lawless robbers under his command, returned to Providence on the 29th of June, bringing with him one hundred and thirty prisoners, every man with his hands pinioned be- hind him, and all tied together with coarse ropes. In that condition they were marched, and driven, and urged THOMAS WILSON DORR. 169 on by the bayonet from Chepatchet to Providence, a dis- tance of sixteen miles, without any refreshment. Here, flitigued and faint, — their spirits broken, their arms chafed and bleeding from the ropes, and their feet bruised and sore,— they were halted in front of the "Hoyle Tavern," so called, and were there publicly submitted to all the insults and reproaches that a pro- fane and lawless multitude could heap upon them. After this barbarous infernalia, the prisoners were again moved along in front of Colonel Brown's own house for further insult : here they were mocked, hissed at, and spit upon, and Algerine ladies waved their hand- kerchiefs and threw a profusion of flowers from their windows upon the brave conquerors. In this manner one hundred and thirty innocent citizens of Rhode Island were led through the principal streets in the city of Roger Williams, amid the loud taunts and jeers of ^ a ruthless mob. But all this was not enough. The prisoners were next given to understand that they were to be taken back of College Hill, and there to be shot. No tongue can tell the feehngs of indignation and hor- ror which thrilled the bosoms of these innocent victims of political malice, nor shall we attempt to describe the deep anguish which often broke out in loud screeches from the children and friends of some of the prisoners. But they were not shot; their captors called themselves merciful men, and therefore marched the prisoners to the jail, and crowded them into the cells. In some cells only seven feet by nine, with a single aperture, seven inches by four, for the admission of air, fourteen pris- oners were confined. "When it is recollected that this 15 170 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF was the 29tli of June, and the hottest part of the sea- son, we wonder that any ever escaped aUve from those dungeons. If a single negro, who had escaped from his master in South Carolina, had been treated with half that indignity and cruelty in the city of Provi- dence, the whole population would have rushed to his rescue. By this time, the cells of the state prison and the filthy, dark receptacles and other apartments of nearly all the jails in the state were densely crowded with men who had been captured and made prisoners by bands of land pirates. The most heinous crime which any of the prisoners had committed was to vote for the peo- ple's constitution and for officers under it, and many of their captors and the principal leaders of these banditti were men who had also voted for that same constitution, and solemnly engaged to support it, but who had since forfeited their own engagements, and become traitors to a righteous cause. The victims were true men, their captors were false. On the 28th of June, whilst Colonel Brown was earn- ing such laurels at Chepatchet, Governor King gave orders to Colonel Hodges to proceed immediately to Pawtucket, and blow up the bridge at that place. This bridge is situated near the centre of a village, which prob- ably contained at that time about ten thousand inhab- itants. The Pawtucket River, which this bridge crosses, separates the State of Massachusetts from Rhode Island, and of course is one half in each state. This bridge is constantly occupied by passers, and is the only direct connecting medium between the separate parts of this THOMAS WILSON DORR. 171 large village. It was opposite tliis bridge, on the Mas- sachusetts side, that Alexander Kelby had been shot by the ** law and order " forces the day before. The fol- lowing is the deposition of Harvey Chafee, who was a lieutenant in the company which was sent on that expe- dition. Deposition of Harvey Chafee. I, Harvey Chafee, of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, forty years of age, depose and say : That, on the 28th day of June, 1842, I was first lieutenant of the united company. Train Artillery of Providence. I had formerly held the commission of lieutenant colonel in the same company, and resigned in 1833, and con- tinued an honorary member. On the 27th of June I was elected lieutenant, and, understanding the company was only to be used as an unarmed patrol, I accepted the commission, and was qualified. The company then had no arms ; Colonel Bradford Hodges was the com- mander. Tuesday morning, the 28th, after it was known that a man had been shot at Pawtucket, we paraded at the armory. As one of the officers, I was there shown an order from Governor King to Colonel Bradford Hodges, to this effect : " You are commanded to proceed forthwith to Pawtucket, and blow up Paw- tucket bridge." The order was signed by Samuel W. King, commander-in-chief. I have a distinct recollec- tion that such was the substance of the order, and am certain that it was an order to blow up the bridge. There were two cannon mounted, with ammunition; but we had no muskets. We were expecting every moment muskets from Massachusetts. Shortly after, the muskets did arrive at the railroad depot, from Bos- ton, and were brought to the armory in boxes. The muskets were there taken out of the boxes, and were the United States Massachusetts muskets. They were 112 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF in very bad condition ; the bayonets would not fit, and could not be made to fit. They were afterwards tried, and many of them could not be got off, and the charges had to be drawn. After the muskets were distributed, we proceeded to Pawtucket with the two cannon, and, when half the distance, halted and charged the cannon with canister and grape, and the small arms with ball ; then proceeded to Pawtucket bridge, and drew up the cannon so as to command the bridge and the Massachu- setts side. We saw no armed persons, nor any dis- turbance, nor indication of an invasion of Rhode Island from Massachusetts. There was excitement growing out of what had happened the night previous, but no direct interference with us. Colonel Hodges communicated to one of the officers of one of the companies which were at Pawtucket when we arrived, that his orders were to blow up the bridge, and he took the command of the forces. During some parts of the time we were stationed there, there were as many as four hundred troops, I should judge. It was understood that Captain Olney, who commanded one of the companies, (the car- bineers,) was a New York man, and not a citizen of Rhode Island. The artillery company occupied this post till Thursday noon, when we took up our line of jmarch for Providence. While we were in Pawtucket, I could not see the least occasion for the company being stationed there. Harvey Chafee. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bristol, ss. ) Pawtucket, May 10, 1844. 3 Personally appeared the above-named Harvey Chafee, and, being duly cautioned and sworn, made and sub- scribed the foregoing, reduced to writing by me in his presence. Before me, B. F. Haixett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace throuich the Commonwealth, o We have seen that on the 27th of June, Mr. Dorr THOMAS WILSON DORR. US caused all the men who had taken up arms in support of the people's constitution to be dismissed, and the charter authorities declared, that by that act, the " war was ended ; " but their own wicked outrages did no't end here. The charter troops, anxious to gain new laurels, went forward with less fear, when they found that all opposition was withdrawn. Revenge was the watch- word, and although their victims were often found among their own quiet neighbors, they still " cried havoc and let slip the dogs of war " upon them. On the night of the 30th of June, 1842, after every indica- tion of opposition to the charter government had been put to silence. Colonel Blodget, who commanded a small detachment of " law and order " troops, marched his forces into the town of Bellingham, in the State of Mas- sachusetts, and a little past midnight, forcibly broke open and entered a public house, and proceeded to search it, and when the keeper demanded of the com- manding officer his authority. Colonel Blodget replied, By the authority of the bayonet ! At this place the party succeeded in arresting several inoffensive men, whom they marched to Rhode Island to be imprisoned, be- cause they had been known to be in favor of the peo- ple's constitution. At the same time similar operations were going on in different parts of the state, as the fol- lowing deposition will show. Deposition of Stafford Healy. I, Stafford Healy, of Rehoboth, in the county of Bris- tol, in the CommouAvealth of IMassachusetts, yeoman, of lawful age, testify and say : That on the twenty-ninth 15* 174 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, when at work for Martin Luther, in the town of Warren, in the State of Ehode Island, and being myself at that time a citizen of said Warren, I was forcibly taken by a number of armed men early in the morning, some time before sunrise, who broke into the house and took me therefrom, and carried me to a hotel, when, after making some inquiries of me, I was again removed to the jail of Bristol county, and there confined for the space of seven or eight days, when I was examined by Joseph M. Blake, and discharged in the course of three days- — nothing being, as he said, found against me ; and all by no authority, to my knowledge, except that of force. Stafford Healy. Many of the principal leaders in these outrages were men, who, all their lives, had either sought or held office, and who were guided on all occasions by motives of self-aggrandizement, and though professedly friendly to the dear people, always sought to crush them, as the following deposition will show. Deposition of Albion N. Olney. I, Albion N. Olney, of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, attorney at law, depose and say : That on Sunday, the 26th day of June, 1842, I was on the premises of Otis Holmes, in said Providence, but not in his house, when he was forcibly dragged from it by a number of armed men, who had broken into his house. I also saw him carried through the streets, with a per- son holding him on each side by the collar, and armed men in front and rear. He was marched to the office of Henry L. Bowen. There were from twenty to thirty armed men, and many who were not armed. I saw among the leaders Sylvester Hartshorn, the United THOMAS WILSO.X DORR. 175 States marshal for the district. He was not armed, having only a cane, but appeared to take an active part in the proceedings. I saw Mr. Holmes's brewery broken open, and also his store and counting room, and another store adjoining. Mr. Holmes, in the house and at the brewery, begged them not to break in, and he would fui-nish the keys ; but no attention was paid to his request. While the soldiers were marching ^Ir. Holmes through Westminster Street, I he'ard Joseph F. Arnold, who was an inspector in the custom house, say to his son, (who, armed with a musket and fixed bayo- net, marched dhectly in the rear of Mr. Holmes,) *^ Prick him, Frank ; prick the d— d scoundrel." Mr. Arnold was standing in front of his house as the men passed, and said this in an audible voice. I heard and remember the words distinctly. On several days after, I saw Sylvester Hartshorn, the United States marshal, equipped with a musket and accoutrements, drilling and doing duty with a volunteer company of citizens. On the 18th of May I saw Hon. John Pit- man, judge of the United States District Court, in the ranks of the charter troops, armed with a musket. During the period of martial law, I saw Edward J. Mallett, the Providence postmaster, doing duty as guard in College Street. At the same time that I saw Judge Pitman in the ranks, I also saw Richard W. Greene, United States district attorney, marching as one of the soldiers to go on Fedeml Hill, and WilHam E. Watson, collector. Albion N. Okney. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Bri^ol, ^s. ) Pawtucket, May 9, 1844, ^ Personally appeared the above-named Albion N. Olney, and made oath to and subscribed the foregoing, reduced to writing in his presence by me. Before me, B. F. Hallett, Commissioner, and Justice of the Peace thrnufrh the CoriUKonucalth. 176 THE liiTS ASB TlME-g^ €&" CHAPTEE XI MARTIAL LAW. Hitherto, in describing and commenting wpcn the outrages committed upon the persons and property of the people of Rhode Island under the pretext of martial law, we have viewed them as acts of flagrant injustice^ unnecessary, and before unknown in this country, with- out instituting any inquiry into the validity of the act under which they were committed. But the justifica- tion set up by the authors and perpetrators of those acts deserves a further and more definite consideration. Every wrong doer in that ruthless tragedy pleads mar- tial law in full justification of all his acts. It is be- lieved that, in this country, martial law is but vaguely understood by the great mass of the people. We have only leai'ned, from history, that this terrible engine was sometimes put in operation in the earlier history of some of the European nations ; that it was seldom or never resorted to except in actual warfare, and then pro- claimed by a military chieftain. But it is well ascer- tained that no civil government in the known world, except Hhode Island, has attempted to establish it over a whole empire or single state for the last two hundred years. Its consequences were found to be so abhorrent THOMAS WiLSOK UOiili. ^ 177 to every sentiment of humanity, that the whole civilized ■vvoiid united to abolish it. Now, it is evident that the Ehode Island General Assembly neither in 184^ nor at any other time before or since possessed any legal or constitutional power to place the state under martiai law. The act was not authorized by any precedent in this country or in any other recently. The charter, un- der which that body acted, gave them no such author- ity, but impliedly, at least, forbade it; and by the rat- ification of the constitution of the United States all such power had been delegated to the General Govern- ment. The state authorities might call upon the" po55c comitatus, or the military, if necessary, to enforce their own statute laws ; but this was the extent of their power. They could never authorize any functionary, civil or military, to overstep the provisions of the constitution of the United States. In short, the state had no right whatever to make or exercise any but civil laws. It may be presumed that the legislature, which passed that act in Ehode Island, did not fully realize the dangerous step they were taking ; but, relying upon their own omnipotence, they assumed the tremendous responsi- bility of surrendering the lives and interests of the whole people to the mercy of the bayonet. At the time martial law was declared in Rhode Island, the judicial tribunals of the state were open for the trial of all offences, and their proceedings in no way interfered with or molested. Under the double rule of both civil and martial law, the state presented the strange anomaly of two separate and distinct systems of government in full operation in the same state and over the same people at 178 %HE LIFE AND TIMES OF the same time. But, in operating these different politi- cal engines, the acts of each were not always kept dis- tinct from the other, but men were arrested and im- prisoned under martial law, and afterwards brought to trial before a civil tribunal. All such proceedings were evidently arbitrary and illegal ; they tended to break up all the foundations of social order, overturn all civil and political institutions, restore the reign of force, and make might the test of right. Martial law has never been justified except from dire necessity ; it is governed by no rules, and knows no limits ; it overrides and sus- pends all other laws during its continuance. Accord- ing to the principles held in countries where martial law has been resorted to, the right to employ it arises solely from imperious necessity, and ceases the instant the necessity that called it forth has passed by ; and all acts committed under any such pretext, after that necessity has ceased, have ever been held criminal. Therefore, if, on the 24th of June, 1842, such neces- sity had existed, and the legislature of Ehode Island had possessed the constitutional power to set up martial law, in a momentary crisis, it is obvious that on the 28th of that month the cause had entirely ceased, as the gov- ernment well knew ; and therefore every act of violence committed after that time, under that pretext, was just as much a crime as if no such law had ever existed. It is ap- parent that no such necessity ever existed at any moment during the Ehode Island controversy. The government should first have resisted the supposed rebellion by its civil officers ; and if they were found unable of them- selves to enforce the laws and bring delinquents to jus- THOMAS WILSON DORU. 179 tice, tliey should next have called on the civil posse ; and if, with, that assistance, the government still found itself unable to compel obedience to its institutions, the whole military power of the state might have been called in aid of the government. But, without taking any of these steps, immediate resort was had to martial law, and all the men and munitions of war that the government could command at home or procure from abroad were forthwith turned out to prey upon all such as were supposed to entertain political principles adverse to the charter government. But even martial law, with all its summary claims, does not, as was supposed in Ehode Island, instantly convert the whole military into a band of lawless freebooters ; but as soon as that law is suspended, every one who has overstepped its neces- sary limits is liable to be brought to trial before a civil tribunal ; and, if the view which has been taken of the subject be correct, then all the acts of violence and vil- lany committed in Rhode Island in 1842, under pretext of martial law, constitute a fearful catalogue of crimes, which never have been, and never can be, fully atoned for in this world. But we are asked. Why have not the perpetrators of these deeds been brought to trial be- fore courts of justice ? To this, we answer, they could not be proceeded against out of the state for offences committed within its jurisdiction, and the highest tribu- nals within the state allow all such defendants to justify themselves by pleading martial law. When we consider that nearly all the most outrageous and wicked acts of violence were committed after all opposition had ceased, and that hundreds of men were 180 TliE LIFE. AND TIMES OF taken by violent hands from their homes^ their fields^ or their workshops, surrounded with muskets and bayo- nets, bound with ropes, and, without any kind of pre- cept, driven to prison amid the loud taunts and insults of savage men and heartless women, crowded like sheep into dark, narrow, and filthy cells, nearly suffocated for want of air, without water sufficient to quench their thirst, fed like pigs upon two wretched and scanty meals a day, denied all intercourse with their friends, and kept in this painful condition, in some instances, for sev- eral weeks, and when at last they were brought forth from their dungeons for examination, w^ere told that nothing was found against them ; when we recollect also that the victors and their victims were, in many instances, neighbors and acquaintances ; when we see bands of armed men firing at random into a crowd of innocent spectators ; when we behold a defenceless in- dividual coolly shot down, whilst without the jurisdic- tion of the state, and the next day, when it is known that all opposition has. ceased, we see the chief magis- trate of the state, without any cause whatever, send an armed squadron to blow up a bridge in the very midst of a populous city, a portion of which was beyond his jurisdiction, — when we reflect upon these and hundreds of other transactions of a like nature, we sicken at the thought of that deep depravity which breaks out in such a malicious persecution of men for opinion's sake, which has no parallel in modern times. This terrible scourge held the whole people of Rhode Island in its paralyzing grasp from June till September, and was in full force and operation for more than half THOMAS WILSON DOUR. 181 of that time. A fearful espionage watched over the whole community. Men rose, and labored^ and slept, made their vows and said their prayers, #ursed their sick and buried their dead, amid its impending terrors, and whilst the bloody mantle of martial law, like a funeral pall thrown over the tomb of liberty, cast its dark fold over every corner of the State of Ehode Island. 16 182 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTER XII. COM^nSSIONERS APPOINTED TO EXAMINE THE PRISON- ERS. PROCEEDINGS. MEASURES TAKEN TO FORM ANOTHER CONSTITUTION. CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE AT THE TIME. CONSTITUTION DECLARED ADOPTED. At an adjourned session of the General Assembly, held at Newport in June, 1843, commissioners, as they were called, were appointed, whose duty was to hold courts of inquisition upon the prisoners, with whom the jails were crowded. It will be recollected that these prisoners had not been committed upon warrants, but by virtue of the bayonet, and they were not informed of the charges to which they would be required to an- swer. Each commissioner, like some grand inquisitor, possessed almost absolute power over every prisoner brought before him. The prisoners were not allowed counsel or witnesses, but each man was adjured, by the terrors of the bayonet and the dungeon, to confess his guilt and testify against himself. Some of the men, who now sat as judges in these dread tribunals, had, less than one year before, recorded their own names in favor of that constitution which they now declared ille- gal, and its support treason. A large number of pris- oners, after having been kept in close confinement from THOMAS WILSON DORR. 183 five or six days to as many weeks, were discharged, be- cause tlieir judges said nothing was found against them. Yet it is believed that in most instances, as a condition of their release, the prisoners were required to engage to support the charter government. Some complied with these humiliating terms, and others spurned them ; and a large number of prisoners were retained in close jail, to be tried for treason. Some were tried, found guilty, and recommended to mercy by the jury. Martin Luther, a respectable farmer in Warren, in the county of Bristol, was arrested some time afterwards, and found guilty of acting as moderator of a town meeting held under the people's constitution, and sen- tenced to pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be im- prisoned in close jail six months, and to pay all costs of prosecution. This sentence was carried into execution. Whoever candidly reflects upon the history which has been given of the Rhode Island controversy, must, we think, be satisfied of the following facts : First, that absolute political sovereignty is always inherent in the great body of the people, and that this prerog- ative is before and paramount to all constitutions and civil compacts, and that the right to its exercise can never be suspended by any means whatever ; and, secondly, that the great body of the people of Rhode Island, in the exercise of that right, did, in the month of December, 1841, ratify and adopt a democratic con- stitution for the government of the state, and that also, in accordance with that constitution, a majority of the people of the state did, in 1842, organize and set up such a government as the constitution of the United 184 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF States guarantees to every state in the Union; and, lastly, it has been shown that the government so organ- ized and set up, and so guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, was crushed out and suppressed by the combined forces of the State of Rhode Island and the United States. In the month of June, 1842, while martial law was in full operation, the prisons filled with its victims, and the whole population of the state shook as with an ague, while the adjacent states were thronged with exiles who had fled from the fiery indignation of their barbarous pursuers, and while any one who should de- clare himself in favor of the people's constitution would be immediately consigned to a dungeon, the General Assembly issued a call for a convention to form a con- stitution. It has already been shown that the General Assembly could not, by force of law, take any initiatory steps towards forming a constitution, and also that that body solemnly declared, by the mouth of their com- mittee, in 1829, that the legislature could not, and would not, do any thing in the premises, and that no constitution before or since the revolution had been formed, or could be formed, more free and popular than that under which the people then lived. Notwithstanding all this, the General Assembly now, for the first time, ascertained that the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations had no constitution, and therefore thought proper that immediate steps should be taken to establish one. They considered it expedient that the work should be commenced forth- with ; they believed that to be a favorable time for the THOMAS WILSON DORR. 185 5indei1:aking, when their own sabres gleamed and their own cannon roared in unison with those of the national executive. Now, when they had their iron heels upon the necks of the people, they deemed it a most favor- able time to induce them humbly to accept a constitu- tion as a special boon from the General Assembly, fear- ing that when they came to be released from duress, they might revive again their own constitution, which lay crushed beneath the weight of arms. Therefore the General Assembly proceeded to request all such of the people as possessed certain qualifications to meet in their respective towns on the 8th day of August, and vote for delegates to meet in convention and form a constitution. Pursuant to that request, meetings were held and delegates elected, who afterwards met in con- vention, and drew up a constitution, which was sub- mitted to such of the people as were permitted to vote under its provisions. The voting took place on the 21st, 22d, and 23d days of November, 1842. The act of the General Assembly placing the state under martial law had not be^n repealed, and proceedings under it had only been suspended by proclamation of the governor, who might also, at any moment by proclamation, give it vitality. The people were not released from duress ; they durst not speak freely their own sentiments. Many suffrage men were still in exile, and others were in prison. Large rewards were offered for Mr. Dorr, and requisitions were continually made upon the gov- ernors of the neighboring states for the flying fugitives. Under such circumstances, the voting upon the proposed 16* 186 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF constitution took place^ and the most strenuous exer- tions were made to bring out a large vote in its favor. On counting the votes, it was found that 7024 had voted in favor of it, and 51 against it. The legislature therefore proceeded to declare the constitution adopted hj a majority of 6973 votes. Now, it will be recollected, that although the people's constitution received 13,944: votes, the charter govern- ment repeatedly declared in their General Assembly, and by their delegates in Congress, that it had not received a majority of the votes of such as had a right to vote for it, and therefore it could not be considered as an expression of the wishes of a majority of the whole people ; but now, when their own constitution had received but one half that number of votes, the General Assembly proceeded without hesitation to declare it le- gally adopted. And yet, at the very first session of the legislature, under that constitution, it was found that 16,520 votes had been polled for general officers. This shows as plainly as figures can show, that the last con- stitution received only the votes of a minority. Without taking into consideration the comparative merits of the two constitutions, we will barely remark that the people's constitution received the votes of full two thirds of all who had a right to vote upon that occasion, and the present constitution received only the votes of one third of such as were qualified to vote for it; and with these observations we leave the public to decide which of the two constitutions in question was the free and voluntary choice of the people. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 187 The following table shows the number of votes polled in each town in the State of Rhode Island, on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of December, 1841, for the people's con- stitution. Votes h I the City of Providence. Qualified. Not qualified. Against. TotaL Ward 1, 162 362 Ward 2, 88 384 Ward 3, 165 472 Ward 4, 142 357 Ward 5, 248 515 Ward 6, 255 306 3556 Smithfield, 381 336 1 1338 Cumberland, 293 599 892 Burrillville, 134 149 283 Glocester, 192 210 402 Foster, 124 113 1 238 Scituate, 208 316 524 Johnson, 136 210 846 North Providence, 221 472 13 706 Cranston, 159 241 400 Warwick, 308 587 895 Coventry, 157 249 406 East Greenwich, 50 85 6 141 West Greenwich, 17 45 62 North Kingstown, 84 169 253 South Kingstown, 138 137 10 285 Exeter, 52 82 134 Richmond, 44 88 132 Charlestown, 64 36 100 Hopkinton, 81 81 13 175 Westerly, 107 144 1 252 Newport, 317 890 1207 Midclletown, 8 22 30 Portsmouth, 67 59 126 Jamestown, 18 13 81 188 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Qualified. Not qualified. Agaiasf. Total, New Shoreham, 102 30 132 Tiverton, 102 172 3 277 Little Campton^ 19 25 17 61 Bristol, 151 218 369 Warren, ^.03 106 1 210 Barrington, 28 24 52 Total, 13,944 THOMAS WILSON DORR. 189 CHAPTER XIII. HIS ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT. TRIAL. CONVICTION. SPEECH. SENTENCE. REMOVAL TO STATE PRISON. Leaving for a time the desultory history of affairs in Hhode Island, we will return to Mr. Dorr. As has been shown, he left Chepatchet in the evening of the 27th of June, 1842. He well knew that a spirit of deadly hostility had been excited against him, and sup- posed that his enemies, emboldened by his flight, would cry aloud for blood. In this he was not mistaken. As soon as it was ascertained that he had left the state. Governor King issued his proclamation, offering a re- ward of five thousand dollars for his apprehension ; but the chief magistrates of the neighboring states protected him from the fury of his mercenary pursuers. The Hon. Henry Hubbard, then governor of the State of New Hampshire, gave the exiled patriot a cordial wel- come. Here Mr. Dorr found a safe asylum from the fury of his mad pursuers. The bosom of that illustri- ous chief magistrate glowed with true patriotic fire — his purpose was firm as his own granite hills, and his heart as pure as the snowy mantle which covered their sides — unborn generations will bless his memory for the noble deed. 190 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Democracy had fallen in Ehode Island ; the funda- mental principles upon which the American govern- ments are based had been publicly violated, and the power of an oligarchy established by the bayonet. Mr. Dorr remained a voluntary exile, hoping that the camp fires of his exulting enemies would at length be extin- guished, and peace and quiet be so far restored as to allow him to return unmolested to his native state, and the bosom of his anxious friends. Confiding too much in the honor and magnanimity of his conquerors, after an absence of nearly one and a half years, he concluded to return to his native city. Accordingly, on the last day of October, 1843, in the capacity of a quiet citizen, he arrived in Providence, and entered his name at the City Hotel. Soon after this, Mr. Dorr was arrested by an officer upon the charge of treason against the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and thrust into jail in Providence, where he was kept in close con- finement until Thursday, the 29th of February, 1844, when he was removed to the jail at Newport, in which county it had been decided that his trial should take place. Contrary to the common law of England and the United States, and in violation of every principle of justice and humanity, the Supreme Court of the State of Ehode Island decreed that the prisoner should be tried in a county in which he was a stranger, where it was known that almost every man was Jiis avowed enemy, away from all his friends and his witnesses, and contrary to the earnest solicitation of the prisoner and his counsel. We would not rashly impugn the motives of a high THOMAS WILSON DORR. 191 judicial tribunal, or seek to strip its incumbents of their consecrated ermine ; yet experience has taught us that the frailties and passions common to all men — the same love and the same hate — the same motives of in- terest and the same feelings of revenge — may find their way to the forum, and sit ensconced beneath the judi- cial robe. We would not be too uncharitable, but leave every reader to form his own opinion of the justice of the proceedings against Mr. Dorr. On the 26th of April, 1844, nearly two years after the alleged offence was committed — after a written constitution had been adopted, and a government quietly organized under it — when nothing at home or abroad threatened to disturb the peace of the state — Mr. Dorr was taken from the prison at Newport, and brought before the Supreme Court to be tried for trea- son. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, and Samuel Y. Atwell and George Turner, Esqrs., were engaged as his counsel. The first motion which his counsel made to the court- was for a compulsory process for witnesses for the respondent, as Mr. Dorr had already exhausted all his own means, and was unable to pay the witnesses he wished to summon. But the court refused to grant the application in the following words : " The accused possesses the means to employ counsel ; it is to be pre- sumed that he is also able to pay his v/itnesses for their attendance ; the motion therefore cannot be granted." Mr. Dorr stood before the court penniless and a stranger, his friends and witnesses were far away, and yet the court refused to grant him a privilege that is always allowed to the vilest malefactor. 192 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF At the time that the court removed Mr. Dorr from Providence to Newport for trial, it was well known to every one that the inhabitants of that county entertained the most violent prejudices against him. Under the charter the town of Newport had six representatives in the General Assembly, and Providence four, so that in 1840 Newport had one representative for every thou- sand of her population, and Providence one representa- tive for every ten thousand. Newport was jealous of Providence, and always opposed every effort which was made to break up the old order of things, and deprive the inhabitants of that section of their prescriptive rights. Such were the feelings of the people from which a jury was to be taken to try Mr. Dorr. All were strangers to him, and if there were any unpreju- diced men among them, Mr. Dorr had no means of knowing it. We shall not attempt to give a history of the empanelling of the jury ; it is sufficient to say that twelve men were found who solemnly declared that they had formed no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the prisoner ; and the reader can believe them if he choose. When we consider that this exciting question had been before the people of the whole state for two years, and had been repeatedly and warmly discussed in every neighborhood and in every family, is it possi- ble to suppose that any sane man had not formed any opinion in the matter ? After the verdict was rendered, Mr. Dorr's counsel offered to prove to the court that three or four of the jurors composing the panel which convicted him, had expressed their opinions in strong terms against the prisoner previous to the trial ; yet the THOMAS WILSON DORR. 193 court refused to go into the investigation, since the trial was finished, and the verdict was satisfactory to the court. In the commencement of the trial, the points offered for the defence were the following : — 1. That, in this country, treason is an offence against the United States only, and cannot be committed against an individual State. 2. That the 4th section of the act of Rhode Island of March, 1842, entitled "An act relating to offences against the sovereign power of the state," is unconstitu- tional and void, as destructive of the common-law right of trial by jury, which was a fundamental part of the English constitution at the declaration of independence, and has ever since been a fundamental law in Rhode Island. 3. That that act, if constitutional, gives this court no jurisdiction to try this indictment in the county of New- port — all the overt acts being therein charged as com- mitted in the county of Providence. 4. That the defendant acted justifiably, as governor of the state, under a valid constitution rightfully adopt- ed, which he was sworn to support. 5. That the evidence does not support the charge of treasonable and criminal intent in the defendant. The fourth was that upon which the defendant chiefly relied ; but the court decided that proof upon that point w^as inadmissible, and ruled the other points against the prisoner. The whole trial, from its beginning to its termination, lasted nearly four weeks, and the defence was ably conducted by Mr. Dorr himself, and his coun- sel, George Turner and Samuel Y. Atwell, Esqrs. Throughout this trial the court appears to have had 17 194 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF only one single object in view, and that was the con- viction of Mr. Dorr. They not only refused to allow him to introduce testimony to show that he acted under the authority of a valid constitution, and without any criminal intentions, but they also refused to hear the motion argued to the court, and positively decided that the jury had nothing to do but find that the prisoner had committed the acts charged against him, and could not inquire into his motives. Now, we have been taught that a wielded intention was necessary to consti- tute crime, and that bare acts, without any wrong m- tent, were not in themselves criminal ; but the court appear to have adopted a different rule for that special occasion, because it is easy to show that the same court, both before and since that trial, have uniformly held, that " actus non facit reum,nisi mens sit rea " should be regarded as an established principle in American juris- prudence, and have always allowed the accused to shoAv, if they could, that, in doing the acts charged against them, they did not intend to commit a felony. But if the rule adopted in the trial of Mr. Dorr should be observed in other criminal prosecutions, no one would be safe. The man who should ignorantly and innocently pass a spurious bill, believing it to be genu- ine, would be liable to be punished as a counterfeiter ; and any one who should have the misfortune to kill another by accident, or in self-defence, would be liable to suffer like the most atrocious murderer. AVhilst the motion of the prisoner's counsel to be heard by the court was pending, the following dialogue took place : — THOMAS WILSON DORR. 195 Judge Staples. — I am opposed to a re-argument of this question at the present time, in the course of a jury- trial. I am willing to hear it re-argued when the court are at leisure. Judge Haile. — Nor am I disposed to hear a re-argu- ment during the trial, when this question has once been solemnly settled. At a proper time, it can be heard. But it ought not to be heard in the hurry of a jury trial. Mr. Dorr. — It falls strangely upon the ear of a man in my position, when I hear the judge of a court, in a case of this kind, and involving principles of such moment, make use of an expression like this — the " hurry " of this trial. I must be hurried through to judgment, then, without a hearing ; and after convic- tion I may be heard ! Is the liberty or the life of a man to be disposed of in this way ? If there are any reasons why a conviction should not take place, why should they not be heard now ? What reparation is it, after conviction, to hear the reasons why it was unjust ? This is, literally, according to a common observation, hanging a man first, and trying him afterwards. We are surprised, also, when, in the midst of a trial which was to consign an individual to a dungeon for life, or pronounce him innocent, a judge of that court, sitting under the solemnity of his oath, declares, " I have no doubt of the purity of the motives of the defend- ant. This is the view I have always ta'ken,^^ and yet refuses to allow the defendant to introduce testimony to satisfy the jury of the same fact. The court are satis- fied that the defendant was not guilty of any criminal intentions, but they will not allow him to submit the proof of his innocence to the jury. When we consider the character of the jury and the extraordinary rulings of the court in this extraordinary case, the whole trans- 196 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF action appears to us like a solemn farce — a mere mockery, very similar to hundreds of others which his- tory informs us have heretofore taken place in Europe. The following is a brief extract from the closing address of Mr. Dorr to the jury. He gave a frank and manly history of the suffrage party, and of his own conduct in connection with it, and made no attempt to disguise or deny any thing, but freely and boldly con- fessed much more than the government had been able to prove. Closing RemarJcs of Mr. Dorr. After Mr. Turner had concluded his summing up upon the evidence, Mr. Dorr addressed the jury for three hours in the close of the defence. The following is a summary of his remarks : — Having addressed to the court all he had to say on the subject of treason, (which he had contended was an offence against the United States, without admitting that any such offence had, in this instance, been com- mitted,) he now turned to the jury, and thanked them for the patience which they had thus far manifested in attending to the proceedings of a trial necessarily pro- tracted beyond the usual length. Although the dura- tion of the trial had been more than once alluded to by one of the honorable court, he desired to assure them that he had not intentionally trespassed on their time. Much of it had unavoidably been spent in empan- elling the jury, which, in a case of this moment, could not be hastily done. The defendant had a right by law to twenty peremptory challenges ; and a large number of those who had been called as jurors had disqualified themselves as they were called, by replying to the questions proposed to them, that they had formed and expressed an opinion upon the charges laid in the in- THOMAS WILSON DORll. 197 clictment, rendering it " necessary to issue new process for summoning an additional number. It would also be recollected that the defendant had been brought here from the county to which he belonged, professedly for a more impartial trial, and among those with whom he was but little acquainted, and whose qualifications and opinions could not be investigated and ascertained with- out special inquiry, which it had been sometimes neces- sary to make through witnesses, to whom the jurors were better known than to himself. The jurors now empanelled had severally responded, under their oaths^ that they had neither formed nor expressed an opinion upon the matters now in issue ; and only through their avowed impartiality could the object be obtained for which the case had been, in this unusual manner, re- moved from the county where the offence was charged to have been committed, into another, which had been equally pervaded by the political feelings and discus- sions which had pervaded the wdiole state in the event- ful period of 184:2. As so much had been said about foreign notions and foreign interference, it was proper for him to remind them that he was no stranger in their midst. He had not come here from abroad to proclaim new and strange words, at war with the original doctrines upon which our government was established. He was a native citi- zen of Rhode Island ; and a portion of those from whom he claimed descent had been among the earlier settlers of the state. He was by birth, and still more, he trusted, in principle and feeling, a Rhode Island man. He did not stand before them as an alien to the common inheritance ; and he was ready to meet his op- ponents in any attempt they might make to show that his efforts had been directed to any other object than the reassertion of the ancient liberties of the state, and the inherent rights of the people. The case now presented to the jury is one of no 17* 198 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ordinary importance, and is not lightly to be disposed of by a hasty and inconsiderate judgment. It is not a matter of dollars and cents, to be decided by an average of opinions, but a question affecting the rights and freedom, and, to all intents, the life, of the accused. The sentence consequent upon conviction is perpetual imprisonment, with the attending deprivation of the social and political privileges of a man and a citizen — an infliction which might induce some minds to prefer the more friendly missive of the military tribunal. It is the duty of the jury to contemplate the results of their verdict. For though they are not directly responsible for the law, and sit here not to make, but to administer it, they may well be inspired, when they regard the personal rights which are now put in issue, with a sol- emn caution, with a spirit of sincere and earnest in- quiry ; fearful themselves of doing a greater wrong than that which is alleged against the individual they are called upon to try, and bearing in mind that the justice of the law is not revenge, and insists upon no doubtful constructions of the acts of the accused. The jury must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, not only of the facts, but of the legal meaning and purport of the facts ; and they are not called upon to offer sac- rifices to state policy, or to the dignity of the law. At this distance of time from the date of the transactions in controversy, a more dispassionate and candid investi- gation was to be expected and demanded. The offence charged is political — not against indi- viduals, but against the state, under a system now no longer existing. The defendant necessarily does not stand alone. He acted for others. In trying him, you try also the fourteen thousand citizens who voted for the people's constitution in 1841, and who, if there be any guilt in the doctrines of '76, are equally guilty with him. Nay, more : you will try the principles of the American government and the rights of the Amer- THOMAS WILSON DOUR. 199 lean people ; and you youi-selves will in turn be tried for any wounds you may inflict upon American liberty. You are not sitting here in one corner of a small state, out of the reach of observation ; and be%vare that no political bias incline you to do any injustice to the defendant, by way of retribution to the party with which he is connected ; or how you permit yourselves to defeat the ostensible object of a fairer trial in the removal of this case ; and let the public have reason to believe that it has been more fair than was intended. The opening counsel for the state (Bosworth) had not been satisfied with the customary epithets which the forms of indictment bestow on those who are brought within the pale of the courts; but he had launched out into the language of vituperation and calumny, the not uncommon substitutes for reasoning and argument. These ebullitions of malignity do not so much indicate the character of the object upon which they are poured, as the condition of the source from which they spring. Real valor never seeks to magnify itself by depreciating the character of those who have been overcome by the fortune of the day, and avoids all questionable exultation. An honorable mind, in a great political controversy like this between the two parties of the state, conscious itself of good motives, will be slow to impute the revei^se to a fair and open political opponent. The coarse remarks of the assistant to the prosecutor are left to you, with all the weight to which they are entitled. If he be not ashamed of them, they may cause some of his friends to be ashamed of him. Without any proof that it was known at the time to the defendant, the aid of the prosecutor has laid much stress on the fact that some of his relatives, by law or blood, were found in array against him on the 17th of May, 1842 ; and it is insinuated, by way of arousing the prejudices of the jury^, that the object of the ^ defendant was tlie destrnction af hk own relativeB and friends. In reply to this false and malicious charge^, Mr. Dorr said, that, in periods of excitement,, it might bappen^ and sometimes did happen, to those who were near, and painfidly to those who are also dear to each other, to be widely separated,, even to the conflict of war. He stood almost alone in his political opinions among- those who were connected with him by blood. Without consulting interests,- he had. asked for himself what was right, and pursued it. If his views of the sovereignty and action of the people were correct, then they who placed themselves in opposition to the gov- ernment, and attempted to prevent the recovery of the public property, whether strangers or relations, did so in their own wrong, and might with eqnal propriety be said to have been bent upon his own particular destruc- tion. He left them to their motives, and claimed re- spect for his own. There are obligations of duty from which no interest or consanguinity can furnish a dis- charge. Mr. Dorr said that he was not aware at the time that any person related to him was engaged in the defence of the arsenal ; but, from what had fallen from one of them, h-e had supposed that he intended to he. This person- was not his brother, (now absent from the country,) whose name had been forced in here with 3 very apparent object, and who-, though opposed in poli- tics, was entirely capable of appreciating his motives^ as he was of making the sariie estimate in return. But^ if he bad been aware that all his clan were enlisted against the law and constitution of the state^ he should not have been deterred from discharging the oath of duty which rested upon him. The offence char^^ed is somewhat of a va^e nature. What is- levying war ? It is not a gathering of men merely with arms in their hands. This is the descrip- tion of every military training or review. Against whom is it levied 1 The state. Who represented the THOMAS TVILsON VoliR. 201 State at the time in Rhode Ishmcl ? Which ^ras the true government ? oi-;, more properly^ whicli was the government? And, again^ lor what object v/as war levied, if at all ? Was it for any lawless^ unjustifiable purpose, or in defence of government^ and the most Valued rights of the citizen ? Here we have^ in addi- tion to the mere question of fact^ Were certain things done, or not ? the much larger and more important ques- tions of rights, of motives, and intentions. Tlie indict- ment charges that the acts laid in it were maliciously and traitorously done. To constitute a levying of war, as it was held in 4 Cranch, 75, &c., there must be an assemblage of persons for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose. Enlistment of men to JBerve against government is not sufficient* It is not treason, it thias seems, to enlist men for service, even against a lawful government ; much less is it to enlist them and to bring them into service against an unlawful one, existing by usurpation, and contending with force against that by which it has been rightfully supplanted. You will also bear in mind the admission of the attor» ney general, who properly stated, in the outset of the case, that if the defendant were the governor of the state, he had a right to do what he did. It is thus per- fectly evident that the true question essential to a fair trial is that of rights and motives. There must be a treasonable intent in the levying of war, to constitute any treason at all ; not a mere knowledge of what one is about, but a deliberate, set purpose and treason of the mind ; as in cases of homicide, the act may be murder, or manslaughter, or no offence at all, according to cir- cumstances and intentions. Mr. Dorr said that, in the argument of this case, he had the disadvantage of appearing before the jury with- out the aid of his principal counsel, Mr. Atwell, upon whom he had relied for all the closing arguments, who had been overtaken and disabled by a severe illness just 20i^ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF before the commencement of the case, when it was too late for the defendant to make any preparation. While lie desired to acknowledge the zeal, fidelity, ability, and industry of the gentleman who assisted him, he could not but feel the absence of a counsellor whose legal eminence and eloquence, practical experience, and just weight as a lawyer in this court, were of so much im- portance to his clients. If the defendant have any thing to advance in. his own favor, it will be said to come from a too partial source, and it weighs nothing. What he admits, is taken strongly against him ; and what he may say concerning himself, may be, for the most part, better said by another. The defence, as well as the prosecution, has drawn out upon the examination of witnesses a long detail of facts. " My great object," said Mr. Dorr, ^' has been to have all the facts of the case correctly ascertained ; to disabuse it of all the falsehoods and calumnies with which it has been invested by the malignant ingenuity of political enemies ; and to disprove all the pi-etended charges that have been so often repeated against myself, my political associates, and the political party with whom we have acted. I have aided by questions and by wit- nesses in bringing all the facts to light. There are, and have been, no secrets in the cause in which I have been engaged ; there is nothing, so far as I am aware, that might not safely be brought to the light of day. In August last, I published, over my own naiue, a state- ment of all the transactions now in controversy, from be- ginning to end, which was generally circulated in this state. It does not differ perceptibly from the present testimony. I am willing to put it into the case, as a part of it, if the prosecutor do not object. I should have been willing to save this investigation by so do« ing ; but it was not for the defendant to prescribe the mode of proceeding by the prosecutor, who, of course, would not have admitted the account of the defendant THOMAS WILSON DORR. 203 to be correct, and expected to make a case much more favorable to his own side of the question." And here, let it be asked of common candor and fairness, after listening to the testimony. What has be- come of the shameful and groundless imputation con- veyed in the fabricated watchword of " beauty and the banks ; " of the " foreign desperadoes," who were to plunder and burn the city of Providence, and to invade the domestic purity of its homes ; of the intervention of citizens abroad for any other object than to arrest the unjustifiable interference of the president with state rights ; of the general appropriation of private prop- erty to military uses ; of " the lawless and intemper- ate character " of those engaged in the people's cause ; of the *' forcible enlistments ; " of the " state scrip ; " of the " sword dyed in blood ; " of the " waving of the torch and the firing of the gun ; " and the hundred other stories and inventions that were got up by polit- ical managers and editors for effect, and have had their day, and have answered all that was expected of them ? They were, no doubt, believed by some, with that cre- dulity which alarm creates. And there were others who availed themselves of this slight pretence to go over, and basely and treacherously abandon the cause of the people to the enemy. Henceforth, let the retailers of these calumnies, which have been put down in and out of court, hold their peace. The alleged invasion of private property by the suf- frage men at Chepatchet, of which so much had been attempted at the time to be made by their opponents, was reduced to three instances : a horse borrowed, used, and returned ; a cow taken and paid for ; and a few boards burned on the hill ! The question was asked, whether the village of Che- patchet, the day after it was left by the suffrage men, was not sacked by the charter troops. But this, we were told, had nothing to do with the issue, and could 204 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF not be gone into. It was irrelevant ! There was a con- trast to be disclosed. " Of all that was really done by me/' said Mr. Dorr, (aside from the fabrications alluded to,) *' or that I had a part in doing, I deny nothing. I should disdain to make such a denial here or elsewhere, to preserve either liberty or life." Defendant said that if any fact had not been brought out in the testimony, which the jury were desirous of knowing, and wdiich was within his knowl- edge, he was ready to state it. " My defence before you," said Mr. Dorr, " is a jus- tification throughout. What I did I had a right to do ; having been duly elected governor of this state under a rightfully adopted and valid repubhcan state constitution^, which I took an oath to support, and did support to the best of the means ^placed within my power.'" He then alluded to the extraordinary embarrassment in which he was placed in this portion of the defence, by the refusal of the court to permit him to make good his justification, by exhibiting the proofs of his election as governor, and the proofs of the adoption of the peo- ple's constitution, under wdiich he had been elected ; the votes given upon it having been brought here for the express purpose of authenticating it to the jury. Nor was he permitted, directly or otherwise, than in in- cidental remarks, to maintain, either to the court or jury, the right of the people of Rhode Island, upon Amer- ican principles, to form and adopt this constitution ; nor to argue any other question of law to the court or jury, than whether treason be an offence against a state or against the United States ; nor to introduce proofs of his election, and of the constitution, to repel the charge of malicious and traitorous motives ; nor to show by authorities that the jury are, in capital cases, the judges both of the law and of the fact. It was with extreme surprise and regret that he thus found himself debarred from his true defence. The THOMAS WILSON DORR. 205 facts being thus plain before the jury, — that the de- fendant had, on several occasions, attempted to carry into effect, by military force, the constitution and gov- ernment of the people, and as the chief magistrate of the state, — the jury will very naturally ask, How did all this come to pass ? By what authority did the defendant these things ? The reply to your very nat- ural inquiry is a blank. The defendant is most anxious to proceed before you, and to establish all these rights ; but he is not permitted. He must look to you to take care of them. He is in the condition of the mariner whose bark has been stripped by an adverse gale, and who, in directing his course to the land, can expect to reach it only with the aid of a jury mast. The votes that were cast for the people's constitution are at hand. They who gave them are not far off. The acts of the people's legislature, under this constitution, can be proved in a moment. These and the unanswer- able proofs that popular sovereignty is the just source of government, were what it was desired to lay directly before you. By the refusal of the court, the defendant feels that he has been deprived of -a great right, and that justice has been denied him. Whether the doctrines on which the republic rests be admitted here or not, they are unchangeably the same. The defendant has no desire to retract his subscription to them. Some ages ago, a natural philosojDher was accused and silenced before the inquisition for teaching that the earth turned on its axis. As he retired, after his forced confession to the contrary, from the presence of the officers of the justice of that day, he exclaimed, " Still it turns ! " and, in spite of all opposition of false phi- losophy, it has turned ever since. There are other immutable doctrines, and other honest convictions, which cannot be forced out of a man by any human process. 18 206 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF " The sun will not rise," said Mr. Dorr, " upon any recantation by me of tlie truths of '76, or of any one of the sound principles of American freedom. " The servants of a righteous cause may fail or fall in the defence of it. It may go down ; but all the truth that it contains is indestructible, and will be treasured up by the great mass of our countrymen. " If I have erred in this Rhode Island question," said Mr. Dorr, " I have the satisfaction of having erred with the greatest statesmen and the highest authorities, and with the great majority of the people of the United States ; and I have the satisfaction *also of reflecting that all errors of judgment here will be corrected by the great tribunal of public opinion, w^hich assures to all ultimate and impartial justice." The following is an extract from the closing argu- ment of Mr. Turner : — After all, gentlemen, who is the prisoner at the bar ? and how came he now before you for trial ? Mr. Dorr is an educated gentleman, of the most respectable family and connections. It is also in evidence that he, per- sonally, has stood high in the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens. He has represented the city of Providence in the General Assembly. At the time he is charged with having levied war against the state, he was the treasurer of the Rhode Island Historical Soci- ety, and had in his hands the funds of that institution to a large amount. He was a commissioner of the Scit- uate Bank, having control of its funds and securities, under an appointment of the legislature ; and he was president of the school committee of the city of Provi- dence. It appears also, that, as administrator or trus- tee, he had in his hands large amounts of the property of private individuals. During the troubles that fol- lowed the affair at the arsenal — the destitution of men. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 207 arms, ammunition, provisions, and money of tlie Che- patchet campaign — during his protracted exile from the state — did Governor Dorr embezzle, divert, or misapply these funds, or a farthing of them ? No, gen- tlemen ; as is shown by the testimony of Mr. Burgess, he guarded the whole with the most scrupulous care, guided by the highest sense of honor, and placed them, undiminished, beyond the reach of the perils which environed his own position. With this evidence before you, does he carry about with him any of the marks of that rowdyism of which we have heard so much ? Have not his whole course of life, his sentiments, and his actions, been such as to free him from the imputation of having, in any thing, been governed by other motives than a desire and a zeal for the best interests of his fel- low-citizens and of the state ? It has been urged by the opening counsel for the state, that the prisoner, taking counsel from his fears at Chepatchet, ran away from the state. It would have been an act, not of wisdom or courage, but of the wild- est folly, for Mr. Dorr to have bared his devoted head to the whirlwind of popular fury that then swept over the state ; or, under legislative martial law, to have confided his fate to the tender mercies of a drum head court martial. But when the tempest had apparently passed over — when the excitement had become some- what allayed by time — when martial law no longer fet- tered the legal tribunals of the state — he came volun- tarily back to the state, and submitted himself to its tri- bunals. He came, (when large rewards failed to bring him,) because this was his native state — his home — and because he expected, and had a right to expect, that he should be tried by a jury of his peers of the vici- nages amongst whom he had always lived, and for whose benefit alone he had acted. He is now in your hands ; and I repeat, gentlemen, that, in deciding on his case, you may decide upon your own fate and that of your S08 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF posterity ; your decision may involve tlie fate of Ameri- can freedom — nay, of civil liberty itself Finally, gentlemen, if the evidence to which I have directed your attention should fail to satisfy your minds fully as to the purity of the prisoner's intentions, and the absence of treasonable design on his part, and doubts remain on the subject, you are bound (and will be so instructed by the court) to throw those doubts into the scale of the prisoner, and return a verdict of acquittal. I now leave him with you, under the conviction that the moment you take his life and Kberty into your hands, you, at the same time, commit your characters through life, and your memories after death, to the award and decision of the great tribunal of public opin- ion ; and I hope and trust that at its hands you may receive that justice which, in behalf of the prisoner, I claim at your hands. AVhen all the arguments for and against the prisoner were finished. Chief Justice Durfee delivered a lengthy charge to the jury, after which they retired, and soon returned and pronounced their verdict of guilty. On the 25th of June, Mr. Dorr was brought into court for sentence, and when he was asked by the court if he had any thing to say why sentence should not be pronounced against him, replied as follows : — The court have, through their officer, addressed to the defendant the usual question, whether he have any thing to say why sentence should not now be pro- nounced upon him. I have something to say, which shall be brief and intelligible to the court, though it must be necessarily unavailing. Without seeking to bring myself in controversy with the court, I am de- sirous to declare to you the plain truth. I am bound, in duty to myself, to express to you my THOMAS WILSON DORR. S09 deep and solemn conviction that I have not received at j^our hands the fair trial by an impartial jury, to which, hy law and justice, I was entitled. The trial has been permitted to take place in a county where, to say the least, it was doubtful whether the defendant could be tried according to the law of the state ; and in a case of doubt like this, he ought to have had the benefit of it, especially as the trial here must be in a county to which the defendant was a stranger, in the midst of his most excited political opponents. All but one of those freeholders, (one hundred and eight in number,) who were summoned here for the purpose of selecting a jury to try the defendant, were of the opposite party in the state, and were deliberately set against the defendant with the feelings of partisan hostility. The single democratic juror was set aside for having expressed an opinion. Of the drawn jurors, sixteen in number, two only were members of the dem- ocratic party ; and one of them for cause, and the other for alleged cause, was removed. Every one of the jury finally selected to try the de- fendant was, of course, a political opponent. And even as so constituted, the jury were not permitted to have the whole case presented to their consideration. They were not — as in capital, if not in all criminal, cases they are entitled to be — permitted to judge of the law and of the fact. The defendant and his counsel were not permitted to argue to the jury any matter of law. The court refused to hear the law argued to them- selves, except on the question whether treason be an offence against a state or against the United States. ^ The court refused to permit the defendant to justify himself by proving the constitution, the election, and the authority under which he acted ; or to permit him to produce the same proofs, in order to repel the charges of malicious and traitorous motives made in the indict- 18* SIO THE LIFE AT7D TIMES OF ment, and zealously urged against him by tlie counsel for the state. By the charge of the judge, the jury were instructed that the only question which they had to try was, whether the defendant intended to do the acts which he performed — a question of capacity rather than of mo- tives and intentions. It is true that the jury were absent more than two hours ; but not for deliberation. One of them was asked, immediately after the verdict was delivered and the jury was discharged, whether they had been de- tained by any disagreement. He replied, " We had nothing to do. The court had made every thing plain for us." On hearing a bill of exceptions to the verdict thus rendered, the court promptly overruled all the points of law. The court also denied to the defendant an oppor- tunity of showing to them that three of the jurors, be- fore they were empanelled, manifested strong feelings, and had made use of vindictive and hostile expressions- against him personally, after the defendant had estab- lished by his affidavit the fact that he was not informed of this hostility of feeling and expression before they were empanelled, and, with regard to two of them, before the verdict was rendered. The defendant ex- pected to prove, by twelve witnesses, that one of these- jurors had expressed a wish to have the defendant put to death, and had declared, shortly after the verdict, to a person inquiring the result, that " he had convicted the defendant, and that this was what he intended to do ; '■* that another juror had also declared that the de- fendant ought to be executed ; and that the third had frequently made the same declaration, with a wish that he might be permitted to do the work of an executioner, or to shoot him as he would a serpent^ and put him to death. THOMAS WILSON DORR. 211 Nor would the court permit the defendant to show, by proofs, which he declared on oath to have been un- known to him at the time of the empanelling of the jury, that an array of twelve men, summoned on venire by a deputy sheriff, were (or a considerable part of them at least) the same persons who had been selected by an attorney of this court, who assisted the officer in the service of the summons. These and other matters, which I will not stop to enumerate, show that this trial, which has been carried through the forms of law, was destitute of the reality of justice, and was but a ceremony preceding conviction. That there is any precedent for it, in the most acri- monious period of the most excited party times in this country, I am not aware from any examination or recol- lection of its political history. In a trial of an alleged political offence, involving the feehngs of the whole community, and growing out of a condition of affairs which placed the whole people of the state on one side or the other of an exasperated controversy, the strictest and most sacred impartiality should have been observed in the most careful investi- gation both of law and fact by the jury, and in all the decisions and directions of the court. In what case should they have been more distrustful of the political bias of their own minds, more careful in all their dehb- erations, more earnest in the invocation of a strength above their own, that they might not only appear to be just, but do justice in a manner so above all suspicion, that the defendant, and all those with whom he is asso- ciated, might be satisfied that he had had his day in court, and that every requisition of the law had been observed and fulfilled. In how different a spirit were the proceedings of this trial conducted ! And with what emotions must the defendant have listened to the declaration of one of your honors, that " in the hurry of this trial '* they could not attend to the questions of 21S THE LIFE AND TIMES OF law, wliicli he so earnestly pressed upon their imme- diate consideration, as vitally important to the righteous determination of his case I The icsult of this trial, which your sentence is about to proclaim,, is the perpetual imprisonment of the de- fendant, and hi& seclusion from the face of society, and from all communication with his fellow-men. Is it too much to say that the object of his political opponents is the gratification of an insatiable spirit of revenge, rather than the attainment of legal justice t They are also bent upon his political destruction, which results from the sentence of the court, in the deprivation of his political and civil rights. They aim also at a social annihilation, by his commitment to that tomb of the living, from which, in ordinary cases, those who emerge are looked upon as marked and doomed men, to be excluded from the reputable walks of life. But there my opponents and persecutors are destined to disappointment. The court may, through the conse- quences of their sentence, abridge the term of his exist- ence here ; they can annihilate his political rights ; but more than this they cannot accomplish. The honest judgment of his friends and fellow-citizens, resting upon the truth of his cause, and faithful to the dictates of humanity and justice, will not so much regard the place to which he is consigned, as the causes which have led to his incarceration within its walls. Better men have been worse treated than I have been, though not often in a better cause. In the service of that cause I have no right to complain that I am called upon to suffer hardships, whatever may be the estimate of the injustice which inflicts them. All these proceedings will be reconsidered by that ultimate tribunal of public opinion, whose righteous de- cision will reverse all the wrongs which may be now committed, and place that estimate upon niy actions to which they may be faiidy entitled. THOMAS WILSON DORR. S13 The process of tins court does not reach the man within. The court cannot shake the convictions of the mind, nor the fixed purpose which is sustained by in- tegrity of heart. Ckiiming no exemptions from the infirmities which beset us all, and which may attend us in the prosecu- tion of the most important enterprises, and, at the same time, conscious of the rectitude of my intentions, and of having acted from good motives in an attempt to promote the equality, and to establish the just freedom and interest of my fellow-citizens, I can regard with equanimity this last infliction of the court ; nor would I, even at this extremity of the law, in view of the opinions which you entertain, and of the sentiments by which you are animated, exchange the place of a prisoner at the bar for a seat by your side upon the bench. The sentence which you will pronounce, to the ex- tent of the power and influence which this court can exert, is a condemnation of the doctrines of '76, and a reversal of the great principles which sustain and give vitality to our democratic republic, and which are re- garded by the great body of our fellow-citizens as a portion of the birthright of a free people. From this sentence of the court I appeal to the people of our state and of our country. They shall decide be- tween us. I commit myself, without distrust, to their final award. I have nothing more to say. When Mr. Dorr had finished his remarks, Chief Jus- tice Durfee arose, and pronounced his sentence in the following words : — Listen, Thomas Wilson J}orr, to the sentence of the court ; which is, that the said Thomas TV. Dorr be imjprisoned in the state prison at Providence, in the 214 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF county of Providence, for the term of his natural life, and there ke^t at hard labor in separate confine- ment. ^ The court liad now gone to the extent of their prov- ince, and hurled their last bolt against their defenceless victim; and on the 27th of June, 1844, just two years after Mr. Dorr dismissed his forces at Chepatchet, he was removed to the state prison in Providence, and incarcerated in a cell, where, according to the sentence of the court, he was to remain during his natural life. So far as we are acquainted with the history of crim- inal treason, it has been contrived and conducted with more or less secrecy — it has consisted of clandestine attempts to surprise and overthrow the government by force. Mr. Dorr's case was the very reverse of this. Every thing had been done in the most public manner possible, and the whole proceedings consisted of a series of steps which followed each other at intervals which gave all parties ample time to consider them. If Mr. Dorr was guilty of the highest crime known to any law because he labored to sustain a democratic government which the people had ordained, then hundreds of others were guilty of the same crime ; and why should he be made a scapegoat for the sins of the whole party ? Why pursue him alone with such unrelenting hostility, when there were so many others who had with him ac- tually taken up arms ? THOMAS WILSON DORR. 215 CHAPTEE XIV. REFLECTIONS. The history of treason shows that it has been chiefly confined to arbitrary and unjust governments, and that far the largest number of those who have suffered for that crime have been good men, who sought to relieve their own people from the oppressive measures of their rulers. If Great Britain had succeeded in overcomina: the rebellion, as she called it, in her American colonies, in 1776, then George Washington and Nathaniel Greene, with all their compatriots, would have been held guilty of treason. The essential characteristics of this crime are said to consist in levying war against the sovereign power of the state to which the offender owes allegi- ance. In a monarchical government the sovereign power is supposed to belong to a single individual. In Russia the will of the czar is the sovereign power ; therefore to resist that will is treason, because that people suppose that by divine appointment the right to rule runs forever in the blood of a certain family ; and similar sentiments prevail in all countries governed by hereditary mon- archs. The government of Great Britain, from which we have obtained many of our ideas of jurisprudence, is a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy ; 216 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF but the supreme or highest power is supposed to be vested forever in the crown. Therefore treason in Great Britain does not consist in levying war against Parliament, or any other special department of the gov- ernment, but in levying war against the crown itself. But our government is the very reverse of monarchy ; in theory it is a democracy. We hold that in the United States absolute sovereignty is vested in the peo- ple, and in them alone ; and that state constitutions are the acts of the people in their absolute sovereign capaci- ty, and at all times under their immediate control ; and if this theory of our government be correct, then the will of the people is the sovereign power, and it fol- lows, of course, that to levy war against that declared will is virtual if not legal treason. The American gov- ernments are supposed to exist by the consent of a ma- jority of the people until the contrary is shown ; but when that majority freely and publicly declare their dissent to it, and withdraw their support from it, then it cannot be treason to levy war against such minority government ; but to levy war against the known and expressed will of a decided majority of the people can be nothing better than treason. It is highly important that every American citizen should fully understand the genius and principles of his own government, and know for a certainty where the sovereign power is vested. Is the question of political sovereignty yet to to be settled in this country ? Have not the people of the United States yet ascertained where the supreme power may ultimately be found ? Then we say that it is high time that the inquiry was made, and the ques- THOMAS WILSON DORR. 217 tion fully and permanently settled. If it is not in the whole people, then all our political teachings have been felse. If it is not, as we have supposed, in the people at large, then we are no better off than the inhabitants of the old countries, and our democracy is an unmean- ing term. When, hereafter, an American shall go abroad to some foreign country, and boast of the pop- ular sovereignty of his own, may not the subjects of despotism, in derision and reproach, point him to Rhode Island ? And what reply can he make to such a wither- ing rebuke ? The charter party in Rhode Island gained their ascendency, not by the free will of the people, but by force alone. Now, if the whole people had been left free from coercion at home, and threats and force from abroad, the people's government, with Mr. Dorr at its head, would doubtlessly have gone quietly into opera- tion ; and if any of the supporters of the exploded charter government had rebelled and taken up arms against the government which the sovereign people had set up, such insurgents might, with much more justice, have been brought to trial for treason before a court appointed by Mr. Dorr and his legislature. We have only to put the physical weight into the other scale, and the judicial power passes over to the other side ; and if such had been the case, we have every reason to believe that the rights of men would have been better guarded and more respected, and justice better administered. If we take a plain, common-sense view of the con- duct of the parties in the Rhode Island controversy, we cannot fail to observe a striking contrast between them. Mr. Dorr and his party paid a scrupulous regard 19 218 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF to private rights, and no individual was robbed or injured by his order; and when it was ascertained that a single beast had been killed by his men, full satisfac- tion was immediately made to the owner ; and it has been shown by the testimony of Jedediah Sprague that when Mr. Dorr and his men quartered at his house in Chepatchet, at the request of Mr. Dorr Mr. Sprague closed his bar, and dealt out no Hquor during their stay with him. But the conduct of the party professedly governed by " law and order " exhibits a striking con- trast with this. They paid little or no respect to either person or property ; but in open violation of law, and without shame or remorse, they assaulted, abused, robbed, and imprisoned all such as they chose. Like an army of crusaders to whom full indulgence had been granted, they seemed to feel themselves under no moral restraint, but gave full scope to all their appetites and passions, as the testimony of Mr. Sprague and other innkeepers will show. We are credibly informed that during a single night, on the 24th of June, 1842, the keeper of a public house in the town of Bristol, by official direction, furnished the " law and order " forces with victuals, liquor, ci- gars, &c., to the full amount of one thousand dollars, all of which, with sundry other large bills of a similar kind, were paid by the state ; but we believe that no compensation has ever been made to the hundreds of individuals who were robbed and despoiled of their property by the marauding clans of law and order. The government appear to have been ever ready to as- sume and justify every deed perpetrated under their THOMAS WILSON DORR. 219 own banner, and to extend their protecting batoon to every desperado who claimed the immunities of a royal charter ; and at last, amid all the accumulation of enor- mities, whilst the whole party staggered beneath the weight of their own guilt, their hands still reeking with the blood of an innocent victim, as if one more damning deed was requii'ed to cap the frightful climax, Mr. Dorr was seized and plunged into a dungeon for life. The overthrow of the people's government in Rhode Island by force, and the condemnation and imprisonment of Mr. Dorr, are acts that will ever stand condemned by all the friends of free government throughout the world. No great principle is better settled now than that the people themselves are above all constitutions, and may, in their own time and in their own way, make new constitutions, or abolish old ones. But we are asked. Why agitate the subject anew ? Why call up again the angry passions which have been hushed into repose ? To this we answer. The tendency of all free governments is towards aris- tocracy and monarchy. This is shown by all history, and is continually witnessed in the workings of our own governments. Men clothed with authority are extremely prone to overstep their constitutional limits, and to assume powers with which their constituents never intended to invest them. Wealth and profes- sional influence are always inclined to turn away from the people at large, and unite with honor and power however acquired. Ecclesiastical influence has almost always chosen to ally itself with political power. These facts remind us of the imperious necessity of keeping 220 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF the fundamental principles of our political institutions constantly before the public ; and we are more than ever impressed with the truth of the maxim, that " eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." It was because this great principle had been in a manner forgotten in Rhode Island, and by the national executive, that the strong arm of power was allowed to triumph over the people, and crush their institutions in the dust. In times of political quiet, when the government runs its smooth, monotonous course for many years, the people are ex- tremely liable to become supine and forgetful of the pillars upon which their civil and political institutions rest; and if the time shall ever come in the United States when these fundamental principles shall be dis- regarded or surrendered, this will no longer be a free government, but will belong to the same class of oli- garchies with which the old world is filled. Therefore it can never be amiss or out of season to agitate the subject, and keep it constantly before the people. It should form an essential part of the education of our youth, and be made the basis of all our political creeds. One generation should teach it to another, and they again to theirs, so that this life blood of political liberty may ever continue to circulate through all the Amer- ican institutions. This would keep the legislative pow- ers always in check, and make them careful to learn and do the will of the people ; for upon that, and that alone, depend the safety and permanency of our free institutions. The people are not likely to rebel against themselves ; and wherever treason has been supposed to be committed under an established government, it has THOMAS WILSON DORK. ^21 been a sure indication of some great wrong in the rul- ing power. The freest governments are always safe and stable when they exist by the known and voluntary consent of the great body of the people, and no gov- ernment is just, or can be long maintained, without force, v/hen such consent is withheld. ' This subject has been so thoroughly investigated, and its principles so well settled now, that it would not be advisable for any other state or any other chief magis- trate to attempt to try the experiment over again. If any should, they might find themselves overwhelmed in a resistless tide of public opinion, before which their combined forces would be no more than chaff before a driving gale. In a little more than half a century from the time when the American governments were founded upon the principle of popular sovereignty, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, that great truth which forms the palladium of all our political institutions was denied and set at nought in a sovereign state, and its everlasting truths declared to be nothing but " rhe- torical flourishes " and " glittering generaUties," of no lasting import. And all this transpired in a state which v/as the foremost of all the sisterhood in establishing both religious and political liberty, and most careful to guard her free institutions against the encroachments of arbitrary power ; a state which according to her abil- ity, did more than any other to estabhsh and maintain the true principles of American democracy ; a state illustrious alike for her heroes and her statesmen. But alas ! the fascinations of power at length ripened into 19* ^22 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP tyranny, and in an unfortunate hour freedom was over- thrown ! If there be one thing in the history of the Rhode Island controversy more humihating than an- other, it is the extraordinary obsequious sycophancy of a large class of citizens. They yielded too readily to the siren pleadings of the parasites of power, or shrank ingloriously from the threats of tyrants. In times of religious or political quiet, men live and die without exhibiting to the world their mental or moral powers, or even knowing them themselves. But when society becomes unsettled, . and its elements thrown into commotion, and shaken and tossed as with a mighty tempest, it requires a higher degree of moral integrity than falls to the lot of the mass of mankind to withstand the fury of opposing forces ; and when great truths are to be set up or sustained, those who take the lead in such movements must possess a degree of firm- ness and decision unknown to mankind in general. Such have been the lights of the world in all religious, political, and social reformations ; their iron wills were incapable of bending ; to them fear was unknown ; and regardless of all consequences to themselves, they have ever struggled with invincible perseverance in the paths which their consciences pointed out. Whilst thousands upon thousands have fallen out by the way, a few master spirits have reached the destined goal. Such men may be overcome or cast down by the power of tyrants, but the truths which they sought to establish, though '^crushed to earth, will rise again." When such men fall, their enemies are confounded, the pil- lars of bigotrv and error are shaken, light flashes upon THOMAS WILSON DORR. 223 the paths of truth and reason, and the final triumph of the great principles for which they contended is shad- owed forth. And when all the petty tyrants who tri- umphed over Mr. Dorr shall be wholly forgotten, his name shall occupy a conspicuous place in the temple of political liberty, never to be effaced or destroyed until the whole structure falls. When we review the nu- merous tragical scenes enacted in Rhode Island in that memorable controversy, we can hardly believe them ever to have been realities ; they look more like the distorted visions of a morbid imagination than sober truths ; they stand without a parallel in the United States, and it is confidently hoped they will ever remain so. Nor is there much danger that similar proceedings will ever transpire in any other state. Can it be sup- posed that if two thirds of the people of any one of the large states had, in a regular manner, deliberately formed and adopted a democratic constitution, the men- aces of any national executive would have frightened them from their purpose ? or that the friends of such a constitution could have been subdued by a petty tyranny under the pretext of martial law ? If it had been New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio, instead of the small State of Rhode Island, neither John Tyler nor any other chief magistrate would have rashly dashed his military forces against the people. 2M THB Mt'M AXS> I'lUm TIMES OF and if they proved recreant in the hour of trial, the people will see that he has stood fast by the principle of popular sovereignty, and will cherish his memory ac- cordingly. They know he has sacrificed the applause of many of his fellow-associates and townsmen, his early posi- tion in Rhode Island, and the smiles of fortune. In fine, he has sacrificed all but his honor — and the country will see that his reputation is cared for, and his course vindicated. — Boston Times. Resolution of the New Hampshire Legislature. — The committee of the New Hampshire legislature, to which was referred the governor's message on the late undignified answer returned by our legislature to the communication from that executive, reported the following resolution, which was adopted by that legisla- ture : — Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representa- tives in General Court convened, That the statements contained in the preamble and resolutions of the legis- lature of this state at its session in 1844, relating to the unjust and tyrannical treatment of Thomas Wilson Dorr by the authorities of Rhode Island are true ; that they are fully sustained by the evidence in the case, and by the records of the court before whom he was tried ; and that the Assembly of Rhode Island never can, by reso- lutions denunciatory of this or any other legislature, wipe out from the page of history the deep stain which must ever attach itself to that state, until full and com- plete justice be done to that much injured individual. — Republican Herald, July 4, 1845. Governor Dorr. — The friends of human rights must receive the announcement of Governor Dorr's release with unbounded joy ; they must hail it as an earnest of the onward march of the spirit of Liberty, THOMAS WILSON DORR. 275 and they must continue to animate and encourage their Rhode Island friends to the achievement of a still greater victory. Let the fiat go forth, — Governor Dorr's rights must be restored, — and the result will not disappoint the lovers of liberty and right. Up, then, freemen ! Sleep not, while a worthy and distin- guished citizen is denied the privileges guaranteed to every man by the great Magna Charta of our liberties. Governor Dorr will be restored — and by an Algerine legislature, too. It were too much for these narrow- hearted and selfish men to give him his Hberty and his rights together ; yet, we repeat, the same power which opened his prison doors a few days ago, will at another time restore him to his civil rights. Agitate, agitate — and all will be well. The stern sentiment of the de- mocracy must be respected. — Wayne County ( Ohio) Standard. A Visit to Governor Dorr. Pawtucket, JuUj 29, 1845. Mr. Editor : Yesterday, for the first time since the doors of the Rhode Island bastile grated upon their hinges, to usher once more into life and liberty the patriot Dorr, I had the pleasure of grasping that hand which would sway the sceptre of justice and mercy over all. And if my heart ever had cause to overflow with gratitude to the Disposer of all events for his goodness, it was when I was permitted to greet the noble martyr in the home of his childhood, where the loved scenes of his youth had so long mourned his absence, and where for months, ay, years, his voice had not echoed in the halls of his father. I found him surrounded with all the comforts and elegances which wealth or affection could bestow ; but, alas ! the richest treasure, health, was wanting, and his countenance and feeble step be- trayed disease and anguish of body, while his mind had been preserved in all its purity by a power higher than ^76 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF that which had so long aimed to destroy the noblest work of God. And as I contemplate that lofty brow upon which the eternal principles of truth and justice were written, I thought the man who could wish or inflict punishment upon one like him must have a kindred spirit with the demons of another world. (Signed,) A. E. H. Thomas W. Dorr. — - This persecuted pati'iot has received invitations from the democratic republican general committees of the cities of New York and Al- bany, to visit those cities, and unite with his democratic friends " in a public expression of gratitude to an over- ruling and all-wise Providence, for the recent triumph of the principles of our free institutions over brute force and party oppression, and of a just and irrepressible indignation in view of the abuse of political power, un- paralleled in the annals of civilized nations." Unfor- tunately the health of Mr. Dorr is so impaired by the petty tyranny and vengeful and dastardly cruelty of the Algerines of Rhode Island, as to prevent a compliance with the invitations of his friends ; but we hope that, once more enjoying liberty, and permitted to breathe the free air of heaven, he will soon be able to leave the polluted atmosphere of Rhode Island, and unite with his friends in the enjoyment of the unrestrained friendship of American democracy and the congratulations of freemen. — Hudson Gazette. Governor Dorr's Liberation. — Every real friend of liberty must rejoice, and every real friend of liberty does rejoice, in the liberation of Governor Dorr from the prison in which he has been confined by the con- temptible vindictiveness of the party which has ever been hostile to human rights. He is now that for which he ventured all to render his oppressed fellow- citizens, a freeman ; and if we may infer the future from THOMAS WILSON DORR. 277 the popular enthusiasm which greeted his restoration to liberty, he will receive, as an appendage to his freedom, the highest honors which a grateful and intellectual people can bestow. The work of reformation, which began with the election of Governor Jackson, has been well sustained by the liberation of Governor Dorr, and will, we trust, be worthily prosecuted by the election of Governor Dorr to the executive chair. — Philadelphia Ledger, (neutral.) Celebration at Philadelphia, July 4:th, 1845, by the Young Men's Democratic Association. Governor Dorr — A brave man ; a patriot of the revolutionary stamp ! Neither the threat of protracted imprisonment, nor the promise of liberation, could in- duce him to abandon the requisition of honor, or his determined adherence to equal rights. (Nine cheers.) Among the volunteer toasts were the following : — By E. W. C. Greene : — The liberation of Thomas W. Dorr — We hail it as another evidence of the prevalence of democratic sen- timents. (Nine cheers.) By the committee : — Thomas W. Dorr — A martyr to the great and incontrovertible principles so ably set forth in his senti- ment, so nobly contended for in his actions, and for which he has, like an indomitable patriot, so long and magnanimously suffered. We rejoice that this day, so dear to Americans and democrats, is not still desecrated bv the incarceration of one of the most devoted cham- pions of the rights and supremacy of the people. (Nine cheers.) The following is the letter of Governor Dorr, in reply to an invitation to attend the celebration : — 24 27S THE LIFE AND TIMES OF Providence, Juhj 2, 1845. Gentlemen: It has been wholly oat of my power, until the present moment, to acknowledge your friendly and gratifying letter of June 12, which conveys an invitation to take part in celebrating the anniversary of our national independence. It would give me great pleasure to join you on this occasion in renewing our accustomed tribute to the principles, the acts, and the men of the American revolution, and, in so doing, to strengthen our allegiance to the great cause of freedom, which has been bequeathed to the patriotism and vigi- lance of each succeeding generation. But, for reasons which you will duly appreciate, I shall not be able to avail myself of this opportunity for a social interview, and must propose the accompanying sentiment as a sub- stitute for my personal attendance. With the best wish for your success in advancing the objects of the association, I am very truly and re- spectfully your friend and fellow-citizen. (Signed,) Thomas W. Dorr. To Messrs. J. N. Cardozo, J. A. Stevens, and others, committee. The Declaration of American Independence — Al- ways true, and not merely designed for once to set forth a rhetorical enumeration of abstract, barren " belliger- ent " rights. The absolute supremacy of the people over their political institutions, is the primary vital doctrine of our democratic republic. It was sealed with the blood of the revolution. It was trampled upon in this state in 1843. It was avenged in the election of the present chief magistrate of the Union. It carries terror in its front only to tyrants. When it shall be obscured and lost, the people of this country will cease both to enjoy and to deserve the rights and blessings of a free gov- ernment. (Thirteen cheers.) Thomas W. Dorr. — Shouts of the democracy are THOMAS -WILSON DOKK. 279 heard in evezT portion of our land; and for what ? Se friend of^liberty, Thomas W Dorr, rs agam fee from the enclosure of the prison walls. The good men of the revolution opposed the Butish rlTTvi-prs of their own states. . 'Xm^! W. Dorr opposed a like charter of his own state Many of the former were imprisoned by the Brteh • the\xtter was also imprisoned by the lovers of ^'Siifor-the men of the revolution a.e em bdmed in glory. So will be the name of Governor Dorr ffis^grievous wrongs will be remembered ;_ his sr,ffein<.s can never be forgotten. Honest m principle a^ firm in purpose, he scorned the humiliating propo- tfon of his'persecutors, and chose a pnsoiier s Me rather than a dishonorable surrender of P""'^^? «• Jf/ people admired his integrity, and came to his rescue The spell of tyranny in Rhode Island isbroken. Its remnlnts may be felt for a season, but they a., crum- bling while the tree of liberty is growing freshly, ihe Jt "ngth of the tyrants, in death throes, -as spen upon Dorr? A stouter heart and firmer patriot could not have been selected among the sons of '^erty. Most nobly has he sustained his cause, keenly has he sut fered, and more proud is his triumph. He suffeied for princ pies near and dear to the people of this land , but not for himself. A base surrender of those principles on his part, would have saved him the pangs ofj prison cell. But he was not the man to make the sui- render, and happily in his case is the admirable saymg of Bryant verified - « Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise ''^The' people will do justice to the man and his piin- ciples While those who have attempted to blacken ^character and crush him are sinkiiig "^to disgi.ce Thomas W. Dorr will rise to distmction. ilie glatt shoTof freemen, at his release are welcome to every son of liberty. — Hartford Times. 280 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTER XVIII. . AN ACT OF THE KHODE ISLAND LEGISLATURE TO RE- VERSE AND ANNUL THE JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT AGAINST MR. DORR. It may be presumed that the court which pronounced sentence upon Mr. Dorr seriously expected he would suffer its unmitigated rigor, and dole out the remainder of his life in that horrible sarcophagus to which that decree consigned him, and that the records of their own supreme tribunal would stand unimpeached and undisturbed to testify against him forever. A few fleet- ing years passed, and a mighty change came over their mad vision. Public opinion not only set their victim at liberty, but justified and applauded his conduct, and, finally, expunged the foul stain which his enemies had cast upon his name, and converted the records of that court into perpetual testimony against itself, as the fol- lowing preamble and enactment of the Rhode Island legislature show. An Act to reverse and annul the Judgment of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island for Treason, ren- dered against Thomas W. Dorr, June 25, A. D. 1844. Whereas the General Assembly of this state hath from time to time exercised the powers conferred upon THOMAS WILSON DORR. 281 it by tlie charter of King Charles the Second, *^'to alter, reverse, annul, or pardon, under their common seal or otherwise, such fines, mulcts, imprisonments, sentences, judgments, and condemnations as shall be thought fit: " And whereas the same powers were continued to the General Assembly under the existing constitution of this state by the terms thereof, which provide " that the General Assembly shall continue to exercise the powers they have heretofore exercised, unless prohib- ited by this constitution .• " and by the provision that ^^ the Supreme Court established by this constitution shall have the same jurisdiction as the Supreme Judi- cial Court " theretofore existing : And whereas an alleged political offence, for which a judgment hath been rendered in favor of the state, may in certain cases furnish a proper occasion for the exercise of such high powers : And whereas upon the trial of Thomas Wilson Dorr for the alleged crime of treason, there was an improper and illegal return of jurors in this, that one hundred and seven jurors from one political party were design- edly selected by the sheriff, in part with the aid and assistance of persons acting in behalf of the state, and only one juror from the other political party, and the accused was tried in a county other than that in which the alleged offence was committed and in which he resided, and he was allowed but two days with any, and but a few hours with some of the panel of jurors in which to inquire as to their disqualifications or obtain proof thereof, and was not allowed, after the peremp- tory challenge of several such jurors, and after obtain- ing proof of such disqualifications, to withdraw said peremptory challenges, and to challenge said jurors for cause, or to have a new trial in consequence thereof: And whereas the court denied the jury the right to pass upon questions of law, though said court had 24* 2S2 THE LIFE AND TIMES OP' previously, in accordance with tlie common law, held that the jury might in criminal cases " take upon them- selves the responsibility of deciding questions of law ; " and the accused was not allowed to show in justifica- tion or in explanation of his motives or intent, that he acted under a constitution which had been adopted by a large majority of the people of the state, and an elec- tion under the same as governor of the state, and in accordance with what he deemed to be his right and duty in consequence thereof : And whereas the said Thomas Wilson Dorr was thereby wrongfully convicted : And whereas it is desirable for the best interests of this state that the wro72g& thereby inflicted upon said Dorr, and upon the people of the state, should be re- dressed, and that the animosities created by the civil commotions which preceded and accompanied said trial should cease and determine : And whereas it has been the custom of our English forefathers, (but for which there hath been happily no occasion heretofore in the history of this country,) whenever judgments for trea.son have been thus ille- gally and wrongfully obtained, to reverse by act of Parliament such judgments, and to direct, to- the end that justice be done to those who have been thus con- victed, that the records thereof be cancelled or de- stroyed : It is enacted hy the General Assembly as follows : — Section 1. The judgment of the Supreme Courts whereby Thomas Wilson Dorr, of Providence, on the twenty-fifth day of June, A. D. 1844, w^as sentenced to imprisonment for life, at hard labor., in separate con- finement, is hereby repealed, reversed, annulled, and declared in all respects to be as if it had never been rendered. Sec. 2. To the end that riG'ht be done to the said THOMAS WILSON DORR. ^83 Thomas Wilson Dorr, the clerk of the Supreme Court for the county of Newport is hereby directed to write across the face of the record of said judgment the words, " Reversed and annulled by order of the Gen- eral Assembly, at their January session, A. D. 1854." Sec. S. The secretary of state" is hereby directed to transmit a copy of this act to each of the governors of the several states, and to the Congress of the United States. Sec. 4. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. This act passed at the January session, 1854, It was evident at that time that Mr. Dorr was declining, and could not long survive, and it is not supposed that he regarded the measure with much interest. If his persecutors were disposed to acknowledge their own guilt, he could have no objection ; but for himself, he humbly confided in a higher and purer tribunal. Yet he might have looked upon this legislative act as an in- dication of that universal condemnation which the world would pass upon his enemies. 284 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHAPTEK XIX. It does not come within our province at this time to present the reader with a complete biography of Mr. Dorr, and, after the history which has ah'eady been given of that poUtical controversy in which he so largely participated, every one must have become ac- quainted with the most prominent traits in his charac- ter. We have not intended unnecessarily to invade the sacred province of his private life, or to rush un- bidden into the domestic circle ; but we hold that the public character of every man is public property, and liable at all times to be examined and judged of. Our chief object in the present case is to place the motives and conduct of Mr. Dorr in their true light before the public, and to show that the cause in which he was engaged, and to which he sacrificed so much, was a just and righteous cause, and that, through all his reverses, he ever maintained his unflinching fidelity. We are aware that his memory needs no eulogium from us, and that the shafts of his enemies will finally crumble to dust beneath the immortal mound with which time will mark his history ; yet, for the satisfaction of such of our readers as may be wholly unacquainted with his THOMAS WILSON DORR. 285 jH-ivate life, it seems pro2:)er that we should give a brief sketch of his early history. Thomas Wilson Dorr was born in the town of Prov- idence and State of Khode Island, November 5, 1805. His parents were among the most wealthy and respect- able citizens, and their numerous connections comprised a very considerable portion of the prominent flimilies of the place at that time. It does not belong to us to give a history of his early life ; we will, therefore, pass it over with a single remark. The same nice sense of right and wrong, and the same scrupulous regard for truth, which marked the boyhood of George Washing- ton, marked also the early character of Thomas Wilson Dorr; and the history of his life shows that he main- tained that integrity with equal fidelity. His father being wealthy, no pains or expense was spared in his . education. His preliminary studies were pursued at I Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, and at the age of fourteen he entered Harvard College, where he grad- uated with much honor in 1823, being the second in his class. \ Soon after his graduation he commenced the study of law, and spent two years in the city of New York under the tuition of Chancellor Kent and Vice Chan- cellor M'Coun. He afterwards returned to his native i city, and made himself thoroughly acquainted with the ^ laws of his own state, under the instruction of some i of her ablest jurists. It is presumed that no yoimg ' man, either before or since, ever came to the bar in Rhode Island better qualified, or with more flattering S86 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF prospects. Irreproachable in morals, urbane in his manners, and mild and unassuming in all his inter- course, he deserved and received the respect and esteem of all with whom he associated ; and it is said, that in his professional practice he ever maintained the same undeviating integrity which marked the character of his whole life. As an advocate he was not brilliant ; yet his arguments were clear, forcible, and convincing. But we cannot give a history of his professional career, because it is with his public life that we are chiefly con- cerned : yve wish to show that Mr. Dorr did not rashly and ignorajitly rush into the political arena. Perhaps no man in Rhode Island had a more thorough or more polished education, or better understood the true prin- ciples of American jurisprudence. From 1834 to 183T he represented the city of Providence in the General Assembly, and also at other times held many important offices ; and if he had been less honest and more ambi- tious, he might easily have obtained the highest office in the gift of the people of that state. His family and its aristocratic connections placed him in the highest class, and posts of honor and power seemed to beckon him to their embrace. But when he looked abroad among mankind, and surveyed the great inequality which every where obtained, — when he beheld one class, by the mere accident of wealth or position, control and oppress those who were less fortunate, but not less worthy, — a spirit of philanthopy overcame all his ambi- tious aspirations, and he became devoted to the inter- ests of the oppressed. He saw a large portion of the citizens of his own state actually outlawed and deprived THOMAS WILSON DORE. 287 of all their political rights by the arbitrary acts of un- authorized legislation. * He resolved to forego his own individual interests, and exert himself in behalf of his disfranchised fellow-citizens. He. made their cause his cause, and determined to stand or fall with it. We have given the reader the outlines of that eventful struggle which followed, and have shown that a large portion of that same oppressed people, for want of courage and fidelity, abandoned their own cause, and became leagued with their oppressors. Cowardice and treachery united with the bayonet to crush the people and overthrow their leaders ; but no human power was able to subdue Mr. Dorr. He had embarked in a right- eous cause, and no reverses could damp his ardor or divert him from his purpose. His enemies did, indeed, deprive him of his liberty, and consign him to a felon's cell ; but in so doing they exhibited in him a most ex- traordinary example of magnanimous fidelity. In his early life, Mr. Dorr manifested the most deli- cate sense of moral obligations ; this governed all his subsequent life ; he was ever the most precise and punctual of all men ; there was nothing but truth in himself, and he expected to find it in all others ; conse- quently he thought too well of the world, and confided far too much in professions and promises. To one pos- sessed of a less degree of moral integrity the perfidy of others might have been less unexpected and less painful. But when his intercourse with the world had taught him its fickleness and its treachery, — when he saw those in whom he had reposed entire confidence become his enemies and persecutors, and came to reflect upon ^^OO THE LIFE AXD T1ME3 OF the injustice and infidelity with which he had been met, he became, in a measure, misanthropic ; and although he still greeted his friends with as much warmth as ever, yet he became distrustful of all the world beside, and disinclined to mingle in society at large. In all his domestic habits, Mr. Dorr was strictly and rigidly temperate, and his social intercourse was ever marked with those becoming courtesies and amenities which betoken a highly cultivated and refined taste, and before the political storm burst upon him he had few or no enemies, and it might at first appear some- what surprising that one whose whole conduct was so respectful and courteous should so suddenly have so many and so bitter enemies ; but this is readily accounted for when we consider that in political controversies there is always a large class of men who have no fixed principles of their own, but follow the lead of political weathercocks, as momentary interest or inclination may dictate. As soon as it was ascertained that the president of the United States would sustain the charter govern- ment with the national troops, hundreds upon hundreds, in quick succession, abandoned the cause of the people, and rushed boldly to the standard of law and order ; and many, who but a short time before were among the most ardent supporters of the people's constitution, now became suddenly incensed against Dorr and his party, and often prided themselves upon their political prow- ess, and vied with each other in acts of violence and injustice. After careful inquiry and mature deliberation, Mr. Dorr adopted the course which his conscience approved, and no dangers or difficulties could turn him THOMAS WILSON DORR. 289 aside from his purpose. When the weak and irresokite had fallen by the way, and his enemies had overcome and scattered abroad nearly all those on whom he had relied for support, he remained firm and unmoved. He stood erect and alone, and defied the storms like a majestic oak in the midst of a forest which had been prostrated by some wild tornado— and there his char- acter will stand through all coming ages, and ever grow brighter as time rolls on. It is not pretended that Mr. Dorr was free from the errors, imperfections, and infirmities common to all men. His moral sensibilities led him into mistakes; he thought too well of the world, and his standard of ethics was fixed too high for practical purposes ; he chose to consider men as they ought to be rather than as they really are. He was no shrewd calculator, and had too Httle selfishness to deal with mankind to his own benefit; but instead of taking advantage of the errors and mistakes of other men, he nobly sought to benefit them by correcting their own mistakes. If he had been false to his own convictions and the interests of his fellow-men, wrapped up in his own selfishness, he might have cast himself upon the swelling tide of popularity, and rode fearlessly upon its proudest^crests ; fanned by the breezes of popular favor, he might have basked securely in its glowing sunshine, and mocked the complaints of the people. Sitting complacently upon an eminence, where fortune had placed him, he might have beheld, with a haughty indifference, all the petty storms that should rage around him. But nothing could induce him, sacrilegiously, to violate his own con- 25 290 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF science ; liis aspirations were of a higher and nobler nature ; he sought not to exalt himself, but to elevate the masses, to add his strength to their weakness, and restore the down-trodden to their just position in society. By uniting with the suffrage party he had nothing to gain for himself, but every thing to lose. Wealth, with its gaudy trappings, he despised ; he listened reverently to the teachings of his own conscience, and looked with contempt upon empty and transitory popu- larity. He offered his best services to his fellow- men, not to gain any thing for himself, but to benefit them ; and in his fall he shared the fate common to men of great mental powers and moral courage. It is worthy of remark, that the same class of men who resisted Mr. Dorr and the people of Rhode Island, in 1842, supported the notorious Hartford Convention, in 1812. His most bitter enemies belonged to that same old party, and in some instances were the very same individuals who once sat in that nocturnal con- clave. And, indeed, we might go farther back, and show that men of the same political character that opposed Washington, Greene, Adams, and Jefferson, when the American people were strugglijig against the tyranny of Great Britain, opposed Mr. Dorr and the people of Khode Island, when they were struggling .against the tyranny of their own state, maintained under the pretext of a British charter. The disease of which Mi\ Dorr died was Chronic Pemphigus. This affection is not so common in this country as in some others, yet when it has made its appearance here, in adult subjects, we believe it has THOMAS WILSON DORR. 291 generally been induced or matured by confinement in damp or unwholesome situations. Mr. Dorr was imprisoned, in all, twenty months.! During his exile, and previous to his arrest in Provi- dence, he was constantly and anxiously engaged in phys- ical and intellectual exercises ; and, again, during his long harassing trial at Newport, in consequence of the illness of his principal advocate, he was obliged to labor incessantly in conjunction with his remaining counsel, in the management of his defence. The whole case was a novel one. He was compelled to take his trial among strangers, before a court whose every word and act evinced hostility towards him, and the most implacable of his enemies stood around, thirsting for his blood — they knew not why. Under all these embarrassing and heart-rending circumstances, he labored day and night in conducting his defence, and reporting the trial; and as soon as that judicial farce was over, he was immediately thrust into a filthy dun- geon, whose damp, sepulchral atmosphere was pregnant with death. As a stream suddenly dammed up soon recoils upon itself, so the confinement of Mr. Dorr shocked and deranged his system ; and although he was somewhat relieved for a time, by being allowed to walk in the corridor, yet the bad air of his prison cell, and the want of cheerful exercise, continued to exert their morbid influence upon him during the whole period of his incarceration, and at the moment of his liberation it was evident that his protracted imprisonment had wrought -fearful changes in his physical system. The muscles had lost their tone, the hepatic and chylopoietic 292 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF viscera had become seriously deranged, and a Chronic Pemphigus supervened, under which he finally sank. There are few individuals who can long endure soli- tary imprisonment. In general, it is equivalent to a lingering death. The stillness of the grave creeps over the isolated victim encased within cold stone walls, and life goes out by solitary extinction. Mr. Dorr's bodily organization, his social and domestic habits, were illy adapted to such a condition, and if his confinement had been continued much longer he would doubtless have expired in prison. Although he was severely indis- posed at the time of his liberation, yet his friends in- dulged the fond hope that when he came to be released from that dark and noisome cell, and allowed to breathe pure air and take proper exercise, he might regain his health ; but they were disappointed. Not- withstanding every reasonable effort was made to im- prove his condition, he continued steadily to decline. By confinement his system had suffered irreparable morbid changes, and no human means could stay their progress. He bore his severe sufferings with his char- acteristic fortitude, and at last calmly sunk beneath the weight of his infirmities. He died in the city of Provi- dence, Dec. 27, 1854, aged forty-nine years. Being of Episcopal parentage, he was early initiated as a member of that church, and he continued steadfast in that faith to his last hour. At his request, a few days before his death, the Rev. Mr. Waterman, rector of St. Stephen's Church in Providence, gave him the sacrament. He died as he had lived, with an abiding confidence in the truths of Christianity. THOMAS WILSON! DORR. 293 Let those who are disposed to impugn his motives and asperse his character, first cleanse their own gar- ments and cast the beams out of their own eyes, and then, if they can, they may proceed to point out the dark spots in his • character. The selfish, unthinking multitude may not recognize in him any unusual de- gree of moral fidelity ; it is by close examination and deep reflection that his character is best understood. As no one but an artist can judge so correctly of the beauty of a piece of sculpture or painting, so none but those possessed of high moral attainments themselves can fully appreciate the prominent traits in the char- acter of Mr. Dorr. But when that time does come, as come it must, when the prejudice against him, with all its bitterness and hatred, shall have fully passed away, mankind will see in him one of the most extraordinary examples of virtuous fidelity which the history of the world affords. 2o* APPENDIX. CHARTER OF 1643, GRANTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT, The following is the first charter to the people of Rhode Island, incorporating them ^^by the name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Nar- ragansett Bay in New England, ^^ granted under the authority of the Parliament of England, in 1643, giving them *^ full power and authority to govern and rule themselves, ^^ &c. Whereas by an Ordinance of y* Lords and Comons now assembled in Parliament bearing date the 2d day of November Anno Dom. 1643. Robert Earlle of Warwick is constituted & ordained Governor in Chief & Lord high Admiral of all thos Islands and other Plantations inhabited and planted by or belonging to any of his Majesties y^ King of England subjects (or ■w^^ hereafter may be inhabited and planted by or be- longing to them) w^^^^ y® bounds and upon y* Coasts of America, And whereas y® said Lords & Comons have thought fitt and thereby ordained, y* Phillipp Earle of Pembroke, Edward Earle of Manchester, William Vicont Say and Scale, Phillipp Lord Whorton, John Lord Roberts, Inembers of y® house of Peers, Sir Gilbert Garard, barrenct, Sir Arthur Helsrigge, Ban^^net, Sir Henry Vaune Junior Knight, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, (296) 29b ArFKKmx. Knight, John Pirn, Oliver Cromwell, Dennis Bondr Miles Corbett, Cornelius Holland, Sammuell Vasseli^ John Rolle and William Spitrstowe, Esquirese members- of y* house of Comons, should be Commissioners to joyne in aide & assistance w*^ y® said Earle. And whereas for the better governing & preserving of y* said Plantations it is thereby ordained, y* the aforesaid Govern'^' and comm'^^ or y® greater number of them shall have power and authority from time to time^. to nominate, appoint, & constitute, all such subordinat Go-vern''* Counselors, Commanders, officers, and agents^ as they shall judge to be best affected, and most fitt and serviceable to g^overn y® said Islands & Plantations, and to provid for, ordere, & dispose all things w^^ they shall from time to time find most iitt arid advantageouse for y® said Plantation, and for the better security of y® owners & inhabitants thereof to Assine ratify & con- firme, soe much of their afore mentioned a;uthority & power, and in such manner, & to such Parsons, as they shall Judge to be fitt, for y*^ better Governing & pre- serving of y® said Plantations & Islands from open, violence, prejudice,^ disturbance and distractions. And whereas their is a tract of Land in y*' Continent of America aforesaid called by y® name of y* Naragansett Bay, bordering North and Northest on the -Patten of y^ Massechusetts, East & Southeast on Plymouth Patten, south on y^ oation, and on y^ weast and Northweast By Indians called Nahoggansucks alias Narragansetts ; y^^ whole tract extending about twenty and five English miles, into y® Pecut river and Country, and whereas divers well affected and industrious English Inhabitants of y® Townes of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport^ in the tract aforesaid, have adventured to make a nearer neighborhood & sosiaty to & w*''' y® great body of the Narragansetts w^'^' may in time by y® blessing of GOD upon their endeavours lay a surer foundation of happi- ness to all America^ & have also purcha,sed, & are pur- Ai'rExl)ix. ^97 cLasing of & amonst y" said Natives, some otlicr places ■vv*^^ may be convenient both for plantation, and also for Building of shipps, supply of pipe staves, & otliei* Marchandice ; And whereas y^ said English have repre- sented their desires to y® said Earle and Comm^^ to have their hopeful beginnings approved and contirmed by granting unto y™ a free charter of civel incorpora- tion and Gouvornment, y* they may order and govern their plantations, in such manner as to maintain justice, & peace both amongst themselves and towards almen, ■vyth whom they shall have to doe ; In due consideration of y® Premises y*^ said Robert Earle of Warwick Gov- er'^'' in Chiefe, Lord High Admirall of y^ said Planta- tions, and y« greater Number of y^ said Commissionours^ whose names and seales are her under written and sub- joyned out of a desire to incourage y^ good beginnings of y® said Plantations, doe by y*" authority of y^ afore- said ordinance of Lords & comons give grant & confirm to y® aforesaid Inhabitants of y^ Towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, a free and absolute Charter, of civel incorporation, to be known, by y^ name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations, in the Narra- ganset bay in New England, together w^^ full power and authority, to Govern and rule themselves, and such others as shall hereaftere inhabitt w^^'" any part of y^ said tract of Land by such a forme of Civel Govef'"'* as by voluntary consent of all or y^ greatest part of th"" shall be found most serviceable in their Estates and con- dition and to that end, to make and ordain such civel Laws and constitutions and to inflict such Punish™*^ uppon transgressors and for execution thereof soe to place & displace. Officers of Justice, as they or y® greatest part of y™ shall by free consent agree unto — Provided nevertheless y' y® said Laws, Constitutions and Punishments for y^ civell Govern™^ of y*^ said Plan- tation be conformable to y*^ Lawes of England, soe farre as y® nature Sc Constitution of y^ place will admitt ; 298 APPENDIX. And always reserving to y® said Earle and Comm^ and there successors power and authority soe to dispose y® General Gover™* of y*^ as it stands in refferance to y® rest of y® Plantations in America, as they shall commis- sionate from time to time most conducing to y^ Generall good of y® said Plantations, y*^ Honour of his Magisty, & y® sarvice of this State, and y^ said Earll & Comm^"^ doe further authorice y^ aforesaid Inhabitants, for y® better transacting of there Publique affaires to make and use a Publique seale as y® knowne seale of Provi- dence Plantations in y^ Narragansetts Bay in New England, in Testimony whereof y^ said Pobert Earle of Warwick & comm^^ have hereunto set there hands and scales y® seventeenth day of March y® nineteenth year of y^ Paine of our Soveraine Lord King Charles and in y^ yeare of our Lord GOD 1643. EGBERT WARWICK. Phillip Pembrook, Say & Seale, P. Whartone, Ar- thur Helsrige, Cor. Holland, Hen. Vane, Sam Vassell, John Rool, Miles Corbet. CHARTER GRANTED BY KING CHARLES 11. Charles, the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting : Whereas we have been informed by the humble petition of our trusty and well-beloved subject, John Clarke, on the behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, Wil- liam Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gor- ton, John Weeks, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Holdcn, John Greene, John Roomc, Samuel APPENDIX. S99 Wildbore, William Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and free inhabitants of our island, called Rhode Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in America, that they, pursuing, with peaceable and loyal minds, their sober, serious, and religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves, and one another, in the holy Christian faith and worship, as they were persuaded ; together with the gaining over and conversion of the poor ignorant Indian natives, in those parts of America, to the sincere profession and obedience of the same faith and worship, did, not only by the consent and good encouragement of our royal progenitors, transport them- selves out of this kingdom of England into America, but also, since their arrival there, after their first settle- ment amongst other our subjects in those parts, for the avoiding of discord, and those many evils which were likely to ensue upon some of those our subjects not being able to bear, in these remote parts, their different apprehensions in religious concernments, and, in pur- suance of the aforesaid ends, did once again leave their desirable stations and habitations, and with excessive labor and travel, hazard and charge, did transplant themselves into the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, are the most potent princes and people of all that country ; where, by the good Provi- dence of God, from whom the Plantations have taken their name, upon their labor and industry, they have not only been preserved to admiration, but have in- creased and prospered, and are seized and possessed, by purchase and consent of the said natives, to their full content, of such lands, islands, rivers, harbors and roads, as are very convenient, both for plantations, and also for building of ships, supply of pipe staves, and other merchandise : and which lie very commodious, in many respects, for commerce, and to accommodate our SOO APPENDIX. southern plantations, and may much advance the trade of this our realm, and greatly enlarge the territories thereof; they having, by near neighborhood to and friendly society with the great body of the Narragansett Indians, given them encouragement, of their own "ac- cord, to subject themselves, their people, and lands unto us ; whereby, as is hoped, there may, in time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, be laid a sure foundation of happiness to all America : and whereas, in their humble address, they have freely declared, that it is much on their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourish- ing civil state may stand and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full hberty in religious concernments ; and that true piety, rightly grounded upon gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty : Now know ye, that we, being willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking of our said loyal and loving sub- jects, and to secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their civil and religious rights, apper- taining to them as our loving subjects ; and to preserve unto them that liberty, in the true Christian faith and worship of God, which they have sought with so much travail, and with peaceable minds, and loyal subjection to our royal progenitors and ourselves, to enjoy : and because some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their private opinions, conform to the public exercise of religion, according to the liturgy, forms, and ceremonies of the Church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made and estab- lished in that behalf ; and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of those places, will (as we hope) be no breach of the unity and uniformity estab- lished in this nation : Have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, ordain, and declare, that our APPENDIX. 301 royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said col- ony ; but that all and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others ; any law, statute, or clause, therein contained, or to be contained, usage or custom of this realm, to the con- trary hereof, in any wise, notwithstanding. And that they may be in the better capacity to defend themselves, in their just rights and liberties, against all the enemies of the Christian faith, and others, in all respects, we have further thought fit, and, at the humble petition of the persons aforesaid, are graciously pleased to declare, that they shall have and enjoy the benefit of our late act of indemnity and free pardon, as the rest of our subjects in other our dominions and territories have ; and to create and make them a body politic or corporate, w^th the powers and privileges hereinafter mentioned. And accordingly our will and pleasure is, and of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, we have ordained, constituted, and declared, and by these presents, for us, our heirs, and successors, do ordain, constitute, and declare, that they, the said Wil- liam Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, Benedict Arnold, William Boulston, John Porter, Sam- uel Gorton, John Smith, John Weeks, Eoger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Jo- seph Clarke, Randall Holden, John Greene, John Roome, William Dyre, Samuel Wildbore, Richard Tew, 26 302 APPENDIX. William Field, Thomas Harris, James Barker, -— Rainsborrow, — Williams, and John Nickson, and all such others as now are, or hereafter shall be, ad- mitted and made free of the company and society of our colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narra- gansett Bay, in New England, shall be, from time to time, and forever hereafter, a body corporate and pol- itic, in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in Amer- ica ; and that, by the same name, they and their suc- cessors shall and may have perpetual succession, and shall and may be persons able and capable, in the law, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to an- swer and be answered unto, to defend and to be de- fended, in all and singular suits, causes, quarrels, mat- ters, actions, and things, of what kind or nature soever; and also to have, take, possess, acquire, and purchase lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any goods or chattels, and the same to lease, grant, demise, aliene, bargain, sell, and dispose of, at their own will and pleasure, as other our liege people of this our realm of England, or any corporation or body politic within the same, may lawfully do. And further, that they, the said Governor and Company, and their successors, shall and may, forever hereafter, have a common seal, to serve and use for all matters, causes, things, and affairs, whatsoever, of them and their successors ; and the same seal to alter, change, break, and make new, from time to time, at their will and pleasure, as they shall think fit. And further, we will and ordain, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do de- clare and appoint that, for the better ordering and man- aging of the affairs and business of the said company, and their successors, there shall be one governor, one deputy governor, and ten assistants, to be from time to time constituted, elected, and chosen out of the freemen APPENDIX. 303 of the said Company for the time being, in such manner and form as is hereafter in these presents expressed ; which said officers shall apply themselves to take care for the best disposing and ordering of the general business and affairs of and concerning the lands and hereditaments hereinafter mentioned to be granted, and the plantation thereof, and the government of the peo- ple there. And, for the better execution of our royal pleasure herein, we do, for us, our heirs and successors, assign, name, constitute, and appoint the aforesaid Ben- edict Arnold to be the first and present governor of the said Company, and the said William Brenton to be the deputy governor, and the said William Boulston, John Porter, Roger WilUams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, to be the ten present assistants of the said Company, to continue in the said several offices, respectively, until the first Wednesday which shall be in the month of May now next coming. And further, we will, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do ordain and grant that the gov- ernor of the said Company for the time being, or, in his absence, by occasion of sickness, or otherwise, by his leave and permission, the deputy governor for the time being, shall and may, from time to time, upon all occasions, give order for the assembling of the said Company and calling them together, to consult and ad- vise of the business and affairs of the said Company. And that forever hereafter, twice in every year — that is to say, on every first AVednesday in the month of May, and on every last Wednesday in October, or oftener in case it shall be requisite, — the assistants and such of the freemen of the said Company, not exceed- ing six persons for Newport, four persons for each of the respective towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, and two persons for each other place, town, or city, who shall be, from time to time, thereunto 304 APPENDIX. elected or deputed by the major part of the freemen of the respective towns or places for which they shall be so elected or deputed, shall have a general meeting or assembly, then and there to consult, advise, and deter- mine in and about the affairs and business of the said Company and Plantations. And further, we do, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, give and grant unto the said Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America, and their successors, that the governor, or, in his absence, or by his permission, the deputy governor of the said Com- pany, for the time being, the assistants, and such of the freemen of the said Company as shall be so as afore- said elected or deputed, or so many of them as shall be present at such meeting or assembly as aforesaid, shall be called the General Assembly ; and that they, or the greatest part of them present, whereof the governor, or deputy governor, and six of the assistants, at least to be seven, shall have, and have hereby given and granted unto them, full power and authority, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, to appoint, alter, and change such days, times, and places of meeting and General Assembly as they shall think fit ; and to choose, nominate^ and appoint such and so many other j)ersons as they shall think jit, and shall be willing to accept the same, to he free of the said, Company and body politic, and them into the same to admit ; and to elect and con- stitute such offices and officers, and to grant such needful commissions, as they shall think fit and re- quisite for the ordering, managing, and despatching of the affairs of the said Governor and Company and their successors ; and, from time to time, to make, ordain, constitute, or repeal such laws, statutes, orders, and or- dinances, forms and ceremonies of government and ma- gistracy, as to them shall seem meet, for the good and welfare of the. said Company, and for the government A.PPENDIX. 505 and -ordeiing of the lands and hereditaments hereinafter mentioned to be granted, and of the people that do, or at any time hereafter shall, inhabit or be within the same ; so as such laws, ordinances, and constitutions so made be not contrary and repugnant unto, but as near as may be, agreeable to the laws of this our realm of England, considering the nature and constitution of the place and people there, and also to appoint, order and direct, erect and settle, such places and courts of jurisdiction, for the hearing and determining of all actions, cases, matters, and things happening within the said colony and plantation, and which shall be in dis- pute and depending there, as they :shall think fit ; and also to distinguish and set forth the several names and titles, duties, powers, and limits of each court, office, and officer, superior and inferior ; and also to contrive and appoint such forms of oaths and attestations, not repugnantp but, as near as may be, agreeable, as afore- said, to the laws and statutes of this our realm, as are convenient and req^uisite, with respect to the due ad- ministration of justice and due execution and discharge of all offices and places of trust by the persons that shall be therein concerned ; and also to regulate and order the way and manner of all elections to offices and places of trust, and to prescribe, limit, and distinguish the numbers and bounds of all places, towns, or cities, within the lim- its and bounds hereinafter mentioned, and not herein par- ticularly named, who have, or shall have, the power of electing and sending of freemen to the said General As- sembly ; and also to order, dii*ect, and authorize the im- posing of lawful and reasonable fines, mulcts, imprison- ments, and executing other punishments, pecuniary and corporal, upon offenders and delinquents, according to the course of other corporations within this our kingdom of England ; and again to alter, revoke, annul, or par- don, under their common seal, or otherwise, such fines, mulcts, imprisonments, sentences, judgments, and con- 26* 306 APPEXMX. demnations, as sliall be thought fit ; and to direct, rule, order,, and dispose of all other matters and things, and particularly that which relates to the making of pur- chases of the native Indians, as to them shall seem meet ; whereby our said people and inhabitants in the said Plantations may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed,, as that, by their good life and orderly conversation, they may win and invite the native In- dians of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind ; willing,, commanding, and requiring, and by these presents, for us, our heirs, and successors, ordaining and appointing that all such laws, statutes, orders, and ordinances, in- structions, impositions, and directions, as. shall be so made by the governor, deputy gc/vernory assistants, and freemen, or such number of them as aforesaid, and published in writing, under their common seal, shall be carefully and duly observed, kept, performed, and put in execution, accordingr to the true intent and meaninsr of the same. , And these our letters patent, or the du- plicate or exemplification thereof, shall be to all and every such ofiicer,, superior or inferior, from time to time, for the putting of the same orders, laws, statutes^ ordinances, instructions, and directions, in due execu- tion^ against us, our heirs and successors, a sufficient warrant and discharge. And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby, for us, our heirs, and successors,, establish and ordain,, that yearly, once in the year, forever, hereafter, namely,, the aforesaid Wednes- day in May, and at the town of Newport,, or elsewhere, if urgent occasion do require, the governor, deputy governor, and assistants of the said Company, and other officers of the said Company, or such of them as the General Assembly shall think fit,, shall be, in the said General Court or Assembly to be held from that day or time, newly chosen for the year ensuing, by such greater part of the said Company^ for the time beings ArriiNDix. 307 as shall be then and there pi-esent ; and if it shall hap- pen that the present governor, deputy governor, and assistants, by these presents appointed, or any such as shall hereafter be newly chosen into their rooms, or any of them, or any other the officers of the said Company, shall die or be removed from his or their several offices or places, before the said general day of election, (whom we do hereby declare, for any misdemeanor or default, to be removable by the governor, assistants, and Company, or such greater part of them, in any of the said public courts, to be assembled as aforesaid,) that then, and in every such case, it shall, and may be law- ful to and for the said governor, deputy governor, assistants, and Company aforesaid, or such greater part of them, so as to be assembled as is aforesaid, in any their assemblies, to proceed to a new election of one or more of their Company, in the room or place, rooms or places, of such officer or officers, so dying, removed, according to their discretions ; and immediately upon and after such election or elections made of sufch governor, deputy governor, assistant, or assistants, or any other officer of the said Company, in manner and form afore- said, the authority, office, and power, before given to the former governor, deputy governor, and other officer and officers, so removed, in wdiose stead and place new shall be chosen, shall, as to him and them, and every of them, respectively, cease and determine : Provided always, and our will and pleasure is, that as well such as are by these presents appointed to be the present governor, deputy governor, and assistants, of the said Company, as those that shall succeed them, and all other officers to be appointed and chosen as aforesaid, shall, before the undertaking the execution of the said offices and places respectively, give their solemn engagement, by oath, or otherwise,, for the due and faithful performance of their duties in their several offices and places, before such person or persons as are by these presents hereafter 308 APPENDIX. appointed to take and receive the same^ that is to say : the said Benedict Arnold, who is hereinbefore nomi- nated and appointed the present governor of the said Company^ shall give the aforesaid engagement before William Brenton, or any two of the said assistants of the said Company ; unto whom we do by these presents give full power and authority to require and receive the same ; and the said William Brenton, who is hereby before nominated and appointed the present deputy governor of the said Company, shall give the aforesaid engagement before the said Benedict Arnold, ©r any two of the assistants of the said Company ; and unto whom we do by these presents give full power and authority to require and receive the same ; and the said William Boulston, John Porter, Koger Williams, Thomas 01- ney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, who are hereinbefore nominated and appointed the present assistants of the said Company, shall give the said engagement to their offices and places re- spectively belonging, before the said Benedict Arnold and William Brenton, or one of them ; to whom respectively we do hereby give full power and author- ity to require, administer, or receive the same : and further, our will and pleasure is, that all and every other future governor or deputy governor, to be elected and chosen by virtue of these presents, shall give the said engagement before two or more of the said assist- ants of the said Company for the time being; unto whom we do by these presents give full power and authority to require, administer, or receive the same : and the said assistants, and every of them, and all and every other officer or officers to be hereafter elected and chosen by virtue of these presents, from time to time, shall give the like engagements, to their offices and places respectively belonging, before the governor or deputy governor for the time being ; unto which said APPENDIX. 309 governor, or deputy governor, we do by these pres- ents give full power and authority to require, admin- ister, or receive the same accordingly. And we do likewise, for us, our heirs, and successors, give and grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their successors, by these presents, that, for the more peace- able and orderly government of the said Plantations, it shall and may be lawful for the governor, deputy governor, assistants, and all other officers and min- isters of the said Company, in the administration of justice, and exercise of government, in the said Plan- tations, to use, exercise, and put in execution, such methods, rules, orders, and directions, not being con- trary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of this our realm, as have been heretofore given, used, and accus- tomed, in such cases, respectively, to be put in practice, until at the next, or some other General Assembly, spe- cial provision shall be made and ordained in the cases aforesaid. And we do further, for us, our heirs, and succes- sors, give and grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their successors, by these presents, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said governor, or in his absence, the deputy governor, and major part of the said assistants for the time being, at any time when the said General Assembly is not sitting, to nominate, ap- point, and constitute such and so many commanders, governors, and military officers as to them shall seem requisite for the leading, conducting, and training up- the inhabitants of the said Plantations in martial affairs, and for the defence and safeguard of the said Planta- tions ; and that it shall and may be lawful to and for all and every such commander, governor, and military officer, that shall be so as aforesaid, or by the governor, or, in his absence, the deputy governor and six of the said assistants, and major part of the freemen of the said Company present at any General Assemblies, nom- inated, appointed, and constituted according to the 310 APPENDIX. tenor of his and their respective commissions and directions, to assemble, exercise in arms, martial array, and put in warlike posture the inhabitants of the said colony, for their special defence and safety ; and to lead and conduct the said inhabitants, and to encounter, ex- pulse, expel, and resist, by force of arms, as well by sea as by land, and also to kill, slay, and destroy, by all fitting ways, enterprises, and means whatsoever, all and every such person or persons as shall, at any time here- after, attempt or enterprise the destruction, invasion, detriment, or annoyance of the said inhabitants or Plan- tations ; and to use and exercise the law martial in such cases only as occasion shall necessarily require ; and to take or surprise, by all ways and means what- soever, all and every such person and persons, with their ship or ships, armor, ammunition, or other goods of such persons as shall, in hostile manner, invade or attempt the defeating of the said Plantation, or the hurt of the said Company and inhabitants ; and, upon just causes, to invade and destroy the native Indians, or other enemies of the said colony. Nevertheless, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare to the rest of our colonies in New England, that it shall not be lawful for this our said colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in America, in New England, to invade the natives inhabiting within the bounds and limits of their said colonies, without the knowledge and consent of the said other colonies. And it is hereby declared, that it shall not be lawful to or for the rest of the colonies to invade or molest the native Indians, or any other inhabitants, inhabiting within the bounds and limits hereafter mentioned, (they having subjected themselves unto us, and being by us taken into our special protection,) without the knowledge and consent of the Governor and Company of our Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Also our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare unto all Christian APPENDIX. 311 kings, princes, and states, that if any person, which shall hereafter be of the said Company or Plantation, or any other, by appointment of the said Governor and Company for the time being, shall, at any time or times hereafter, rob or spoil, by sea or land, or do any hurt or unlawful hostility to any of the subjects of us, our heirs or successors, or any of the subjects of any prince or state, being then in league with us, our heirs or successors, upon complaint of such injury done to any such prince or state, or their subjects, we, our heirs and successors, will make open proclamation within any parts of our realm of England, fit for that purpose, that the person or persons committing any such rob- bery or spoil shall, within the time limited by such proclamation, make full restitution or satisfaction of all such injuries done or committed, so as the said prince, or others so complaining, may be fully satisfied and contented ; and if the said person or persons who shall commit any such robbery or spoil, shall not make sat- isfaction, accordingly, within such time, so to be lim- ited, that then we, our heirs and successors, will put such person or persons out of our allegiance and pro- tection ; and that then it shall and may be lawful and free for all princes or others to prosecute, with hostility, such offenders, and every of them, their and every of their procurers, aiders, abettors, and counsellors, in 'that behalf : Provided, also, and our express will and pleasure is, and we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and appoint, that these presents shall not, in any manner, hinder any of our loving subjects, whatsoever, from using and exercising the trade of fishing upon the coast of New England, in America; but that they, and every or any of them, shall have full and free power and liberty to continue and use the trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the seas, •or salt water, rivers and creeks, where they have been Sl^ APPENDIX. accustomed to fish ; and to build and set upon tlie waste land belonging to the said colony and plantations, such wharves, stages, and work houses, as shall be necessary for the salting, drying, and keeping of their fish, to be taken or gotten upon that coast. And further, for the encouragement of the inhabitants of our said colony of Providence Plantations to set upon the business of tak- ing whales, it shall be lawful for them, or any of them, having struck whale, dubertus, or other great fish, it or them to pursue unto any part of that coast, and into any bay, river, cove, creek, or shore, belonging thereto, and it or them, upon the said coast, or in the said bay, river, cove, creek, or shore, belonging thereto, to kill and order for the best advantage, without molestation, they making no wilful waste or spoil ; any thing in these presents contained, or any other matter or thing, to the contrary notwithstanding. And further also, we are graciously pleased, and do hereby declare, that if any of the inhabitants of our said colony do set upon, the planting of vineyards, (the soil and climate both seeming naturally to concur to the production of wines,) or be industrious in the discovery of fishing banks, in or about the said colony, we will, from time to time, give and allow all due and fitting encouragement therein, as to others in cases of like nature. And fur- ther, of our more ample grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give and grant, unto the said Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- tations, in the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in America, and to every inhabitant there, and to every person and persons trading thither, and to every such person or persons as are or shall be free of the said col- ony, full power and authority, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, to take, ship, transport, and carry away, out of any of our realms and dominions, for and APPENDIX. 313 towards the plantation and defence of the said colony, such and so many of our loving subjects and strangers as shall or will willingly accompany them in and to their said colony and plantation ; except such person or persons as are or shall be therein restrained by us, our heirs and successors, or any law or statute of this realm ; and also to ship and transport all and all manner of goods, chattels, merchandises, and other things whatso- ever, that are or shall be useful or necessary for the said Plantations, and defence thereof, and usually transported, and not prohibited by any law or statute of this our realm ; yielding and paying unto us, our heirs and successors, such the duties, customs, and subsi- dies, as are or ought to be paid or payable for the same. And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain, declare, and grant, unto the said Governor and Company, and their succes- sors, that all and every the subjects of us, our heirs and successors, which are already planted and settled within our said colony of Providence Plantations, or which shall hereafter go to inhabit within the said col- ony, and all and every of their children, which have been born there, or which shall happen hereafter to be born there, or on the sea, going thither, or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and im- munities of free and natural subjects within any the dominions of us, our heirs or successors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, whatsoever, as if they, and every of them, were born within the realm of England. And further, know ye, that we, of our more abundant grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given, granted, and confirmed, and, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do give, grant, and confirm, unto the said Governor and Company, and their suc- cessors, all that part of our dominions in New England, in America, containing the Nahantick and Nanhyganset, alias Narragansett Bay^ and countries and parts adjacent. 314 APPENDIX. bounded on the west, or westerly, to the middle or chan- nel of a river there, commonly called and known by the name of Pawcatuck, alias Pawcawtuck Eiver, and so along the said river, as the greater or middle stream thereof reacheth or lies up into the north country, north- Avard, unto the head thereof, and from thence, by a straight line drawn due north, until it meets with the south line of "the Massachusetts colony ; and on the north, or northerly, by the aforesaid south or southerly line of the Massachusetts colony or plantation, and ex- tending towards the east, or eastwardly, three English miles to the east and north-east of the most eastern and north-eastern parts of the aforesaid Narragansett Bay, as the said bay lieth or extendeth itself from the ocean on the south, or southwardly, unto the mouth of the river which runneth toward the town of Providence, and from thence along the eastwardly side or bank of the said river (higher called by the name of Seacunck River) up to the falls called Patuckett Falls, being the most west- wardly line of Plymouth colony, and so from the said falls in a straight line, due north, until it meet with the aforesaid line of the Massachusetts colony, and bounded on the south by the ocean ; and, in particular, the lands belonging to the towns of Providence, Pawtuxet, Warwick, Misquammacock, alias Pawcatuck, and the rest upon the main land in the tract aforesaid, together with Rhode Island, Block Island, and all the rest of the islands and banks in the Narragansett Bay, and bor- dering upon the coast of the tract aforesaid, (Fisher's Island only excepted,) together with all firm lands, soils, grounds, havens, ports, rivers, waters, fishings, mines royal, and all other mines, minerals, precious stones, quarries, woods, wood grounds, rocks, slates, and all and singular other commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, preeminences, and hereditaments whatsoever, within the said tract, bounds, lands, and islands aforesaid, or to them or any of them belongings APPENDIX. 315 or in any wise appertaining : To have and to hold the same unto the said Governor and Company and their successors forever, upon trust, for the use and benefit of themselves and their associates, freemen of the said col- ony, their heirs and assigns, to be holden of us, oar heirs and successors, as of the manor of East Greenwich, in our county of Kent, in free and common soccage, and not in capite, nor by knight service ; yielding and pay- ing therefor to us, our heirs and successors, only the fifth part of all the ore of gold and silver which, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, shall be there gotten, had, or obtained, in lieu and satisfaction of all services, duties, fines, forfeitures, made or to be made, claims and demands whatsoever, to be to us, our heirs or successors, therefor or thereout rendered, made, or paid ; any grant, or clause in a late grant, to the Gov- ernor and Company of Connecticut Colony, in America, to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. The aforesaid Pawcatuck River having been yielded, after much debate, for the fixed and certain bounds between these our said colonies, by, the agents thereof, who have also agreed that the said Pawcatuck River shall be also called alias Norrogansett or Narrogansett River ; and, to prevent future disputes, that otherwise might arise thereby, forever hereafter shall be construed, deemed, and taken to be the Narrogansett River in our late grant to Connecticut colony mentioned as the east- erly bounds of that colony. And further, our will and pleasure is, that, in all matters of public controversy, which may fall out between our colony of Providence Plantations and the rest of our colonies in New England, it shall and may be lawful to and for the Governor and Company of the said colony of Providence Plantations, to make their appeals therein to us, our heirs and suc- cessors, for redress in such cases, within this our realm of England ; and that it shall be lawful to and for the inhabitants of the said colony of Providence Plantations, 316 APPENDIX. without let or molestation, to pass and repass, with free- dom, into and through the rest of the English colonies, upon their lawful and civil occasions, and to converse and hold commerce and trade with such of the inhabit- ants of our other English colonies as shall be willing to admit them thereunto, they behaving themselves peace- ably among them ; any act, clause, or sentence, in any of the said colonies provided, or that shall be provided, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And lastly, we do for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their succes- sors, by these presents, that these our letters patent shall be firm, good, effectual, and available in all things in the law, to all intents, constructions, and purposes what- soever, according to our true intent and meaning here- inbefore declared ; and shall be construed, reputed, and adjudged in all cases most favorably on the behalf, and for the best benefit and behoof, of the said Governor and Company, and their successors ; although express mention of the true yearly value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gifts or grants by us, or by any of our progenitors or predecessors, heretofore made to the said Governor and Company of the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, New England, in America, in these presents is not made, or any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restriction, heretofore had, made, enacted, ordained, or provided, or any other matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. In wit- ness whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness ourself at Westminster, the eighth day of July, in the fifteenth year of our reign. By the King : HOWAED. APPENDIX. 317 CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, ADOPTED BY THE PEOPLE, DEC. 27, 28, & 29, 1841. We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for his blessing vouchsafed to the " lively experiment " of religious and political freedom here " held forth " by our venerated ancestors, and earnestly imploring the favor of his gracious providence towards this our attempt to secure upon a permanent foundation the advantages of well-ordered and rational liberty, and to enlarge and transmit to our successors the inheritance that we have received, do ordain and establish the fol- lowing constitution of government for this state. Art. I. — Declaration of Principles and Rights. 1. In the spirit and in the words of Roger Williams, the illustrious founder of this state, and of his venerated associates, we declare " that this government shall be a democracy," or government of the people, " by the major consent " of the same, " only in civil things." The will of the people shall be expressed by represen- tatives freely chosen, and returning at fixed periods to their constituents. This state shall be, and forever remain, as in the design of its founder, sacred to " soul liberty," to the rights of conscience, to freedom of thought, of expression, and of action, as hereinafter set forth and secured. 2. All men are created free and equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain natural, inherent, and inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, the acquisition of property, and the pursuit of happi- ness. Government cannot create or bestow these rights, 27* 318 APPENDIX. which are the gift of God ,• but it is instituted for the stronger and surer defence of the same^ that men may safely enjoy the rights of Hfe and liberty, securely pos- sess and transmit property, and, so far as laws avail, may be successful in the pursuit of happiness. 3. All political power and sovereignty are originally vested in, and of right belong to, the people. All free governments are founded in their authoiity, and are established for the greatest good of the whole number. The people have, therefore, an unalienable and indefea- sible right, in their original, sovereign, and unlimited capacity, to ordain and institute government, and in the same capacity to alter, reform, or totally change the same, whenever their safety or happiness requires. 4. No favor or disfavor ought to be shown, in legis- lation, toward any man, or party, or society, or religious denomination. The laws should be made not for the good of the few, but of the many ; and the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens. 5. The diffusion of useful knowledge, and the culti- vation of a sound morality in the fear of God, being of the first importance in a republican state, and indispen- sable to the maintenance of its liberty, it shall be an imperative duty of the legislature to promote the estab- lishment of free schools, and to assist in the support of public education. 6. Every person in this state ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which may be done to his rights of person, property, or character. He ought to obtain right and justice freely and without purchase, completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, conforma- bly to the laws. 7. The right of the people to be secure in their per- sons, houses, papers, and possessions, against unreason- able searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrant shall issue but on complaint in writing upon APPENDIX. 319 probable cause, supported by oath or afErmation, and describing as nearly as may be the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized, 8. No person shall be held to answer to a capital or other infamous charge, unless on indictment by a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger. No person shall be tried, after an acquittal, for the same crime or offence. 9. Every man being presumed to be innocent until pronounced guilty by the law, all acts of severity, that are not necessary to secure an accused person, ought to be repressed. 10. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor exces- sive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted ; and all punishments ought to be proportioned to the offence. 11. All prisoners shall be bailable upon sufficient surety, unless for capital offences, when the proof is evident or the presumption groat. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety shall require it. 1^. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the privilege of a speedy and pubUc trial, by an impartial jury; be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; be confronted with the witnesses against him; have compulsory process to obtain them in his favor, and at the public expense, when necessary ; have the assistance of counsel in his defence, and be at liberty to speak for himself. Nor shall he be deprived of his life, liberty, or property, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 13. The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, and in all criminal cases the jury shall judge both of the law and of the facts. 14, Any person in this state, who may be claimed to 3^0 AFPENCrX. be held to labor or service, under the laws of any othef state, territory, or district, shall be entitled to a jury trial, to ascertain the yalidity of such claim. 15. No man in a court of common law shall be required to criminate himself. 16. Betrospective laws, civil and criminal^ are unjust and 02?pressive, and shall not be made. 17. The people have a right to assemble in a peacea- ble manner, without molestation or re&traint, to consult upon the public welfare ; a right to give instructions to their senators and representatives ; and a right to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances, for the repeal of injurious laws.^ for the correction of faults of administration, and for all other purposes. 18. The liberty of the press being essential to the security of freedom in a state, any citizen may publish his sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty ; and in all trials for libel, both civil and criminal, the truth, spoken from good motives^ and for justifiable ends, shall be a sufficient defence to the person charged. 19. Private property shall not be taken for public uses without just compensation, nor unless the public good require it ; nor under any circumstances until com- pensation shall have been made, if required, 20. .The military shall always be held in strict sub- ordination to the civil authority. 21. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in manner to be prescribed by law. 22. Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free, and all attempts to influence it by temporal pun- ishments, or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness ; and whereas a principal object of our venerated ancestors in theij; migration to this country, and their settlement of this APPENDIX. 321 state, was, as they expressed it, to hold forth a lively experiment, that a flourishing civil state may stand, and be best maintained, with full liberty in religious con- cernments : We therefore declare that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious wor- ship, place, or ministry whatsoever, ^or be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor disqualified from holding any office, nor otherwise suffer, on account of his religious belief | and that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to main- tain, their opinions in matters of religion ; and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities ; and that all other religious rights and • privileges of the people of this state, as now enjoyed, shall remain inviolate and inviolable. 2S. No witness shall be called in question before the legislature, nor in any court of this state, nor before any magistrate or other person authorized to administer an oath or affirmation, for his or her religious belief, or opinions, or any part thereof; and no objection to a witness, on the ground of his or her religious opinions, shall be entertained or received. 24. The citizens shall continue to enjoy, and freely exercise, all the rights of fishery, and privileges of the shore, to which they have been heretofore entitled under the charter and usages of this state. 25. The enumeration of the foregoing rights shall not be construed to impair nor deny others retained by the people. Art. II. — Of Electors and the Eight of Suffrage. 1. Every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who has resided in this state for one year, and in any town, city, or district of the same for six months, next preceding the election at which he offers to vote, shall be an elector of all officei'S 32% APPENDIX. who are elected, or may hereafter be made eligible, by the people. But persons in the military, naval, or marine service of the United States, shall not be con- sidered as having such established residence, by being stationed in any garrison, barrack, or military place in any town or city in this state. 2. Paupers and persons under guardianship, insane, or lunatic, are excluded from the electoral right ; and the same shall be forfeited on conviction of bribery, forgery, perjury, theft, or other infamous crime, and shall not be restored unless by an act of the General Assembly. S. No person who is excluded from voting, for want of the qualification first named in section first of this article, shall be taxed, or be liable to do mihtary duty ; provided that nothing in said first article shall be so construed as to exempt from taxation any property or persons now liable to be taxed. 4. No elector who is not possessed of, and assessed for, ratable property in his own right, to the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars, or who shall have neg- lected or refused to pay any tax assessed upon him, in. any town, city, or district, for one year preceding the town, city, ward, or district meeting at which he shall off'er to vote, shall be entitled to vote on any question of taxation, or the expenditure of any public moneys in such town, city, or district, until the same be paid. 5. In the city of Providence, and other cities, no person shall be eligible to the office of mayor, alderman, or common councilman, who is not taxed, or who shall have neglected or refused to pay his tax, as provided in the preceding section. 6. The voting for all officers chosen by the people, except town or city officers, shall be by ballot ; that is to say, by depositing a written or printed ticket in the ballot box, without the name of the voter written thereon. Town or city officers shall be chosen by ballot. APPENDIX. on the demand of any two persons entitled to vote for the same. 7. There shall be a strict registration of all qualified voters in the towns and cities of the state ; and no per- son shall be permitted to vote, whose name has not been entered upon the list of voters before the polls are opened. 8. The General Assembly shall pass all necessary laws for the prevention of fraudulent voting by persons not having an actual, permanent residence, or home, in the state, or otherwise disqualified according to this con- stitution ; for the careful registration of all voters, pre- viously to the time of voting ; for the prevention of frauds upon the ballot box ; for the preservation of the purity of elections ; and for the safe-keeping and accu- rate counting of the votes ; to the end that the will of the people may be freely and fully expressed, truly as- certained, and eflTectually exerted, without intimidation, suppression, or unnecessary delay. 9. The electors shall be exempted from arrest on days of election, and one day before, and one day after the same, except in cases of treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 10. No person shall be eligible to any office by the votes of the people, who does not possess the qualifica- tions of an elector. Art. hi. -—Of the Distribution of Powers. 1. The powers of the government shall be distributed into three departments — the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. 2. No person or persons connected with one of these departments shall exercise any of the powers belonging to either of the others, except in cases herein directed or permitted. Art. IV. — Of the Legislative Department. 1. The legislative power shall be vested in two dis- tinct Houses : the one to be called the House of Rep- resentatives, the other the Senate, and both together the General Assembly. The concurrent votes of the two Houses shall be necessary to the enactment of laws ; and the style of their laws shall be : " Be it enacted by the General Assembly, as follows." 2. No member of the General Assembly shall be eligible to any civil office under the authority of the state, durinsf the term for which he shall have been elected. 3. If any representative, or senator, in the General Assembly of this state, shall be appointed to any office under the government of the United States, and shall accept the same, after his election as such senator or representative, his seat shall thereby become vacant. 4. Any person who holds an office under the govern- ment of the United States may be elected a member of the General Assembly, and may hold his seat therein, if, at the time of his taking his seat, he shall have re- signed said office, and shall declare the same on oath, or affirmation, if required. 5. No member of the General Assembly shall take any fees, be of counsel or act as advocate in any case pending before either branch of the General Assembly, under penalty of forfeiting his seat, upon due proof thereof. 6. Each House shall judge of the election and quali- fications of its members ; and a majority of all the members of each House, whom the towns and senato- rial districts are entitled to elect, shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may ad- journ from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each House may have previously pre- scribed. APPENDIX. 325 7. Each House may determine the rules of its pro- ceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds of the mem- bers elected, expel a member ; but not a second time for the same cause. 8. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceed- ings, and publish the same when required by one fifth of its members. The yeas and nays of the members of either House shall, at the desire of any five members present, be entered on the journal. 9. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, nor to any other place than that at which the General Assembly is hold- ing its session. 10. The senators and representatives shall, in all cases of civil process, be privileged from arrest during the session of the General Assembly, and for two days before the commencement, and two days after the ter- mination, of any session thereof. For any speech in debate in either House, no member shall be called in question in any other place. 11. The civil and military officers, heretofore elected in grand committee, shall hereafter be elected annually by the General Assembly, in joint committee, com- posed of the two Houses of the General Assembly, ex- cepting as is otherwise provided in this constitution ; and excepting the captains and subalterns of the militia, who shall be elected by the ballots of the members com- posing their respective companies, in such manner as the General Assembly may prescribe ; and such officers, so elected, shall be approved of and commissioned by the governor, who shall determine their rank ; and, if said companies shall neglect or refuse to make such elections, after being duly notified, then the governor shall appoint suitable persons to fill such offices. 12. Every bill and every resolution requiring the concurrence of the two Houses, (votes of adjournment 28 326 APPENDIX. excepted,) which shall have passed both Houses of the General Assembly, shall be presented to the governor for his revision. If he approve of it, he shall sign and transmit the same to the secretary of state ; but if not, he shall return it to the House in which it shall have originated, with his objections thereto, which shall be entered at large on their journal. The House shall then proceed to reconsider the bill ; and if, after such reconsideration, that House shall pass it by a majority of all the members elected, it shall be sent, with the ob- jections, to the other House, which shall also reconsider it ; and, if approved by that House, by a majority of all the members elected, it shall become a law. If the bill shall not be returned by the governor within forty- eight hours (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall become a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the General As- sembly, by their adjournment, prevent its return ; in which case, it shall not be a law. 13. There shall be two sessions of the General As- sembly in every year ; one session to be held at New- port, on the first Tuesday of June, for the organization of the government, the election of officers, and for other business ; and one other session on the first Tues- day of January, to be held at Providence, in the first year after the adoption of this constitution, and in every second year thereafter. In the intermediate years, the January session shall be forever hereafter held in the counties of Washington, Kent, or Bristol, as the Gen- eral Assembly may determine before their adjournment in June. Art. V. — Of the House of Representatives. . 1. The House of Representatives shall consist of members chosen by the electors in the several towns and cities, in their respective town and ward meetings, annually. APPENDIX. 327 2. The towns and cities shall severally be entitled to elect members according to the apportionment which follows, viz. : Newport to elect five ; Warwick, four ; Smithficld, five ; Cumberland, North Providence, and Scituate, three ; Portsmouth, AVesterly, New Shoreham, North Kingstown, South Kingstown, East Greenwich, Glocester, West Greenwich, Coventry, Exeter, Bristol, Tiverton, Little Compton, Warren, Eichmond, Crans- ton, Charlestown, Hopkinton, Johnston, Foster, and Burrillville, to elect two ; and Jamestown, Middletown, and Barrington, to elect one. 3. In the city of Providence, there shall be six rep- resentative districts, which shall be the six wards of said city ; and the electors resident in said districts, for the term of three months next preceding the election at which they offer to vote, shall be entitled to elect two representatives for each district. 4. The General Assembly, in case of great inequal- ity in the population of the wards of the city of Provi- dence, may cause the boundaries of the six representative districts therein to be so altered as to include in each district, as nearly as may be, an equal number of in- habitants. 5. The House of Representatives shall have authority to elect their own speaker, clerks, and other officers. The oath of office shall be administered to the speaker by the secretary of state, or, in his absence, by the attor- ney general. 6. Whenever the seat of a member of the House of Kepresentatives shall be vacated by death, resignation, or otherwise, the vacancy may be filled by a new elec- tion. Art. VI. — Of the Senate. 1. The state shall be divided into twelve senatorial districts ; and each district shall be entitled to one sen- ator, who shall be annually chosen by the electors in his district. 328 APPENDIX. 2. The first, second, and third representative districts in the city of Providence, shall constitute the first sena- torial district ; the fourth, fifth, and sixth representative districts in said city, the second district ; the town of Smithfield, the third district ; the towns of North Prov- idence and Cumberland, the fourth district ; the towns of Scituate, Glocester, Burrillville, and Johnston, the fifth district; the towns of Warwick and Cranston, the sixth district ; the towns of East Greenwich, West Greenwich, Coventry, and Foster, the seventh district ; the towns of Newport, Jamestown, and New Shore- ham, the eighth district ; the towns of Portsmouth, Middletown, Tiverton, and Little Compton, the ninth district; the towns of North Kingstown and South Kingstown, the tenth district ; the towns of Westerly, Charlestown, Exeter, Richmond, and Hopkinton, the eleventh district ; the towns of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, the twelfth district. 3. The lieutenant governor shall be, by virtue of his office, president of the Senate ; and shall have a right, in case of an equal division, to vote in the same ; and also to vote in joint committee of the two Houses. 4. When the government shall be administered by the lieutenant governor, or he shall be unable to attend as president of the Senate, the Senate shall elect one of their own members president of the same. 5. Vacancies in the Senate, occasioned by death, res- ignation, or otherwise, may be filled by a new election. 6. The secretary of state shall be, by virtue of his office, secretary of the Senate. Art. VII. — Of Impeachments. 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate ; and when sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath APPENDIX. S29 or affirmation. No person shall be convicted, except by a vote of two thirds of the members elected. When the governor is impeached, the chief justice of the Su- preme Court shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions. 3. The governor, and all other executive and judicial officers, shall be liable to impeachment ; but judgment, in such cases, shall not extend further than to removal from office. The party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law. Art. VIII. — On the Executive Department. 1. The chief executive power of this state shall be vested in a governor, who shall be chosen by the elec- tors, and shall hold his office for one year, and until his successor be duly qualified. 2. No person holding any office or place under the United States, this state, any other of the United States, or any foreign power, shall exercise the office of gov- ernor. 3. He shall take care that the laws are faithfully ex- ecuted. 4. He shall be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the state, except when called into the actual service of the United States ; but he shall not march nor convey any of the citizens out of the state, without their consent, or that of the General As- sembly, unless it shall become necessary in order to march or transport them from one part of the state to another, for the defence thereof. 5. He shall appoint all civil and military officers whose appointment is not by this constitution, or shall not by law be otherwise provided for. 6. He shall, from time to time, inform the General Assembly of the condition of the state, and recommend 28* 330 APPENDIX, to their consideration such measures as lie may deem expedient. 7. He may require from any military officer, or any officer in the executive department, information upon any subject relating to the duties of his office. 8. He shall have power to remit forfeitures and pen- alties, and to grant reprieves, commutation of punish- ments, and pardons after conviction, except in cuses of impeachment. 9. The governor shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation which shall not be increased nor diminished during his continuance in office. 10. There shall be elected, in the same manner as is provided for the election of governor, a lieutenant gov- ernor, who shall continue in office for the same term of time. Whenever the office of governor shall become vacant by death, resignation, removal from office, or otherwise, the lieutenant governor shall exercise the office of governor until another governor shall be duly qualified. 11. AYhenever the offices of governor and lieutenant governor shall both become vacant, by death, resigna- tion, removal from office, or otherwise, the president of the Senate shall exercise the office of governor until a governor be duly qualified ; and should such vacancies oc- cur during a recess of the General Assembly, and there be no president of the Senate, the secretary of state shall, by proclamation, convene the Senate, that a president may be chosen to exercise the office of governor. 12. Whenever the lieutenant governor or president of the Senate shall exercise the office of governor, he shall receive the compensation of governor only ; and his duties as president of the Senate shall cease while he shall continue to act as governor ; and the Senate shall fill the vacancy by an election from their own body. 13. In case of a disagreement between the two APPENDIX. 331 Houses of the General Assembly respecting the time or place of adjournment, the person exercising the office of governor may adjourn them to such time or place as he shall think proper; provided that the time of adjourn- ment shall not be extended beyond the first day of the next stated session. 14. The person exercising the office of governor may, in cases of special necessity, convene the General Assem- bly at any town or city in this state at any other time than hereinbefore provided. And, in case of danger from the prevalence of epidemic or contagious diseases, or from other circumstances, in the place in which the General Assembly are next to meet, he may, by procla- mation, convene the Assembly at any other place within the state. 15. A secretary of state, a general treasurer, and an attorney general, shall also be chosen annually, in the same manner, and for the same time, as is herein provided respecting the governor. The duties of these officers shall be the same as are now, or may hereafter be, prescribed by law. Should there be a failure to choose either of them, or should a vacancy occur in either of their offices, the General Assembly shall fill the place by an election in joint committee. 16. The electors in each county shall, at the annual elections, vote for an inhabitant of the county to be sheriff of said county for one year, and until a succes- sor be duly qualified. In case no person shall have a majority of the electoral votes of his county for sheriff, the General Assembly, in joint committee, shall elect a sheriff from the two candidates who shall have the greatest number of votes in such county. 17. All commissions shall be in the name of the State of Khode Island and Providence Plantations, sealed with the seal of the state, and attested by the secretary. SB2 • APPENDIX, Art. IX. — General Provisions. 1. This constitution shall be the supreme law of the state ; and all laws contrary to or inconsistent with the same, which may be passed by the General Assembly^ shall be null and void. 2. The General Assembly shall pass all necessary laws for carrying this constitution into effect. o. The judges of all the courts, and all other officers, both civil and military, shall be bound by oath or affirma- tion to the due observance of this constitution, and of the constitution of the United States. 4. No jurisdiction shall, hereafter, be entertained by the General Assembly in cases of insolvency, divorce, sale of real estate of minors, or appeal from judicial decisions, nor in any other matters appertaining to the jurisdiction of judges and courts of law. But the Gen- eral Assembly shall confer upon the courts of the state all necessary powers for affording relief in the cases herein named ; and the General Assembly shall exercise all other jurisdiction and authority which they have heretofore entertained, and which is not prohibited by, nor repugnant to, this constitution. 5. The General Assembly shall, from time to time, cause estimates to be made of the ratable property of the state, in order to the equitable apportionment of state taxes. 6. "Whenever a direct tax is laid by the state, one sixth part thereof shall be assessed on the polls of the qualified electors : provided that the tax on a poll shall never exceed the sum of fifty cents ; and that all per- sons who actually perform military duty, or duty in the fire department, shall be exempted from said poll tax. 7. The General Assembly shall have no power here- after to incur state debts to an amount exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars, except in time of war, or in case of invasion, without the express consent of the APPENDIX. • 333 people. Every proposition for such increase shall be submitted to the electors at the next annual election, or on some day to be set apart for that purpose ; and shall not be further entertained by the General Assem- bly, unless it receive the votes of a majority of all the persons voting. This section shall not be construed to refer to any money that now is, or hereafter may be, deposited with this state by the general government. 8. The assent of two thirds of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly shall be re- quisite to every bill appropriating the public moneys, or property, for local or private purposes ; or for creat- ing, continuing, altering, or renewing any body politic or corporate, banking corporations excepted. 9. Hereafter, when any bill creating, continuing, altering, or renewing any banking corporation, author- ized to issue its promissory notes for circulation, shall pass the two Houses of the General Assembly, instead of being sent to the governor, it shall be referred to the electors for their consideration, at the next annual elec- tion, or on some day to be set apart for that purpose, with printed tickets containing the question, " Shall said bill " (with a brief description thereof,) " be approved, or not ? '* and if a majority of the electors voting shall vote to approve said bill, it shall become a law ; other- wise not. 10. All grants of incorporation shall be subject to future acts of the General Assembly, in amendment or repeal thereof, or in any wise affecting the same ; and this provision shall be inserted in all acts of incorpora- tion hereafter granted. 11. The General Assembly shall exercise, as hereto- fore, a visitatorial power over corporations. Three bank commissioners shall be chosen at the June session for one year, to carry out the powers of the General As- sembly in this respect. And commissioners for the vis- itation of other corporations, as the General Assembly 334 APPENDIX. may deem expedient, shall be chosen at the June session, for the same term of office. 12. No city council, or other government, in any city, shall have power to vote any tax upon the inhab- itants thereof, excepting the amount necessary to meet the ordinary public expenses in the same, without first submitting the question of an additional tax, or taxes, to the electors of said city ; and a majority of all who vote shall determine the question. But no elector shall be entitled to vote, in any city, upon any question of taxation thus submitted, unless he shall be qualified by the possession, in his own right, -of ratable property to the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars, and shall have been assessed thereon to pay a city tax, and shall have paid the same, as provided in section fourth of Article II. Nothing in that article shall be so con- strued as to prevent any elector from voting for town officers, and, in the city of Providence, and other cities, for mayor, aldermen, and members of the com- mon council. 13. The General Assembly shall not pass any law, nor cause any act or thing to be done, in any way to disturb any of the owners or occupants of land in any territory now under the jurisdiction of any other state or states, the jurisdiction whereof may be ceded to, or de- creed to belong to, this state ; and the inhabitants of such territory shall continue in the full, quiet, and un- disturbed enjoyment of their titles to the same, without interference in any way on the part of this state. Art. X. — Of Elections. 1. The election of the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, general treasurer, attorney general, and also of senators and representatives to the General Assembly, and of sheriffs of the counties, shall be held on the third Wednesday of April annually. APPENDIX. S35 S. The names of the persons voted for as goyernor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, general treas- urer, ^ attorney general, and • sheriffs of the respective counties, shall be put upon one ticket ; and the tickets shall be deposited by the electors in a box by them- selves. The names of the persons voted for as senators and as representatives shall be put upon separate tickets, and the tickets shall be deposited in separate boxes. The polls for all the officers named in this section shall be opened at the same time. S. All the votes given for governor, lieutenant gov- ernor, secretary of state, general treasurer, attorney oen- eral, sheriffs, and also for senators, shall remain in tlie ballot boxes till the polls be closed. These votes shall then, in open town and ward meetings, and in the pres- ence of at^ least ten qualified voters, be taken out and sealed up, in separate envelopes, by the moderators and town clerks, and by the wardens and ward clerks, who shall certify the same, and forthwith deliver or send them to the secretary of state, whose duty it shall be securely to keep the same, and. to deliver the votes for state officers and sheriffs to the speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, after the House shall be organized, at the June session of the General Assembly. The votes last named shall, without delay, be opened, counted^ and declared, in such manner as the House of Eepre- sentatives shall direct ; and the oath of office shall be administered to the persons who shall be declared to be • elected, by the speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, and in the presence of the House : provided that the sheriffs may take their engagement before a senator, judge, or justice of the peace. The votes for senators shall be counted by the governor and secretary of state within seven days from the day of election ; and the governor shall give certificates to the senators who are elected. 4. The boxes containing the votes for representatives 336 * APPENDIX. to the General Assembly in the several towns shall not be opened till the polls for representatives are declared to be closed. The votes shall then be counted by the moderator and clerk, who shall announce the result, and give certificates to the person selected. If there be no election, or not an election of the whole number of representatives to which the town is entitled, the polls for representatives may be reopened, and the like pro- ceedings shall be had, until an election shall take place : provided, however, that an adjournment of the election may be made to a time not exceeding seven days from the first meeting. 5. In the city of Providence, and other cities, the polls for representatives shall be kept open during the whole time of voting for the day ; and the votes in the several wards shall be sealed up, at the close of the meeting, by the wardens and ward clerks, in the pres- ence of at least ten qualified electors, and delivered to the city clerks. The mayor and aldermen of said city or cities shall proceed to count said votes within two days from the day of election ; and if no election, or an election of only a portion of the representatives whom the representative districts are entitled to elect, shall have taken place, the mayor and aldermen shall order a new election to be held, not more than ten days from the day of the first election ; and so on, till the election of representatives shall be completed. Certifi- cates of election shall be furnished to the persons chosen by the city clerks. 6. If there be no choice of a senator or senators at the annual election, the governor shall issue his warrant to the town and ward clerks of the several towns and cities in the senatorial district or districts that may have failed to elect, requiring them to open town or ward meetings for another election, on a day not more than fifteen days beyond the time of counting the votes for senators. If, on the second trial, there shall be no APPENDIX. 837 choice of a senator or senators, the governor shall certify the result to the speaker of the House of Representa- tives ; and the House of Representatives, and as many- senators as shall have been chosen, shall forthwith elect, in joint committee, a senator or senators, from the two candidates who may receive the highest num- ber of votes in each district. 7. If there be no choice of governor at the annual election, the speaker of the House of Representatives shall issue his warrant to the clerks of the several towns and cities, requiring them to notify town and ward meetings for another election, on a day to be named by him, not more than thirty nor less than twenty days beyond the time of receiving the report of the committee of the House of Representatives, who shall count the votes for governor. If on this second trial there shall be no choice of a governor, the two Houses of the Gen- eral Assembly shall, at their next session, in joint com- mittee, elect a governor from the two candidates having the highest number of votes, to hold his office for the remainder of the political year, and until his successor be duly qualified. 8. If there be no choice of governor and lieutenant governor at the annual election, the same proceedings for the choice of a lieutenant governor shall be had as are directed in the preceding section : provided, that the second trial for the election of governor and lieu- tenant governor shall be on the same day : and also provided, that, if the governor shall be chosen at the annual election, and the lieutenant governor shall not be chosen, then the last-named officer shall be elected in joint committee of the two Houses, from the two can- didates having the highest number of votes, without a further appeal to the electors. The lieutenant gov- ernor, elected as is provided in this section, shall hold his office as is provided in the preceding section respect- ing the governor. 29 oS8 APPENDIX. 9. All town, city, and ward meetings for tlie choice of representatives, justices of the peace, sheriffs, sen- ators, state officers, representatives to Congress, and electors of president and vice president, shall be notified by the town, city, and ward clerks, at least seven days before the same are held. 10. In all elections held by the people under this constitutign, a majority of all the electors voting shall be necessary to the choice of the person or persons voted for. 11. The oath, or affirmation, to be taken by all the officers named in this article, shall be the following : You, being elected to the place (of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, general treasurer, attorney general, or to the places of senators or representatives, or to the office of sheriff or justice of the peace,) do solemnly swear, or severally solemnly swear, or affirm, that you will be true and faithful to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and that you will support the constitution thereof; that you will sup- port the constitution of the United States ; and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of your aforesaid office, to the best of your abihties and understanding : so help you God ! or, this affirmation you make and give upon the peril of the penalty of perjury. Art. XI. — Of the Judiciary. 1. The judicial power of this state shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such other courts, inferior to the Supreme Court, as the legislature may, from^ time to time, ordain and estabhsh ; and the jurisdiction of the Supreme and of all other courts may, from time to time, be regulated by the General Assembly. 2. Chancery powers may be conferred on the Su- preme Court ; but no other court exercising chancery powers shall be established in this state, except as is now provided by law. APPENDIX. 339 3. The justices of the Supreme Court shall be elected in joint committee of the two Houses, to hold their of- fices for one year, and until their places be declared vacant by a resolution to that effect, which shall be voted for by a majority of all the members elected to the House in which it may originate, and be concurred in by the same vote of the other House, without re- vision by the governor. Such resolution shall not be entertained at any other than the annual session for the election of public officers ; and in default of the passage thereof at the said session, the judge, or judges, shall hold his or their place or places for another year. But a judge of any court shall be removable from office, if, upon impeachment, he shall be found guilty of any official misdemeanor. 4. In case of vacancy by the death, resignation, re- fusal, "or inability to serve, or removal from the state, of a judge of any court, his place may be filled by the joint committee, until the next annual election ; when, if elected, he shall hold his office as herein provided. 5. The justices of the Supreme Court shall receive a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 6. The judges of the courts inferior to the Supreme Court shall be annually elected in joint committee of the two Houses, except as herein provided. 7. There shall be annually elected by each town, and by the several wards in the city of Providence, a suf- ficient number of justices of the peace, or wardens resident therein, with such jurisdiction as the General Assembly may prescribe. And said justices or wardens (except in the towns of New Shoreham and Jamestown) shall be commissioned by the governor. 8. The General Assembly may provide that jus- tices of the peace, who are not reelected, may hold their offices for a time not exceeding ten days beyond the day of the annual election of these officers. 340 APPENDIX. 9. The courts of probate in this state, except the Su- preme Court, shall remain as at present established by law, until the General Assembly shall otherwise pre- scribe. Art. XII. — Of Education. 1. All moneys which now are, or may hereafter be, appropriated, by the authority of the state, to public education, shall be securely invested, and remain a per- petual fund for the maintenance of free schools in this state ; and the General Assembly are prohibited from diverting said moneys or fund from this use, and from borrowing, appropriating, or using the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, or under any pre- tence whatsoever. But the income derived from said moneys or fund shall be annually paid over, by the general treasurer, to the towns and cities of the state, for the support of said schools, in equitable proportions ; provided, however, that a portion of said income may, in the discretion of the General Assembly, be added to the principal of said fund. 2. The several towns and cities shall faithfully de- vote their portions of said annual distribution to the support of free schools ; and, in default thereof, shall for- feit their shares of the same to the increase of the fund. 3. All charitable donations for the support of free schools, and other purposes of public education, shall be received by the General Assembly, and invested and applied agreeably to the terms prescribed by the do- nors : provided the same be not inconsistent with the constitution, or with sound public policy ; in which case the donation shall not be received. Art. XIII. — Amendments. The General Assembly may propose amendments to this constitution by the vote of a majority of all the APPENDIX. S41 members elected to each House. Such propositions shall be pubHshed in the newspapers of the state ; and printed copies of said propositions shall be sent by the secretary of state, with the names of all the members who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, to all the town and city clerks in the state ; and the said propositions shall be, by said clerks,- inserted in the notices by them issued for warning the next annual town and Avard meetings in April ; and the town and ward clerks shall read said propositions to the electors, when thus assembled, with the names of all the repre- sentatives and senators who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, before the election of repre- sentatives and senators shall be had. If a majority of all the members elected at said annual meetings, present in eaeh House, shall approve any proposition thus made, the same shall be pubHshed as before provided, and then sent to the electors in the mode provided in the act of approval ; and if then approved by a majority of the electors who shall vote in town and ward meet- ings, to be specially convened for that purpose, it shall become a part of the constitution of the state. Art. XIV. — Of the Adoption of the Constitu- tion. 1. This constitution shall be submitted to the people, for their adoption or rejection, on Monday, the 27th day of December next, and on the two succeeding days ; and all persons voting are requested to deposit in the ballot boxes printed or written tickets in the fol- lowing form : I am an American citizen, of the age of twenty-one years, and have my permanent residence, or home, in this state. I am (or not) qualified to vote under the existing laws of this state. I vote for (or against) the constitution formed by the convention of the people, assembled at Providence, and which was 29* 84^ APPENDIX. proposed to the people by said convention on the 18tli day of November, 1841. 2. Every voter is requested to write bis name on the face of his ticket ; and every person entitled to vote as aforesaid, who, from sickness or other causes, may be unable to attend and vote in the town or ward meetings assembled for voting upon said constitution, on the days aforesaid, is requested to write his name upon a ticket, and to obtain the signature, upon the back of the same, of a person who has given in his vote, as a witness thereto. And the moderator, or clerk, of any town or ward meeting convened for the purpose afore- said, shall receive such vote, on either of the three days next succeeding the three days before named for voting on said constitution. 3. The citizens of the several towns in this state, and of the several wards in the city of Providence, are re- quested to hold town and ward meetings on the days appointed, and for the purpose aforesaid ; and also to choose, in each town and ward, a moderator and clerk, to conduct said meetings and receive the votes. 4. The moderators and clerks are required to receive, and carefully to keep, the votes of all persons qualified to vote as aforesaid, and to make registers of all the persons voting ; which, together with the tickets given in by the voters, shall be sealed up, and returned by said moderators and clerks, with certificates signed and sealed by them, to the clerks of the convention of the people, to be by them safely deposited and kept, and laid before said convention, to be counted and declared at their next adjourned meeting, on the 12th day of January, 1842. 5. This constitution, except so much thereof as re- lates to the election of the officers named in the sixth section of this article, shall, if adopted, go into opera- tion on the first Tuesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-two. APPENDIX. 343 6. So mucli of the constitution as relates to the elec- tion of the officers named in this section shall go into operation on the Monday before the third Wednesday of April next preceding. The first election, under this constitution, of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, general treasurer, and attorney general, of sen- ators and representatives, of sheriffs for the several counties, and of justices of the peace for the several towns, and the wards of the city of Providence, shall take place on the Monday aforesaid. 7. The electors of the several towns and wards are authorized to assemble on the day aforesaid, without being notified, as is provided in Section 9 of Article X., and without the registration required in Section 7 of Article II., and to choose moderators and clerks, and proceed in the election of the officers named in the preceding section. 8. The votes given in at the first election for repre- sentatives to the General Assembly, and for justices of the peace, shall be counted by the moderators and clerks of the towns and wards chosen as aforesaid ; and cer- tificates of election shall be furnished by them to the representatives and justices of the peace elected. 9. Said moderators and clerks shall seal up, certify, and transmit to the House of Eepresentatives all the votes that may be given in at said first election for governor and state officers, and for senators and sheriffs ; and the votes shall be counted as the House of Repre- sentatives may direct. 10. Th£ speaker of the House of Representatives shall, at the first session of the same, q^ualify himself to administer the oath of office to the members of the House, and to other officers, by taking and subscribing the same oath in the presence of the House. 11. The first session of the General Assembly shall be held in the city of Providence on the first Tuesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and S44 APPENDIX, forty-two, witli such adjournments as may he necessary ^ but all other sessions shall be held as is provided in Article IV. of this constitution. 12. If any of the representatives, whom the towns or districts are entitled to choose at the first annual election aforesaid, shall not be then elected, or if their places shall become vacant during the year, the same proceedings may be had to complete the election, or to supply vacancies, as are directed concerning elections in the preceding sections of this article. lo. If there shall be no election of governor or lieu- tenant governor, or of both of these officers, or of a senator or senators, at the first annual election, the House of Representatives, and as many senators as are chosen, shall forthwith elect, in joint committee, a gov- ernor or lieutenant governor, or both, or a senator or senators, to hold their offices for the remainder of the political year ; and, in the case of the two officers first named, until their successors shall be duly qualified. 14. If the number of justices of the peace determined by the several towns and wards on the day of the first annual election shall not be then chosen, or if vacancies shall occur, the same proceedings shall be had as are provided for in this article in the case of a non-election of representatives and senators, or of vacancies in their offices. The justices of the peace thus elected shall hold office for the remainder of the political year, or until the second annual election of justices of the peace, to be held on such day as may be prescribed by the General Assembly. 15. The justices of the peace elected in pursuance of the provisions of this article may be engaged by the persons acting as moderators of the town and ward meetings, as herein provided; and said justices, after obtaining their certificates of election, may discharge the duties of their office, for a time not exceeding twen- ty days, without a commission from the governor. API»END1X. S45 16. Nothing' contained in this article, inconsistent "with any of the provisions of other articles of the con- stitution, shall continue in force for a longer period than the first political year under the same. IT. The present government shall exercise all the powers with which it is now clothed, until the said first Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty- two, and until their successors, under this constitution, shall be duly elected and qualified. 18. All civil, judicial, and military ofiicers now elect- ed, or who shall hereafter be elected by the General Assembly, or other competent authority, before the said first Tuesday of May, shall hold their offices, and may exercise their powers, until that time. 19. All laws and statutes, public and private, now in force, and not repugnant to this constitution, shall con- tinue in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are repealed by the General Assembly. All contracts, judgments, actions, and rights of action shall be as valid as if this constitution had not been made. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the state as if this constitution had not been made. 20. The Supreme Court, established by this constitu- tion, shall have the same jurisdiction as the Supreme Judicial Court at present established ; and shall have jurisdiction of all causes which may be appealed to, or pending in the same ; and shall be held at the same times and places in each county, as the present Supreme Judicial Court, until the General Assembly shall other- wise prescribe. 21. The citizens of the town of New Shoreham shall be hereafter exempted from military duty, and the duty of serving as jurors in the courts of this state. The citizens of the town of Jamestown shall be forever hereafter exempted from military field duty. 22. The General Assembly shall, at their first session 346 APPENDIX. after the adoption of this constitution, propose to the electors the question, whether the word "white," in the first line of the first section of Article II. of the con- stitution, shall be stricken out. The question shall be voted upon at the succeeding annual election ; and if a majority of the electors voting shall vote to strike out the word aforesaid, it shall be stricken from the consti- tution ; otherwise, not. If the word aforesaid shall be stricken out, Section S of Article II. shall cease to be a part of the constitution. 23. The president, vice presidents, and secretaries shall certify and sign this constitution, and cause the same to be published. Done in convention, at Providence, on the 18th day of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and of American independence the sixty- sixth. Joseph Joslin, President of the Convention, Wager Weeden, } tz- x> -j ^ c TT TTr i' *^^ce rresidents, Samuel H. Wales, > Attest: * William H. Smith, ) Secretaries John S. Harris, J CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, ADOPTED NOVEMBER, 1842. "We, the people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which he hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and to transmit the same. APPENDIX. 347 unimpaired, to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this constitution of government. Art. I. — Declaration of certain Constitutional Rights and Principles. In order effectually to secure the religious and politi- cal freedom established by our venerated ancestors, and to preserve the same for our posterity, we do declare that the essential and unquestionable rights and princi- ples hereinafter mentioned shall be established, main- tained, and preserved, and shall be of paramount obliga- tion in all legislative, judicial, and executive proceedings. Section 1. In the words of the Father of his Coun- try, we declare that " the basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and alter their con- stitutions of government ; but that the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and au- thentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all." Sec. 2. All free governments are instituted for the protection, safety, and happiness of the people. All laws, therefore, should be made for the good of the whole ; and the burdens of the state ought to be fairly distributed among its citizens. Sec. 3. Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free ; and all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness: and whereas a principal object of our venerable ancestors, in their migration to this country, and their settlement of this state, was, as they expressed it, to hold forth a hvely experiment that a flourishing civil state may stand and be best maintained with full Liberty in religious concern- ments: We therefore declare that no man shall be com- pelled to frequent or to support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever, except in fulfilment of his S48 APPENDIX. own voluntary contract ; nor enforced, restrained, mo- lested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor disqual- ified from holding any ofiice, nor otherwise suffer, on account of his religious belief; and that every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and to profess, and by argument to maintain, his opinion in matters of religion ; and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity. Sec. 4. Slavery shall not be permitted in this state. Sec. 5. Every person within this state ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character. He ought to obtain right and justice freely and without purchase, completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, comform- ably to the laws. Sec. 6. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, papers, and possessions, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrant shall issue but on complaint in writing, upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and describing as nearly as may be the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Sec. 7. No person shall be held to answer for a cap- ital or other infamous crime, unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury, except in cases of impeach- ment, or of such offences as are cognizable by a justice of the peace ; or in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger. No person shall, after an ac- quittal, be tried for the same offence. Sec. 8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor ex- cessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishments inflicted ; and all punishments ought to be proportioned to the offence. Sec. 9. All persons imprisoned ought to be bailed by APPENDIX. 349 sufficient surety, unless for offences punishable by death or by imprisonment for life, when the proof of guilt is evident or the presumption great. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety shall require it ; nor ever, without the authority of the General Assembly. Sec. 10. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining them in his favor, to have the assistance of counsel ia his defence, and shall be at liberty to speak for him- self ; nor shall he be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- erty, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the laws of the land. Sec. 11. The person of a debtor, when there is not strong presumption of fraud, ought not to be continued in prison after he shall have delivered up his property for the benefit of his creditor, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law. Sec. 12. No ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be passed. Sec. 13. No man in a court of common law shall be compelled to give evidence criminating himself. Sec. 14. Every man being presumed innocent until he is pronounced guilty by the law, no act of severity which is not necessary to secure an accused person shall be permitted. Sec. 15. The right of trial by jury shall remain in- violate. Sec 16. Private property shall not be taken for pub- lic uses without just compensation. Sec. 17. The people shall continue to enjoy and freely exercise all the rights of fishery, and the privi- leges of the shore, to which they have been heretofore 30 350 APPENDIX. entitled under the charter and usages of this state. But no new right is intended to be granted, nor any existing right impaired, by this declaration. Sec. 18. The military shall be held in strict subor- dination to the civil authority. And the law martial shall be used and exercised in such cases only as occa- sion shall necessarily require. Sec. 19. No soldier shall be quartered in any house, in time of peace, without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in manner to be prescribed by law. Sec. 20. The liberty of the press being essential to the security of freedom in a state, any person may pub- lish his sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty ; and in all trials for libel, both civil and criminal, the truth, unless published from malicious motives, shall be sufficient defence to the per- son charged. Sec. 21. The citizens have a right in a peaceable manner to assemble for their common good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances, or for other purposes, by pe- tition, address, or remonstrance. Sec. 22. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Sec. 23. The enumeration of the foregoing rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people. Art. II. — Of the Qualification of Electoks. Section 1. Every male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who has had his residence and home in this state for one year, and in the town or city in which he may claim a right to vote six months next preceding the time of voting, and who is really and truly possessed, in his own right, of real estate in such town or city, of the value of one hundred and APPENDIX. 351 thirty-four dollars over and above all encumbrances, or which shall rent for seven dollars per annum over and above any rent reserved, or the interest of any encum- brances thereon, being an estate in fee simple, fee tail, for the life of any person, or an estate in reversion or remainder, which qualifies no other person to vote, the conveyance of which estate, if by deed, shall have been recorded at least ninety days, shall thereafter have a right to vote in the election of all civil officers, and on all questions in all legal town or ward meetings, so long as he continues so qualified. And if any person here- inbefore described shall own any such estate within this state, out of the town or city in which he resides, he shall have a right to vote in the election of all general officers, and members of the General Assembly, in the town or city in which he shall have had his residence and home for the term of six months next preceding the election, upon producing a certificate from the clerk of the town or city in which his estate lies, bearing date within ten days of the time of his voting, setting forth that such person has a sufficient estate therein to qualify him as a voter ; and that the deed, if any, has been recorded ninety days. Sec. 2. Every [ ] male native citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years, who has had his residence and home in this state two years, and in the town or city in which he may offer to vote six months next preceding the time of voting, whose name is registered pursuant to the act calling the convention to frame this constitution, or shall be registered in the office of the clerk of such town or city at least seven days before the time he shall offer to vote, and before the last day of December in the present year, and who has paid or shall pay a tax or taxes assessed upon his estate within this state, and within a year of the time of voting, to the amount of one dollar, or who shall voluntarily pay at least seven days before the time he 35^ APPENDIX. shall offer to vote, and before said last day of De- cember, to the clerk or treasurer of the town or city where he resides, the sum of one dollar, or such sum as, with his other taxes, shall amount to one dollar, for the support of public schools therein, and shall make proof of the same, by the certificate of the clerk, treas- urer, or collector of any town or city where such pay- ment is made ; or who, being so registered, has been enrolled in any military company in this state, and done military service or duty therein, within the present year, pursuant to law, and shall (until other proof is required by law) prove by the certificate of the officer legally commanding the regiment, or chartered or le- gally authorized volunteer company, in which he may have served or done duty, that he has been equipped and done duty according to law, or, by the certificate of the commissioners upon military claims, that he has performed military service, shall have a right to vote in the election of all civil officers, and on all questions in all legally organized town or ward meetings, until the end of the first year after the adoption of this consti- tution, or until the end of the year eighteen hundred a,nd forty-three. From and after that time, every such citizen who has had the residence herein required, and whose j.iame shall be registered in the town where he resides, on or before the last day of December, in the year next preceding the time of his voting, and who shall show, by legal proof, that he has, for and within the year next pre- ceding the time he shall offer to vote, paid a tax or taxes assessed against him in any town or city in this state, to the amount of one dollar, or that he has been enrolled in a military company in tiiis state, been equipped and done duty therein according to law, and at least for one day during such year, shall have a right to vote in the election of all civil officers, and on all questions in all legally organized town or ward meet- APPENDIX. 353 ings' Provided, Thdit no person shall at anytime be allowed to vote in the election of the city council of the city of Providence, or upon any proposition to impose a tax, or for the expenditure of money in any town or city, unless he shall, within the year next preceding, have paid a tax assessed upon his property therein, valued at least at one hundred and thirty-four dollars. Sec. 3. The assessors of each town or city shall an- nually assess upon every person v/hose name shall be registered, a tax of one dollar, or such sum as with his other taxes shall amount to one dollar ; which registry tax shall be paid into the treasury of such town or city, and be applied to the suppoit of public schools therein. But no cemj^ulsory process shall issue for the collection of any registry tax ; Protidedy That the registry tax of every person who has performed military duty accord- ing to the provisions of the preceding section, shall be remitted for the year he shall perform such duty ; and the registry tax assessed upon any mariner, for any year while he is at sea, shall, upon his application, be remitted ; and no person shall be allowed to vote whose registry tax, for either of the two years next preceding the time of voting, is not paid or remitted as herein provided. Sec. 4, No person in the military, naval, marine, or any other service of the United States, shall be con- sidered as having the required residence by reason of being employed in any garrison, barrack, or military or naval station in this state ; and no pauper, lunatic, per- son non compos mentis, person under guardianship, or member of the Narragansett tribe of Indians, shall be permitted to be registered or to vote. Nor shall any person convicted of bribery, or of any crime deemed infamous at common law, be permitted to exercise that privilege, unless he be expressly restored thereto by act of the Greneral Assembly. Sec. 5. Persons residing on lands ceded by this state 30* 354 APFENDTX, to the United States shall not be entitled to exercise the privileges of electors. Sec. 6. The General Assembly shall have full power to provide for a registry of voters, to prescribe the man- ner of conducting the elections, the form of certificates, the nature of the evidence to be required in case of a dispute as to the right of any person to vote, and gener- ally to enact all laws necessary to carry this article into effect, and to prevent abuse, corruption^, and fraud in voting. Art. III. — Or the Distribution of Powers. The powers of government shall be distributed into three departments • — the legislative, execuCive, and ju- diciaL Art. TV. — Of the Legislative Powee. Section 1. This constitution shall be the supreme law of the state^ and any law inconsistent therewith shall be void. The General Assembly shall pass all laws necessary to carry this constitution into effect. Sec, 2. The legislative power under this constitution shall be vested in two Houses — the one to be called the Senate, the other the House of Representatives ; and both together, the General Assembly. The con- currence of the two Houses shall be necessary to the enactment of laws. The style of their laws shall be^ It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows. Sec. 3. There shall be two sessions of the General Assembly holden annually — one at Newport, on the first Tuesday of May, for the purposes of election and other business ; the other on the last Monday of Oc- tober, which last session shall be holden at South Kings- town once in two years, and the intermediate years alternately at Bristol and East Greenwich ; and an ad- journment from the October session shall be holden. annually at Providence. APPENDIX. 355 Sec. 4. No member of the General Assembly shall take any fee, or be of counsel in any case pending before either House of the General Assembly, under penalty of forfeiting his seat, upon proof thereof to the satisfac- tion of the House of which he is a member. Sec. 5. The person of every member of the General Assembly shall be exempt from arrest, and his estate from attachment in any civil action, during the session of the General Assembly, and two days before the com- mencement, and two days after the termination thereof ; and all process served contrary hereto shall be void. For any speech in debate, in either House, no member shall be questioned in any other place. Sec. 6. Each House shall be the judge of the elec- tions and qualifications of its members, and a majority shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as may be prescribed by such House, or by law. The organization of the two Houses may be regulated by law, subject to the limitations con- tained in this constitution. Sec. 7. Each House may determine its rules of proceeding, punish contempts, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member ; but not a second time for the same cause. Sec. 8. Each House shall keep a journal of its pro- ceedings. The yeas and nays of the members of either House shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. Sec. 9. Neither house shall, during a session, with- out the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, nor to any other place than that in which they may be sitting. Sec. 10. The General Assembly shall continue to exercise the powers they have heretofore exercised, unless prohibited in this constitution. 356 - APPENDIX. Sec. 11. The senators and representatiyes sliall re- ceive the sum of one dollar for every day of attend- ance, and eight cents per mile for travelling expenses in going to and returning from the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall regulate the compensation of the governor and all other officers, subject to the limitations contained in this constitution. Sec. 12. All lotteries shall hereafter be prohibited in this state, except those already authorized by the Gen- eral Assembly. Sec. 13. The General Assembly shall have no power hereafter, without the express consent of the people, to incur state debts to an amount exceeding fifty thousand dollars, except in time of war, or in case of insurrection or invasion ; nor shall they in any case, without such consent, pledge the faith of the state for the payment of the obligations of others. This section shall not be con- strued to refer to any money that may be deposited with this state by the government of the United States. Sec. 14. The assent of two thirds of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly shall be required to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes. Sec. 15. The General Assembly shall, from time to time, provide for making new valuations of property for the assessment of taxes, in such manner as they may deem best. A new estimate of such property shall be taken before the first direct state tax after the adoption of this constitution shall be assessed. Sec. 16. The General Assembly may provide by law for the continuance in office of any officers of annual election or appointment, until other persons are qualified to take their places. Sec. 17. Hereafter, when any bill shall be presented to either House of the General Assembly, to create a corporation for any other than for religious, literary, or charitable purposes, or for a military or fire company. APPENDIX. 357 it shall be continued until another election of members of the General Assembly shall have taken place ; and such public notice of the pendency thereof shall be given as may be required by law. Sec. 18. It shall be the duty of the two Houses, upon the request of either, to join in grand committee for the purpose of electing senators in Congress, at such times, and in such manner, as may be prescribed by law for said elections. Art. Y. — Of the House of E-epresentatives. Section 1. The House of Representatives shall never exceed seventy-two members, and shall be constituted on the basis of population, always allowing one repre- sentative for a fraction exceeding half the ratio; but each town or city shall always be entitled to at least one member ; and no town or city shall have more than one sixth of the whole number of the members to which the House is hereby limited. The present ratio shall be one representative " to every fifteen hundred and thirty in- habitants ; and the General Assembly may, after any new census taken by the authority of the United States or of this state, reapportion the representation by alter- ing the ratio ; but no town or city shall be divided into districts for the choice of representatives. Sec. 2. The House of Representatives shall have authority to elect its speaker, clerks, and other officers. The senior member from the town of Newport, if any be present, shall preside in the organization of the House. Art. VI. — Of the Senate. Section 1. The Senate shall consist of the lieuten- ant governor, and of one senator from each town or city in the state. Sec. 2. The governor, and, in his absence, the lieu- 35S APPENDIX. tenant governor, shall preside in the Senate and in grand committee. The presiding officer of the Senate and grand committee shall have a right to vote in case of equal division, but not otherwise. Sec. 3. If, by reason of death, resignation, absence, or other cause, there be no governor or Ueutenant gov- ernor present, to preside in the Senate, the Senate shall elect one of their own members to preside during such absence or vacancy ; and until such election is made by the Senate, the secretary of state shall preside. Sec. 4. The secretary of state shall, by virtue of his office, be secretary of the Senate, unless otherwise pro- vided by law ; and the Senate may elect such other offi- cers as they may deem necessary. Art. YII. — Of the Executrt: Power. Section 1. The chief executive power of this state shall be vested in a governor, who, together with a lieutenant governor, shall be annually elected by the people. Sec. 2. The governor shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Sec. 3. He shall be captain general and commandeV- in-chief of the military and naval forces of this state, except when they shall be called into the service of the United States. Sec. 4. He shall have power to grant reprieves, after conviction, in all cases except those of impeachment, until the end of the next session of the General As- sembly. Sec. 5. He may fill vacancies in office not otherwise provided for by this constitution or by Irtw, until the same shall be filled by the General Assembly or by the peo]^le. Sec. 6. In case of disagreement between the two Houses of the General Assembly, respecting the time or APPENDIX. Bb9 place of adjournment, certified to him by either, he may adjourn them to such time and pUice as he shall think proper : Provided, That the time of adjournment shall not be extended beyond the day of the next stated session. Sec. 7. He may, on extraordinary occasions, con- vene the General Assembly at any town or city in this state, at any time not provided for by law ; and in case of danger from the prevalence of epidemic or contagions disease in the place in which the General Assembly are by law to meet, or to which they may have been ad- journed, or for other urgent reasons, he may, by procla- mation, convene said Assembly at any other place within this state. Sec. 8. All commissions shall be in the name and by authority of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations ; shall be sealed with the state seal, signed by the governor, and attested by the secretary. Sec. 9. In case of vacancy in the office of governor^, or of his inability to serve, impeachment, or absence from the state, the lieutenant governor shall iill the office of governor, and exercise the powers and author- ity appertaining thereto, until a governor is qualified to act, or until the office is filled at the next annual election. Sec. 10. If the offices of governor and lieutenant governor be both vacant, by reason of death, resigna- tion, impeachment, absence, or otherwise, the person entitled to preside over the Senate for the time being, shall, in like manner, fill the office of governor during such absence or vacancy. Sec. 11. The compensation of the governor and lieu- tenant governor shall be established by law, and shall not be diminished during the term for which they are elected. SEg. 12. The duties and powers of the secretary, attorney general, and general treasurer, shall be the S60 APPENDIX. same under this constitution as are now establislied, or as, from time to time, may be prescribed by law. Art. VIII. — Op Elections. Section 1. The governor, lieutenant governor, sen- ators, representatives, secretary of state, attorney gen- eral, and general treasurer, shall be elected at the town, city, or ward meetings, to be holden on the first Wednesday of April, annually ; and shall severally hold their offices for one year, from the first Tuesday of May next succeeding, and until others are legally chosen and duly qualified "to fill their places. If elected or quali- fied after the said first Tuesday of May, they shall hold their ofii.ces for the remainder of the political year, and until their successors are qualified to act. Sec. 2. The voting for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, general treasurer, and representatives to Congress, shall be by ballot ; sen- ators and representatives to the General Assembly, and town or city officers, shall be chosen by ballot, on de- mand of any seven persons entitled to vote for the same ; and in all cases where an election is made by ballot, or paper vote, the manner of balloting shall be the same as is now required in voting for general officers, until otherwise prescribed by lav/. Sec. 3. The names of the persons voted for as gov- ernor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and general treasurer, shall be placed upon one ticket ; and all votes for these officers shall, in open town or ward meetings, be sealed up by the moderators and town clerks, and by the wardens and ward clerks, who shoall certify the same, and deliver or send them to the secretary of state, whose duty it shall be securely to keep and deliver the same to the grand committee after the organization of the two Houses at the annual May session ; and it shall be the duty of the two Houses, at APPENDIX. 361 said session, after their organization, upon the request of either House, to join in grand committee, for the pur- pose of counting and declaring said votes, and of elect" ing other officers. Sec. 4. The town and ward clerks shall also keep a correct list or register of all persons voting for general officers, and shall transmit a copy thereof to the General Assembly on or before the first day of said May session. Sec. 5. The ballots for senators and representatives in the several towns shall, in each case, after the polls are declared to be closed, be counted by the moderator, who shall announce the result, and the clerk shall give certificates to the persons elected. If in any case there be no election, the polls may be reopened, and the like proceedings shall be had until an election shall take place : Provided, however, That an adjournment or ad- journments of the election may be made to a time not exceeding seven days from the first meeting. Sec. 6. In the city of Providence, the polls for sen- ator and representatives shall be kept open during the whole time of voting for the day, and the votes in the several wards shall be sealed up at the close of the meeting by the wardens and ward clerks in open ward meeting, and afterwards delivered to the city clerk. The mayor and aldermen shall proceed to count said votes within two days from the day of election ; and if no election of senator and representatives, or if an elec- tion of only a portion of the representatives, shall have taken place, the mayor and aldermen shall order a new election, to be held not more than ten days from the day of the first election, and so on until the election shall be completed. Certificates of election shall be furnished by the city clerk to the persons chosen. Sec. 7. If no person shall have a majority of votes for governor, it shall be the duty of the grand commit- tee to elect one by ballot from the two persons having the highest number of votes for the office, except when 31 362 APPENDIX. such a result is produced by rejecting the entire vote of any town, city, or ward, for informality or illegality ; in which case, a new election by the electors throughout the state shall be ordered ; and in case no person shall have a majority of votes for lieutenant governor, it shall be the duty of the grand committee to elect one by bal- lot from the two persons having the highest number of votes for the office. Sec. 8. In case an election of the secretary of state, attorney general, or general treasurer should fail to be made by the electors at the annual election, the vacancy or vacancies shall be filled by the General Assembly, in grand committee, from the two candidates for such office having the greatest number of the votes of the electors. Or in case of a vacancy in either of said offices from other causes, between the sessions of the General As- sembly, the governor shall appoint some person to fill the same until a successor elected by the General As- sembly is qualified to act ; and in such case, and also in all other cases of vacancies not otherwise provided for, the General Assembly may fill the same in any manner they may deem proper. Sec. 9. Vacancies from any cause in the Senate or House of Representatives may be filled by a new elec- tion. Sec. 10. In all elections held by the people under this constitution, a majority of all the electors voting shall be necessarv to the election of the persons voted for. Art. IX. — Of Qualifications for Office. Section 1. No person shall t)e eligible to any civil office (except the office of school committee) unless he be a qualified elector for such office. Sec. 2. Every person shall be disqualified from hold- ing any office to which he may have been elected, if he be convicted of having offisred, or procured any other APPENDIX. 363 person to offer, any bribe to secure his election, or the election of any other person. Sec. 3. All general officers shall take the following engagement before they act in their respective offices, to wit: You , being by the free vote of the electors of this State of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- tions, elected unto the place of , do solemnly swear (or affirm) to be true and faithful unto this state, and to support the constitution of this state and of the United States ; that you will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties of your aforesaid office to the best of your abilities, according to law : so help you God. Or, This affirmation you make and give upon the peril of the penalty of perjury. Sec. 4. The members of the General Assembly, the judges of all the courts, and all other officers, both civil and military, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this constitution, and the constitution of the United States. Sec. 5. The oath, or affirmation, shall be adminis- tered to the governor, lieutenant governor, senators, and representatives, by the secretary of state, or, in his ab- sence, by the attorney general. The secretary of state, attorney general, and general treasurer shall be en- gaged by the governor, or by a justice of the Supreme Court. Sec. 6. No person holding any office under the gov- ernment of the United States, or of any other state or country, shall act as a general officer, or as a member of the General Assembly, unless, at the time of taking his engagement, he shall have resigned his office under such government. And if any general officer, senator, rep- resentative, or judge, shall, after his election and en- gagement, accept any appointment under any other government, his office under this shall be immediately vacated ; but this restriction shall not apply to any per- son appointed to take depositions or acknowledgments 364 APPENDIX. of deeds, or other legal instruments, by the authority of any other state or country. Art. X. — Of the Judicial Power. Section 1. The judicial power of this state shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the General Assembly may, from time to time, or- dain and establish. Sec. 2. The several courts shall have such jurisdic- tion as may, from time to time, be prescribed by law. Chancery powers may be conferred on the Supreme Court, but on no other court, to any greater extent than is now provided by law. Sec. 3. The judges of the Supreme Court shall, in all trials, instruct the jury in the law. They shall also give their written opinion upon any question of law, when- ever requested by the governor, or by either House of the General Assembly. Sec. 4. The judges of the Supreme Court shall be elected by the two Houses in grand committee. Each judge shall hold his office until his place be declared vacant by a resolution of the General Assembly to that effect ; which resolution shall be voted for by a major- ity of all the members elected to the House in which it may originate, and be concurred in by the same majority of the other House. Such resolution shall not be en- tertained at any other than the annual session for the election of public officers ; and, in default of the pas- sage thereof at said session, the judge shall hold his place as herein provided. But a judge of any court shall be removed from office, if, upon impeachment, he shall be found guilty of any official misdemeanor. Sec. 5. In case of vacancy by death, resignation, re- moval from the state, or from office, refusal or inability to serve, of any judge of the Supreme Court, the office may be filled by the grand committee, until the next APPENDIX. 365 annual election, and the judge then elected shall hold his office as before provided. Ill cases of impeachment, or temporary absence or inability, the governor may ap- point a person to discharge the duties of the office dur- ing the vacancy caused thereby. Sec. 6. The judges of the Supreme Court shall re- ceive a compensation for their services which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. Sec. 7. The towns of New Shoreham and James- town may continue to elect their wardens as heretofore. The other towns, and the city of Providence, may elect such number of justices of the peace, resident therein, as they may deem proper. The jurisdiction of said justices and wardens shall be regulated by law. The justices shall be commissioned by the governor. Art. XI. — Of Impeachments. Section 1. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. A vote of two thirds of all the members elected shall be required for an im- peachment of the governor. Any' officer impeached shall thereby be suspended from office until judgment in the case shall have been pronounced. Sec. 2. All impeachments shall be tried by the Sen- ate ; and, when sitting for that purpose, they shall be under oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted except by vote of two thirds of the members elected. When the governor is impeached, the chief or presiding justice of the Supreme Court, for the time being, shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions Sec. 3. The governor, and all other executive and judicial officers, shall be liable to impeachment; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than to removal from office. The person convicted shall, nev- ertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, and punishment, according to law. 31* 366 APPENDIX, Art. XII..—- Of Education. Section 1. The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue, among the people, being essential to the pres- ervation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to promote public schools^ and to adopt all means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities oi education. Sec. 2. The money which now is, or which may hereafter be, appropriated by law for the establishment of a permanent fund for the support of public schools^ shall be securely invested, and remain a perpetual fund for that purpose. Sec. 3. All donatio*ns for the support of public schools, or for other purposes of education, which may be received by the General Assembly, shall be applied according to the terms prescribed by the donors. Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall malce all neces- sary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. They shall not divert said money, or fund, from the aforesaid uses ; nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose^ under any pretence whatsoever. Art. XIII. — Of Amendments. The General Assembly may propose amendments to this constitution by the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each House. Such propositions for amendment shall be- published in the newspapers, anel printed copie-s of them shall be sent to the secretary of state, with the names of all the members who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, to all the town and city clerks in the state. The said propositions shall be, by said clerks, inserted in the warrants or notices by them issued, for wai'ning the next annual APPENDIX. 367 41 town and ward meetings, in April ; and the clerks shall read said propositions to the electors when thus assem- bled, with the names of all the representatives and sen- ators who shall have voted thereon, with the yeas and nays, before the election of senators and representatives shall be had. If a majority of all the members elected to each House, at said annual meeting, shall approve any proposition thus made, the same shall be published and submitted to the electors in the mode provided in the act of approval ; and if then approved by three fifths of the electors of the state present, and voting thereon in town and ward meetings, it shall become a part of the constitution of the state. Art. XIV. — Of the Adoption of this Con- stitution. Section 1. This constitution, if adopted, shall go into operation on the first Tuesday of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-three. The first election of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and general treasurer, and of senators and representatives under said constitution, shall be had on the first Wednesday of April next pre- ceding, by the electors qualified under said constitution ; and the town and ward meetings therefor shall be warned and conducted as is now provided by law. All civil and military ofiicers now elected, or who shall be hereafter elected, by the General Assembly, or other competent authority, before the said first Wednesday of April, shall hold their offices, and may exercise their po\yers, until the said first Tuesday of May, or until their successors shall be qualified to act. All statutes, public and private, not repugnant to this constitution, shall continue in force until they expire by their own limitation, or are repealed by the General Assembly. All charters, contracts, judgments, actions, and rights / 368 APPENDIX. # of action, shall be as valid as if this constitution had not been made. The present government shall exercise all the powers with which it is now clothed, until the said first Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, and until the government under this constitution is duly organized. Sec. 2. All debts, contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this constitution, shall be as valid against the state as if this constitution had not been adopted. Sec. 3. The Supreme Court, established by this con- stitution, shall have the same jurisdiction as the Supreme Judicial Court at present established ; and shall have jurisdiction of all causes which may be appealed to, or pending in the same ; and shall be held at the same times and places, and in each county, as the present Supreme Judicial Court, until otherwise prescribed by the General Assembly. Sec. 4. The towns of New Shoreham and James- town shall continue to enjoy the exemptions from mili- tary duty which they now enjoy, until otherwise pre- scribed by law. Done in convention at East Greenwich, this fifth day of November, 1842. James Fenner, President. Henry Y. Cranston, Vice President, Thomas A. Jenckes, ) Secretaries Walter W. Updike, \ ^^^"^^^^"^'^'^