USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 85
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After a long delay for the arrival of the military forces from the country, at an early hour in the morning of May 18 a movement was made upon the arsenal in the city of Providence, a depot of the state arms, with 250 men and two pieces or artillery; two others being left behind through a neglect which has never been accounted for. The place to be taken was a stone building of two stories, with artillery on the first and infantry on the second. The attempt failed from desertion, for want of better organization and of officers, and by the disabling of the guns through treachery. Some persons having access to them and act- ing in concert with our enemies, did not intend that anything should be accomplished; and they prevailed.
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Shortly after the surrounding of the arsenal about two-fifths of our men left the ground by the unauthorized order of a subordinate officer. The officer first in command under me also disappeared, and was followed by others. Delay occurred in altering the position of the pieces. An ineffectual attempt was made to discharge them ; they had been rendered unserviceable. The greater portion of the men had become scattered, or had retired. I directed the pieces to be withdrawn, and left the ground at daylight with thirty-five or forty men.
Dorr left Rhode Island for New York.
THE AFFAIR AT ACOTE'S HILL-Dorr's next return to Rhode Island was timed to cor- respond with the June session of the General Assembly, which opened on Monday, June 21. For a month the state had been stirred from time to time by rumors of preparations within and beyond the borders of Rhode Island for another demonstration-of bodies of men drill- ing, of caches of arms and ammunition, of attempts (some successful) to obtain possession of cannon and powder, of secret meetings, of patrols, of plans for invading Rhode Island. The "Journal" interpreted what it characterized as "this constant commotion" as purposed "to take advantage of any favorable turn that the tide of affairs may take" or "to influence the General Assembly, now in session." The General Assembly failed to meet on June 20 for want of a quorum; on the following day it considered a grist of petitions and resolutions from town meetings bearing on constitutions and suffrage, and referred them with a resolu- tion to call a convention to a committee. The resolution had been passed in concurrence on Thursday, June 23, when adjournment was taken. Dorr left New York on June 21 for Nor- wich, Connecticut, accompanied by the "Spartan Band," twenty armed men, commanded by Michael Welsh. At Norwich he met friends from Rhode Island, and issued an order for a military council, to convene at Chepachet, which had been chosen as the meeting place for the Dorr General Assembly in July. The council did not assemble; instead Dorr received word that 500 men were at Chepachet. He joined the group at Chepachet, and found it to consist of no more than 250 armed men at any time from June 25 to 27. A camp had been estab- lished on Acote's Hill, with cannon placed to command the roads.
News of the gathering had spread through Rhode Island, and militia and military com- panies aggregating 4000 men were called out, concentrating in and about Providence, under command of William G. McNeill as Major-General. Arms were loaned by Henry A. S. Dearborn, Adjutant General of Massachusetts. The organization was complete on Saturday, June 26, but no order to advance was given until the evening of Monday, June 27. On Tues- day, June 28, Military Order, No. 54, announced : "The village of Chepachet and fort of the insurgents were stormed before eight o'clock this morning, and taken with about 100 pris- oners by Colonel William W. Brown; none killed and no one wounded." An extra, after- noon edition of the "Journal" carried an item equally as laconic: "Dorr Fled and His Fort Taken-News has this moment arrived that the force under command of Colonel Brown has taken the insurgent fortification. Dorr has fled, but large numbers of his men have been taken." Dorr had departed Monday evening, after issuing an order to his few remaining followers to disperse to their homes. A letter addressed to Walter S. Burges of Providence was intercepted Monday evening and delivered to Mr. Burges by Colonel Edwin H. Hazard. Mr. Burges opened the letter in the presence of the military officer. The letter contained a note to Mr. Burges, announcing the abandonment of Acote's Hill, thus: "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." The envelope enclosing the Dorr-Burges letter contained also a letter addressed to the "Providence Express" (daily edition of the "New Age"), as follows: "Having received such informa-
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tion as induces me to believe that a majority of the friends of the People's Constitution dis- approve of any further forcible measures for its support; and believing that a conflict of arms would therefore, under existing circumstances, be but a personal controversy among different portions of our citizens, I hereby direct that the military here assembled be dis- missed by their respective officers."
Perhaps there was justification for withholding both letters for the time being, and for the rapid advance of the Charter army on Acote's Hill immediately after the letters had fallen into the possession of General McNeill. The prisoners captured included some of Dorr's followers who had not succeeded in reaching home, and many who, on subsequent investiga- tion, were released for want of evidence that they had been connected in any way with the movement. Dorr himself crossed the state line into Connecticut, and for over a year remained outside Rhode Island, escaping capture, though a reward of $5000 was offered and diligent search for him was made. Both Governor Cleaveland of Connecticut and Governor Hubbard of New Hampshire refused to honor requisitions for his arrest and return to Rhode Island as a "fugitive from justice." He returned to Rhode Island on October 31, 1843, and sur- rendered himself for trial .* Of Dorr's associates, besides those captured by the army in and about Acote's Hill, many were indicted, and some were imprisoned; the General Assembly from time to time ordered amnesty, discharge from custody, or the nol-prossing of indict-
ments as a better feeling pervaded the state.
Besides the movement against Acote's Hill demonstrations in force were made by the militia at Woonsocket, in connection with which zealous soldiers who crossed the state line into Bellingham and arrested alleged Dorrites on Massachusetts soil were prosecuted ; and at Pawtucket, where the only bloodshed in the Dorr movement occurred. At Pawtucket the Kentish Guards, stationed at the bridge, were exas- perated by hooting and stone-throwing, and fired across the Blackstone River into the part of Pawtucket then lying in Massachusetts. Three spectators were struck, and one, Alexander Kelby, was instantly killed.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ORDERED-Before Dorr had reached the camp at Acote's Hill, the General Assembly had authorized a constitutional convention. Town meetings were ordered to elect delegates on the last Tuesday in August, to meet at Newport on the second Monday in September. The apportionment of representation in the convention was related somewhat to population ; two delegates each for towns with less than 3000 people, three dele- gates for towns of 3000 to 6000, four delegates for towns of 6000 to 10,000, five delegates for towns of 10,000 to 15,000, six delegates for towns of over 15,000. Providence might elect six delegates; Newport, Smithfield and Warwick, four each; Bristol, Coventry, Cumberland, North Providence, Scituate, South Kingstown and Tiverton, three each; all other towns, two each ; total, seventy-nine. Glocester sent no delegates to the convention. A majority of the delegates chosen constituted a quorum, and the purpose of completing a constitution was indicated in the power given to fourteen delegates to compel attendance of others to make the quorum. In the election of delegates all native male adult citizens of the United States resi- dent in the state three years and in the town one year might vote if registered at least ten days before election. The constitution drafted must be submitted to a plebiscite in which freemen and all others whom the constitution if adopted would enfranchise might vote. The enabling legislation had stipulated that the constitution should become effective when ratified "by a majority of the persons having a right to vote." The convention on September 29 adopted a resolution requesting the General Assembly "to pass such declaratory act as. may seem necessary for the plainer expression of the intent and meaning of the act" because of the "manifest impracticability of ascertaining the precise number of persons that might have
*Vide infra.
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a right to vote" and because "it is inferable that it is the true intent of said act that none but those actually voting should be counted." The Assembly complied with the request by pass- ing a statute declaring the constitution effective if "adopted by a majority of the persons hav- ing a right to vote and actually voting upon the question of adopting the same." There was good reason for the change, first, because of ambiguity, and, secondly, because the opinions and attitudes of the suffrage leaders had undergone a change after an almost spontaneous indication of approval of the constitutional convention when it was ordered in June.
The "Journal," of June 27, and the "Republican Herald," of June 28, printed, by request, an address, "to the Suffrage men of Rhode Island," as follows: "The late law of the General Assembly, containing, in our opinions, the substance of what we have contended for, we heartily recommend its provisions to the candor of our friends, and trust that they will render it their undivided support. The use of force in opposition to the government is not to be tolerated. And we hope that the feelings, wishes and opinions of the undersigned may be well considered by those who would not oppose the present existing government of the state." The address was signed by a large number of men who had participated actively in the Dorr movement. During the summer, however, the enforcement of martial law, which had been proclaimed by Governor King, was sufficiently obnoxious to arouse misgivings and to keep alive the resentment of pronounced suffrage leaders. Glocester's refusal to send delegates to the convention had the purpose of indicating dissatisfaction. Many counselled refraining from voting, and the vote on ratification, 7032 for to 59 against, might be interpreted as an eloquent protest by the opposition. The total vote for Governor in the election of 1843, 16,520, indicated that the constitution of 1842 had not been adopted "by a majority of the persons having a right to vote," nor yet by a majority of all adult male inhabitants. The wisdom of the declaratory act in stipulating adoption by a majority of the persons "actually voting upon the question" was demonstrated. The convention met in September as ordered, drafted a constitution that more nearly resembled the Landholders' than the People's Constitu- tion, and adjourned at the end of the month to permit printing and discussion, thus follow- ing the precedents of the conventions of 1841. The convention reassembled at East Green- wich in November, and on November 5 completed its labors. The plebiscite was conducted on November 21, 22 and 23. The committee of the General Assembly which counted the ballots on ratification of the Constitution of 1842 reported 7091 ballots, of which 6777 were for adoption, 171 for approval, 84 favorable, and 59 for rejection. The Constitution was pro- claimed, and measures taken for carrying it into effect, including the election of general officers and a General Assembly.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION-The Constitution of 1842 opened with a preamble and a "declaration of certain constitutional rights and privileges" in twenty-three articles, including "slavery shall not be permitted in this state." In the draft of the Constitution submitted to the referendum a blank space was left in the qualifications for suffrage to be filled with the word "white" if a majority of the electors so voted. On this question the vote was 1798 yes and 4031 no, and thus the new Constitution abolished color discrimination at the ballot box. An act of the new General Assembly elected under the Constitution repealed an earlier law that had forbidden state or town taxation of "persons of color." The suffrage qualifications were : (1) For adult male citizens of the United States resident in the state one year and in the town six months, complete suffrage on all questions in state and town elections if owning a free- hold estate valued at $134 or yielding $7 rent in the town of residence; or suffrage for gen- eral officers if owning a freehold estate located in another town; (2) for adult male native citizens of the United States resident in the state two years and in the town six months, suf- frage for the election of general and civil officers and on questions in town meetings, if reg-
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istered and paying a registry or other taxes amounting to one dollar, which might be remitted for military duty. In Providence no person might vote in the election of city council or on tax or appropriation questions unless he had paid in the year next preceding a tax on prop- erty valued at $134. Naturalized citizens of the United States could become electors only by acquiring a freehold estate valued at $134. The Constitution incorporated the principle of distribution of powers. The General Assembly was bicameral, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate consisted of the Lieutenant Governor and one Sen- ator from each town, with the Governor as President with the right to cast a deciding vote in case of equal division but not otherwise. The House of Representatives consisted of not exceeding seventy-two members, to be apportioned on the basis of population, except that each town was entitled to at least one representative and no town might elect more than twelve, Representatives to be elected on general ticket without districting. Election was by majority vote. No person was eligible for any office, except school committee, unless a qualified elector for the office. The Constitution provided for one supreme court and inferior courts to be established by the General Assembly, supreme court judges to be elected in grand committee and to serve until removed by a concurrent majority vote of the members elected to each house in the Assembly. The Constitution contained an article on education, provided for amendments, and restricted the powers of the General Assembly. With reference to the three major reasons urged for a Constitution, (1) suffrage, (2) representation, and (3) restriction upon the General Assembly: Suffrage had been changed by excluding the obnox- ious eldest son of a freeholder, and enfranchising a large new group, "adult native male cit- izens of the United States," to qualify by registration. The vote for Governor in the first election under the new Constitution indicated that the electorate had been approximately doubled. A smaller new group of electors included adult male naturalized citizens of the United States who became freeholders. The obnoxious requirement of elections as freemen had been abolished, and suffrage had become a political right of those who could qualify. The change in the system of representation, so far as the House of Representatives was con- cerned, favored the contention of the suffrage party for representation on the basis of popula- tion except as it limited the growing city of Providence to a sixth of the total membership; on the other hand the right of majorities that might be made effective in choosing the old Sen- ate of ten members at large, was cancelled by the provision for a new Senate consisting of one Senator from each town. The compromise on representation in the General Assembly indicated little or no gain for the principle of representation on the population basis; indeed, the new Senate practically assured the smaller towns, through equal representation, of a per- petual veto on legislation not approved by them, since laws must be passed by concurrent action.
ATTITUDE OF DEMOCRATS-Satisfactory to the suffrage party or not, the new Constitu- tion when ratified had become de facto the supreme law of the State of Rhode Island; they might refrain from participating in the exercise of political functions under it if they saw fit to do so, but that meant political suicide for politicians. The attitude of the suffrage party was disclosed in primary and convention meetings of the reorganized Democratic party in Rhode Island, which emerged eventually from a coalition of Dorrites and Democrats as an opposition party to the dominant Whigs, for the time being styling themselves the party of Law and Order. Resolutions adopted by a Democratic state convention meeting December 20, 1842, included :
That the right of the people "to institute and to organize" its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness and "to alter and to abolish" that government which has become either oppressive or "destructive of the ends" for which it was established and to substitute in its
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stead "new government" is their inalienable right, and the only sure basis of all popular governments ; . . that as Democrats and as citizens of this state, we may well differ upon the provisions of any fundamental law proposed or in force; but the original right of people to make or alter their fundamental law at any time, without authority or a request of the existing government is an American right, which the Democracy of this state and of the whole country will never surrender; . . . that the public affairs of this state are in a deranged state, brought about by the unjustifiable and arbitrary councils of the present state administra- tion, which seems to have been actuated by motives more calculated to perpetuate themselves in power than from a proper regard for the lives, liberties and equal rights of her citizens and the security of property; . . that as every government is more or less republican only in proportion as it embodies the popular will and the free "consent of the governed," we view with feelings of anxiety for the future happiness and prosperity of the people of this state, the extraordinary measures and means adopted by the administration to impose upon the people the constitutional form of government, not "deriving its just powers from the con- sent" of the majority, but sanctioned and ratified by a minority only as the reassertion of that aristocratic principle which holds "that the mass of mankind have not sufficient intelligence and virtue to participate in the management of public affairs" and teaches the abhorrent "right of the few to govern the many"; . . .
that the provision in the new Constitution exacting the payment of the dollar tax at the registry of a name is repugnant to and in violation of this sacred principle [right without purchase]. However repulsive to our feelings and galling to our rights this unjust requirement may be, yet as citizens desiring to preserve the public peace, we do hereby earnestly recommend to all Democratic Republicans,* not otherwise qualified, to register their names and pay this loathed price of liberty, and thus be prepared, at the ballot box, to assist and vindicate their rights, which have been so long denied to them by an arbitrary and despotic power; that in recommending this course, and in order to avoid all doubt or misconstruction of our purposes, we explicitly avow our object to be to accomplish in a satisfactory manner, and with the least delay, the establishment in fact, as well as in right, of the People's Constitution.
The Democrats had resolved to comply with the provisions of the new Constitution and to attempt, through the extension of suffrage, to wrest control of the state from the party in power. The convention condemned "certain leading and influential men formerly acting with the Democratic party" who had "allied themselves with those who are the foes of popular liberty and denied the cardinal principles of democracy, and aided materially in establishing despotic power in this state," and declared that "they have forfeited all claims to Democratic principles, and to the confidence of that party in this state and of the union."
A Democratic ward meeting in Providence adopted resolutions, thus :
That the people of this state, in the free exercise of their inherent and legitimate sovereignty, have formed for themselves a constitution of government, but that they have been prevented from carrying it into operation by a lawless military force; that we consider the thing termed a constitution, recently adopted by a small though wealthy faction in this state, to be both illegal in its origin and unequal and unjust in its pro- visions, and that therefore it is not of right the paramount law of this state; that in organizing a form of government under this constitution we intend to do no more than to give the people an opportunity to carry out their own will, in opposition to that of the unprincipled despots who would control the free exercise of their inalienable rights ; that we recommend to the friends of the People's Constitution to register their names and otherwise to qualify themselves to act at the coming election and to hurl those petty tyrants from the offices which they unworthily fill; that in qualifying ourselves to act under the Algerine Constitution, and in using such means as may be put in our power, through the forms of "law and order," to cast aside this most odious form of government, and to rear upon its ruins the constitution legally made and adopted by the people, we believe we are performing a solemn duty which we owe to our God, to our country, and to our posterity ; that we have the utmost confidence in the honesty and integrity of Thomas Wilson Dorr, and that we believe him to be an incorruptible patriot, a profound statesman, as well as a champion of equal rights ; and that he fully deserves the esteem and confidence of the Democracy of our whole country.
At Glocester a meeting of "friends of Democracy and equal rights," "believing that the only practicable course now known is to register our names according to the provisions of
*The name still retained by the Democratic party.
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the Algerine Constitution," resolved "that it is the duty of every man who is in favor of establishing the people's cause in this state, and hurling from power those men who have so disgraced their station, to register their names and be prepared to consign them to that oblivion to which they belong."
The candidate of the Law and Order party was James Fenner, old line Democrat, who had been Governor, 1824-1831, and more recently had been President of the Constitutional Convention. He had opposed the Dorr movement, and had served on the "war council" appointed to advise and assist Governor King. No doubt Governor Fenner's popularity had much to do with his election as first Governor under the Constitution, with a majority of 1694 in a total vote of 16,520 over Thomas F. Carpenter, the candidate of the Dorr-Demo- cratic coalition. With Governor Fenner the Law and Order party elected a complete state ticket and a majority in both houses of the General Assembly. Additional to the popularity of Governor Fenner, and the sturdy support given him by the well-organized Whigs in accomplishing his election, were the distrust engendered by the two armed uprisings of the Dorr forces, in Providence and Glocester, and the spectre of civic turmoil and domestic vio- lence unduly exaggerated perhaps, but still compelling. Dorr had tried twice and had found the people of Rhode Island unwilling to resort to armed force to adjust their political griev- ances and disabilities ; the election in 1843 of the candidates of the Law and Order party was confirmatory of a generally peaceable attitude and forbearance.
INAUGURATING A NEW GOVERNMENT-To the Charter General Assembly fell the task of preparing for the inauguration of the government under the Constitution of 1842. The Governor was directed to proclaim the new Constitution. The General Assembly by statute set up the machinery for an election, and expressly forbade and ordered the suppression of, other election meetings. The effect of the latter legislation was prohibition of a possible attempt to undertake a second election, in 1843, under the People's Constitution, which would have reproduced the crisis of 1842 with two Governors and two General Assemblies. With the election complete save for canvassing the votes, the General Assembly appointed a com- mittee "to be present at and witness the organization of the government under the Consti- tution adopted by the people of the state in November last," and ordered "that said com- mittee make report to this General Assembly as soon as such organization shall be completed in conformity with the provisions of said Constitution, in order that the General Assembly may know when its functions shall have constitutionally passed into the hands of those who have been legally chosen by the people to receive and exercise the same." As a matter of fact, the committee consisted, for the most part, of citizens who were members of the old and had been elected as members of the new General Assembly. The old and the new General Assemblies, in grand committee of each, were present at the same time in the State House at Newport on May 2, 1843. The new General Assembly canvassed and counted the votes cast at the election, and proceeded to organize. When the organization had been completed the committee reported to the old General Assembly, and then the latter resolved "that the fore- going report be accepted, and that the General Assembly be, and the same is hereby declared to be dissolved." Thus ended the General Assembly under the Charter of King Charles II, after an existence of 180 years. And thus also began the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations under the Constitution of 1842. Rhode Island did not continue to live happily ever afterward under the state Constitution, if for no other reason than that this is a true story and not a novel. A constitutional struggle quite as romantic and as fascinating in its unusual development remains to be narrated .* For this chapter there remains the task of gathering up the various threads tangled and broken in the denouement of the constitutional movement and rearranging them in the pattern of 1843.
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