USA > Rhode Island > The Dorr war; or, The constitutional struggle in Rhode Island > Part 9
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Naturally the two constitutions differed materially in their appor- tionment of the Representatives. (19) By the People's a fixed appor- tionment was made, granting two Representatives each to twenty- one towns; one each to Jamestown, Middletown, and Barrington ;
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three each to Cumberland, North Providence, and Scituate; four to Warwick, and five each to Smithfield and Newport; while each of the six wards of Providence might send two Representatives. Power was given to the General Assembly, whenever necessary, to rede- termine the bounds of the wards of Providence. By the Freemen's Constitution the apportionment was variable and based on popula- tion : it allowed to each town at least two Representatives, and not more than eight; 4,000 inhabitants were sufficient for three Repre- sentatives; 6,500 for four; 10,000 for five; 14,000 for six; 18,000 for seven ; and 22,000 for eight.(a) In brief, according to the census of 1840, the immediate differences in the two proposals were that by the People's Constitution Providence would have twelve Repre- sentatives instead of eight; Smithfield and Newport five instead of four; and Jamestown, Middletown, and Barrington one instead of two; but neither made sufficient allowance for future disturbances of population.
In organization the Senate would be identical, except that by the People's Constitution the presiding officer was the Lieutenant- Governor, and by the Freemen's the Governor, but the Lieutenant- Governor was ex- oficio a member. (20) The radical difference was in the apportionment of the Senators. By the People's Constitu- tion there were to be twelve districts and twelve Senators; by the Freemen's, sixteen districts and nineteen Senators. Providence would have in either case two Senators, and Smithfield one, while Newport was allowed two by the Freemen's and but one by the People's Constitution.
(a) This would have allowed, until the census of 1850, three Representatives each from Cumber- land, North Providence, and Scituate ; four each from Smithfield, Warwick, and Newport ; and eight from Providence.
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THE CONVENTIONS.
The sections relating to impeachments were identical in the two constitutions. (21) The rights and duties of the executive power were substantially the same. (22) The People's Constitution forbade the commander-in-chief to march the militia out of the State, with- out their consent, or that of the General Assembly, and provided that the Governor should send messages to the General Assembly and require information from military and executive officers ; it also arranged for an annual election of a sheriff in each county. The Freemen's Constitution kept the power of pardons and reprieves in the hands of the General Assembly, granting the Governor the right to reprieve only to the end of the next session of the legislature; while the People's placed the entire power over par- dons and reprieves in the control of the Governor, except in cases of impeachment.
The Freemen's Constitution provided for elections in a manner closely resembling that of the People's;(23) and the sections in the Freemen's Constitution relating to qualifications for office nearly all appear also in the People's. (21) The articles referring to the judiciary were practically identical; the only important divergence being the provision in the Freemen's Constitution that the judges of the Supreme Judicial Court shall in all cases instruct the jury in the law. (25) The articles relating to constitutional amendments did not materially vary ; (26) the Freemen's Constitution required a . three - fifths vote of the people to ratify amendments, and the Peo- ple's but a majority. (27) Each constitution provided the means by which the people might vote on the ratification. (28) Most of the " General Provisions" are common to the two instruments: the most important sections not in the Freemen's are those removing from the General Assembly jurisdiction over cases of insolvency,
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divorce, etc .; (20) providing for the referendum on the passage of bills creating banks of issue; (30) and affirming the power of the General Assembly to amend or repeal all acts of incorporation thereafter granted. (31)
In summarizing these constitutions, it is seen that the People's was not only much more liberal, but also more carefully and thor- oughly framed; and it was more_in accord with modern ideas of government and the constitutions of other States. It is only neces- sary to read the Freemen's Constitution in order to realize that it was prepared by those who would turn from the beaten track only so far as they were compelled to go. In the Bill of Rights the People's Constitution was, on the whole, superior to its rival. In its removal of the judicial power and the power of pardon from the General Assembly, and in its attempt to place the regulation of banks of issue and other incorporated bodies in the hands of the people, it tended to limit the "omnipotent power " of the leg- islature. The suffragists took a very peculiar position, however, in their claim that in criminal cases the jury should judge the law 'as well as the fact.
While on the general question of apportionment and in com- paratively minor points the People's Constitution responded to the complaints that had been made against the charter government, a new question arose which created new divergences. Instead of choosing the ten Assistants, or Senators, at large, by each consti- tution the Senators were to be elected by districts; but in size and character these systems of districts differed. Neither apportion- ment could be considered satisfactory, with reference to the popu- lation of that time; (3?) and both the constitutions showed a lack of appreciation of the evils of a fixed representation, unchangeable except by amendments to the constitution. The twelve senatorial
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THE CONVENTIONS.
districts of the People's Constitution averaged 9,092 inhabitants, and ranged from 11,586 to 6,476. These divergences from the average population might have been obviated. (b)
Not so much can be said for the Senate apportionment of the Freemen's Constitution. Providence, with its 23,172 inhabitants, was assigned two Senators; while Newport town and District Two, outside of Newport, each of which had less than 8,600, were also granted two. (c) The average population for a Senator, by the cen- sus of 1840, was 5,728; the actual figures ranged from 11,586 to 2,835.
Between the two apportionments of Representatives there was not much choice: though that of the People's Constitution was fixed, it was more in accord with the population of the time, giving Providence twelve instead of eight, and Smithfield and Newport five instead of four; the three very small towns might perhaps de- serve the two Representatives cach allotted by the Freemen's Con- stitution if the proposition be accepted that a town, as a town, had some rights.
Leaving the burning question of the suffrage out of account, the People's Constitution seems in most respects preferable to its rival, though its upholders had no reason to scorn the Freemen's Constitution ; the general provisions of the latter were fairly accept- able to the ordinary citizen, and seem, except in a few points, to have been unobjectionable even to the suffragists themselves ; hence they were practically compelled to fall back upon the main issue of the suffrage qualifications.
(b) Newport, with 8, 333 population, might have made a district by itself ; and, if Jamestown and New Shoreham had been annexed to District Nine, its number of inhabitants would have been in- creased from 7,107 to 8.541.
(c) Smithfield's 9.543 and District Five's 9.532 were granted but one Senator each.
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It is not necessary to restate these qualifications or to discuss them : the People's Constitution gave almost universal suffrage ; the Freemen's Convention had not decided what to do. They talked of a tax qualification, and referred the matter to the people for advice; what would be the final decision, no one could tell. The suffragists seemed warranted in assuming that but little in- crease of the franchise would be obtainable from the Freemen's Convention. They therefore took immediate steps for referring their constitution to the people.
AUTHORITIES, -- 1 Newport Mercury. Aug. 28, 1841. 2 New Age, Sept. 3, 1841. 3 New- port Mercury, Sept. 4, 1841. 4 Providence Journal, Sept. 1, IS41. 5 New Age, Oct. 15, 1841. 6 Providence Journal, Oct 12, 1841. 7 Providence Journal, Nov. 19. 1841. S Burke's Report, 857-864. 9 Art. II, People's Constitution ; see Appendix. 10 Providence Journal, Sept. 17, Sept. 18, Sept. 27, Oct. I, Oct. 1.4. Oct. 25, IS4I. 11 Burke's Report, III : Testimony of John S.
Harris. 12 Burke's Report, 113 : Idem. 13 Art. XIV, Sec. 22, People's Constitution. 14 Art. II, Sec. 3, People's Constitution. 15 Providence Journal, Nov. 2. 1841. 16 Republican Herald, Nov. 17, 1841. 17 Art. II, People's Constitution. 1S Art. III and Art. IV, of both Constitutions. 19 Art. V, of both Constitutions. 20 Art. VI, of both Constitutions. 21 Art. VII, of both Con- stitutions. 22 Art. VIII, of both Constitutions. 23 Art. IX, Freemen's Constitution ; Art. X, People's Constitution. 24 Art. X, Freemen's Constitution ; Art. II, Sec. 10. Art. IX, Sec. 3, Art. IV, Secs. 3 and 4, People's Constitution. 25 Art. XI, of both Constitutions. 26 Art. XII, of both Constitutions. 27 Art. XIII, of both Constitutions. 28 Art. XIV, People's Constitution ; unnumbered Article, Freemen's Constitution. 29 Art. IX, Sec. 4, People's Constitution. 30 Art. IX, Sec. 9, People's Constitution. 31 Art. IX, Sec. 10, People's Constitution.
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CHAPTER IX.
THE PEOPLE'S CONSTITUTION.
E VEN if it were conceded that the people have the right, at any time, and without the request or consent of the existing government, to frame a constitution for a State, the adoption of such constitution by the people would need to be closely scruti- nized. The method provided by the People's Constitution for its adoption was as follows:
" 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 re- quested to deposit in the ballot-boxes printed or written tickets in the following 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 proposed to the people by said convention on the ISth day of November, 1841.(a)
(a) In some of the printed ballots which the suffragists prepared, after the word "I" a blank was left, and a star referred the voter to the bottom of the ballot to the direction : "Write your name in this place." In most cases there was no blank space, and the name was signed at the
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"2. Every voter is requested to write his name on the face of his ticket; and every person entitled to vote as aforesaid, who, from sickness or other cause, may be unable to attend and vote in the town or ward meetings assembled for voting upon said constitu- tion, 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 aforesaid, shall receive such vote, on either of the three days next succeeding the three days before named for voting on said constitution. (b)
"3. The citizens of the several towns in this State, and of the several wards in the city of Providence, are requested 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 con- vention, to be counted and declared at their next adjourned meet- ing, on the 12th day of January, 1842."(1)
bottom of the ballot. After the words "I am," in the third line, a space was left, and on some of the ballots a reference to the foot - note, "Write the word not, if you are not a voter." In the next line, space was reserved for the insertion of the words " for" or "against." A sample ballot read as follows :
1776. [EAGLE] 1841.
Adoption of the Constitution of Rhode Island. PEOPLE'S TICKET.
- Burke's Report, 354-355.
(b) The unique method of proxy-voting is not difficult of comprehension ; in brief, any friends of the constitution had the privilege of bringing to the meetings the names of any who were willing to sign their names merely, without troubling themselves further.
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The voting was held on the appointed days, at these unofficial ward and town meetings, in all the towns of the State. The char- acter of the meetings may be judged from the testimony of a few of those especially interested. One witness said : " I acted as moder- ator in the sixth ward of the city of Providence at the time the vote was taken on the adoption of the people's constitution ; and, as such, endeavored to have the voting conducted with as much fairness, and with as great a desire to prevent fraudulent or illegal voting, as ever was done in any other similar ward meeting. Great care was taken by me, as the presiding officer of that meeting, that no one should vote but such as had the right by the provisions of said constitution. Votes were rejected by me on that occasion ; and I do not now know of a single vote remaining on the register, or among the ballots, which is not a good vote."(2) The testimony of another prominent suffragist was to the point : "I was present at the meetings for voting for the people's constitution in the town where I resided (Smithfield), and which cast more than 1,300 votes for that constitution. Although not an officer of said meetings, I took an active part therein, and can unhesitatingly say that the voting was carried on with the utmost good faith, and with a deter- mination not to receive the votes of any persons not competent by the provisions under which they were voting. . From all my knowledge of the voting at the time, with all I have since learned, . I am very fully of opinion that a less number of illegal votes were polled for that constitution than in any contested election held in the State for many years."(3) A former suffragist, after he had abandoned his fellow-workers, testified as follows : " Of the manner in which these meetings and the voting were conducted, (except at the 3d ward polls in the city of Providence, where I attended my- self,) I can say nothing; though it was then, and has been since,
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supposed that uniformity prevailed, in a great measure, in most parts of the State. In the above-named ward, no evidence was required . .. of the qualification to vote of any one who offered, except his own yea or nay; and even of foreigners, strangers, or otherwise, no naturalization papers, or other evidence of citizenship, was required. During the last three days, or days of proxy-voting, I was informed by the warden or moderator, and clerk, that a large number of votes were deposited in the ballot-box, which had been received from scamen and others, then absent, previous to their de- parture." (1)
The result of the vote was duly announced by the People's Convention, which met again January 12, 1842, and appointed a committee of twenty-five to examine and count the votes cast on the 27th day of December and the five subsequent days.(e) This committee canvassed the returns, and reported, January 13, as fol- lows :
Freemen.
Non-Freemen.
Total.
Providence County,
2,933
5,734
S,667
Newport County,
639
1,200
1,839
Washington County,
572
735
1,307
Kent County,
533
970
1,503
Bristol County,
283
345
628
4,960
8,984
13,944
(c) As the officers of this convention, together with this committee, must have been among the leading men of the party. a list of their names seems important. President: Joseph Joslin, of New- port. Vice-Presidents : Wager Weeden, of South Kingstown ; and Samuel HI. Wales, of Providence. Secretaries : William II. Smith and John S. Harris. Committee : William James (chairman), John R. Waterman, Dutee J. Pearce. David Daniels, Oliver Chace, Jr., Robert R. Carr, Ariel Ballou, Thomas W. Dorr, Samuel T. Ilopkins, Alfred Reed, William C. Barker, Abner Haskell, Alexander Allen, Willard Hazard, Welcome B. Sayles, Sylvester Ilimes, Israel Wilson, Jonathan Remington, Christopher Smith, Elisha G. Smith, Samuel Luther, Erasmus D. Campbell, Nathan Bardin, Joshua B. Kathbun, and Nathan A. Brown.
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THE PEOPLE'S CONSTITUTION.
The committee added to the table the following explanatory statement: " The whole number of males in this State, over the age of twenty-one years, as nearly as can be ascertained . . . is 26,142. Deducting at a moderate computation 3,000 persons who are not citizens of the United States, etc., . . the remainder is 23,142, of whom a majority is 11,572. The constitution has re- ceived 873 votes more than one-half of all the adult males in the State, and 2,372 more than half of all those qualified to vote for said constitution by citizenship, age, and residence, and an actual majority of 4,746. . .. Of the persons who voted, 4,960 are quali- . fied voters under the existing laws of the State. The greatest number of votes ever polled by said voters was 8,622; . . of this number, a majority of 1,298 have voted for the constitution,-mak- ing, also, as your committee believe, a majority of all the freemen of the State. The committee have found all the returns of votes from the several towns and wards to have been regularly made, and accompanied with lists of all the persons voting, which lists enumerate the qualified voters, and those who are not. Every voter has signed his name upon his ticket; and the committee believe that both the voting and the returns have been as regular and accurate as at any election ever held in this State. ... The committee report to the convention, as the result of their examina- tion and count of the votes, that the constitution proposed to the people by said convention on the ISth day of November last, has been adopted by a large majority of the citizens over the age of twenty-one years, having their permanent residence in the State."(5)
The committee's report was accepted and the following resolu- tions were adopted by the convention : "Whereas, by the return of the votes. upon the constitution, proposed to the citizens of this State by this convention on the 18th day of November, 1841, it
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satisfactorily appears that the citizens of this State, in their original and sovereign capacity, have ratified and adopted said constitution by a large majority; and the will of the people, thus decisively made known, ought to be implicitly obeyed and faithfully exe- cuted: We do, therefore, resolve and declare that said constitution 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 ourselves, and in behalf of the people whom we represent, that we will establish said constitu- tion and sustain and defend the same by all necessary means. Re- solved, That the officers of this convention make proclamation of the return of the votes upon the constitution; 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 news- papers of the same. Resolved, That a certified copy of the report of the committee appointed to count the votes upon the constitution, and of these resolutions, and of the constitution, be sent to his excellency the Governor, with a request that he communicate the same to the two Houses of the General Assembly." (6)
The suffrage leaders had now carried their plan through, and had declared their constitution the fundamental law of the State, in place of the charter. In a previous chapter it was stated that a legal adoption of a constitution ordinarily required other methods than those which were used by the supporters of this constitution. Even if the claim of the suffragists was legitimate, we should ex- pect to find a constitution, prepared by a convention whose dele- gates had been elected by a majority of the people, and then adopted by a majority of the people, so that both proposition and ratification of the fundamental law of the State might at least rep- resent the will of the people. It is clear that the delegates were
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THE PEOPLE'S CONSTITUTION.
not chosen by a majority of the freemen nor of the non-freemen ; it is necessary now to consider whether the constitution was rati- fied by an affirmative vote of more than half the so-called qualified voters.
The convention declared the constitution adopted, because rati- fied "by a majority of the people." Of what people? According to the committee, of the males, over twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, and have a permanent residence within the State. Accepting their estimate, and their exclusion of those under guardianship, insane, and criminals, and ignoring the 80,000 or more women and children in the State, the number of " the people " was very likely not far from their figure of 23,142. The suffragists then claimed that the constitution was adopted on the ground that 13,944 of these 23, 142-a majority of 4,746-had ratified it. Then, according to the convention, we must conclude that the constitution would not have been adopted if there had been, in this list of 13,944, as many as 2,373 improper votes; for then the remaining 11,571 votes would have been a minority of the 23,142 qualified voters.
What is the historic probability that the elections were so care- fully conducted that there were not two or three thousand votes cast contrary to the limitations formulated by the People's Constitu- tion itself? Were the opportunities for intentional or unintentional errors many or few ? How honest were the intentions of the men who were behind this movement ? To answer all these questions there is not sufficient evidence. On one point, however, it is safe to make an assertion : many of the leaders were honest in their intentions and in their acts; they had a thorough belief in their theory of the rights of the people; and, in the case of many of them, there can be no question that they would have dropped the
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matter if they had felt that the number of votes reached only about 11,000 instead of 14,000.
Nevertheless, no one can suppose that among the seventy-two moderators and clerks of these town-meetings, entirely isolated in the thirty-six polling places, (d) there would be no attempt to use deceit to aid their cause. A very important piece of evidence was the votes themselves, with the names of the voters written upon them, as well as the lists of the voters ; these were carefully pre- served and examined by the "select committee," and the list of names was printed,(7) but after a short time no one was permitted to examine it. It is very certain that this list included some names absolutely fictitious ; some names of sailors then, and for at least two months previous, at sea; some names of dead persons; some unnaturalized aliens ; and some persons in the employ of the United States. (e) The accuracy of the list, as well as of the votes, depends upon the integrity of the election officers. They were not under oath, but oaths were not required of the regular officials in the legal town -meetings ; (8) official party inspectors or supervisors at the polls were not then customary. The principal reason for distrust is that the usual individual watchfulness of interested opponents was lack- ing ; those opposed to the constitution, almost without exception, remained away from the polls, so that, according to the returns, but 46 votes out of nearly 14,000 were cast against the constitution, and these in but six of the thirty-one towns.
Another usual check was absent; there could be no legal pun- ishment for any person who stated a falsehood upon his ballot. He might not be an American citizen ; he might have failed, intention- ally or from carelessness, to insert the word " not" before "a free-
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