The Dorr Rebellion

In the early 1840s, smoldering discontent over voting rights and representation in Rhode Island once again burst into flames.  The Rhode Island Suffrage Association, organized in 1840, demanded that the right to vote be expanded to include the 60% of men excluded from it.  Thomas Wilson Dorr, a Harvard graduate and well-to-do lawyer, soon became the leader of the movement to replace the Charter of 1663.  A “People’s Convention” drew up the “People’s Constitution,” which in turn was voted on in December 1841.  All white male citizens were eligible to vote.  (Dorr and other organizers objected to barring Black voters, but they were outvoted at the Convention by reformers afraid of alienating more conservative white votes.)

In the statewide referendum, the People’s Constitution received 13,944 votes (including almost 5,000 landowners).  Opponents boycotted the election, so “no” votes numbered only 52. (A Constitution drawn up in the General Assembly that made only a few concessions to the reformers (but did enfranchise Black males) was then voted down in that body.)

In March 1842, a second, “official” statewide referendum was held on the so-called “Landholders’ Constitution,” which had been drawn up as an alternative to the People’s Constitution.  It expanded suffrage to all native-born white males (note the anti-immigrant restriction) with 2 years’ residence, but only taxpayers with property worth more than $150 could vote on financial matters.  The property requirement was retained for naturalized (i.e. foreign-born) citizens.  Both Dorrites and Charterites went to the polls to vote on this compromise proposal, which was narrowly rejected, 8,689 to 8,013.  Anticipating future trouble, the General Assembly then passed what became known as the “Algerine Law,” making it a treasonable offense to take office under the People’s Constitution.

In April 1842, the Dorrites and the state government each held an election.  Dorr was elected governor by the former; Samuel Ward King, by the latter.  When each side refused to accept the other’s Constitution, King appealed to President John Tyler for military aid, then declared martial law and called out the State Militia.  Rhode Island now had two governors and two General Assemblies.

Dorr and his followers then made the fateful decision to resort to violence, a tactic that cost them considerable support statewide, including in Barrington.  After the Dorrites failed to seize the State Arsenal in Providence (because cannon failed to fire) on May 18, 1842, Governor King called out the Militia.  (“Charterites” who dispersed the rebels included Dorr’s father and uncle.)

The subsequent showdown between Dorr’s “army” and the Rhode Island Militia contained elements of comic opera.  Dorr took refuge in New York, then returned in June 1842 with plans to regroup in Chepachet.   The battle that both sides expected never quite materialized.  Dorr’s “army” disintegrated, and Dorr himself again fled the state.  As Erik Chaput, the most thorough researcher of the Rebellion, notes,

 There were no military casualties for the simple reason that only one shot was fired.  The only recorded deaths were Robert Gould, who was shot in the face by his deranged brother-in-law over a matter that had nothing to do with the military campaign, and an innocent bystander, who was killed the next day in Pawtucket.  The majority of prisoners taken into custody between June 28 and 30 were curious onlookers who were simply in the wrong spot at the wrong time. (Chaput, 158).

In November 1842, unnerved by the upheaval, the General Assembly held another Constitutional Convention.  The resulting document somewhat expanded white male suffrage. Landowners needed only one year’s residence to vote in all elections.  Landless citizens with two years’ residence who paid taxes on $134 worth of property could vote in all elections.  Native-born citizens who paid at least $1.00 in taxes or performed at least one day of volunteer service (“registry voters”) could vote in most elections (but not in Providence’s city council elections, nor on financial matters in any municipality).  Naturalized citizens could vote only if they fulfilled the $134 real estate requirement.  This time the Dorrites boycotted, and the “Law and Order Constitution” was approved, 7,024-51.  With amendments, this Constitution remained in effect into the 1970s.

In 1843 Dorr turned himself in.   He was tried, convicted of treason, and sentenced to solitary confinement for life, at hard labor.  Although he served only a year, his health was broken and he died in 1854