View TEI
The Dorr Letters ProjectThomas Wilson Dorr to Millard, Low & Miller (Proclamation and General Order enclosed): |
Introduction
In this letter to editors of the pro-suffrage newspaper the Daily Express, Thomas Dorr requests that they publish several documents relating to the People's Government. Dorr had returned to the state in order to re-convene the Peoples’ Legislature at Chepachet. In addition to calling for the legislature to meet, Dorr also requests that vacancies be filled by new elections. In addition to the letter, this document contains two enclosures, a proclamation and a set of general orders.
Letter
Glocester June 25th, 42
Messers Millard, Low & Miller,
Enclosed are a
Proclamation and General Orders which I request you
to publish without delay. If you cannot do
this please transfer the same to the Herald, or to
some othe person, who will get them into general circu-
lation, through an extra. I pray of you not
to treat me again as in your paper of Thursday ‸ or yesterday
in which you intimate that some members of the
Algerine Assembly will induce me to give up the
Constitution. You must entertain a poor opinion of
me to make such statements as these. Believing the
People’s Constitution to be rightfully made, I know of
no way to abrogate it, except by a majority of the
whole People.
Is it possible that any considerable
number of suffrage men in Providence can be induced
to surrender their Constitution, and to barter away their
liberty & other rights of their brethren who have borne
the burden and heat of the day, by the mere call of a
Convention, which excludes a large portion of their fellow citizens
from the choice of delegates. Has the Express
abandoned the cause of the People? This might
be inferred from the additional article of today. I trust
our men will remain true to their cause. If they do, it
will succeed.
Yours Truly,
T. W. Dorr
Proclamation
(Place the arms of the State at its head)
State of Rhode
Island & Providence
Plantation.
A Proclamation by the Governor by the Governor of the Same.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Con-
stitution, in cases of special emergency, I hereby convene
the General Assembly, which was adjourned to meet
at Providence on Monday the 4th day of July next;
at the villatown of Glocester, on the Same day, for the
transaction of such business as may come before them.
And I hereby request the towns and districts,
in which vacancies may have occurred, by the resig
nation of Sen Representatives or Senators, to proceed forth
with to supply this same by new elections, according
to the provisions of Article XIV th of the Constitution.
Given under my hand, and the seal of State, at Glocester, this 25th day of June, A.D.1842.
Thomas W. Dorr, Governorand Commander in Chief–
General Orders
General Orders
Head Quarters, Glocester,
R. I. June 25th, 1842.
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 disposed, to do the same. It has become the duty
of all ‸our citizens who believe that the People are sovereign, and
have a right to make and alter their forms of govern
ment, now to sustain; theby all necessary means, the
Constitution of theadopted and established by the People
of this State, and the Government elected under the same.
The only other alternative is an abject submission to a
a despotism, over the minds 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 Republic. I cannot doubt that ‸the descendants of the ancientthe
‸People of this State will cheerfully and promptly respond to this appeal
to their patriotism, ‸& to their to their sense of justice; & that
they will show themselves ‸in this experience to be the worthy descendants of those
ancestors, who aided in achieving our national independence.
By command of the Governor, Thomas W. Dorr, Governor and Commander
in Chief
William H. Potter, Adjutant General.
Questions
Why did Dorr recommend that if the Express could not publish the documents that the request be transferred to the Republican Herald, another Providence pro-suffrage newspaper?
Why does Dorr believe that some of the suffrage men in Providence would surrender the People's Constitution?
Do you think the Algerine Law had a larger impact on resignations than the resort to force?