Convicts, Bartenders, and New York Radicals—: A Quaker View of Dorr's Rebellion

Convicts, Bartenders, and New York Radicals— A Quaker View of Dorr's Rebellion By John P. Roche* The following letter from a conservative Rhode Island Friend to his half-brother in Dutchess County, New York, should be of interest to students of American social history. Aza Arnold, the author, was a well-known inventor.1 It is interesting to note that, even in the 1840's, "New York radicals" were thought to be busily at work undermining the social foundations of the hinterland. Some background on the incidents discussed in this letter may be valuable. While most of the original states of the Union had altered their constitutional frameworks to provide for wide (white) manhood suffrage, Rhode Island was still in 1842 operating under the provisions set forth in its colonial charter. As a consequence of high property qualifications for voting and of mal-apportionment of seats in the state legislature, more than half of the adult male population was disfranchised, and the rural areas thoroughly dominated the more populous industrial towns. There were periodic attempts at reform, and when the reformers in 1841 once again entered the lists, Thomas W. Dorr soon assumed the leadership of the forces of change. The Dorrites drew up a new state constitution, "the People's Constitution," and after an involved electoral struggle with the conservatives succeeded in getting endorsement by the people. However, the conservatives declared the Dorr constitution null and void, and refused to surrender their control of the state. Two competing governments resulted, one conservative and the other Dorrite. When Dorr, "the People's Governor," attempted to implement his authority, the charter government undertook strong punitive measures against him, and Dorr left Rhode Island for Washington and New York, in hopes of getting outside support. He returned on May 17, 1842, with a force of * John P. Roche is a member of the Political Science Department, Haverford College. 1 See Dictionary of American Biography, I, 361-62. This biographical sketch errs in placing Arnold in Philadelphia at the time he wrote this letter. 41 42Bulletin of Friends Historical Association 234 men and attempted to implement his jurisdiction by force of arms. Both his attempt to seize the Providence Arsenal and his later effort to rally his followers at Chepachet were abortive, and Dorr fled the state with a price on his head. In 1843, Dorr returned to Rhode Island and was sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason. A campaign was immediately instituted to liberate him, and in 1845 it was successful. However, Dorr's ordeal and punishment left their marks and he died ten years later at the age of forty-nine.2 The Dorr War can be considered as the Rhode Island upsurge of Jacksonian democracy, and it might be well to contrast the views of Friend Arnold with those of President Jackson, who wrote his friend Francis P. Blair on May 23, 1842: The people of Rhode Island will triumph as they ought in Establishing their republican constitution and that state will hoist the republic banner and democracy will triumph there. Surely it cannot be that the U. States will aid the aristocracy of Rhode Island to continue the charter of charles the 2nd when bound to gurantee a Republican form of Government to every state in the Union. . . . The people are the sovereign power and agréable to our system they have the right to alter and amend their system of Government when a majority wills it, as a majority have a right to rule."3 I am indebted to my colleague Professor L. A. Post, a descendant of the Thomas Arnold to whom this epistle was sent, for calling the letter to my attention. This item is on deposit in the Quaker Collection of the Haverford College Library. Unfortunately the preceding letter, to which Aza Arnold refers in his first paragraph, has been lost. Punctuation has been added to improve readability, but the spelling has not been altered. The letter was addressed to "Thomas Arnold, Stanford Ville, Duches County, N. York." 2 A good brief account of the Dorr War, to which I am indebted, is in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson, (Boston...