This select digital edition of Thomas Wilson Dorr's letters, provides educators and students with a unique opportunity to delve into the mind of the man who led one of the most significant constitutional reform efforts in antebellum American history. The vast majority of the letters are from the John Hay Library at Brown University. The editors also included several rare items owned by the Gilder Lehrman Foundation in New York City. Though the material on this website constitutes only a small fraction of the nearly 2,000 letters relating to Thomas Wilson Dorr students and teachers will be able to use the material to enter into the constitutional and political world of Rhode Island's preeminent 19th century reformer. The Dorr Rebellion represents a constitutional question of great moment for Americans before the Civil War: Who were the rightful monitors of the constitutional order? For Americans of an earlier generation, this question was not easily answered. Beyond our modern understanding, but yet clearly compelling to many Americans leaving in the years before the firing on Fort Sumter, was the possibility of a role for "the people"-as a check on unconstitutional actions of government. This was of course the essence of Jefferson's 1776 manifesto against the policies of King George III.
To learn more about the lead-up to the Dorr Rebellion read this contextual essay by Dr. Erik Chaput and Russell DeSimone.