Introduction

In this short postscript of a letter written to William Goddard, a professor at Brown University, former governor John Brown Francis argued that political leaders should have taken the call for suffrage reform more seriously. The postscript was written shortly after the vote on the People's Constitution in late December 1841. Nearly 14,000 Rhode Islanders supported the change in government. Francis' use of the phrase the "money King" is a reference to Rhode Island Whigs, a political party that supported the interests of banking and business. The Democrat Francis believed that the Whigs were to blame for the current political turmoil.

Letter

It was just as manifest at the June Session last year
that the suffrage question was beyond control as it is now.
Was there not then a culpable negligence on the
part of the men who hold the reins in this state
& do they not deserve the severest malediction?
To quote a favorite expression of Mr. Hazard, the
new party "Hell bent" but yet bent only on one
object that of suffrage – It was at this time that
I urged certain leaders, to agree to let the people
in," as they were then in the humour to adopt any
Constitution having in it the panacea of
free suffrage. Any pill gilded in this way
would have been swallowed without a wry
face – but wrongheads and Bourbons are
not confined to France it would seem.
You are at liberty if you chose to shew this to
Dr. Wayland. -- He indeed did not entirely
escape this Bank worship but was never such a zealot as to become
unkind in his feelings towards me as others did because I
did not prefer the money King

Questions

Did Francis express a deep desire to see political reform or do you think his view was based on political calculus?