Introduction

In late October 1841, the People's Convention adjourned for a few weeks in order to let the state's citizens read a draft of the constitution the convention had produced. During this period, Thomas Dorr was appointed to a committee within the Rhode Island Suffrage Association to communicate with prominent statesman in order to ascertain their views on the People's Constitution. Dorr, along with Samuel H. Wales and John A. Brown, wrote to former President-turned-Congressman John QuincyAdams to invite him to deliver a discourse on popular sovereignty when the People's Convention reconvened.