Introduction

In this important letter to John Brown Francis , Elisha R. Potter Junior offered his opinion of national politics. Though Rhode Island’s Democratic party was very much divided on the question of constitutional reform, the vast majority of northern Democrats were behind Thomas Dorr. It should be noted that most southern Democrats opposed Dorr. Potter believed that the constitutional crisis in the state needed to be settled as quickly as possible before conservative Democrats were forced to side with Dorr and the People’s Constitution. Potter mentioned that Thomas Hart Benton, the powerful Democratic Senator from Missouri, was siding with Dorr. John O’Sullivan, the influential editor of the Democratic Review, also expressed his approval for Dorr’s course of action.