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The Dorr Letters ProjectLydia Dorr and Sullivan Dorr to Thomas Wilson Dorr: |
Introduction
This is the only letter in the Dorr correspondence files signed by both Sullivan (1778-1858) and Lydia Dorr (1782-1859). In this letter, Thomas Dorr's parents beseech him to stop all proceedings to establish the People's Constitution. Sullivan and Lydia had just learned that their son had agreed to run for governor in the first election under the People's Constitution. The election was scheduled to take place April 18, 1842.
Letter
Providence ‸
We hear with great pain that you are about publishing a prox at the
head of which you are named for Governor of this state which is a
violation of the lawful authority of the State.
It grieves us to the heart to
know that a son of ours arrived at so mature an age and so well versed
in the laws of his Country should be a participant in acts calculated to
bring the state into destruction,
arouse passions which you cannot allay
and which God forbid produce civil strife attended with bloodshed and
murder. We beseech you.
We pray ‸ you to pause before you pass the Rubicon
and become engulfed in political criminal degradation, where our feeble prayers will not avail to save you from disgrace and ruin.
We again beg entreat and pray you to retire from the strife you are
inciting, for the law must prevail or all government is at an end.
If your heart is sensible to the parental anguish we have and now
suffer, we pray our Heavenly Father will vouchsafe and awaken in yours
a corresponding feeling for our sufferings and influence
you to renounce
the course you are pursuing and restore us to a peace of mind which
has for a long time has been a stranger to us.
May God in his infinite mercy prompt you to a decision which
only can restore you to the good opinion of your friends and fellow
citizens whose esteem is worth the cultivation and preserve our grey hairs
from that shame and disgrace which will attend forever if successful
your present course and hurry us sorrowing to the grave.
Your affectionate parents and best friends,
Sullivan Dorr
Lydia Dorr
To Thomas W. Dorr Esq.
Questions
How would you characterize Sullivan’s and Lydia's feelings regarding their oldest son's actions in 1841-42?