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The Dorr Letters ProjectThomas Wilson Dorr to William Simons: |
Introduction
This long letter written by Thomas Dorr after the collapse of the People’s Government provides a detailed summation of the events of May and June 1842. This is the first known letter written by Dorr following his defeat and demonstrates the depths of his thoughts and mood. Feeling deserted and in some cases betrayed by members of the suffrage movement, Dorr notes to Providence newspaper editor William Simons that his spirit is not broken, but his health has suffered.
Letter
Westmoreland, N.H. Aug. 7th, '42. William Simons Esq. My Dear Sir,
Since the sad wreck of affairs in
Rhode Island I have had but few opportunities of learning what
has taken place among you, subse‸quently to the last week in June
I am without letters; and I have seen but two R. I. papers
(Algerine of course) which were so loaded with falsehood and calumny that I might
infer that the cause of the People has been consigned to general
obloquy, along with those who have endeavored, unsuccessfully, to
maintain it, in the last resort. Among the 13,944, who voted for the
People’s Constitution, it may be reasonable to suppose that there are a
few, certainly among my democratic associates, who retain some interest
in my fate, and are ready to defend my proceedings, so far at least
as regards the motives by which they were actuated, from the rage of
infuriated opponents. As one of this number, I return to you my
sincere thanks for the spirit in which I have seen you underta-
king my vindication from one of the false atrocious charges of the un-
scrupulous enemy, in your letter to the editor of the Boston Morning
Post. What other friends are left to me in the general wreck I
know not; and I have addressed to you this letter, that you may
communicate with them on a subject of deep interest to me, and for
the right decision upon which I desire all the information of which they
are possessed. Before coming to it however, I wish to dwell for a
moment on the events connected with the downfall of the People’s cause.
Soon after leaving Rhode Island the last time, I addressed a letter to Mr. Slamm
of the Plebian containing a general account of the closing scene
in which I had participated. It was published as a communication
without my name; and a friend in Vermont has sent me a part of
one of your papers, in which it is republished. It may be desirable
for me to go further into details at another time. I cannot pretend
that no errors have been committed by me in the Constitutional cause.
What, or how great, they have been, others will judge. One of them
was in deferring to the wishes of the members of the Legislature, on the
3rd of May, in not occupying the State House, and ‸not taking possession
of the public property, against my better judgment. The delay was
fatal. After the disaster of the 18th, and vainly endeavoring to
make another stand in the State, I proceeded to the city of
New York, to wait the progress of events, and to take such measures
to reinstate our cause as the crisis required. To the relieving
of this disaster my whole time and soul were devoted. With regard
to means furnished abroad they were of so small an amount, that
I need not mention it. Tho’ small it was a noble gift the accu-
mulation of small donations; and it is hardly necessary to add that
it did not come from the wealthy democrats of N. York. As it
regards aid in men, so far as I know, there were 1
from the city of N. York. They were among the bravest
of the brave, and conducted themselves with the greatest propriety.
I see in a fragment of the Providence Journal which a friend has
handed to me, the base and infamous charges, made no doubt to
furnish some pretense for the outrages and enormities, that have been
purported by the charter party, that I holdout to these ‸& the rest of the men, as
an inducement ‸to action, the plunder of the city of Providence for 24 hours
with all the other licenses of the most savage warfare. Those who
are acquainted with my opinion, feelings and course of action will not
wait for me to deny such a charge as this. They know that it is false,
as I declare it to be, & without the shadow of a foundation. All the men
who assembled at Chepachet came there as volunteers to defend their
own dearest rights and those of the People of Rhode Island. They were
the sons of the soil, the mechanics and workingmen. A bare subsis-
tence was all they expected, or received; and they would have spurned
the offer of being paid for a few days devotion to the common cause
much more that of ravaging the property, and desecrating the dwellings
of their fellow citizens. This privilege was reserved for the Algerines of Rhode
Island and they appear to have exercised it to the fullest extent. I caution-
ed our partisan officers at Chepachet to abstain from the seizure of
private property, and the more carefully, because it was the design of the
enemy to represent our movement as that of mere marauders, caring
nothing for the Constitution, and bent solely on rapine. That this
caution was regarded (if indeed it were necessary) appears from the absence
of specific proof ‸of the accusation on the part of the enemy. Our men were subsisted by con-
tributions. The only exception to this was the slaughter of an
value was made good to the owner by subscription to which I contributed
what I could afford. The few men ‸from abroad who lent us their aid, were
in possession of their own rights; and they came to help us in the spirit
which carried their predecessors ‸from abroad to Bunker Hill, and in reply to the
call, made in my proclamation of the 16th of May, to our fellow
citizens of other states, to interpose between ourselves and the force
of the National Government, should it be brought to act against
us. What the proof of the action of the general government were and are
you well know. In addition to what you have seen with your own
eyes, and had been published, I may add that the commander of
the detachment of U.S. Artillery, which passed through
ows Falls, about the 26th of June, stated that his orders were for Provi-
dence (not Newport) R.I., where there is neither fort nor barrack. These
troops were doubtless designed to act against the suffrage party in R.I.
Let me add to this connection, I know of no violence
or threats resorted to by our men. If any one was impressed into our
service, as one of the persons ‸examined has stated, I am ignorant of it. No such
orders were given by me, or as far as I know, by any one else. All con-
sidered themselves as volunteers in the People’s cause. They came
and went freely. I had to regret the little discipline which prevailed.
After Gen. D’Wolf took command [and he did all that a brave man could
honorably to atone for his letter to Gov. King] a strict discipline was adopted;
and all who were willing to stay were required to remain at their posts,
and obey orders. I know of no incivilities to Mr. Atwell. I met him
twice in front of his house and held a good humored conversation with
him not relating to military affairs in the presence of officers and others. In
a paper lent me I see that it was stated by Dr. Nichols, on his exam-
ination, that ‸he did ‸said all he dared to persuade me to disband the forces, &
that he said no more for fear that I would shoot him! This man
and also Mr. Pearce, came and went freely, & was treated with civility; and
as much time was devoted to him as could be spared. No word, or sign
or threat was used from‸ by which any body, of the most timid constitution,
could have conjured up a fear, which he pretended to have felt.
The charge which his words convey is a baseless and cowardly falsehood. The
conversation with him and with Mr. Pearce was of a very general nature.
I told them that I wished to receive all the information that they could
communicate, and that I was acting not for myself but for the People, to
carry out their will, by which I should be governed. Mr. P said that
the movement at Chepachet had been the cause of the passage of the act
of the Assembly, calling a Convention to frame a Constitution. I had
not then read his letter (signed by him and the Newport Rep’s), in which he
engaged to take up arms to support this movement. I am glad I
had not. My father made me a visit at Chepachet; which I
understand has been perverted to my injury, as well as to his own. It was
unexpected to me. I had not met him, nor had there been any correspondence
between us for 3 months. He brought no communication from the Charter
government, or any member of it, and carried ‸back none; and I have no reason
to doubt that his visit was prompted solely by feelings of kindness. He
stated the force of the enemy, our own strength as understood in Providence,
(and which was greatly overrated there), & handed me a letter, & a newspaper
from W. S. Burges. I replied, as to Mr. Pearce, that I should be governed
in my course by the ‸wishes & action of the People. One of the officers was present during
most of this interview. The visit was ‸an unfortunate one for me, though well
intended; as furnishing occasion for comments to the malignity of enemies.
No friend will accuse me for receiving ‸ the visitor with decent civility.
In dismissing our brave men at Chepachet I had to perform
a hard duty; but, being a duty, as I believed, it was done. It
would have been easier to have buried our small force in one of the
enemies divisions. Defeat or victory would have been honorable to
the judgment of the world. But the People were not with us. We deemed
it our duty not to fight against
tary view of the case, of the nature of the contest between very un-
equal forces, I shall say nothing at present. You can all judge
of the disparity, with 250
hours after our men had dispersed the enemy came up, and gained
the victory which they ‸have described. If my request had been complied
with, and there was ample time, nothing would have remained
on the hill, to be seized by the enemy, and converted ‸into the spoils of
war. But the request to remove every thing valuable was un-
fortunately not complied with. Some 27 men of ours lingered round
the spot till morning, and fired some of the artillery pieces in the
night among the trees. They retired before the enemy came.
I left Chepachet an hour after the camp was dismissed (and
the course taken in dismissing it was ‸submitted to & fully approved by the officers)
in company with one of my aids, Col. Carter. I stopped till nearly
noon the next day at Stiles in Thompson, acceptable to all who
wished to see me. I remained two days longer in the vicinity of that place, until, in effect, warned out of the State by Gov. Cleve-
land, who gave my friend White to understand that he would
issue his warrant against me, whenever a requisition in due form
should arrive from R.I. M. B. Ives (with A. Duncan)
was one of the agents from R.I. importuned Cleveland to issue the
warrant before the requisition, as he (Ives) knew or supposed he
knew where I was; but C. refused to stretch his authority. I have
since ‸seen with surprise, in one of the Boston papers, a compliment
to Cleveland, for his noble conduct in refusing to give up Mr. Dorr!
The week previous I had become so well satisfied from a semi of-
ficial source, that C. would surrender no man from R.I. for treason
that I had no hesitation in saying so to our officers. C. did
not hesitate a moment, on the 29th of June, in issuing his warrants
against seven of them for this offense. He gave, as his reason for
his determination to surrender me, an unwillingness to offend the
“democracy” of R.I. who had waited on him, through a Committee,
one of the members of which was Dr. William Grosvenor of Providence!
Who were the other members of this Committee? – All our offi-
cers are in places of safety except Carter, who I hear, surrendered
himself, without a warrant, in Connecticut, and has turned State’s e
vidence. Is it possible? Carter is a truly brave man; and
one of the last, as I should have supposed, to do an act like this. I
am also told that his testimony has involved (and unjustly) Aaron
White Jr. Mr. White has acted the part of a brother toward me; and
I feel the deepest interest in his fate. Lose no time in sending word
to him, and to all others who have not yet found a resting place,
that treason against the Charter of R.I. is not a crime recognized
in the State of N. Hampshire, either by the government or people.
Being thus driven from Connecticut by Gov. Cleveland,
whose democracy is of the kind what "calculates", I turned my
‸way toward Vermont & N. Hampshire. After remaining in
Guilford, Vt, for some days, I came here, on the 8th of July,
and have since remained. I cannot express the obligations I
am under to many democratic friends, for the facilities of reaching
this place, which they have so kindly proffered to me, and for their
cordial, hospitable reception. I find, by the experience of ad-
versity that there is something else in the party to which I be-
long, beside the dry head of federal aristocracy. There is a heart
and soul in it. A band of brotherhood runs through it. If I were
not a democrat I should become one among the farmers of N. Hamp-
shire. Whiggery in our case gives the most unequivocal demon-
stration of it, affinity with the principles of toryism and despotism.
While every democrat is in favor of the People’s Constitution, and the
course they have pursued in Rhode Island, almost every Whig
is in opposition, and all who are tempted by ‘the reward’ are
Whigs. I have been very anxious to communicate with my friends in
Providence, but doubt whether the post office in Providence was a safe
medium. I was for a long time in uncertainty whether my communi-
cation to Slamm had reached him ‸thro’ the post office in Connecticut. I am much favored by an
opportunity of sending a letter and of receiving letters from Providence, which is
furnished to me by the bearer of this. He is one of those to whom I am
deeply indebted for unremitted attention & kindness; and any atten-
tion, or hospitality, which may be shown to him will be a favor to me.
I beg that he may be treated with the most unreserved confidence;
I thrust that my friends will find time to send me ‸ by him an account of
affairs in R.I. giving their opinions ‸upon all that is past with the most perfect freedom.
It is due to myself to say that although I am not insen-
sible to the opinions of men, I feel conscious that I have done the
duty which was assigned to me by the People of R. Island, and in
this a source of satisfaction of what no hostility or malice can
deprive me. I took an oath to support the Constitution and
laws of the State; in the discharge of the duty imposed upon me, I
made an ineffectual attempt to take possession of the public property.
A casual defeat, as this was believed to be, could not justify an
abandonment of the defense of the Constitution. I was assured of a
fair support by the military, whenever I raised again the Constitu-
tional standard in R. Island. I carried with me a list of the
quotas of pledged men, fromin the several towns amounting to more
than thirteen hundred. I had reason to believe that a session of
the Assembly might be held with safety or might be made safe
to the members in Glocester. Determined that there should be no
precipitancy in the movement I referred it to a board of officers to de-
termine its feasibility. They did not meet. The men were prematurely
assembled. This was my misfortune, but not my fault. When I found
that the promises made me of aid and support were delusive, and
that the People were against me, their will was done. I did not fight
against them. Had I been a partisan, I might have construed
my duty differently, and perhaps have found, in the estimation of
the world, a more glorious termination to my career. If I had not
given the summons to arms, at Glocester, after the suffrage men had
raised the flag, the world would have said, that I deprived the
People of the opportunity they had long sought to vindicate their rights
and their Constitution. They cannot say so now. The People were
called and they did not come. If the Constitution be dead, it has
not ‸been sacrificed by me. Let me not be mistaken. I reproach no
man. Those who remain at home may have ‸had their reasons,
‸which may be satisfactory. They were not willing, or able, or ready. They were
under an overruling compulsion. Be this as it may, I am speaking of
the fact they did not come. Who is ‸the man that will cast a stone at
me for refusing to give up the Constitution?
But I must hasten to my main object. The question
with me was once, what ought I do to promote the cause of the People
of R. Island; the time has now arrived for me to ask, what is due to
my honor, & to self respect? I am an fugitive ‸exile from R.I. for an alleged political
offense. While at New York the unanimous voice of my friends called upon
me to preserve my personal liberty for their service, in upholding the Con-
stitution. Is there anything more for me to do? All is over; or seems to be.
My friends in arms are in prison, - some of them - ‸& for less cause than I
have furnished? If I were within reach of the enemy, I might perhaps
serve as a conductor of the wrath from others to myself. By a ‸return
before the discontinuance of martial law, the disrespectable charges
that I fled, a second time, from the Charter jurisdiction, to secure my
own personal safety, ‸regardless of honorable considerations, will be
effectually refuted. I am not conscious, before God, of any ignoble desire
to save, or prolong my life; and having called no one into any danger,
which I was not ready to share myself. I suppose that those who
know me will attach no credit to ‸such a charge. But it is made by my enemies
a weapon of offense, with a sharp point. On the other hand, a
surrender of myself, it may be said, to a formal trial, civil or military
by a packed court or jury, and with a result predetermined, is a sacrifice
to the malignant revenge of the unprincipled? Aristocrats, who seek my blood
or, it may be believed ‸by some that, by preserving my personal freedom, I may be of use
to those that are deprived of it, or to the cause of equal rights. Here
again rises the question, whether all is not over, whether any such cause
exist, and everything is not reduced to a dead level of abject,
hopeless submission. In determining the course which I ought now to pur-
sue, I shall not look at personal consequences, but at the effect of my
proceeding upon others: and I ask my democratic friends to state their
views and opinions freely, frankly and without a particle of reserve.
Being cut off from ordinary means of communication with the State, I
desire to see & know things just as they are, though the information of those
upon whom I can rely. Smooth words are of no use to me. I want to
know the truth. My democratic friends can furnish it; and I must
look to them for it. The gentleman who will bear this letter is a demo-
crat of the right stamp – a mechanic, who has worked his way up. He was
lately a member of the Ho. of Reps in this State, and is spoken of by his
friends as one of the candidates for the next Congress. While you advise with
him freely about affairs in which I am interested, do not forget to
suggest to him the cautions necessary to a man coming into a Slave
state from a free one like this, and who has been accustomed to speak
his mind freely ‸& publicly without any military restrictions.
When it had become apparent that further proceedings
at Chepachet were hopeless, I issued (at a time when the enemy had not
approached and we might retreat without disgrace) a general order
of dismission. This, I see, has been perverted into a confession by me
that the People were opposed to the Constitution, that is to say, a major-
ity of the People. What I said was that the People had shown that
they were unwilling to support the Constitution by forcible measures.
All legal questions remain where they were before. If the People’s
Constitution was ever valid, it is so now, in right, tho’ not in fact.
If the People shall dare to go through the form of electing members
under it to the next Congress, which will be strongly democratic, the question
may be fairly tried there. In the course of the retributive justice
which is awaiting, with its high damnation, the Algerine Party
of the Union, it may not be too much to expect that the guaranty
of the Constitution, of a Republican form of government to Rhode Island,
by the free choice of the People, may be executed. But these things
are in the list of possibilities. As to the Convention to form a
Constitution, called for September next, it seems to me
best to leave it, where it is secured, by ‸the unjust provisions ‸of the law, and
by the operation of military force, in the hands of the Algerines.
I hope the suffrage men will have nothing to do with it.
I am very desirous of seeing some of the Rhode Island
newspapers – especially those which contain the examination of prisoners.
And the history of the campaign invented by the editor of the Journal. Your
own press, I learn, is sealed by the military censors; but I should like very
much to receive my back numbers of the Herald.
I will prolong this miscellany only for a moment only by allu-
ding to the frauds and fabrications practiced against me by the enemy.
Church of the Chronicle invented “the sword dyed in blood” at ‸Providence; and Anthony
the death “in the last ditch” ‸etc. at Chepachet. All the stories about the
enlistment and armament in Connecticut were purely fictitious. The story
in the N. York Arena of the great dinner given to me, and of the fight
in the Park with six men was the same. Some scoundrel has since
personated me in N. York; another in Canada; ditto in Ohio, all furnish-
ing matter for obloquy to the Whig papers. ‸I noticed a forged extract from a letter of mine. "I must avoid any ignoble destiny."As to expatriating myself, as
has been stated in these papers, I should prefer death in any form.
I have not been farther than a day’s journey from R. Island since
I left Chepachet. My residence here has been known to many demo-
crats, and to some Whigs; one of whom, a man of wealth, J.
Walker Esq. was supposed to be taking steps, 3 weeks ago, to secure the
$5000; but he has since altered his mind. Why greater
publicity has not been given to my residence here will be
explained to you by the bearer of this letter. Where I am
needs be no secret.
This letter is addressed through you, to other
democratic friends in whom I have been accustomed to
place confidence. Do me the favor to call some of
them together for friendly conversation on the matters
to which I have alluded. It is important to me that
no more time should be lost. As the journey is
neither very long nor expensive, may I not hope to see
some one of you here?
My spirit is not broken by the burden of
defeat & obloquy that has been cast upon me. My
health is impaired by the trials & excitements of the last four
months; and I have some of the feelings of ‸one worn in the
service & requiring a discharge.
I am informed that some of the N. York “democrats” the nominal ones
join in the Whig chorus against me. Is this true of any considerable
number of them? It cannot be of Hopkins, Moore & others, who look at
facts, and expect miracles.
The order to dismiss could not be discussed in camp, and was
a surprise to many of our men, and to some, I am told a cause of complaint,
before they were aware of the state of affairs. I owe every explanation to these
brave men; and am ready always to permit it. They are the only Consti-
tutionalists who have a right to try me.
Give my best regard to Bradford Allen, ... & other friends.
I am very truly your friend, & fellow citizen,
T. W. Dorr
The editor of the Democratic Review, a warm & devoted personal friend, urges my return to R.I. in behalf, as he states, of many democrats in N.Y.
Questions
What is Dorr's understanding of why things went wrong in the spring of 1842? Is there anything Dorr could have done differently? Does Dorr express regret?