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Introduction
This important letter provides historians with a detailed timeline of Thomas Dorr's legal studies. After graduating second in his class from Harvard in 1823, Dorr studied in New York City under Chancellor James Kent (1763-1847), the leading state-level jurist in the country. After his tutelage under Kent, Dorr clerked in the Providence law office of John Whipple, one of Rhode Island's leading attorneys. In 1842, Whipple became one of Dorr's most bitter opponents, serving on the advisory council to Governor Samuel Ward King.