The Dorr Rebellion (1841–1842) (also referred to as Dorr's Rebellion, Dorr's War or Dorr War) was an attempt by disenfranchised residents to force broader democracy in the U.S. state of
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...
, where a small rural elite was in control of government. It was led by
Thomas Wilson Dorr, who mobilized the disenfranchised to demand changes to the state's electoral rules. The state was still using its 1663 colonial charter as a constitution; it required that voters own land as qualification to vote. The rebellion established a parallel government alongside the existing chartered government and wrote a new constitution for Rhode Island. Although the rebellion was crushed militarily, it forced the rewriting of the state constitution to expand eligibility to vote.
Precursors and causes
Under
Rhode Island's colonial charter, originally received in 1663, only male landowners could vote. At the time, most of the citizens of the colonies were farmers and held land, and this qualification was considered fairly democratic. By the 1840s, the state required landed property worth at least $134, or ownership of land generating annual rent of at least $7, in order to vote.
As the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
reached North America and many people left the farms for the cities, large numbers of people could no longer meet the minimum property requirement to vote. By 1829, 60% of the state's free white men were ineligible to vote (women and most non-white men were prohibited from voting). Many of the disenfranchised were recent
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...
immigrants or other Roman Catholics who lived and worked in the cities at salaried jobs.
Reformers favoring universal male suffrage argued that an electorate made up of only 40% of the state's white men, and based on a colonial charter signed by the British monarch, was un-republican and thus violated the
United States Constitution's
Guarantee Clause,
Art. IV: Sec. 4 ("The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government
..).
Before the 1840s, activists made several attempts to replace the colonial charter with a new state constitution that provided broader voting rights, but all failed. The state lacked a procedure to amend the Charter. The
Rhode Island General Assembly
The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 representatives, and the upper Rhode Island Se ...
, dominated by rural landowners, had consistently failed to liberalize the constitution by extending the franchise, enacting a
bill of rights
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
, or reapportioning the legislature based on demographic changes as the cities acquired much larger populations. By 1841, most states of the United States had removed property requirements and other restrictions on voting (see
Jacksonian democracy
Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, An ...
). Rhode Island was nearly the only state falling significantly short of
universal white manhood suffrage.
Rebellion
In 1841, suffrage supporters led by Dorr gave up on attempts to change the system from within. In October, they held an extralegal People's Convention and drafted a new constitution, known as the People's Constitution, which granted the vote to all white men with one year's residence. Dorr had originally supported granting voting rights to Blacks, but he changed his position in 1840 because of pressure from white immigrants, who wanted to gain the vote first. At the same time, the state's General Assembly formed a rival convention and drafted the Freemen's Constitution, with some concessions to democratic demands.
Late in that year, the two constitutions were voted on, and the Freemen's Constitution was defeated in the legislature, largely by Dorr supporters, while the People's Convention version was overwhelmingly supported in a referendum in December. Much of the support for the People's Convention constitution was from the newly eligible voters, but Dorr claimed that most of those eligible under the old constitution had also supported it, making it legal.
In early 1842, both groups organized elections of their own, leading in April to the selections of both Dorr and
Samuel Ward King as
Governor of Rhode Island
The governor of Rhode Island is the head of government of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's Army National Guard and Air National Guard. The current governor is Democrat Dan McKee. In their capac ...
. King showed no signs of introducing the new constitution; when matters came to a head, he declared martial law. On May 4, the state legislature requested the dispatch of federal troops to suppress the "lawless assemblages". President
John Tyler
John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected v ...
sent an observer, then decided not to send soldiers because "the danger of domestic violence is hourly diminishing". Nevertheless, Tyler cited the U.S. Constitution and added that
If resistance is made to the execution of the laws of Rhode-Island, by such force as the civil peace shall be unable to overcome, it will be the duty of this Government to enforce the constitutional guarantee—a guarantee given and adopted mutually by all the original States.
Most of the state militiamen were Irishmen newly enfranchised by the Dorr referendum; they supported him. The Irish who played a growing role in Democratic politics in other states, such as
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
in New York City, gave Dorr their verbal support, but sent no money or men to help.
The "Dorrites" led an unsuccessful attack against the arsenal in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
on May 19, 1842. Defenders of the arsenal on the "Charterite" side (those who supported the original charter) included Dorr's father Sullivan Dorr and his uncle Crawford Allen. At the time, these men owned the
Bernon Mill Village in
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Woonsocket ( ), is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 43,240 at the 2020 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Being Rhode Island's northernmost city, Woonsocket lies directly south of ...
. In addition, among the defenders of Providence were many Black men who had supported Dorr before he dropped them from his call for suffrage. Dorr's cannon failed to fire, no one was hurt, and his army retreated in disarray.
After his defeat, Dorr fled to New York and returned in late June 1842 with armed supporters and assembled his forces on Acote's Hill in
Chepachet
Chepachet is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Glocester in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is centered at the intersection of U.S. Route 44 ( Putnam Pike) and Rhode Island Route 102 (also kn ...
, where they hoped to reconvene the People's Convention. Governor King called out the state militia which marched on Chepachet to engage the Dorrite forces.
Charterite forces were sent to Woonsocket to defend the village and to cut off the Dorrite forces' retreat. The Charterites fortified a house in preparation for an attack, but it never came.
Dorr disbanded his forces, realizing that he would be defeated in battle by the approaching militia, and fled the state. Governor King issued a warrant for Dorr's arrest with a reward of $5,000.
Aftermath
The Charterites were finally convinced of the strength of the suffrage cause and called another convention. In September 1842, a session of the Rhode Island General Assembly met at
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New ...
and framed a new state constitution, which was ratified by the old, limited electorate, was proclaimed by Governor King on January 23, 1843, and took effect in May. The new constitution greatly liberalized voting requirements by extending suffrage to any native born adult male, regardless of race, who could pay a
poll tax of $1, which would go to support public schools in the state.
[Dennison (1976)] The constitution retained the property requirement for non-native born citizens and prohibited members of the
Narragansett Indian Tribe from voting.
In the next Presidential election held after the Dorr Rebellion in
1844
In the Philippines, it was the only leap year with 365 days, as December 31 was skipped when 1845 began after December 30.
Events
January–March
* January 15 – The University of Notre Dame, based in the city of the same name, receives ...
, 12,296 votes were cast, a significant increase from the 8,621 cast in
1840.
In ''
Luther v. Borden'' (1849), the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
held that the constitutional right to change governments was unquestioned, but that the Supreme Court did not have the authority to interfere because the Constitutional guarantee of a "republican form of government" was a
political question
In United States constitutional law, the political question doctrine holds that a constitutional dispute that requires knowledge of a non-legal character or the use of techniques not suitable for a court or explicitly assigned by the Constitution ...
best left to the other branches of the federal government.
Dorr's fate
Dorr returned in 1843, was found guilty of treason against the state, and was sentenced in 1844 to solitary confinement and hard labor for life. The harshness of the sentence was widely condemned, and Dorr was released in 1845, his health now broken. His civil rights were restored in 1851. In 1854, the court judgment against him was set aside. He died later that year.
Interpretations
Historians have long debated the meaning and nature of the rebellion.
Mowry (1901) portrayed the Dorrites as irresponsible idealists who ignored the state's need for stability and order. Gettleman (1973) hailed it as an early working-class attempt to overthrow an elitist government.
Dennison (1976) saw it as a legitimate expression of
Republicanism in the United States
The values, ideals and concept of republicanism have been discussed and celebrated throughout the history of the United States. As the United States has no formal hereditary ruling class, ''republicanism'' in this context does not refer to a ...
, but concluded that politics changed little for Rhode Islanders after 1842 because the same elite groups ruled the state.
However, in 1854, the
Rhode Island Supreme Court wrote: "The union of all the powers of government in the same hands is but the definition of
despotism". Thus, the same Court that convicted Dorr of treason against the charter in 1844 ruled ten years later that the charter had improperly authorized a despotic, non-republican, un-American form of government. Coleman (1963) explored the complex coalition that supported Dorr, with the changing economic structure of the state in mind, noting that the middle classes, the poor farmers, and the industrialists mostly peeled off after the 1843 Constitution gave in to their demands. The factory workers remained but were too few and too poorly organized to do much. He finds
Seth Luther
Seth Luther (1795 – April 29, 1863) was an American antebellum workers' and suffrage organizer based in Providence, Rhode Island. A carpenter by trade, Luther was renowned in his time for his oratory skills and early work to organize workers in ...
to be one of the few stalwarts from the working class.
The timidity of the Dorrites in 1842, Coleman concludes, was a reflection of their fragile coalition. Looking at Dorr himself, Coleman (1976) argued: "At several crucial moments the suffragists were offered, but rejected, every reform they asked for. Indeed, the constitution they were offered even went beyond their demands. But Dorr would have no part of it; the process of formulation was flawed. It did not conform to his concept of popular sovereignty. Compromise was out of the question. Principle became all. Dorr hungered for the vindication of principle. He was determined to lead his supporters into martyrdom."
[Coleman (1976) p 536]
See also
*
Alfred Niger
Alfred Niger (1797—August 25, 1862) was a free Black activist who lived Providence, Rhode Island and worked as a barber. Niger was a leading influential figure in the movement for Black suffrage in early 19th century Rhode Island, during the o ...
*
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Listed are major episodes of civil unrest in the United States. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and violence associated with various sporting events.
18th century
*1783 – Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, June 20. ...
*''
Luther v. Borden''
References
Endnotes
Bibliography
* Chaput, Erik J. ''The People's Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and His 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion'' (2013).
* Chaput, Erik J. "'Let the people remember!': Rhode island's Dorr rebellion and bay state politics, 1842-1843." ''Historical Journal of Massachusetts'' 39#1-2 (2011), pp. 108+
online* Chaput, Erik J. "Proslavery and Antislavery Politics in Rhode Island's 1842 Dorr Rebellion," ''New England Quarterly'' (2012) 85#4 pp 658–694 doi:10.1162/TNEQ_a_00231
* Chaput, Erik J. "'The Rhode Island Question': The Career of a Debate," ''Rhode Island History'' (2010) 68#2 pp 46–76.
* Chaput, Erik J. "The 'Rhode Island Question' on Trial: The 1844 Treason Trial of Thomas Dorr," ''American Nineteenth Century History'' (2010) 11#2 pp 205–232.
* Coleman, Peter J. ''The Transformation of Rhode Island, 1790–1860'' (1963), covers economic issues
* Coleman, Peter J. "The Dorr War And The Emergence Of The Leviathan State," ''Reviews in American History'' (1976) 4#4 pp 533–538. reviews Dennison (1976)
* Conley, Patrick T. "Popular Sovereignty or Public Anarchy? American Debates the Dorr Rebellion," ''Rhode Island History'' (2002) 60#3 pp 71–91.
* Dennison; George M. ''The Dorr War: Republicanism on Trial, 1831–1861'' (1976
online* Fritz, Christian G. ''American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War'' (2009),
*
* Hiles, Jonathan. "The Dorr Rebellion and the Social Contract of Political Equality," ''Rhode Island History'' (2012) 70#2 pp 47–73
* Mowry, Arthur May. ''The Dorr War; or, The Constitutional Struggle in Rhode Island'' (1901; reprinted 1970); sees the Dorrites as irresponsible idealists who ignored the state's need for stability and order
* Williamson, Chilton. ''American Suffrage: From Property to Democracy, 1760–1860'' (1960),
Primary sources
*
Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall, ''Might and Right by a Rhode Islander'' (1844), based on information supplied by Dorr
External links
Providence College and Phillips Memorial Library's documentary and gallery of images on the Dorr RebellionRhodeIslandSuffrage.org: The Industrial Revolution & Dorr's RebellionStrange Bedfellows: The Politics of Race in Antebellum Rhode Island
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Conflicts in 1842
History of Rhode Island
History of voting rights in the United States
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Rebellions in the United States
1841 in Rhode Island
1842 in Rhode Island
Irish-American history
Rhode Island General Assembly
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