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Dorr Rebellion Archive, Thomas Dorr Attempts to Draft Former Governor to Run Again
Dorr Rebellion Archive, Thomas Dorr Attempts to Draft Former Governor to Run Again
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Dorr Thomas

Dorr Rebellion Archive, Thomas Dorr Attempts to Draft Former Governor to Run Again

This great archive illustrates the difficulties the Democratic Party had in Rhode Island during the 1840 Whig resurgence nationwide that later that year swept Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison into office over incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren. The state Democratic Committee, through its secretary Thomas W. Dorr, tried to convince popular former Democratic governor John Brown Francis to run again, but his daughter’s health problems made Francis adamantly refuse. Two years later, Dorr was leading the Dorr Rebellion against Rhode Island’s restrictive franchise requirements, actions which landed him in prison.

[DORR REBELLION.] Archive of letters relating to 1840 Democratic Party nomination for governor of Rhode Island between former governor John Brown Francis, future suffrage reformer Thomas W. Dorr, and Democratic attorney Dexter Randall. 9 letters, most from Francis to Dorr, December 26, 1839-February 24, 1840. 12 pp., most 8" x 10".

Excerpts

Thomas W. Dorr to John B. Francis, December 26, 1839, Autograph Letter Signed

“I regret that I shall not be able to make the visit this afternoon to Spring Green that I intended, being prevented by indisposition from leaving the house today. I hope to see you soon, and to confer with you on some matters of importance to the democratic cause in this State.”

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, January 18, 1840, Autograph Draft Initialed

“I am extremely sorry to learn from my Daughter to day that our Convention on Thursday had announced me as their candidate for Gov. Much more so after finding how the tidings had affected her feelings, but I composed her at once with the assurance that nothing would induce me to consent situated as she was. My duty to her is paramount to my party consideration and accordingly you must consider this as an unqualified negative so far as J B F is concerned.”

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, January 27, 1840, Autograph Draft Initialed

“I insist therefore that all further communication on the subject of my withdrawal either with Mr B or Dr F or any other person with whom my relations at the moment are peculiarly delicate, should cease. It is my earnest request that the name of J B F be taken from the Prox on Wednesday—the longer it is continued the more the People are misled and the greater their dissatisfaction will [be.]”

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, January 29, 1840, Manuscript Draft Signed

“If Mr P & Mr W have given the impression that Mr B is in favor of my running they have deceived themselves most egregiously as his note to me will verify  They gained no one point in their interview with Mr B which, by the way, was a most unwarrantable liberty taken with me! They had no right thus to invade my private relations. Mr B is no doubt left under the belief that I may have been instrumental in catechizing him thus!”

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, February 3, 1840, Autograph Draft Signed

“I have learned with chagrin that my name is continued in the Prox published in the Herald of Saturday, and having recd from you no reply to my last protestations, I begin to apprehend that Messrs Pearce and Waterman, disregarding my feelings entirely, are in league to force me to run!!”

A “prox” was a printed ballot or in this case a slate of candidates printed in the newspaper. Dutee J. Pearce (1789-1849) served as a Democratic Congressman from Newport from 1825 to 1837. John R. Waterman (1783-1876) was the Democratic weigher and measurer at the U.S. Customs House in Providence from 1829 to 1841.

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, February 10, 1840, Autograph Draft Initialed

“Having seen two Heralds last week without my name, I took it for granted that you had dropped me, but yr letter just opened dissipates the illusion.... But matters have reached such a issue now that I shall insist on the withdrawal of my name by the publication of my declination in the Herald of Saturday.”

John B. Francis to Dexter Randall, February 17, 1840, Autograph Draft Initialed

“On Saturday PM, the 18th of Jan’y, the nomination first reached me. I was as much surprised at it as Mr Hunter must have been when he was made minister. Without the loss of a moment, I wrote an unqualified declination which the Comm will publish perhaps one of these days.... Since then by note as well as verbally I have reiterated my declination but on the representation of the Com that the interest of the Party demanded that there sh’d be no withdrawal until a substitute was found & avowing to accomplish this object a fortnight ago I have waited until it seems from your note all the odium or responsibility is to be cast on me.”

Dexter Randall to John B. Francis, February 22, 1840, Autograph Letter Signed

“I know not which to disapprove the most, the conduct of your confidants in the Convention, or my own remissness, in the formation of the Prox. The result, it seems, is exactly what I forewarned the Convention of. It is in your power, Sir, to prevent this result, and save the party from ridicule at home, and disgrace abroad. To what a situation are we reduced? Both of our prominent Candidates are lost to us, by the headlong proceedings of certain politicians.”

“The error was in your friends in placing you in nomination. They were false to you, to the Convention, & to the party.”

“What now is to be done? Disgrace awaits us, unless the Prox is suffered to remain as it is. The party are anxious on this point. They are ready to do battle under your flag. They look back with pleasure, on what they have done for you, in critical & exciting times. They have consoled themselves thus far, that, they would have another opportunity in April, to assist you & thereby preserve the party. With feelings of pride, in contemplation of this, they have marshalled their ranks throughout the State and are ready for the onset. But, all is aback.... It is in vain, they reflect, how much they have done; what efforts they have made; what sacrifices they have gone through, to support and elevate you the highest office in their gift.”

John B. Francis to Thomas W. Dorr, February 24, 1840, Autograph Draft Initialed

“If you have found a candidate willing to be run I consent to the addition you propose to my note of the 18th of Jan’y, but if you have no candidate I mean to publish my declination  it is best not to make any alteration or amendment.”

“ It seems that you cant find a man who relishes the defeat which is surely in store for him.”

Historical Background

State representative Thomas Wilson Dorr was a committed devotee of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party, though Dorr was also an abolitionist. He had served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives since 1834 and was active in Democratic politics in the state. John Brown Francis had served as the Democratic governor of the state for five annual terms from 1833 to 1838. Whig candidate William Sprague III replaced Francis as governor in 1838. In 1839, the legislature could not agree on which of the three top candidates should become governor, so state senator Samuel Ward King of the Rhode Island Party became governor.

In 1840, Governor King ran for reelection, and the Democratic Party hoped to draft former governor Francis to challenge him. When that effort failed, as this archive makes clear, the Democrats proposed Thomas F. Carpenter for governor and Nathaniel Bullock for lieutenant governor. King won the April election with 59 percent of the popular vote to Carpenter’s 41 percent.

To the chagrin of conservative Democrats like former governor John Brown Francis, Dorr emerged as the head of the state Democratic committee by September 1840. After Whig William Henry Harrison won more than 61 percent of the vote in Rhode Island in November 1840, Democrats were more willing to join a Suffrage Party devoted to expanding the electorate in the state.

Rhode Island was the only state that had not adopted a new written constitution after the American Revolutionary War. Its colonial charter required ownership of a “moderate landed estate” as a requirement for voting. By 1840, unlike almost all other states, Rhode Island had not expanded the franchise to all free white men. The colonial requirement meant that 60 percent of the adult white male population could not vote, and the growing urban population was underrepresented.

Dorr helped form a “People’s Party” in Rhode Island, which held a convention late in 1841 to adopt a new constitution. The state government refused to recognize the new constitution but called its own constitutional convention. Voters narrowly rejected the resulting constitution. To meet the challenge posed by Dorr’s People’s Party, Whigs and conservative Democrats like former governors John B. Francis and James Fenner closed ranks to form a Law and Order Party.

The “Dorrites” used the People’s Party constitution to elect a state government with Dorr as governor, while a separate poll re-elected Governor King. By May 1842, Rhode Island had two governments claiming legitimacy. Governor King appealed to Washington for federal assistance, and Governor Dorr traveled to Washington to meet with President John Tyler but received no encouragement. Governor King proclaimed martial law and offered a reward for Dorr, who fled the state, and the “rebellion” disintegrated.

A new constitution, ratified in November 1842, opened the franchise to all adult males, even enfranchising African-American men.  When Dorr returned hopefully to Providence in October 1843, authorities arrested him, convicted him of treason, and sentenced him in June 1844 to solitary confinement at hard labor for life. In the face of public outrage, the General Assembly passed a general amnesty act, and Dorr was released after serving only one year.

Just before Dorr went to prison, John B. Francis went to the U.S. Senate for fourteen months to fill out the term vacated when William Sprague III resigned because of the death of his brother and business partner. The following year, Francis returned to the Rhode Island Senate, where he remained for another decade.

Thomas Wilson Dorr (1805-1854) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Harvard College in 1823. He studied law in New York City and was admitted to the bar in 1827, when he returned to Providence to practice. Elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1834, Dorr became concerned about the disproportionate representation of rural areas and the disfranchisement of 60 percent of the state’s adult males. After attempts to expand the franchise failed, reformers elected Dorr in 1842 as governor of a shadow government of Rhode Island. After failing to get support from the federal government and an abortive military maneuver, Dorr remained in exile for more than a year. When he returned to Rhode Island in October 1843, he was arrested, convicted of treason, and imprisoned for life. A general amnesty led to his release after one year, and he regained his civil rights in 1851.

John Brown Francis (1791-1864) was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Brown University in 1808. He was a merchant, attended the Litchfield Law School, and gained admission to the bar, but never practiced. He was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1821 to 1829, and the Rhode Island Senate in 1831 and 1842. From 1833 to 1838, Francis was the governor of Rhode Island. From 1841 to 1854, Francis served as chancellor of Brown University, and the Law and Order Party coalition of Whigs and conservative Democrats elected him to the U.S. Senate in January 1844 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of William Sprague III. Francis served in the U.S. Senate from January 1844 to March 1845, but was not a candidate for reelection. He returned to the Rhode Island Senate from 1845 to 1856, then retired from public life.

Dexter Randall (1788-1867) was an attorney in Providence who had both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brown University. Randall was the Democratic candidate for Rhode Island Secretary of State in 1839 and 1843. In 1846, he published Democracy Vindicated and Dorrism Unveiled, a pamphlet that tried to distinguish between the “legitimate” Democratic Party and the supporters of the Dorr Rebellion.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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