and penalties and of treason, as it has been for the first time defined, the President intimates an intention of resorting to the forces of the United States to check the movements of the people of this State in support of their republican constitution recently adopted. From a decision which conflicts with the right of sovereignty inherent in the people of this State and with the principles which lie at the foundation of a democratic republic an appeal has been taken to the people of our country. They understand our cause; they sympathize in the injuries which have been inflicted upon us; they disapprove the course which the National Executive has adopted toward this State, and they assure us of their disposition and intention to interpose a barrier between the supporters of the people's constitution and the hired soldiery of the United States. The democracy of the country are slow to move in any matter which involves an issue so momentous as that which is presented by the controversy in Rhode Island, but when they have once put themselves in motion they are not to be easily diverted from their purposes. They believe that the people of Rhode Island are in the right; that they are contending for equal justice in their political system; that they have properly adopted a constitution of government for themselves, as they were entitled to do, and they can not and will not remain indifferent to any act, from whatever motive it may proceed, which they deem to be an invasion of the sacred right of selfgovernment, of which the people of the respective States can not be divested. As your representative I have been everywhere received with the utmost kindness and cordiality. To the people of the city of New York, who have extended to us the hand of a generous fraternity, it is impossible to overrate our obligation at this most important crisis. It has become my duty to say that so soon as a soldier of the United States shall be set in motion, by whatever direction, to act against the people of this State in aid of the charter government I shall call for that aid to oppose all such force, which, I am fully authorized to say, will be immediately and most cheerfully tendered to the service of the people of Rhode Island from the city of New York and from other places. The contest will then become national, and our State the battle ground of American freedom. As a Rhode Island man I regret that the constitutional question in this State can not be adjusted among our own citizens, but as the minority have asked that the sword of the National Executive may be thrown into the scale against the people, it is imperative upon them to make the same appeal to their brethren of the Statesan appeal which they are well assured will not be made in vain, They who have been the first to ask assistance from abroad can have no reason to complain of any consequences which may ensue. No further arrests under the law of pains and penalties, which was repealed by the general assembly of the people at their May session, will be permitted. I hereby direct the military, under their respective officers, promptly to prevent the same and to release all who may be arrested under said law. As requested by the general assembly, I enjoin upon the militia forthwith to elect their company officers; and I call upon volunteers to organize themselves without delay. The military are directed to hold themselves in readiness for immediate service. Given under my hand and the seal of the State, at the city of Providence, this 6th THOMAS W. DORR, By the governor's command: WILLIAM H. SMITH, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Secretary of State. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PROVIDENCE, R. I., May 25, 1842 SIR: Since my last communication the surface of things in this city and State ha been more quiet. The complete dispersing of the insurgents and flight of their leader on Wednesday last, 18th instant, seem to have broken their strength and prevented them from making head openly in any quarter. But another crisis now appears to be approaching. By the private advices received by myself and the council from our messengers in the neighboring States we learn that Dorr and his agents are enlisting men and collecting arms for the purpose of again attempting to subvert, by open war, the government of this State. Those who have assisted him at home in his extreme measures are again holding secret councils and making preparations to rally on his return. Companies of men pledged to support him have met and drilled in the north part of this State during the present week. From the forces which he can collect among our own citizens we have nothing to fear. Our own military strength has once scattered them, and could as easily do so a second time. But if the bands which are now organizing in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York should make the incursion which they threaten, with Dorr at their head, we have reason to apprehend a civil war of the most destructive and vindictive character. Our own forces might be sufficient to repel them, but having little discipline and no officer of military experience to lead them, they could not do it without the loss of many valuable lives. For the evidence that such forces are organizing in other States, I refer Your Excellency to a letter from Governor Seward, of New York, and to a statement made by one of our messengers to the council, which will be handed you. Other messengers confirm to the fullest extent the same intelligence. In this posture of affairs I deem it my duty to call upon Your Excellency for the support guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States to this government. I would submit to Your Excellency whether a movement of a sufficient body of troops to this quarter, to be stationed at Fort Adams, and to be subject to the requisitions of the executive of this State whenever in his opinion the exigency should arise to require their assistance, would not be the best measure to insure peace and respect for the laws and to deter invasions. You will see by the statement* of the secret agent of the government that the time set for this incursion is very near. The mustering of the insurgents and their movement upon the city will probably be with the greatest expedition when once commenced-in a time too short for a messenger to reach Washington and return with aid. I therefore make this application before any movement of magnitude on their part, in order that we may be prepared at the briefest notice to quell domestic insurrection and repel invasion. His Excellency SAMUEL WARD KING, Governor of Rhode Island. SAM. W. KING, Governor of Rhode Island. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, SIR: In compliance with your excellency's requisition, I have this day issued a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Wilson Dorr, esq., charged in Rhode Island with the crime of treason. The warrant will be delivered to a police officer of this city, who will attend Colonel Pitman and be advised by him in regard to the arrest of the fugitive should he be found in this State. May I be allowed to suggest to your excellency that a detention of the accused in this State would be liable to misapprehension, and if it should be in a particular region of this State might, perhaps, result in an effort to rescue him. Therefore it seems to be quite important that your excellency should without delay designate, by a communication to me, an agent to receive the fugitive and convey him to Rhode Island. * Omitted. I have the honor to be, with very high respect and consideration, your excellency's obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. His Excellency Governor KING. WASHINGTON CITY, May 28, 1842.. SIR: I have received your excellency's communication of the 25th instant, informing me of efforts making by Mr. Dorr and others to embody a force in the contiguous States for the invasion of the State of Rhode Island, and calling upon the Executive of the United States for military aid. In answer I have to inform your excellency that means have been taken to ascertain the extent of the dangers of any armed invasion by the citizens of other States of the State of Rhode Island, either to put down her government or to disturb her peace. The apparent improbability of a violation so flagrant and unprecedented of all our laws and institutions makes me, I confess, slow to believe that any serious attempts will be made to execute the designs which some evil-minded persons may have formed. But should the necessity of the case require the interposition of the authority of the United States it will be rendered in the manner prescribed by the laws. In the meantime I indulge a confident expectation, founded upon the recent manifestations of public opinion in your State in favor of law and order, that your own resources and means will be abundantly adequate to preserve the public peace, and that the difficulties which have arisen will be soon amicably and permanently adjusted by the exercise of a spirit of liberality and forbearance. JOHN TYLER. The Secretary of War will issue a private order to Colonel Bankhead, commanding at Newport, to employ, if necessary, a private and confidential person or persons to go into all such places and among all such persons as he may have reason to believe to be likely to give any information touching Rhode Island affairs, and to report with the greatest dispatch, if necessary, to the President. He will also address a letter to General Wool conveying to him the fear entertained of a hostile invasion contem. plated to place Dorr in the chair of state of Rhode Island by persons in the States of Connecticut and New York, and also to General Eustis, at Boston, of a similar character, with instructions to adopt such inquiries (to be secretly made) as they may deem necessary, and to report with the greatest dispatch all information which from time to time they may acquire. (Indorsed: "President's instructions, May 28, 1842.") Colonel BANKHEAD, Newport, R. I. WAR DEPARTMENT, May 28, 184r. SIR: The governor of Rhode Island has represented to the President that preparations are making by Mr. Dorr and some of his adherents to recruit men in the neighboring States for the purpose of supporting his usurpation of the powers of government, and that he has provided arms and camp equipage for a large number of men. It is very important that we should have accurate information on this subject, and particularly in relation to the movements made in other States. I have therefore to desire you to employ proper persons to go to the places where it may be supposed such preparations are making to possess themselves fully of all that is doing and in contemplation, and report frequently to you. It is said that Mr. Dorr's principal headquarters are at the town of Thompson, in the State of Connecticut. It may be well for you to communicate personally with Governor King and ascertain from him the points and places at which any preparations for embodying men are supposed to be making, and to direct your inquiries accordingly. It is important that you should select persons on whose integrity and accuracy the fullest reliance can be placed. They should not be partisans on either side, although to effect the object it will of course be necessary that some of them should obtain (if they do not already possess) the confidence of the friends of Mr. Dorr. You will please communicate directly to me all the information you obtain, and your own views of it. It is scarcely necessary to say that this communication is of the most private and confidential character, and is not to be made known to anyone. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Brigadier-General EUSTIS, Boston. J. C. SPENCER. WAR DEPARTMENT, May 29, 1842. SIR: The governor of Rhode Island has represented to the President that prepara tions are making in other States (particularly in Massachusetts) for an armed invasion of that State to support the usurpations of Mr. Dorr and his friends and foment domestic insurrection. It is very important that we should have accurate information on this subject, and I have to desire you to take all necessary means to acquire it, and communicate directly to me as speedily and frequently as possible. It is said that 1,000 stand of arms have been procured in Boston, some pieces of artillery, and a large quantity of camp equipage for the use of the insurgents. Your attention to this is particularly desired to ascertain its truth or falsehood. It is also said that there are 200 men enrolled and embodied in a town upon the borders of Rhode Island, the name of which has escaped me. Please inquire into this. If it becomes necessary to employ confidential persons to discover what is doing, you will do so, being careful to select those only that are entirely trustworthy; and it will be desirable to avoid heated partisans on either side. Their inquiries should be conducted quietly and privately. I desire you to communicate fully and freely what you may learn and your views concerning it for the information of the President and the Department. It is scarcely necessary to say that this communication is strictly private and confidential. Respectfully, your obedient servant, The PRESIDENT. [J. C. SPENCER.] NEW YORK, June 3, 1842. MY DEAR SIR: I came to this city yesterday, having taken a severe cold on the Sound, and am now just out of my bed. I transmit herewith a letter from a friend appointed by me, as you requested, to look into the Rhode Island business. has had access to authentic sources in Governor Dorr's party, and I have no doubt his account of the whole matter is perfectly just. I supposed I should receive the foreign mail here, but I shall not wait for it if I should feel well enough to travel to-morrow. Mr. Yours, truly, DANL. WEBSTER. Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary of State. NEW YORK, June 3, 1842. DEAR SIR: In pursuance of the arrangement made when you were in Boston, I have visited the State of Rhode Island, and, so far as could be done, possessed myself of a knowledge of the existing state of things there. I had a full and free interview with Governor King and his council, as well as with several other gentlemen upon each side of the matter in controversy. All agree that, so far as the people of Rhode Island are concerned, there is no danger of any further armed resistance to the legitimate authorities of the State. It was never intended, probably, by the majority of those called the suffrage party to proceed in any event to violence, and when they found themselves pushed to such an extremity by their leaders they deserted their leaders and are now every day enrolling themselves in the volunteer companies which are being organized in every part of the State for the suppression of any further insurrectionary movements that may be made. A large majority of those elected or appointed to office under the people's constitution (so called) have resigned their places and renounced all allegiance to that constitution and the party which supports it, so that the insurgents are now without any such organization as would enable them to carry out their original purposes if they otherwise had the power. Governor King and his council alone, of all the intelligent persons with whom I consulted, fear an irruption upon them of an armed force to be collected in other States, and this is the only difficulty of which they now have any apprehension. This fear is excited by the boasts frequently made by the few who still avow their determination to adhere to the constitution that they have at their control large bodies of armed men, as well as camp equipage, provisions, money, and munitions of war, which have been provided for them in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. The supposition that Rhode Island is to be invaded by a foreign force, when that force would neither be led nor followed by any considerable number of the people of the State, does not seem, to say the least, to be a very reasonable one. If those who think they are suffering injustice are not disposed to make an effort to redress their supposed wrongs, they would hardly expect the work to be done by others. The ostensible object of the insurgents now is not the real one. They meditate no further forcible proceedings. They bluster and threaten for several reasons: First. Because they suppose they shall thus break their fall a little and render their retreat a little less inglorious than it would be if they should beat it at once. Second. They believe that if they keep up a shew of opposition to the existing government they shall be more likely to revolutionize it by peaceable measures; and Third. They think they can make their influence so far felt as to operate favorably upon those who are now under arrest for treason or who may be hereafter arrested for the same offense. That these are the views and purposes of the insurgents I am confidentially assured by the notorious individual from whom I told you I could learn their plans and designs; and no one has better means of knowing than he, having been himself one of Mr. Dorr's confidential advisers from the beginning. The meeting at Woonsocket on the Ist did not amount to much, being but thinly attended. The projected fortifications at that place have been abandoned. It is said they will be thrown up in some other spot to be designated hereafter, but this is not believed. Mr. Dorr is now understood to be lurking in this city. Warrants have been issued for his arrest both by the governor of this State and the governor of Massachusetts, but he moves so privately and shifts his whereabouts so often that he eludes his pursuers. Under all the circumstances I think you will come to the opinion entertained by seven-eighths of all the people of Providence (the scene of his operations thus far) that, deserted by his followers at home and disgraced in the estimation of those who sympathized with him abroad, Mr. Dorr has it not in his power to do any further serious mischief. Yours, very truly, |