[Footnote 115: Statement of the expenditures of the Government each year
from its organization up to the present period, and when and for what
purpose these expenditures were made.]
WASHINGTON, D.C., _April 9, 1844_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
the 23d of March last, requesting the President to lay before the House
"the authority and the true copies of all requests and applications upon
which he deemed it his duty to interfere with the naval and military
forces of the United States on the occasion of the recent attempt of the
people of Rhode Island to establish a free constitution in the place
of the old charter government of that State; also copies of the
instructions to and statements of the charter commissioners sent to him
by the then existing authorities of the State of Rhode Island; also
copies of the correspondence between the Executive of the United States
and the charter government of the State of Rhode Island, and all the
papers and documents connected with the same; also copies of the
correspondence, if any, between the heads of Departments and said
charter government or any person or persons connected with the said
government, and of any accompanying papers and documents; also copies
of all orders issued by the Executive of the United States, or any of
the Departments, to military officers for the movement or employment
of troops to or in Rhode Island; also copies of all orders to naval
officers to prepare steam or other vessels of the United States for
service in the waters of Rhode Island; also copies of all orders to the
officers of revenue cutters for the same service; also copies of any
instructions borne by the Secretary of War to Rhode Island on his visit
in 1842 to review the troops of the charter government; also copies of
any order or orders to any officer or officers of the Army or Navy to
report themselves to the charter government; and that he be requested
to lay before this House copies of any other papers or documents in
the possession of the Executive connected with this subject not above
specifically enumerated," I have to inform the House that the Executive
did not deem it his "duty to interfere with the naval and military
forces of the United States" in the late disturbances in Rhode Island;
that no orders were issued by the Executive or any of the Departments
to military officers for the movement or employment of troops to or in
Rhode Island other than those which accompany this message and which
contemplated the strengthening of the garrison at Fort Adams, which,
considering the extent of the agitation in Rhode Island, was esteemed
necessary and judicious; that no orders were issued to naval officers to
prepare steam or other vessels of the United States for service in the
waters of Rhode Island; that no orders were issued "to the officers of
the revenue cutters for said service;" that no instructions were borne
by "the Secretary of War to Rhode Island on his visit in 1842 _to review
the troops of the charter government_;" that no orders were given to any
officer or officers of the Army or Navy to report themselves to the
charter government; that "requests and applications" were made to the
Executive to fulfill the guaranties of the Constitution which impose on
the Federal Government the obligation to protect and defend each State
of the Union against "domestic violence and foreign invasion," but the
Executive was at no time convinced that the _casus foederis_ had arisen
which required the interposition of the military or naval power in the
controversy which unhappily existed between the people of Rhode Island.
I was in no manner prevented from so interfering by the inquiry whether
Rhode Island existed as an independent State of the Union under a
charter granted at an early period by the Crown of Great Britain or not.
It was enough for the Executive to know that she was recognized as a
sovereign State by Great Britain by the treaty of 1783; that at a later
day she had in common with her sister States poured out her blood and
freely expended her treasure in the War of the Revolution; that she was
a party to the Articles of Confederation; that at an after period she
adopted the Constitution of the United States as a free, independent,
and republican State; and that in this character she has always
possessed her full quota of representation in the Senate and House of
Representatives; and that up to a recent day she has conducted all her
domestic affairs and fulfilled all her obligations as a member of the
Union, in peace and war, under her _charter government_, as it is
denominated by the resolution of the House of the 23d March. I must be
permitted to disclaim entirely and unqualifiedly the right on the part
of the Executive to make any real or supposed defects existing in any
State constitution or form of government the pretext for a failure to
enforce the laws or the guaranties of the Constitution of the United
States in reference to any such State. I utterly repudiate the idea,
in terms as emphatic as I can employ, that those laws are not to be
enforced or those guaranties complied with because _the President_ may
believe that the right of suffrage or any other great popular right
is either too restricted or too broadly enlarged. I also with equal
strength resist the idea that it falls within the Executive competency
to decide in controversies of the nature of that which existed in Rhode
Island on which side is the majority of the people or as to the extent
of the rights of a mere numerical majority. For the Executive to assume
such a power would be to assume a power of the most dangerous character.
Under such assumptions the States of this Union would have no security
for peace or tranquillity, but might be converted into the mere
instruments of Executive will. Actuated by selfish purposes, he might
become the great agitator, fomenting assaults upon the State
constitutions and declaring the majority of to-day to be the minority
of to-morrow, and the minority, in its turn, the majority, before whose
decrees the established order of things in the State should be
subverted. Revolution, civil commotion, and bloodshed would be the
inevitable consequences. The provision in the Constitution intended for
the security of the States would thus be turned into the instrument
of their destruction. The President would become, in fact, the great
_constitution maker_ for the States, and all power would be vested
in his hands.
When, therefore, the governor of Rhode Island, by his letter of the
4th of April, 1842, made a requisition upon the Executive for aid to
put down the late disturbances, I had no hesitation in recognizing the
obligations of the Executive to furnish such aid upon the occurrence of
the contingency provided for by the Constitution and laws. My letter
of the 11th of April, in reply to the governor's letter of the 4th, is
herewith communicated, together with all correspondence which passed at
a subsequent day and the letters and documents mentioned in the schedule
hereunto annexed. From the correspondence between the Executive of the
United States and that of Rhode Island, it will not escape observation
that while I regarded it as my duty to announce the principles by which
I should govern myself in the contingency of an armed interposition on
the part of this Government being necessary to uphold the rights of the
State of Rhode Island and to preserve its domestic peace, yet that the
strong hope was indulged and expressed that all the difficulties would
disappear before an enlightened policy of conciliation and compromise.
In that spirit I addressed to Governor King the letter of the 9th of
May, 1842, marked "private and confidential," and received his reply
of the 12th of May of the same year. The desire of the Executive was
from the beginning to bring the dispute to a termination without the
interposition of the military power of the United States, and it will
continue to be a subject of self-congratulation that this leading
object of policy was finally accomplished. The Executive resisted
all entreaties, however urgent, to depart from this line of conduct.
Information from private sources had led the Executive to conclude that
little else was designed by Mr. Dorr and his adherents than mere menace
with a view to intimidation; nor was this opinion in any degree shaken
until the 22d of June, 1842, when it was strongly represented from
reliable sources, as will be seen by reference to the documents herewith
communicated, that preparations were making by Mr. Dorr, with a large
force in arms, to invade the State, which force had been recruited in
the neighboring States and had been already preceded by the collection
of military stores in considerable quantities at one or two points. This
was a state of things to which the Executive could not be indifferent.
Mr. Dorr speedily afterwards took up his headquarters at Chepachet and
assumed the command of what was reported to be a large force, drawn
chiefly from voluntary enlistments made in neighboring States. The
Executive could with difficulty bring itself to realize the fact that
the citizens of other States should have forgotten their duty to
themselves and the Constitution of the United States and have entered
into the highly reprehensible and indefensible course of interfering so
far in the concerns of a sister State as to have entered into plans of
invasion, conquest, and revolution; but the Executive felt it to be its
duty to look minutely into the matter, and therefore the Secretary of
War was dispatched to Rhode Island with instructions (a copy of which is
herewith transmitted), and was authorized, should a requisition be made
upon the Executive by the government of Rhode Island in pursuance of
law, and the invaders should not abandon their purposes, to call upon
the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut for a sufficient number
of militia at once to arrest the invasion and to interpose such of the
regular troops as could be spared from Fort Adams for the defense of the
city of Providence in the event of its being attacked, as was strongly
represented to be in contemplation. Happily there was no necessity for
either issuing the proclamation or the requisition or for removing
the troops from Fort Adams, where they had been properly stationed.
Chepachet was evacuated and Mr. Dorr's troops dispersed without the
necessity of the interposition of any military force by this Government,
thus confirming me in my early impressions that nothing more had been
designed from the first by those associated with Mr. Dorr than to excite
fear and apprehension and thereby to obtain concessions from the
constituted authorities which might be claimed as a triumph over the
existing government.
With the dispersion of Mr. Dorr's troops ended all difficulties.
A convention was shortly afterwards called, by due course of law, to
amend the fundamental law, and a new constitution, based on more liberal
principles than that abrogated, was proposed, and adopted by the people.
Thus the great American experiment of a change in government under the
influence of opinion and not of force has been again crowned with
success, and the State and people of Rhode Island repose in safety under
institutions of their own adoption, unterrified by any future prospect
of necessary change and secure against domestic violence and invasion
from abroad. I congratulate the country upon so happy a termination of
a condition of things which seemed at one time seriously to threaten the
public peace. It may justly be regarded as worthy of the age and of the
country in which we live.