Governor KING, _of Rhode Island_.
SIR: Messrs. Randolph and Potter will hand you an official letter, but I
think it important that you should be informed of my views and opinions
as to the best mode of settling all difficulties. I deprecate the use of
force except in the last resort, and I am persuaded that measures of
conciliation will at once operate to produce quiet. _I am well advised_,
if the general assembly would authorize you to announce a general
amnesty and pardon for the past, without making any exception, upon the
condition of a return to allegiance, and follow it up by a call for a
new convention upon somewhat liberal principles, that all difficulty
would at once cease. And why should not this be done? A government never
loses anything by mildness and forbearance to its own citizens, more
especially when the consequences of an opposite course may be the
shedding of blood. In your case the one-half of your people are involved
in the consequences of recent proceedings. Why urge matters to an
extremity? If you succeed by the bayonet, you succeed against your own
fellow-citizens and by the shedding of kindred blood, whereas by taking
the opposite course you will have shown a paternal care for the lives of
your people. My own opinion is that the adoption of the above measures
will give you peace and insure you harmony. A resort to force, on the
contrary, will engender for years to come feelings of animosity.
I have said that I _speak advisedly_. Try the experiment, and if it fail
then your justification in using force becomes complete.
Excuse the freedom I take, and be assured of my respect.