ADDRESS. TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES

[Providence?, 1844. 15, [1 blank] pp. Caption title [as issued]. A few light fox marks, disbound, Very Good plus.

The Address is signed at page 12 in type by Nehemiah Knight, formerly Rhode Island's Governor, U.S. Senator, and delegate to its Constitutional Convention; William Sprague, John Whipple, and twenty other leaders of Rhode Island's established order. Opposing Thomas Dorr and his "People's Constitution," they explain the fairness of the officially proposed Constitution, the unreasonable stance of the Dorrites, and their willingness to plunge the State "into all the horrors of civil war." They delineate the utter absence of authority for Dorr to exercise "the office of Governor under a pretended Constitution," describe the insurrection which he led and the "grossest frauds" which Dorrites perpetrated in the votes for the Dorr Constitution, and the observance of all legal formalities in Dorr's trial and conviction.
The pamphlet does not end at page 12, although some incomplete copies reside in several institutions. Pages 13-15 print documents which "show that T.W. Dorr was willing to go to the State Prison rather than take an oath to support the Constitution of the State." The several documents include a report by Richard Randolph of his interview with Dorr, who indicated his refusal to take the requisite oath.
Sabin 432. AI 44-54, 44-55.