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REYNOLDS  HISTORICAL 
GENEALOGY  COLLECTION 


ALLEN  COUNTY  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


3  1833  01105  4654 


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RHODE    ISLAND 


Historical  Tracts 


NO.  11.    Jju*^^ 


PROVIDENCE 

SIDN  EY     S.     RIDER. 

1880. 


\s 


^ 


1829569 


Copyright  by 
IDNEY  S.    RIDER, 
1880. 


ANGELL,    HAMMKTT  <fe   CO.,   PRINTERS. 


U         ;  : 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    MEMOIRS 

OP 

THREE  RHODE  BLAND  AUTHORS 

JOSEPH  K.  ANGELL 

FRANCES  H.  (WHIPPLE)  McDOUGALL 

CATHARINE  R.  WILLIAMS 


BY 

SIDNEY  S.  RIDER. 


TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED 


THE  NINE  LAWYERS'  OPINION  ON  THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE 
OF  RHODE  ISLAND  TO  FORM  A  CONSTITUTION. 


PROVIDENCE 

SIDNEY     8.     RIDER 

1880. 


Copyright  by 
SIDNEY  S.    RIDER 

1880. 


PREFATORY-     NOTE 


The  three  memoirs  which  form  the  present  Tract  are  intended  mainly 
to  exhibit  the  literary  labors  of  the  people  about  whom  they  are  "written. 
That  of  Mr.  Angell  was  prepared  for  the  reprint  of  volume  one  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Supreme  Court  Reports,  and  appears  in  that  volume. 
Those  of  Mrs.  McDougall  and  Mrs.  Williams  were  first  printed  in  the 
columns  of  the  Providence  Journal.  For  the  present  use  they  have  been 
revised  and  corrected  by  the  addition  of  such  matters  as  were  brought  to 
the  author's  notice  in  consequence  of  their  previous  publication.  For  all 
the  personal  details  found  in  the  article  upon  Mis.  Williams,  the  author  is 
indebted  to  a  manuscript  autobiography  prepared  tor  him  by  that  lady 
herself.    Her  letter  sent  with  the  manuscript  is  as  follows : 

Dear  Sir: 

I  have  given  you  at  least  a  skeleton  of  history,  and  if  there  is  anything 

like  vanity  or  egotism,  you  will  please  correct.    A  few  anecdotesare  also 

interspersed  which  I  thought  interesting.     A  criticism  of  the  works 

cannot  be  expected,— that  must  be  left  to  the  publisher. 

Yours,  &c.  C.  R.  W. 

May  20th,  1859. 

The  publisher  referred  to  was  Mr.  S.  Austin  Allibone,  who  was  then 
preparing  his  Dictionary  of  Authors,  and  for  whom  the  present  author 
was  obtaining  some  such  information.    Not  a  single  personal  detail 


VI  PREFATORY   NOTE. 

appears  in  the  article  on  Mrs.  Williams  which  she  did  not  herself  write, 
and  yet  for  the  publication  of  the  article  in  the  Journal  the  author  only 
escaped  personal  violence  by  reason  of  his  being  unknown.  Much  more 
of  a  similar  nature  might  have  been  included,  and  it  was  omitted  only 
for  the  reason  that  just  enough  to  well  illustrate  the  peculiarities  of 
Mrs.  Williams  was  all  that  was  thought  to  be  required. 


MEMOIR   OF 


JOSEPH    K   ANGELL 


LAW    WHITER. 


Joseph  Kinnicutt  Angell  was  the  only  son  of 
Nathan  and  Amey  [Kinnicutt]  Angell.  He  was 
born  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  April  30,  1794. 
He  was  descended  from  Thomas  Angell,  one  of  the 
five  companions  of  Roger  Williams,  while  resting 
for  a  moment  on  the  easterly  banks  of  the  Seekonk 
before  crossing  the  river  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
State  and  of  the  beautiful  city  of  Providence.  Others 
soon  joined  these  first  comers,  and  the  little  band 
so  increased  became  the  thirteen  original  proprietors. 

Young  Angell  early  betrayed  a  fondness  for  study, 
and  his  parents  determined  to  provide  him  with  the 
opportunities  of  obtaining  a  good  education.  By 
whom  he  was  prepared  for  college  is  not  now  known. 
He  entered  Brown  University  as  a  student  in  his 
fifteenth  year.  Among  his  classmates  were  Job  Dur- 
fee,  afterwards  Chief  Justice,  and  Romeo  Elton, 
afterwards  Professor,  two  friends  filled  with  the  spirit 
of  Rhode  Island  History,  and  both  of  whom  left 
enduring   literary  monuments  to  perpetuate  it. 


4  HISTORICAL    TRACT. 

After  his  graduation  from  Brown  University  in 
1813,  Mr.  Angell  was  sent  to  the  Law  School  at 
Litchfield,  Conn. ;  justly  considered  the  best  school 
of  its  kind  then  in  the  country.  It  was  conducted 
at  the  time  by  Tapping  Reeve,  assisted  by  James 
Gould,  both  gentlemen  of  distinguished  ability  as 
lecturers,  and  both  authors  of  treatises  which  for 
many  years  and  even  to  this  time  are  cited  as  books 
of  authority.  At  this  school  Mr.  Angell  formed 
acquaintances  with  young  men  which  ripened  into 
life-long  friendships,  and  which  were  of  the  greatest 
use  to  him  in  after  years.  Among  these  friends  was 
John  Brown  Francis,  subsequently  Governor  and 
United  States  Senator  for  Rhode  Island.  After  leav- 
ing: the  law  school  at  Litchfield,  Mr.  Angell  entered  as 
a  student  the  law  office  of  Thomas  Burgess  in  Provi- 
dence, who  subsequently  and  for  many  years  held  the 
office  of  Probate  Judge  for  that  city.  He  was  never 
an  advocate,  but  he  was  a  prudent  and  discreet  coun- 
sellor, and  was  the  confidential  law  advisor  of  many 
merchants.  How  long  Mr;.  Angell  read  law  in  the 
office  of  Mr.  Burgess  is  not  now  known.  Of  the 
three  years  which  had  elapsed  since  his  graduation 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH   K.   ANGELL.  0 

at  Brown  University,  and  previous  to  his  admission 
to  the  Bar,  it  is  probably. that  one  year  was  passed 
at  Litchfield  and  the  remaining  two  years  with  Mr. 
Burgess.  What  influence  on  the  formation  of  his 
character  this  connection  with  Mr.  Burgess  exerted  it 
is  difficult  now  to  determine  ;  but  it  is  certain  that 
peculiarities  of  thought  and  action  were  common  to 
both.  At  the  March  term  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
1816,  Mr.  Angell,  in  company  with  Charles  F.  Til- 
linghast  and  Charles  H.  Bruce,  was  proposed  for  ad- 
mission to  the  Rhode  Island  Bar  by  Nathaniel  Searle, 
a  man  described  by  Judge  Story  as  one  "  whose  ar- 
guments wTere  characterized  by  exact  learning  and 
clear  reasoning,  and  whose  elocution  was  rapid,  clear 
and  affluent  almost  beyond  example."  This  Bar  was 
just  then  entering  upon  a  glorious  period  of  its  his- 
tory. May  not  a  slight  digression  be  excusable  that 
mention  maybe  made  of  some  of  the -distinguished 
contemporaries  of '  Mr.  Angell.  The  great  change 
which  has  since  taken  place  in  the  structure,  power, 
and  method  of  procedure  in  our  courts  was  but  just 
beginning.  For  many  of  these  wise  changes  the 
State   is   indebted  to   James   Burrill,  Jr.,  who  was 


b  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

elected  to  fill  the  seat  of  Chief  Justice  in  1816".  He- 
held  the  office  but  a  single  year,  when  he  was  sent 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  from  Rhode  Island. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Tristam  Bulges.  Before  the 
elevation  of  Mr.  Burrill  to  the  bench,  he  had  held 
the  position  of  Attorney  General  for  upwards  of  six- 
teen years.  Both  of  these  gentlemen  were  distin- 
guished advocates.  Succeeding  them,  and  no  less- 
distinguished,  came  John  Whipple,  Samuel  Y.  At- 
well  and  Nathaniel  Searle,  all  men  of  very  great 
power.  Samuel  W.  Bridgham,  the  first  mayor  of 
Providence,  and  Walter  R.  Danforth,  who  held  the 
same  office  at  a  later  period,  were  members  of  the 
same  Bar. 

William  R.  Staples T  Richard  W.  Greene,  and  Sam- 
uel Ames,  who  all  became  Chief  Justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  or  Supreme  Judicial  Court,  as  it  was 
once  called  ;  Charles  F.  Tillinghast,  William  E.  Rich- 
mond, and  Thomas  Burgess,  who  were  Counsellors 
at  Law  in  the  highest  meaning  of  the  term ;  John 
Pitman,  who  was  for  many  years  Judge  of  the  United 
States  District  Court  for  this  State  ;  Henry  BowenT 
who  for  thirty  years  was  the  Secretary  of  State  of 


MEMOIR   OF   JOSEPH    K.    ANGELA 


Rhode  Island,  and  Albert  C.  Greene,  who  for  eigK 


teen  years  was  the  Attorney  General,  and  afterwards- 
a  United  States  Senator  ;  Benjamin  Hazard,  who  was- 
sixty-two  successive  times  elected  a  member  of  the 
General  Assembly  from  Newport  \  Jub  Durfee,  whose 
father  was  a  Judge,  who  himself  became  Chief  Jus- 
tice,  and  whose  son  now  occupies  the  seat  of  his 
father ;  Thomas  F.  Carpenter,  whose  name  should 
have  a  place  in  our  list  of  advocates  \  Elisha  R. 
Potter,  whose  name  was  the  synonym  of  power  in 
the  southern  counties  for  a  third  of  a  century  ;  and 
many  others,  whose  names  will  at  once  occur  to 
those  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Bar  in  those  its  palmiest  days.  Names  upon  names 
rise  before  us,  but  this  is  neither  the  time  nor  the 
place  to  call  the  roll  of  its  members. 

Williams  and  his  companions  planted  the  colony, 
aud  laid  the  foundations  of  a  State.  May  it  not  with 
justice  be  said  that  these  are  the  men  who  nourished 
it  in  its  youth,  who  formulated  its  laws,  and  by 
whose  earnest  and  honest  efforts  strength  was  im- 
parted to  its  every  part. 

Mr.  Angell  now  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his 


8  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

profession.  He  was  by  nature  far  better  fitted  for  a 
counsellor  than  for  an  advocate,  and  his  name  would 
not  have  been  found  in  a  list  of  Rhode  Island  advo- 
cates. He  was  a  sound  theoretical  lawyer,  and  an 
admirable  advisor.  His  practice  before  the  courts 
must  have  been  of  short  duration.  An  event  soon 
occurred  which  turned  the  whole  current  of  his  life. 
Iu  1819,  he  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Chalmers, 
counsellor  at  law,  living  in  London,  England,  inform- 
ing him  that  there  was  then  before  the  courts  of 
chancery  of  England,  an  immense  estate  looking  for 
an  heir  to  inherit  it,  and  expressing  the  belief  that 
he  was  the  legal  heir.  Counsel  was  taken  of  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Angell  in  Providence,  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  send  him  to  England  to  look  after  his 
interest  in  this  vast  estate,  which  lay  in  some  of  the 
most  fertile  counties  in  the  kingdom.  Early  in  Feb- 
ruary, he  left  Providence  and  journeyed  by  stage  to 
New  York.  He  reached  the  latter  city,  as  he  details 
in  a  letter  to  his  mother,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  Wednesday,  the  9th  of  February,  having 
passed  two  sleepless  nights  upon  the  road,  and  being 
necessarily  much  fatigued.     He  immediately  entered 


MEMOIR    OF    JOSEPH    K.    ANGELL.  \) 

upon  the  search  for  a  ship  bound  for  England,  and 
soon  found  one, — the  ship  Amity,  which  was  to  sail 
the  following  morning.  In  this  vessel  Mr.  Angell 
took  passage  for  Liverpool,  which  city  he  reached 
after  a  pleasant  voyage  of  twenty-six  days.  Here 
however  he  tarried  not,  but  made  the  best  of  his 
way  to  London.  From  letters  written  to  his  mother 
and  to  his  sister  may  be  gathered  the  impressions 
upon  his  mind  of  the  scenery  through  which  he 
passed.  He  speaks  with  mortification  of  the  fact 
that  Shakspeare's  house  at  Stratford  was  then  in  use 
as  a  butcher's  shop.  At  Oxford  he  spends  much  of 
his  time  in  the  libraries,  the  like  of  which  he  had 
never  seen  before.  Of  these,  and  of  the  chapels, 
halls  and  paintings,  he  writes  to  his  mother  an  ad- 
mirable account.  He  finally  reached  London,  where 
he  resided  at  Richards's  Coffee  House,  in  Fleet  street, 
near  Temple  Bar,  a  central  position  for  the  business 
upon  which  he  went,  and  near  by  the  men  whom  he 
delighted  to  meet.  He  entered  at  once  and  vigor- 
ously upon  the  work  which  he  had  undertaken,  and 
his  letters,  while  keeping  his  friends  fully  informed 
of  his  progress  in  that  business,  are  also  filled  with 


10  HISTORICAL  TRACT. 

descriptions  of   the   things   which  he   saw    and  the 
events  which  occurred  and  which  interested  him. 

Before  entering  upon  a  description  of  his  adven- 
ture, it  may  be  well  to  make  mention  of  some  things 
about  which  he  writes,  they  seem  so  well  to  illus- 
trate his  character.  He  early  and  often  visited 
Drury  Lane,  where  lie  frequently  saw  Edmund  Kean, 
and  he  writes  to  his  mother  minute  accounts  of  his 
impressions  of  the  acting  of  Mr.  Kean.  He  dwells 
with  delight  upon  Mr.  Kean's  presentations  of  Lear, 
Othello,  and  Richard  the  Third, — personations  upon 
which  the  most  enlightened  judgment  of  men  has 
set  the  seal  of  approval.  Benjamin  West  died  in 
London,  and  Angell  wrote  with  gratitude  of  the 
honors  bestowed  upon  his  distinguished  countryman. 
Much  of  his  time  was  given  to  the  courts.  Of  two 
celebrated  trials  he  gave  interesting  accounts.  That 
of  Thistle  wood,  the  leader  of  the  Cato  street  con- 
spiracy, and  that  of  Queen  Caroline,  the  consort  of. 
George  the  Fourth.  The  former  was  tried,  con- 
victed, and  executed  ;  the  latter  returned  to  London 
from  her  lono*  residence  in  Italy.  Mr.  Angell  saw 
the  mob  smashing-  the  windows  of  such  as  would  not 


>ie::o:f.  or  ::sz?h  k.  avgell.  11 

:"::rr.':r.:.:z  :heir  hr'ases  as  the  Queer.  7  asset;,  and 
3.::e:~ar:i-  s  :  many  iavs  :.:  her  trial.  Of  all  ;hese 
rhinrs  lie  has  left  excellent  accounts.     Literature  ~:s 

his    impressions    ::    such  books    :.-    were  published. 

- 

0:  mr-.nv  ::  :hese  l::ks  :ime  has  :'h:::.:h  everj 
trace,  but  ■::  ane,  thr  "Pirate,'1  by  the  luthoi  ;: 
Waverly,  Mi    Ansel:  has  left  an  irinicn  which  m.  v 

ielinearicn  ::  hr.man  zharactei  and  in  his  lesciip- 
:i:rs   ::  r.:.:.-ral  s:enerv.  !nt  :he  ineiients  are   :_  : 


peered  ;ha:   he  nerleerea    :he  main  business  vrrich 

there   ~er-.    :f  William    Angell,   the  fhrs:    turcha^er 

Jchn  Angel!.   Esc.,   and  their  male  heirs  foreYer,  all 
his  lands  and  estates  bc:h  r.-al  and   personal,  iu   Sur- 


12  HISTORICAL    TRACT. 

rey,  Kent  and  Sussex,  nevertheless  subject  and  liable 
to  such  conditions  as  should  be  thereafter  mentioned, 
and  should  not  be  otherwise  disposed  of  and  given  : 
and  if  there  should  be  no  male  heirs  or  descendants 
of  the  same  William  or  the  first  Angell  of  Northamp- 
tonshire, in  order  as  they  should  be  found  or  made 
apparent,  and  if  there  should  be  none  of  those  in 
being,  or  that  should  be  apparent  and  plainly  and 
legally  make  themselves  out  to  be  Angells  and  so 
related  and  descended,  he  then  gave  all  his  estates 
whatsoever,  both  real  and  personal,  to  William 
Browne,  Esquire,  grandson  to  Mrs.  Frances,  the  wife 
of  Benedict  Browne,  Esquire,  who  was  an  Angell, 
and  his  male  heirs  forever/'1 

The  claim  of  Mr.  Angell  was.  that  notwithstand- 
ing there  were  many  Angells  living  in  England,  none 
were  male  heirs  of  the  body  of  William  Angell,  the 
first  purchaser  of  Crowhurst.  ngr  were  there  any 
such  heirs  in  existence  ;  that  he  was  the  male  heir 
by  collateral  descent,  tracing  his  descent  from  the 
only  brother  of  William  Angell,  the  aforesaid  Thomas 

1.    Simons  and  Stuart's  Reports,  Dunlap's  Ed.,  New  York,  1843,  Vol. 
l,p.84. 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH   K.   ANGELL.  13 

Angell,  who  first  came  with  Roger  Williams  to  plant 
the  town  of  Providence.  In  the  prosecution  of  his 
search,  Mr.  Angell  exhibited  great  patience  and  per- 
severance. He  personally  examined  the  register  of 
every  parish  church  in  London  in  his  pursuit  of  evi- 
dence, and  having  obtained  a  vast  amount,  which 
could  not  then  well  be  transmitted  by  reason  of  the 
slow  progress  of  the  mails,  he  determined  to  return 
with  it  to  Providence,  lay  it  before  his  friends,  take 
advice,  and  start  afresh.  He  reached  Xew  York  on 
the  22d  of  October,  1820,  and  repaired  at  once  to 
Providence.  Having  laid  the  case  fully  before  his 
friends,  it  was  determined  that  he  should  return  to 
England  and  press  the  claim.  With  this  end  in  view, 
he  sailed  from  Boston  in  the  ship  Parthian,  on  the 
5th  of  July,  1821,  and  reached  Liverpool  on  the  1st 
of  August.  He  entered  immediately  with  renewed 
vigor  upon  the  business  which  called  him  again  to 
England.  In  the  course  of  it,  it  became  necessary 
to  visit  many  of  the  towns  and  counties  in  the  in- 
terior. In  this  way  he  saw  much  of  the  rural  life 
of  the  people,  which  filled  him  with  pleasure  and 
his  letters  with  charming  descriptions.     Having  with 


14  HISTORICAL    TRACT. 

much  labor  prepared  his  case  in  the  spring  of  1822, 
he  filed  a  bill  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  This  bill 
prayed  for  a  commission  to  examine  witnesses  abroad 
and  to  perpetuate  their  testimony.  The  Vice  Chan- 
cellor refused  to  grant  the  commission,  because  there 
was  no  action  pending,  and  nothing  had  been  exhib- 
ited to  show  that  an  action  could  not  be  brought.1 
Thus  ended  the  pursuit  of  this  property  by  Mr. 
Angell,  who  did  not  indeed  wait  for  the  decision, 
but  returned  to  Rhode  Island  before  it  had  been  ren- 
dered, fully  persuaded  with  the  belief  that  "  the 
longer  he  was  absent  from  home  the  more  he  became 
sensible  of  the  strength  of  those  ties  which  bound 
him  to  his  native  soil,  and  which  are  so  natural  and 
interwoven  with  the  heart,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
utterly  destroy  them  without  destroying  the  heart 
itself." 

Mr.  Ann-ell  returned  to  Rhode  Island  without  hav- 
ing  reached  that  success  for  which  he  had  hoped  in 
the  business  upon  which  he  went  abroad,  but  an  idea 
had  occurred  to  him  while  there  which  resulted  in  a 

1.    Simons  and  Stuart's  Reports,  Dunlap's  Ed.,  Xew  York,  1813,  Vol. 
1,  p.  84. 


MEMOIR   OF   JOSEPH   K.    ANGELL.  15 

splendid  success.  He  resolved  to  devote  himself  to 
the  profession  of  a  law  writer,  a  branch  of  the  pro- 
fession  far  more  consonant  to  his  tastes  than  that  of 
an  advocate  or  a  counsellor,  and  which  he  had  seen 
carried  to  such  an  extent  in  England.  At  the  period 
of  his  return,  the  business  interests  in  Rhode  Island 
were  in  process  of  transformation  from -a  commercial 
to  a  manufacturing  industry  ;  mills  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  cotton  into  cloth  were  being  erected  upon 
every  stream  where  water  power  could  be  found. 
Naturally,  therefore,  was  the  attention  of  Mr.  Angell 
called  to  the  subject  of  the  law  relating  to  water 
courses,  and  he  chose  that  subject  for  the  title  of  his 
first  work.  It  appeared  in  1824,  since  which  time 
many  editions  have  appeared,  and  more  than  twelve 
thousand  copies  have  been  sold.  The  work  has  been 
very  much  enlarged  at  each  successive  revision,  and. 
is  still  a  leading  authority  upon  the  subject.  While 
engaged  upon  this  work,  the  attention  of  Mr.  Angell 
was  called  natuially  to  the  title  which  he  selected 
for  his  second  work,  "  The  Right  of  Property  in  Tide 
Waters  and  in  the  Soil  and  Shores  thereof,*'  which 
work  appeared  in  182G.     A  second  and   much   en- 


16  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

larged  edition  was  published  in  1847.  Both  works 
met  with  a  favorable  reception  from  the  bench  and 
from  the  bar.  Chancellor  Kent  said  of  them,  that 
"  they  were  works  which  no  intelligent  lawyer  could 
well  practice  without." 

Early  in  1837,  Mr.  Angell  published  his  third 
work.  It  was  entitled,  "An  Inquiry  into  the  Rule 
of  Law  which  creates  a  Right  to  an  Incorporeal 
Hereditament  by  an  Adverse  Enjoyment  of  twenty 
}rears,  with  remarks  on  the  application  of  the  rule 
to  Light,  and  in  certain  cases  to  a  Water  Privilege." 
This  essay  was  not  at  first  intended  for  publication, 
but  the  interest  in  the  subject  induced  the  author  to 
publish  it.  Its  object  was  to  investigate  the  original 
establishment  of  the  rule  and  to  trace  its  progress, 
to  explain  the  qualifications  to  which  it  is  subject, 
and  develop  the  principle  and  policy  on  which  it  is 
founded.  It  is  a  small  octavo  volume  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  pages. 

Following  this  came  in  the  same  year,  "  An  Essay 
on  the  Right  of  a  State  to  Tax  a  Body  Corporate 
considered  in  relation  to  the  Bank  Tax  in  Rhode 
Island."     This  was  a  pamphlet  of  forty-four  pages* 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH   K.    ANGELL.  1. 

and  was  called  out  by  the  exigency  of  the  times. 
The  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island  had  assumed 
the  power  to  tax  banks  incorporated  by  charters 
granted  by  this  same  honorable  body,  but  the  char- 
ters of  which  contained  no  reservation  of  power  to 
tax.     Neither  of  the^e  essays  were  ever  repiinted. 

With  the  beginning  of  the  year  1829,  Mr.  Angell 
began  the  publication  at  Providence  of  the  United 
States  Law  Intelligencer  and  Review.  The  periodi- 
cal, for  it  was  issued  monthly,  was  to  be  a  synopsis 
or  abridged  record  of  the  changes  and  progress  of 
the  Law.  The  first  volume  only  was  published  in 
Providence.  The  work  was  disposed  of  to  Philadel- 
phia parties,  and  the  office  of  publication  removed 
to  that  city.  Mr.  Angell  continued  its  editor  two 
years.  It  had  but  a  short  life  after  he  left  it,  three 
volumes  only  having  been  issued  .  It  was  a  great 
advance  upon  any  similar  journal  issued  before  it  in 
this  country,  and  it  pointed  the  way  for  other  similar 
enterprises. 

During  this  same  year.  1829,  Mr.  Angell  published 
A  Treatise  on  the  Limitations  of  Actions  at  Law 
and  Suits  in  Equity,  a   volume  of   upwards  of  five 


18  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

hundred  pages.  In  1846  appeared  the  second  edition 
of  the  same  work,  much  enlarged,  and  with  many 
of  the  errors  in  the  former  edition  corrected.  In 
the  first  edition  was  reprinted,  The  Reading  of  that 
famous  Lawyer,  Sir  Robert  Brook,  Kt.,  upon  the 
Statute  of  Limitations,  from  -the  London  edition  of 
1617.  This  reprint  was  omitted  in  the  second  edi- 
tion. This  work  Mr.  Angell  dedicated  to  his  life- 
long friend,  John  Brown  Francis,  late  Governor  of 
Rhode  Island.  It  was  at  once  favorably  received 
by  the  profession  generally,  and  by  no  one  more  so 
than  by  Chancellor  Kent.  The  copy  before  us  is 
filled  with  his  manuscript  memoranda.  Soon  after 
the  publication  of  the  first  edition,  the  author  sent 
a  copy  as  a  present  to  Brougham,  then  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  England.  In  acknowledging  its  receipt, 
Lord  Brougham  used  the  following  language  :  "  Lord 

^.O  o  OCT 

Brougham  begs  Mr.  A.  would  kindly  communicate 
to  Mr.  Angell,  his  very  grateful  sense  of  the  favor 
done  him  by  the  valuable  present  of  Mr.  A.'s  work. 
Lord  B.  has  already  consulted  it,  and  found  it  to  be 
by  much  the  best  treatise  on  this  very  important 
subject."     Unfortunately,  this  letter  is  now  lost,  and 


MEMOIR   OF   JOSEPH    K.    ANGELL.  19 


this  short  extract  is  all  that  remains  of  a  manuscript 
which  Mr.  Angell  cherished  as  among  the  choicest  of 
his  earthly  treasures.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
any  event  in  the  literary  life  of  Mr.  Angell  ever  gave 
him  so  much  pleasure  as  this  letter,  which  he  exhib- 
ited with  delight  to  his  friends.  Of  this  treatise  six 
editions,  comprising  in  the  aggregate  more  than  eight 
thousand  copies  have  been  issued. 

In  1832,  Mr.  Angell,  in  connection  with  Samuel 
Ames,  issued  a  "  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Private 
Corporations  Aggregate."  This  work  needs  no  other 
commendation  than  an  enumeration  of  its  editions, 
numbering  ten,  and  a  statement  of  the  numbers  which 
have  been  sold,  exceeding  twelve  thousand  copies. 
His  next  work  in  order  of  time  was  the  "  Practical 
Summary  of  the  Law  of  Assignments  in  Trust  for 
the  Benefit  of  Creditors."  This  work  appeared  in 
1835.  It  was  a  duodecimo  volume  of  upwards  of 
two  hundred  and  twenty  pages.  Notwithstanding 
the  high  commendation  bestowed  upon  it,  but  one 
edition  was  ever  published,  and  the  book  is  nowr 
scarce  and  much  sought  for. 

From  this  time  until  1849,  Mr.  Angell  undertook 


20  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

the  publication  of  no  new  work,  but  revised  and 
edited  the  successive  new  'editions  of  his  former 
works.  In  this  year  he  published  his  treatise  on  the 
"  Law  of  Carriers  of  Goods  and  Passengers  by  Land 
and  Water. "  It  was  a  stout  octavo  of  upwards  of 
eight  hundred  pages.  A  second  edition  followed  in 
1851,  a  third  in  1857,  and  others  have  succeeded. 
More  than  seven  thousand  copies  have  been  sold,  and 
the  book  is  still  the  leading  authority.  It  was  dedi- 
cated to  his  life-long  friend,  John  Carter  Brown. 
The  various  editions  of  Mr.  Angell's  books  vary  in 
several  ways  which  have  not  been  mentioned  in  this 
memoir.  For  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  third  edi- 
tion of  this  work,  which  contains  the  United  States 
laws  relating  to  steamboats,  and  sundry  forms  of 
pleadings.  These  were  omitted  in  subsequent  edi- 
tions and  other  material  substituted.  In  the  first 
edition  were  incorporated  in  the  appendix  certain 
leading  cases  which  found  no  place  in  subsequent 
editions.  This  has  been  the  case,  although  not  per- 
haps to  the  extent,  with  the  other  works  of  Mr. 
Angell. 

It  was  provided  in  the  act  organizing  the  courts 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH   K.   A>"GELL.  21 

of  Rhode  Island,  after  the  adoption  of  the  constitu- 
tion in  1842,  that  a  Reporter  of  the  Decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  should  be  appointed.  The  law  was 
subsequently  modified,  directing  the  Supreme  Court 
to  appoint  the  Reporter,  who  was  to  be  a  person  not 
a  member  of  the  court,  and  further  directing  the 
election  to  be  made  at  the  March  term,  1845.  The 
Reporter  was  to  publish  his  Reports  annually.  He 
was  to  be  paid  one  hundred  dollars  by  the  State 
for  his  services,  and  was  at  liberty  to  make  or  lose 
as  much  money  as  might  happen,  he  assuming  all 
risk  of  publication,  the  State  agreeing  to  purchase 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  copies  for  distribution. 
A  worse  arrangement  for  the  Reporter  could  not  well 
be  devised,  the  purchase  by  the  State  practically 
destroying  all  chances  of  sale  to  other  parties.  The 
Reports  were  first  issued  in  pamphlet  form.  The 
first  of  tKSse  pamphlets  appeared  in  July.  1S47.  It 
contained  seventy-one  pages,  and  consisted  entirely 
of  opinions  given  long  before  the  date  of  its  pub- 
lication. The  second  number  soon  followed.  This 
also  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Angell,  and  was  the  last 
prepared  by  him.     He  resigned  the  office  of  Reporter 


22  HISTORICAL  TRACT. 

at  the  September  term  of  the  court,  1849.  Thomas 
Durfee  was  elected  to  succeed  him ;  and  by  Mr. 
Durfee  was  prepared  the  third  and  concluding  and 
by  much  the  larger  part  of  the  first  volume. 

In  1854,  was  published  a  "  Treatise  on  the  Law 
of  Fire  and  Life  Insurance."  The  following  year  a 
second  edition  was  called  for,  since  which  time  no 
further  issue  have  been  required,  other  authors  hav- 
ing occupied  the  field.  In  1857,  appeared  a  "  Trea- 
tise on  the  Law  of  Highways."  This  work  was  begun 
by  Mr.  Angell,  and  was  in  process  of  publication  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  It  was  the  last  of  his  literary 
labors.  The  first,  second,  and  a  portion  of  the  fourth 
chapters  were  the  work  of  Mr.  Angell ;  the  remain- 
der was  the  work  of  Thomas  Durfee.  The  following 
year  a  second  edition  was  required,  and  the  work 
still  continues  to  be  a  leading  authority  upon  the 
subject.  _ 

Here  ends  the  list  of  books  which  contain  the 
writings  of  Mr.  Angell.  Many  of  them  are  still  the 
most  valuable  treatises  upon  the  subjects  of  which 
they  treat,  and  are  constantly  kept  upon  the  market, 
which  has  already  absorbed  in  the  aggregate  more 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH   K.    ANGELL.  23 

than  fifty  thousand  copies.  On  a  list,  received  while 
printing  these  sheets,  of  law  Looks  for  sale  by  a 
prominent  firm  of  law  booksellers  in  London,  the 
first  five  titles  offered  were  the  leading  books  of 
Mr.  Angell. 

Mr.  Angell  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  famous 
44  Nine  Lawyers'  Opinion. "  It  was  upon  the  right  of 
the  people  to  form  a  constitution.  It  was  published 
in  1842,  a  time  of  unprecedented  political  excitement 
in  Rhode  Island.  It  claimed  that  the  power  to  pre- 
scribe a  form  of  government  rested  with  the  people  ; 
that  the  legislature  was  the  creature  of  the  people, 
and  was  not  superior  to  its  creator;  that  before  the 
Revolution  the  sovereign  power  was  in  the  King  of 
England ;  that -by  the  Revolution  the  sovereign  power 
was  divested  from  the  King  and  passed  to  the  peo- 
ple, the  whole  people,  of  the  colony,  and  which 
became  the  -State  ;  that  the  charter  contained  within 
itself  no  power  of  amendment  or  of  change,  and  that 
since  the  Revolution  no  way  had  existed  for  amend- 
ing the  form  of  government ;  that"  the  legislature 
being  the  creature  of  the  people,  possessed  no  power 
to  enforce  the  people  to  change  their  form  of  gov- 


24  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

eminent, — their  utmost  power  was  to  request  them 
to  change  it  ;  that  the  Freeholders'  Constitution 
rested  on  the  request  of  the  General  Assembly,  while 
the  Peoples'  Constitution  rested  on  the  request  of  the 
people  themselves,  and  therefore  rested  on  the  firmest 
possible  basis.  Such  in  a  general  way  is  the  tenor 
of  this  famous  document.  It  was  published  only  in 
the  Daily  Express,  a  newspaper  published  in  Provi- 
dence, on  the  16th  of  March,  1842.1 

As  a  writer,  the  style  of  Mr.  Angell  is  simple 
and  direct,  with  little  or  no  effort  at  ornament  or 
illustration  ;  to  quickly  reach  the  point  of  a  decision 
and  clearly  state  it  was  his  aim  as  a  writer ;  he  pre- 
sents the  law  as  he  finds  it,  with  no  tint  or  shade  of 
coloring  imparted  by  his  own  opinions.  Doubtless  it 
is  these  excellencies  which  lend  permanence  to  his 
works. 

Rosina,  the  sister  of  Mr.  Angell,  died  in  1831,  leav- 
ing him  no  near  relative.  He  was  never  married. 
He  died  suddenly,  in  Boston,  May  1,  1857,  whither 
he  had  gone  on  business. 

He  died  as  he  had  lived,  without  an  enenyy  ;    dis- 

1.    The  Opinion  appears  in  full  at  the  close  of  this  Tract. 


MEMOIR    OF   JOSEPH    K.    AXGELL.  -0 

anguished  through  life  by  the  simplicity  of  his  charac- 
ter, by  his  kindly  feeling  towards  all  around  him.  by 
his  attachment  to  his  friend-.  I  y  his  freedom  from 
prejudice,  and  by  the  total  absence  ;:  all  malevolence 

of  spirit.  His  amiable  qualities  had  won  for  him 
many  valuable  friends,  who  throughout  his  life  re- 
mained strongly  attached  to  him.  and  after  his  death 
provide.]  his  t  .  ly  with  :.  resting  place,  and  adorned 
the  walls  of  Rhode  Island  Hall  with  his  portrait. 


A/ 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    MEMOIR 


FRANCES    H   MCDOUGALL 


BORN 


WHIPPLE. 


The  subject  of  the  following  memoir  wrote  and 
published  books  under  three  different  names.  This 
fact,  well  known  at  the  present  time,  might  become 
a  source  of  inquiry  to  many  in  the  future,  who  may 
be  interested  in  such  things.  To  lighten  their  labor 
is  the  present  endeavor. 

Miss  Fhances  H.  Whipple  was  the  daughter  of 
Mr.  George  Whipple,  of  Smitlifield,  R.  I.,  where  she 
was  born  in  1805,  in  the  month  of  September.  She 
received  such  advantages  for  education  as  the  district 
schools  of  the  time  afforded,  and  later  attended  a 
private  school  in  Providence,  kept  by  Dr.  Peter  W. 
Ferris.  Dr.  Ferris  probably  came  to  Providence  in*" 
1828  or  1829.  He  first  established  himself  as  a  phy- 
sician on  High  street.  Two  years  later,  in  1832,  he 
was  the  teacher  of  the  Fifth  District  School  on  Pond 
street.  He  continued  to  be  employed  as  a  teacher 
until,  perhaps,  1845  or  1846,  when  he  abandoned  the 
profession  of  teaching  and  took  that  of  a  dentist, 


30  HISTORICAL    TRACT. 

which  he  retained  until  either  his  death  or  removal 
from  this  city,  about  1854.  It  must  have  been  very 
soon  after  Dr.  Ferris  came  that  Miss  Whipple  went 
to  his  private  school.  She  was  23  years  of  age  in 
1828,  and  the  following  year,  1829,  she  began  the 
publication  of  the  "  Original,"  a  periodical  of  which 
an  account  will  appear  later  in  this  memoir.  She  was 
at  this  time  a  vigorous  and  fluent  writer.  She  became 
interested  in  the  temperance  reform,  which  originated 
about  this  time  (1S30),  and  gave  her  pen  and  much 
time  in  assisting  the  movement.  At  a  later  peiiod 
she  became  very  much  interested  in  the  anti-slavery 
movement,  and  identified  herself  with  it  in  every 
possible  way. 

In  the  political  troubles  in  Rhode  Island  in  ]842, 
she  took  the  side  of  those  she  considered  to  be 
oppressed,  and  became  a  very  violent  partisan  of  Mr. 
Dorr.  Unfortunately  for  her  personal  comfort,  she 
was  ever  on  the  unpopular  side  of  every  question  in 
Rhode  Island. 

On  the  first  day  of  July,  1812,  Miss  Whipple  was 
married,  at  Lowell,  Mass.,  to  Mr.  Charles  C.  Greene, 
an  artist,  residing  at  that  time  at  Springfield,  Mass. 


MEMOIR    OF   FRANCES    H.    MCDOUGALL.  ol 

This  marriage  did  not  prove  a  happy  one.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1847,  Mrs.  Greene  obtained  a  divorce  from 
her  husband,  and  from  this  time  she  dwelt  with  her 
friends,  until  about  18G0,  when  she  went  to  live  in 
California,  where  she  soon  after  (about  1861)  mar- 
ried Mr.  William  C.  McDougall,  and  where  she  died, 
June  10,  1878. 

Having  thus  presented  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Mrs. 
Greene,  we  now  venture  upon  an  account  of  her 
literary  work.  Her  first  publication  in  order  of  time 
was  the  "  Original,"  which  was  first  issued  in  Provi- 
dence in  May,  1829.  It  is  a  12mo.  of  upwards  of  a 
hundred  pages.  It  was  numbered  Vol  1,  No.  1.  It 
contained  fifteen  articles ;  ten  of  which  were  written 
by  Miss  Whipple.  It  was  her  intention  to  issue  the 
periodical  three  times  a  year,  at  an  annual  subscrip- 
tion, price  of  fifty  cents,  but  probably  from  non- 
support,  no  other  number  was  issued  until  January, 
1830. '  This  number  was  again  numbered  Vol.  1,  No. 
1.  The  size  was  increased  to  an  octavo,  and  it  con- 
tained forty  pages.  These  w^ere  the  only  numbers 
published.  Sketches  of  local  interest  are  contained 
in   these   pamphlets ;    among  them  are  accounts  of 


32  HISTORICAL  TRACT. 

"  Quinsniket,"    "Scott's     PondT"    and   the    u  Early- 
Starting  of  Central  Falls." 

In  1810,  the  Juvenile  Emancipation  Society,  of 
Pawtucket,  published  a  small  volume,  entitled  "The 
Envoy,  from  Free  Hearts  to  the  Free."  It  was  a 
collection  by  various  writers,  many  of  whom  lived  in 
Rhode  Island,  among  them  Sarah  A.  Chace  of  Provi- 
dence, E.  B.  Chace  of  Pawtucket,  Sophia  L.  Little 
of  Newport,  William  Chace  of  Providence,  Anna  W. 
Weston  of  Providence,  and  many  others,  who  date 
their  articles  from  various  towns  in  Rhode  Island,, 
but  give  no  names.  The  work  was  edited  by  Miss- 
Wrhipple,  who  likewise  contributed  several  articles, 
the  first  being  the  "  Charge  :  " 

Hither  our  Envoy!  Take  thine  errand  nowr 
Go  forth  with  Love's  own  myrtle  on  thy  brow; 
Plead  for  the  bought  and  sold,  the  scourged,  the  dumb.. 
Flatter  not  "wealth;  nor  unto  power  succumb. 

The  little  book  was  printed  at  Pawtucket,  by  R. 
W.  Potter. 

Miss  Whipple  was  a  contributor  to  the  u  Liberty 
Chimes,"  a  neat  12mo.  volume,  printed  at  Pawtucket 
in  1815,  by  Mr.  Potter,  for  the  Ladies  Anti-Slavery 
Society  of  Providence. 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES   H.    MCDOUGALL.  33 

On  the  19th  of  March,  1842,  was  published  at 
Fall  River  the  first  number  of  "The  Wampanoag 
and  Operatives  Journal.''  It  was  published  in  the 
royal  quarto  form,  semi-monthly,  and  bore  for  its 
legend  :  "  Idleness  and  Luxury  Pamper  the  Animal, 
Labor  Makes  the  Man."  Frances  H.  Whipple  was 
announced  as  the  editor  ;  no  publisher's  name  was 
given.  The  second  number  bears  the  name  of  Miss 
Whipple  as  the  publisher,  and  also  the  editor.  In 
her  prospectus  she  presents  the  chart  which  she  pro- 
posed to  use  in  the  guidance  of  the  little  periodical : 
"Like  the  Wampanoag  of  old,  (King  Philip,)  our 
royal  namesake,  we  hope  to  maintain  a  perfectly 
erect,  fearless  and  determined  course.  Whatever  we 
see  of  good  we  shall  dare  sustain,  without  stopping 
to  inquire  whether  it  bears  the  image  and  superscrip- 
tion of  Ccesar  —  whatever  we  see  of  wrong  we  shall 
cry  out  against ;  whether  it  be  in  low  places  or  in 
high  places  ;  whether  it  be  pilfering  hen  roosts,  or 
plundering  cradles  ;  whether  it  be  robbing  a  man  of 
his  purse  or  of  himself ;  whether  it  be  chaining  the 
limbs  or  crushing  the  soul ;  whether  it  be  making  a 
woman  a  toy,  or  a  chattel ;  whether  it  be  flattering 
or  flogging  her,  whether  it  be  raising  and  dragging 


34  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

her  away  in  chains  to  the  south-western  market,  or 
ruinously  training  her  under  the  forced  culture  of 
our  fashionable  boarding-schools  and  drawing1  rooms 
for  the  home  market."  The  special  object  Miss 
Whipple  had  in  view  was  to  educate,  assist  and  en- 
courage female  operatives  in  Fall  River  and  such 
manufacturing  districts.  Many  Providence  people 
contributed  to  the  paper,  among  them  Sarah  Helen 
Whitman,  Anne  C.  Lynch,  William  M.  Rodman, 
and  others  whose  initials  we  can  only  guess.  Miss 
Whipple  was,  however,  the  main  writer.  The  paper 
was  essentially  literary  and  of  a  high  tone  ;  nothing 
appeared  in  it  which  a  severe  judgment  would  to- 
day condemn,  but  the  duration  of  its  existence  was 
short.  Dissensions  arose  between  Mr.  Bowen,  the 
real  publisher,  and  Miss  Whipple,  and  with  the  issue 
of  the  thirteenth  number,  Mrs.  Greene  (for  she  was 
then  married)  withdrew,  and  the  "  Wampanoag." 
expired  with  its  fifteenth  number,  on  the  8th  of 
October,  1832.  Doubtless  the  chief  difficulty  was 
a  lack  of  support.  The  political  troubles  of  Rhode 
Island  prevented  Miss  Whipple  from  obtaining  the 
support    within   that   State    upon   which    she   con- 


;g7sgo 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES    H.   MC  DOUG  ALL.  35 

fidently  relied.  The  paper  was  neatly  printed  by 
Thomas  Almy,  to  whose  son,  Mr.  Thomas  Almy,  of 
the  Fall  River  News,  to  whom  the  author  is  indebted 
for  the  file  to  which  he  has  access.  Messrs.  Burnett 
&  King,  the  well-remembered  booksellers,  acted  as 
agents  for  Miss  Whipple  in  Providence. 

Her  next  publication  was  a  work  of  charity,  the 
"  Memoirs  of  Elleanor  Eldridge,"  16mo.,  Providence, 
1838.  Another  edition  was  published  in  1840,  and 
still  another  in  1812.  This  little  volume  of  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty-eight  pages  was  published  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  the  subject  of  it  to  repurchase 
some  property  of  which  she  had  been  perhaps  legally, 
but  at  all  events  unfairly,  deprived.  The  tale,  in 
short,  is  this  :  Elleanor  was  a  hard-working,  pru- 
dent, saving,  colored  woman.  Her  grandfather  had 
been  kidnapped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  (now  the 
Livingstone)  river,  on  board  a  ship  upon  which  he 
had  been  enticed  for  the  purposes  of  trade.  He  was 
brought  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he  was  sold  as  a 
slave.  He  afterwards  married  an  Indian  woman,  a 
pure  Narragansett.  From  this  marriage  descended 
Elleanor.     By  dint  of  hard  work  and  prudence  she 


36  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

was  enabled  to  purchase  a  lot  of  land  on  Spring  street, 
in  Providence,  upon  which  she  built  a  house,  which 
she  at  several  times  enlarged  until  it  became,  to  her, 
a  valuable  property,  and  was  nearly  paid  for.  It  had 
cost  about  two  thousand  dollars;  on  it  there  was  a 
loan  of  two  hundred  and  forty  dollars.  On  this  loan 
she  paid  an  annual  interest  of  ten  per  cent.  Having 
an  opportunity  to  purchase  another  estate  adjoining 
her  own,  which  materially  improved  her  means  of 
access  to  her  house,  she  bought  it  for  two  thousand 
dollars,  upon  which  she  paid  five  hundred  dollars 
cash  and  gave  a  mortgage  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
on  her  entire  estate.  Being  taken  sick,  she  rented 
her  property  and  went  away  to  recover  her  strength. 
While  gone,  the  gentleman  from  whom  she  borrowed 
the  two  hundred  and  forty  dollars  died,  leaving 
his  estate  to  his  brother.  This  brother  attached 
Elleanor's  property,  sold  it  by  the  sheriff,  and  he 
himself  bought  it  for  exactly  the  amount  of  the 
mortgage.  Elleanor  returned  to  find  herself  de- 
prived in  a  moment  of  an  estate  which  had  cost 
about  four  thousand  dollars.  She  was  not  a  woman 
who  would  submit  quietly  to  such  proceedings,  and 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES   H.   MCDOUGALL.  37 

forthwith  set  herself  to  work  to  obtain  justice. 
General  Greene,  Attorney  General,  assisted  her, 
as  did  many  of  the  best  citizens  of  Providence,  to 
whom  she  was  well  known.  To  assist  in  raising 
money,  this  little  book  was  written,  and  several  edi- 
tions sold.  A  companion  volume,  entitled  Elleanor's 
Second  Book,  was  published  in  1847.  These  efforts 
were  successful.  Elleanor  recovered  her  property 
after  paying  pretty  heavily  for  it,  and  lived  to  a  good 
old  age,  a  respected  and  respectable  colored  woman, 
tall  and  erect  in  her  80th  year  as  the  young  oak  in 
the  native  forests  of  Rhode  Island,  through  which 
her  grandmother  had  wandered  among  the  last  of  a 
race  now  unknown.  Mr.  Griswold,  in  his  notice  of 
Mrs.  Greene,  in  his  Female  Poets  of  America,  states 
that  30,000  copies  of  this  (first)  memoir  was  sold,  and 
Allibone  has  copied  from  Griswold.  Doubtless  there 
were  a  considerable  number,  but  not  nearly  as  many 
as  30,000.  It  is  questionable  whether  there  were 
more  than  three  editions  of  the  first  one,  and  there 
was  certainly  but  one  edition  of  the  second  one. 
An  edition  of  a  Rhode  Island  book  numbering  10,000 
or  15,000  would  be  an  extraordinary  thing,  altogether 

4 


38  HISTORICAL  TRACT. 

unknown.  Both  these  little  books  were  printed  by 
Mr.  B.  T.  Albro,  of  course  on  hand  presses,  for  at 
that  time  such  a  thing  as  a  power  book  printing  press 
was  unknown  in  Providence.  Both  volumes  are  em- 
bellished with  a  wood  cut  portrait  of  the  subject, 
with  her  white-wash  brush  in  hand  prepared  for  her 
daily  labor. 

Following  these  came  the  Mechanic.  It  was  a 
12mo.  volume  of  upwards  of  two  hundred  pages, 
and  bears  the  imprint  of  Burnett  &  King.  Charles 
Burnett,  the  senior  of  this  firm,  was  one  of  the  best 
booksellers  which  Providence  ever  possessed  ;  well 
educated,  refined  in  manner,  imbued  with  a  love  of 
literature  and  of  the  fine  arts — had  he  lived  longer 
he  would  have  left  an  impress  upon  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence which  would  have  lasted  many  generations^ 
there  was  a  magnetism  about  him  which  drew  all 
kindred  spirits  toward  him — but  he  died,  worn  out 
with  incessant  toil,  while  yet  almost  in  his  youth,  in 
the  year  1848. 

But  to  return  to  our  little  book.  It  is  the  story  of 
laboring  men  and  women,  written  to  plant  within 
them  good  thoughts  and  elevating  desires  s*nd  aspira- 


\ 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES    H.    MCDOUGALL.  39 

tions  ;  "  urging  man,  however  high,  or  however  low 

in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  to  regard  his  fellow-men 
as  equals  and  brethren,  all  walking  in  different  paths 
it  may  be  —  all  pursuing  different  avocations;  yet 
each  bearing  on  his  brow  the  visible  signet  of  Jehovah 
which  confirms  the  nobility  of  a  God-like  nature  — 
each  invested  with  a  mission  to  his  race,  for  the  faith- 
ful discharge  of  which  he  is  accountable  to  all  future 
generations.  When  this  spirit  comes  to  be  diffused, 
the  rich  man  will  cease  to  be  arrogant  and  the  poor 
man  forget  to  be  serviie,  for  will  not  each  feel  him- 
self  equally  a  man."  A  single  edition  of  this  volume 
was  all  that  the  public  demanded,  but  the  little  book 
has  nearly  disappeared.  Continuing  our  record,  in 
order  of  time  came  Might  and  Right,  by  a  Rhode 
Islander,  (Miss  Whipple).  It  was  published  by 
Abraham  H.  Stillwell,  in  Providence,  in  1844.  A 
12mo.  volume  of  three  hundred  and  twenty-four 
pages,  dedicated  "  To  Thomas  Wilson  Dorr,  the  true 
and  tried  patriot,  the  Fearless  Defender  of  Human 
Rights,  this  work  is  respectfully  inscribed."  A  por- 
trait of  Mr.  Dorr  illustrates  the  book.  A  second 
edition,  containing  an  appendix  of  twenty-two  pages 


' 


40  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Thomas  Wilson  Dorr, 
was  issued  the  same  year.  It  is,  as  its  dedication  in- 
dicates, intensely  devoted  to  a  defence  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Mr.  Dorr  in  the  political  struggles  of  1842. 
During  these  latter  years  it  has  been  more  or  less 
sought  for  by  collectors  of  books  relating  to  this  very 
interesting  period  of  Rhode  Island  history,  and  its 
present  price  would  astonish  its  author. 

In  1854  Mrs.  Greene  published  a  Primary  class 
book  of  Botany  designed  for  common  schools  and 
families.  This  was  a  thin  quarto  volume  of  upward 
of  a  hundred  pages  of  text  and  several  hundred  illus- 
trations. 

Mrs.  Greene,  having  been  for  several  years  engaged 
in  teaching  botany,  early  perceived  the  uses  of  pic- 
torial illustrations  in  the  teaching  of  that  science. 
This  little  treatise  was  "  an  attempt  to  disarm  the 
study  of  a  portion  of  its  terrors,"  and  to  render  it 
attractive  and  interesting.  She  also,  in  connection 
with  Joseph  W.  Congdon,  of  East  Greenwich,  pre- 
pared the  Analytical  Class  Book  of  Botany,  also 
a  quarto  in  form. 

Next  in  order  came  Sbahmah  in  Pursuit  of  Free- 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES    II.    MCDOUGALL.  41 

dom  ;  or,  The  Branded  Maud.  Translated  from  the 
original  Showiah  and  edited  by  an  American  citizen, 
12mo.,  pp.  509.  New  York,  1853.  Shahmah  was  a 
young  Egyptian  or  Ethiopian  prince  whom  the  author 
takes  through  this  country  on  a  tour  of  observation, 
moralizing  on  things  political,  religious  and  social. 
In  the  course  of  her  narative,  the  author  pays  a  high 
compliment  to  Catharine  R.  Williams,  another  Provi- 
dence  writer,  for  her  instrumentality  in  abolishing 
flogging  in  the  United  States  navy. 

Shahmah  was  of  a  black  or  olive  complexion,  and 
in  the  course  of  his  travels  through  the  Southern 
States  became  involved  in  almost  inextricable  trou- 
bles, but,  in  the  end,  all  came  out  well.  In  point  of 
size  it  is  the  largest  of  the  publications  with  which 
its  author  was  connected. 

Besides  these  books  Mrs.  Greene  was  a  contributor 
to  many  of  the  magazines  and  serial  publications  of 
her  day.  She  at  times  conducted  the  publication  of 
such  journals.  The  Wampanoag,  previously  no- 
ticed, a  journal  devoted  to  the  elevation  of  the  labor- 
ing classes,  was  one  of  them.  The  Nineteenth 
Century  was  another,  to  which  she  was  a  large  con- 


42  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

tributor,  as  also  to  the  Uuivercceluni  and  Spiritual 
Philosopher,  a  paper  devoted  to  the  exposition  of 
the  principles  of  nature  as  applied  to  individual  and 
social  life.  In  1848,  she  became  editress  of  the 
"  Young  People's  Journal,"  issued  monthly  in  New 
York. 

Many  of  the  compositions  of  Mrs.  Greene  were 
in  verse.  Never  having  been  gathered  together  in  a 
volume,  they  remain  scattered  in  the  various  publi- 
cations in  which  they  originally  appeared. 

One  of  the  best  known  of  Miss  Whipple's  poems 
was  The  Dwarf's  Story,  characterized  by  Mr. 
Griswold  as  a  "  gloomy,  but  passionate  and  powerful 
composition."  The  poem  contains  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  lines,  in  blank  verse,  and  appears  in  the 
Rhode  Island  Book,  published  in  Providence  in  1841. 
The  following  extract  is  illustrative  of  its  style  : 

Nay,  listen  to  me  Lilian  !  I'm  not  mad. 

Linger  and  listen.     I  would  tell  a  tale  — 

Oh,  God!  Sustain  me! — but,  t'will  wriug  thy  heart, 

I  would  not  grieve  thee  —  thee  my  only  friend  ! 

But  yet  I  cannot  —  how  can  I  forego 

Thy  precious  sympathy?  Give  here  thy  hand; 


MEMOIR   OF   FRANCES    H.    MCDOUGALL.  48 

I'll  hold  it  thus  in  mine.     There  turn  away, 

And  look  not  on  me;  for  I  cannot  bear 

That  thou  should'st  feel  disgust  —  that  thou  should'st  loathe, 

Though  the  sharp  hiss  of  universal  scorn  ,, 

Has  been  my  only  greeting  from  the  world. 

****** 
"  Within  this  shapeless  clod 
A  spirit  dwelleth,  fervid,  pure  and  high 
As  thy  own  spotless  one.     It  loveth  thee 
And  cannot  do  thee  wrong." 

Her  longest  and  best  poem,  according  to  Mr.  Gris- 
wold,  is  Nanuntenoo,  a  legend  of  the  Narragansetts, 
in  six  cantos,  three  of  which,  according  to  the  same 
authority,  were  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1840. 
This  poem  he  pronounces  "to  be  a  work  of  decided 
and  various  merit,  giving  descriptive  powers  scarcely 
inferior  to  Bryant.  The  rythm  is  harmonious,  and 
the  style  generally  elegant  and  poetically  ornate*. 
In  the  delineation  of  Indian  character  and  adventure 
can  be  seen  the  fruits  of  intelligent  study,  and  a  nice 
apprehension  of  the  influence  of  external  nature  in 
psychological  development.  It  is  a  production  that 
will  gratify  attention  by  the  richness  of  its  fancy,  the 
justness  of  its  reflection,  and  its  dramatic  interest." 


44  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

Nanuntenoo,  known  by  the  English  as  Canonchet, 
commanded  the  Indians  at  Pierce's  Fight,  above 
Pawtncket,  the  last  great  Indian  battle  in  Rhode 
Island.1  It  was  a  terrible  defeat  to  the  English. 
The  following  is  a  specimen  of  this  poem : 

"  Pawtucket  almost  slumbered,  for  his  waves 
Were  lulled  by  their  own  chanting;  breathing  low, 
With  a  just-audible  murmur,  as  the  soul 
Is  stirred  in  visions  with  a  thought  of  love. 
He  whispered  back  the  whisper  tenderly. 
Of  the  fair  willows  bending  over  him, 
With  a  light  hush  upon  their  stirring  leaves, 
Blest  watchers  o'er  his  day-dreams.     Kot.a  sign 
Of  man  or  his  abode  met  ear  or  eye, 
But  one  great  wilderness  of  living  wood. 
O'er  hill,  and  cliff,  and  valley,  swelled  and  waved 
An  ocean  of  deep  verdure.     By  the  rock 
Which  bound  and  strengthened  all  their  massive  roots 
Stood  the  great  oak  and  giant  sycamore; 
Along  the  water  courses  and  the  glades 
Rose  the  fair  maple  and  the  hickory; 
And  on  the  loftier  heights  the  towering  pine  — 
Strong  guardians  of  the  forest  —  standing  there 
On  the  old  ramparts,  sentinels  of  Time 
To  watch  the  flight  of  ages." 

1.    This  Fight  took  place  Sunday,  March  26,  1676. 


MEMOIR    OF    FRANCES    H.    MCDOUGALL.  45 

Touching  her  minor  poems,  which  are  numerous, 
Mr.  Griswold  says  : 

••  They  are  marked  by  characteristics  which  prove 
them  fruits  of  a  genuine  inspiration.  Her  Songs  of 
the  Winds  and  sketches  of  Indian  life  are  frequently 
marked  by  a  masculine  energy  of  expression,  and  a 
minute  observation  of  nature.  Though  occasionally 
diffuse  and  sometimes  illustrated  by  images  not  ap- 
proved, perhaps,  by  the  most  fastidious  taste,  they 
have  meaning  in  them,  and  the  reader  is  not  often 
permitted  to  forget  the  presence  oi  the  power  and 
delicacy  of  the  poetical  faculty." 

The  last  literary  labor  with- which  Mrs.  McDougall 
was  connected  bears  the  following  title  :  ,;  Beyond 
the  Veil ;  posthumous  work  of  Paschal  Beverly 
Randolph,  aided  by  Emanuel  Swedenborg  and  others, 
through  the  minds  of  Frances  H.  McDougall  and  ( 
Luna  Hutchinson.  12mo.  New  York.  1878. "  "  One 
dav  as  Mrs.  McDougall  sat  writing  at  her  home 
in  San  Mateo,  California,  she  heard  a  spirit  voice  say, 
-  An  old  friend."  On  its  being  repeated,  she  recog- 
nized it  to  be  from  Randolph.  He  said,  ••  I  wish 
you  to  leave  your  work  and  write  for  me."     She 


46  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

finally  consented,  but  supposed  it  was  only  to  write 
a  small  pamphlet  until  she  at  length  was  told  that  it 
was  to  be  a  book,  and  that  another  woman  had  been 
chosen  to  assist  in  writing  it,  and  that  she  must  make 
a  long  journey  to  her  home  and  write  it  there.  This 
she  did  with  much  patience,  expense  and  labor,  being 
in  the  seventieth  year  of  her  age."  The  foregoing 
extract  presents  the  calling,  and  the  following  note 
the  method  .of  the  performance:  "This  account  of 
experiences  in  the  spirit  world  was  given  me  by 
General  Baker,  of  Ball's  Blaff,  the  soldier,  poet,  and 
statesman,  who  is  here  almost  an  object  of  idolatry 
It  was  written  with  almost  inconceivable  rapidity, 
giving  birth  to  unfamiliar  trains  of  thought.*  For 
three  months  or  more  after  its  production,  I  lived  on 
terms  of  daily  intercourse  with  this  noble  spirit ;  and 
during  all  that  time  never  for  one  day  did  he  fail  to 
come  to  me  in  the  morning.  After  the  article  was 
finished  the  spirit  said,  "  we  will  revise  it."  A  day 
was  appointed  for  this  purpose  and  we  sat  with  closed 
doors.  I  then  read  slowly  and  thoughtfully,  and  at 
the  close  of  each  succeeding  section  or  paragraph, 
the  portion  last   read  was    commented  on   and  was 


i 


MEMOIR    OF   FRANCES    H.    MCDOUGALL.  47 

either  approved,  or  criticised  and  alterations  pro- 
posed. The  presence  and  power  of  the  spirit  during 
the  time  occupied  in  this  revision  was  as  real  to  me 
as  any  presence  could  be." 

Since  these  pages  were  in  process  of  printing, 
infoimation  has  been  given  of  a  poem  entitled  the 
Love  Life  of  Dr.  Kane.  This,  never  having  passed 
under  the  observation  of  the  author,  he  is  unable 
to  describe  it.  A  volume  bearing  exactly  the  same 
title  and  upon  the  same  subject  was  published  by 
Cailcton,  of  New  York,  in  1 S 6 0 .  It  contains  the 
correspondence  and  a  history  of  the  acquaintance, 
engagement,  and  secret  marriage  between  Elista  Kent 
Kane  and  Margaret  Fox,  the  spiritualist. 

Thus  is  presented  a  sketch  of  the  life  and  writings 
of  a  Rhode  Island  woman  — a  woman  of  whom,  not- 
withstanding all  her  failings,  it  must  be  conceded 
that  she  possessed  many  virtues. 

"  •■  Her  bounty  was  as  boundless  as  the  sea, 
Her  love  as  deep." 

Perhaps  the  best  index  to  the  workings  of  her 
mind  is  presented  in  this  consecutive  account  of  her 
various  writings. 


/ 

t/ 

THE   PUBLICATIONS 


CATHERINE    R    WILLIAMS 


NOTES    CONCERNING    THEM. 

\ 


Catherine  R.  Williams,  daughter  of  Captain 
Alfred  Arnold,  was  born  in  Providence  about  the 
year  1790.  She  was  descended  from  the  Arnolds,  of 
Newport,  being  the  grand-daughter  of  Oliver  Arnold, 
who  died  in  1770,  holding  the  office  of  Attor- 
ney General  of  Rhode  Island,  and  who,  although 
dying  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four  years,  had 
already  acquired  the  reputation  of  a  profound  lawyer 
and  a  ripe  scholar.  General  Varnum,  Colonel  John 
Brown  and  the  Hon.  "William  Charming  were  among 
his  most  distinguished  students.  Miss  Arnold's 
mother  died  while  she  was  yet  a  child.  Her  father 
being  a  sea-captain,  sent  the  child  to  the  family  of 
two  maiden  aunts  to  be  educated  —  ladies  of  the  old 
school  —  strict  and  dignified  in  their  deportment,  as 
most  of  those  ancient  ladies  were.  Under  the  care 
of  these  ladies  the  child  pursued  her  studies.  Her 
mind  became  early  imbued  with  religious  sentiments, 
which  lasted  her  through  life.  In  after  days  she 
spoke  of  these  times,  and  often  observed  that  she 
she  was  brought  up  as  a  nun. 


frjt.  52  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

At  the  age   of  twenty-three,  the  death  of  one  of 
the  maiden  aunts  and  the  marriage  of  the  other,  east 
Miss  Arnold,  with  a  small  patrimony,  into  the  world 
to  make  her  way  as  best  she  could.     Some  of  the 
productions  of  her  pen  had  already  found  their  way 
into  the  papers  of  the  day  —  in  fact,  she  had  already 
dreamed  of  the  publication  of  a  book.     While  on  a 
visit  to  some  friends  in  the  country,  Miss  Arnold  be- 
came acquainted  with  Mr.  Williams,  to  whom  she  was 
presently  married.     Mr.  Williams  was  a  descendant 
of  Roger  Williams,  in  the  sixth  generation.     He  en- 
tertained the  idea  of  emigrating  to  the  west,  which 
idea  also  possessed  Miss  Arnold.     They  proceeded  to 
New  York,    where    they    were   married    by   Bishop 
Onderdonk.     About   this    ceremony  Mrs.    Williams 
relates  the  singular  fact  that  the   Bishop  had   just 
returned  from  a  funeral  service  as  the  wedding  party, 
came  in.     He  had  still  on  his  mourning  scarf,  which 
he  was  about  removing,   when  Miss   Arnold  inter- 
posed, saying  there  was  no  necessity  for  bis  disrobing, 
and  the  ceremony  proceeded,  the  Bishop  appearing 
in  the  habiliments  of  mourning.    The  marriage  proved 
a  most  unfortunate  one,  but  no  argument  of  the  super- 


v- 


CATHERINE   R.    WILLIAMS.  53 

stitious  could  convince  Mrs.  Williams  that  the  singu- 
lar circumstances  of  the  wedding  foreshadowed  the 
result. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams  now  proceeded  to  the  west 
to  live.  It  was  Mrs.  Williams's  desire  to  settle  in 
Michigan,  but  Mr.  Williams  concluded  to  remain  in 
the  western  part  of  New  York,  where  they  lived 
about  two  years,  when  Mrs.  Williams,  with  her  infant 
daughter  in  her  arms,  left  her  husband,  whom  she 
never  again  saw,  for  the  home  of  her  childhood. 
Thrown  now  indeed  upon  her  own  resources,  she 
opened  a  school,  but  her  health  soon  gave  out,  and 
she  gave  up  her  school,  and,  advised  by  her  friends, 
concluded  to  publish  a  volume  of  Poems,  by  sub- 
scription. It  was  a  small  volume,  published  under 
the  name  of  Original  Poems.  It  was  printed  by 
Mr.  Hugh  H.  Brown,  and  appeared  in  1828*  Its 
success  Mrs.  Williams  characterized  as  beyond  her 
utmost  expectations.  Many  of  the  poems  were  writ- 
ten between  her  fourteenth  and  seventeenth  years. 
They  exhibit  a  mournful  spirit,  the  author  seeming 
to  choose  melancholy  subjects,  thus  betraying  the 
spirit  of  her  early  training. 


54  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

The  pecuniary  success  of  this  little  venture  in- 
duced Mrs.  Williams  to  try  her  second  production,  a 
story  in  prose,  Religion  at  Home.  It  was  published 
in  1829,  and  at  least  three  editions  were  issued  and 
disposed  of,  which  would  be  a  rare  occurrence  for 
even  these  days  in  Providence. 

In  1830  she  published  her  Tales,  National  and 
Revolutionary.  Among  these  tales  there  is  a  well 
remembered  one,  Scott's  Pond  Thirty  Years  Ago. 
The  Life  of  Captain  Oliver  Read,  also  in  this  volume, 
has  now  passed  into  the  domain  of  scarce  American 
History.  A  second  series  of  these  Tales  was  issued 
in  1835.  It  might  gratify  their  author  could  she 
have  known  that  these  two  little  volumes  were  sold 
in  New  York  in  1870  for  fifteen  dollars. 

Aristocracy,  or  the  Holbey  Family,  was  her  fourth 
publication.  It  was  a  novel,  a  satire  on  the  fashion- 
able follies  of  the  day.  It  appeared  in  1832.  The 
History  of  Fall  River,  which  she  published  in  1833 
is  confined  almost  entirely  to  a  discussion  of  the  mur- 
der of  Miss  Sarah  M.  Cornell  and  the  trials  of  the 
Rev.  Ephraim  K.  Avery  therefor,  and  of  whose  guilt 
Mrs.  Williams  was  fully  persuaded. 


CATHERINE   R.   WILLIAMS.  55 

The  Biography  of  Revolutionary  Heroes  was  her 
seventh  work.  It  contained  the  Lives  of  General 
William  Barton  and  Captain  Stephen  Olney.  It 
came  out  in  1S39,  and,  like  the  National  and  Revo- 
lutionary Tales,  it  was  classed  among  the  list  of  scarce 
books  of  American  History,  but  since  the  death  of 
its  author,  copies  have  been  very  plentiful. 

In  1840  Mrs.  Williams  made  a  journey  through  the 
British  provinces,  and  while  making  the  visit  ob- 
tained many  of  the  facts  which  form  the  basis  of 
her  Neutral  French,  or  the  Exiles  of  Nova  Scotia. 
This  Mrs.  Williams  always  considered  to  be  her  best 
work.  Longfellow  selected  the  same  theme  for 
Evangeline.  Copies  exist  on  the  title  pages  of  which 
are  the  words,  second  edition.  The  book  was  copy- 
righted in  1841,  and  no  other  date  appears.  There 
is  no  change  in  either  edition,  and  whether  there 
was  really  two  editions  it  is  difficult  to  determine. 
While  at  the  Grand  Falls  of  the  St.  John,  Mrs. 
Williams  was  the  guest  of  Sir  John  Caldwell,  who 
afterwards  called  upon  her  at  her  home  in  Provi- 
dence. At  Frederickton  she  was  entertained  by  Sir 
John  Hervey  at  the  Government  House.     In  a  letter 


56  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

to  the  Boston  Traveller  she  complimented  Sir  John 
in  the  following  handsome  manner.  Mrs.  Williams 
said  she  had  never  forgiven  General  Scott  for  forbid- 
ding: the  soldier  shooting*  that  tall  officer  at  the  battle 
of  Lundy's  Lane,  as  was  reported,  until  she  saw 
Governor  Harvey,  who  was  really  so  handsome  that  it 
would  have  been  a  pity  to  destroy  such  a  beautiful 
specimen  of  God's  handiwork.  Sir  John  was  rising 
sixty,  very  tall  and  erect,  and  presented  a  very  fine 
face  and  figure.  He  was  exceedingly  pleased  with 
the  paragraph. 

Mrs.  Williams's  last  literary  effort  consisted  of  a 
series  of  domestic  tales  published  in  two  parts,  under 
the  title  of  Annals  of  the  Aristocracy  of  Rhode  Island, 
the  first  part  appearing  in  1843,  the  second  in  1845. 
It  was  thought  by  many  at  the  time  that  some  living 
characters  were  described  in  these  tales,  but  the  au-  ** 
thor  gave  the  assurance  that  all  the  heroes  and  hero- 
ines had  long  passed  from  among  the  living. 

Here  ends  the  list  of  Mrs.  Williams's  literary 
labors,  comprised  in  the  issue  and  re-issue  of  twelve 
publications,  the  pecuniary  success  or  failure  in  every 
case  she  assumed,  and  thereby  acquired  not  only  a 


CALHEBINE   R.    WILLIAMS.  57 

living,  but  a  surplus  fund,  the  income  of  which  sup- 
ported her.  She  was  a  woman  of  great  energy  of 
character.  She  held  an  honest,  earnest,  and  some- 
times vigorous  pen,  but  her  style  often  lacked  ele- 
gance. There  was  yet  a  truthful  sentiment  about  her 
books  which  the  people  of  that  day  liked.  She  was 
a  warm  politician,  Democratic  to  devotion,  and  in 
the  Rhode  Island  troubles  of  1342,  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  suffrage  party  with  all  her  might.  She  was 
a  lively  conversationalist,,  and  sometimes  quick  at 
repartee,  as  the  following  anecdotes  will  prove : 

While  publishing  her  lives  of  Barton  and  Olney, 
she  chanced  to  be  seated  at  a  hotel  table  with  an  Eng- 
lishman who  was  travelling  thiough  the  States.  He 
became  acquainted  with  her  labor,  and  rudely  ac- 
costed her  thus  :  "  How  can  you  publish  a  biography 
without  knowing  the  genealogy  of  your  hero  ?  Why, 
they  tell  me  that  even  your  aristocracy  here  don't 
always  know  who  their  grandfather  was!"'  '-Even 
then,"  replied  Mrs.  Williams,  "  they  have  the  advan- 
tage of  yours,  for  they  often  don't  know  who  their 
fathers  were." 

On   another    occasion,    after    the    publication   of 


58  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

the  Neutral  French,  in  which  book  many  Roman 
Catholics  took  an  interest,  Mrs.  Williams  was  in 
Washington  and  was  invited  to  visit  the  Roman 
Catholic  College  at  Georgetown.  The  President  of 
the  college  gave  her  a  very  polite  reception,  collecting 
every  descendant  of  the  French  Neutrals  in  the  in- 
stitution and  placing  them  before  Mrs.  Williams, 
asked  her  if  she  could  discover  any  resemblance  be- 
tween them  and  the  few  scattered  remnants  she  had 
seen  in  the  Provinces.  The  President  spoke  of  the 
deep  feeling  and  the  spirit  of  candor  displayed  in  the 
book  while  the  sufferings  of  the  Neutrals  at  the 
hands  of  the  British  were  under  contemplation,  and 
remarked  to  Mrs.  Williams  that  she  must  be  almost 
a  Roman  Catholic  herself,  whereat  Mrs.  Williams 
replied,  that  would  be  impossible  since  there  are  two 
things  to  which  she  had  the  most  decided  antipathy, 
viz:  Kingcraft  and  Priestcraft.  While  on  her  travels 
in  Canada,  she  stopped  one  day  at  a  hotel  in  one  of 
the  frontier  towns.  The  landlord  expressed  great 
disappointment  that  she  did  not  arrive  the  day  before, 
so  as  to  have  seen  the  Governor  General  review  the 
troops,  drawn  by  six  white  horses  and  a  beautiful 


CATHERINE   K.    WILLIAMS.  59 

equipage.  Six,  did  you  say,  sir  ?  asked  Mrs.  Wil- 
liams. Yes,  six  beautiful  white  horses.  Well,  truly, 
I  should  have  admired,  said  Mrs.  "Williams,  to  see  the 
Governor  of  a  single  province  with  six  horses,  while 
the  President  of  the  whole  United  States  rides  with 
but  two. 

In  her  personal  appearance,  Mrs.  Williams  was 
short  and  stout,  her  face  presented  a  good,  healthy 
color,  her  eyes  were  small  and  piercing;  in  addressing 
persons  she  spoke  perhaps  quickly  and  with  sharp- 
ness or  decisively  ;  in  her  attire  she  was  somewhat 
careless  ;  in  her  visits  to  various  celebrated  resorts, 
she  was  indebted' to  the  kind  care  of  the  ladies  with 
whom  she  boarded,  to  see  that  she  went  into  the  street 
in  proper  condition.  She  met  with  many  jokes  from 
her  negligence  in  this  respect.  Once  calling  upon  a 
friend  at  Gadsby's  hotel  in  Washington,  she  forgot 
to  change  her  dress,  and  appeared  at  the  hotel  in. her  / 
morning  calico  ;  the  porter  showed  her  into  the  cellar 
kitchen,  and  it  was  not  until  the  fifth  servant  was 
called  that  one  was  found  bold  enough  to  escort  her 
from  the  cellar  kitchen  to  the  ladies  parlor.  In  a  few 
days  she  had  her  revenge.     The  Piince  de  Joinville 


60 


HISTORICAL  TRACT. 


and  suite  appeared  at  Gadsby's  for  quarters  and  were 
refused,  on  the  supposition  that  they  were  a  party  of 
Polish  emigrants. 

About  1849,  Mrs.  Williams  removed  to  Brooklyn, 
New  York,  to  soothe  the  declining  years  of  an  aged 
aunt,  one  who  had  brought  her  up.  Here  she  lived 
three  years,  when  her  aunt  died,  leaving  her  about 
$10,000.  She  now  returned  to  Rhode  Island,  and 
soon  after  built  a  snug  cottage  in  Johnston,  near  by 
an  estate  which  had  once  belonged  to  her  ancestors. 
Here,  in  the  society  of  her  only  daughter,  she  passed 
happily  many  years  of  her  life.  Subsequently,  be- 
coming tired  of  the  quiet  of  the  country,  she  returned 
to  her  old  home  in  Providence,  at  the  corner  of  Olney 
and  North  Main  streets,  where  she  passed  the  re- 
maining years  of  her  life.  She  left  a  finished  manu- 
script story,  entitled  Bertha,  a  Tale  of  St.  Domingo. 
This  manuscript  she  offered  to  one  of  our  publishers 
during  the  recent  excitement  about  the  "annexion," 
as  Mr.   Sumner  has  it,  of  San  Domingo,1  with   the 

1.  This  sketch  was  written  in  October,  1872,  soon  after  the  excite- 
ment in  the  United  States  regardirg  the  annexation  of  San  Domingo. 
Annexion  was  a  term  used  by  Charles  Sumner  in  a  speech  in  the  United 
States  Senate  concerning  the  matter. 


CATHERINE   R.    WILLIAMS.  61 

remark  that  if  his  politics  would  permit  it  would  pay 
to  publish,  urging  that  the  book  had  nothing  to  do 
with  that  project,  having  been  written  many  years 
before.     The  work  has  never  been  published. 

Mrs.  Williams  had  the  honor  of  being  elected  an 
honorary  member  of  some  of  the  Historical  Societies 
in  other  States,  an  honor  not  conferred,  as  she  re- 
marked, upon  females  in  Rhode  Island. 

Mrs.  Williams  died  in  Providence,  October  11, 
]  872.  In  her  death  has  passed  away  another  of  those 
who  in  their  childhood  stood  by  the  knee  of  Wash, 
ington. 


The  Right  of  the  People  of  Rhode  Island 
to  form  a  Constitution. 

The  Nine  Lawyers'  Opinion. 


/ 


The  following  opinion  was  written  by  Thomas  W. 
Dorr.  Mr.  Dorr  employed  George  F.  Man,  an  at- 
torney-at-law,  to  look  up  the  authorities.  He  then 
wrote  the  opinion  and  the  nine  lawyers  signed  it. 
The  sequence  of  events  which  led  to  it  are  practi- 
cally thus  :  Those  persons  interested  in  an  extension 
of  the  suffrage  in  Rhode  Island  formed  an  association 
in  1840  in  Providence,  which  was  followed  by  similar 
associations  throughout  the  State.  A  mass  meeting 
was  held  by  them  in  Providence  in  April,  1841 ; 
another  followed  at  Newport  in  May,  which  was  ad- 
journed to  meet  at  Providence,  July  5th.  A  State 
Committee  of  eleven  was  appointed  by  the  meeting 
which  was  held  at  Newport.1  This  committee  issued 
an  address  on  the  24th  of  July,  1841,  calling  upon  the 
people  to  choose  delegates  to  a  convention  to  be  held 

1.  The  following  gentlemen  composed  the  committee  :  Charles  Col- 
lins, Dutee  J.  Pearcc,  Samuel  H.  Wales,  Welcome  B.  Sayles,  Benjamin 
Arnold,  Jr.,  Benjamin  M.  Bosworth,  Samuel  S.  Allen,  Emanuel  Rice, 
Silas  Weaver,  William  S.  Peckham,  Sylvester  Himes. 


th 66 


HISTORICAL   TRACT. 


the  following  October  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a 
constitution.  Delegates  were  chosen,  the  convention 
met,  the  constitution  was  framed,  and  submitted  to 
the  people  of  the  State  to  be  by  them  accepted  or 
rejected. 

The  people  voted  upon  it  on  the  27th  of  December 
and  on  the  five  following  clays.  Every  person  who 
voted  upon  it  was  required  to  be  an  American  citizen, 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  to  have  his  permanent 
residence  or  home  in  Rhode  Island ;  to  write  his  full 
name  with  the  fact  that  he  voted  for  or  against  the 
constitution  on  the  back  of  his  ballot.  The  conven- 
tion re-assembled  on  the  12th  of  January,  1842, 
counted  the  votes,  declared  the  constitution  adopted, 
and  it  was  proclaimed  the  law  of  the  land.  It  was 
claimed  that  there  were  in  the  State  22,674  free, 
white  male  citizens  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  and 
upwards.  Of  these,  9,590  were  qualified  freemen. 
It  was  also  claimed  that  13,955  voted  in  favor  of 
adopting  the  constitution,  and  forty-six  against  adopt- 
ing it.  Of  those  voting,  10,193  voted  in  person,  and 
3,762  voted  by  proxy  ;  1,925  were  qualified  freemen 
under  the  then  existing   laws,  and  9,026   were  not 


THE   NINE    LAWYERS'    OPINION.  67 

qualified.1  Thus  a  majority  of  freemen  qualified  to 
vote  under  the  existing  laws  voted  to  adopt  the  con- 
stitution. 

At  this  point,  doubts  of  the  validity  of  the  entire 
proceedings  were  raised  by  those  opposed  to  an  en- 
largement of  the  suffrage,  and  to  the  correction  of 
the  evils  which  existed  under  the  old  system.  These 
doubts  the  leaders  of  the  suffrage  party  thought  proper 
to  endeavor  to  allay.  Hence  arose  the  document 
which  follows,  and  which  became  at  once  known  as 
the  Nine  Lawyers'  Opinion.  It  appeared,  as  stated, 
in  the  memoir  of  Angell,  only  in  a  single  newspaper, 
and  is  of  course  one  of  the  scarcest  documents 
connected  with  this  interesting  period.  John  P. 
Knowles,  at  present  United  States  District  Judge 
for  Rhode  Island,  is  the  only  one  of  its  signers  now- 
living,  unless,  possibly,  Aaron  White  may  be  still 
alive.  It  is  as  here  presented  an  exact  reprint,  both 
as  to  the  subject  matter  and  style  of  composition. 

1.  These  figures  arc  taken  from  Burke's  Report.  They  do  not  balance 
in  some  cases.  From  the  private  papers  of  Mr.  Dorr  the  author  gathers 
the  following  result :  Freemen  voting  in  favor  of  adopting,  4,960;  non- 
Freemen,  8,984.     Total,  13,944. 


08  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 


RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  FORM  A  CONSTITUTION. 

STATEMENT  OF  REASONS. 

Many  citizens  in  different  parts  of  the  State  having 
requested  that  the  reasons,  which  sustain  the  recent 
proceedings  of  the  People,  in  framing  and  adopting 
a  Constitution  of  Government,  should  be  put  forth  to 
the  public, — the  undersigned  cheerfully  comply  with 
this  request ;  and  ask  the  attention  of  their  fellow 
citizens  to  the  following  Statement  of  Keasons, 
which  has  been  made  as  brief  as  the  great  importance 
and  extent  of  the  subject  treated  of  would  permit. 

By  the  Sovereign  Power  of  a  State  we  understand 
that  supreme  and  ultimate  power,  which  presciibes 
the  form  of  Government  for  the  People  of  the  State. 
By  the  Republican  theory  of  this  country  this  power 
resides  in  the  Peo])h  themselves.  This  power  is  of 
course  superior  to  the  Leyidative  power,  which  is 
derived  from,  and  created  by  the  Supreme  power, 


THE  NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  69 

and  exercises  its  functions  according  \.o  the  funda- 
mental rules  prescribed  by  the  People,  through  the 
expression  of  their  will  called  a  Constitution  of 
Government. 

At  the  American  Revolution,  the  sovereign  power 
of  this  State  passed  from  the  king  and  Parliament  of 
England  to  the  People  of  the  State  ;  not  to  a  portion 
of  them,  but  to  the  whole  People,  who  succeeded  as 
tenants  in  common  to  this  power. 

Before  the  Revolution,  the  power  to  alter  the  form 
of  government  established  by  the  Charter  was  in  the 
king  of  England,  who  granted  it.  The  government 
of  the  State  was  a  government  of  the  majority  to  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  and  for  years  subsequent.  It 
has  long  ceased  to  be  such.  And  if  the  majority  of 
the  People  have  in  any  way  lost  the  power  of  altering 
and  reforming  the  government  of  this  State,  the 
Revolution  has  not  made  them  free ;  but  has  only 
opened  a  change  of  masters. 

The  sovereign  power  of  this  State  having  been  for- 
ever divested  from  the  king,  to  whom  could  it  have 
passed,  if  not  to  the  whole  People  ? 

It  did  not  vest  in  the  Colonies  or  States,  nor  in  the 


70  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

General   Government,  which  is  the  creature  of  the 
States,  or  of  the  People  of  the  States. 

The  General  Assembly  of  this  State  exercises  very 
general  and  undefined  powers  ;  but  no  one  contends 
that  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  this  State  is  vested 
in  them.  It  must  therefore  have  passed  to  a  'part  of 
the  people  of  this  State  or  to  the  whole. 

The  whole  People  of  the  Colony  were  the  subjects 
of,  and  owed  a  common  allegiance  to  the  king  of 
England.  The  non-freeholders  were  not  the  subjects 
of  the  freemen,  and  the  freemen  the  subjects  of  the 
king  ;  but  all  stood  in  an  equal  relation  to  the  head 
of  the  State.  Those  who  were  equal  before  the  sov- 
ereign, were  equal  to  each  other  after  he  ceased  to  be 
such  ;  and  when  his  power  passed  away,  they  received 
it  by  succession,  in  equal  undivided  portions. 

Sovereignty  is  an  attribute  of  the  persons,  and  not 
of  the  soil  of  a  State.  But  if  the  sovereign  power  of 
this  State,  did  not  pass  to  the  whole  People,  but  only 
to  the  qualified  freeholders,  then  it  resides  in  the  soil 
and  freehold;  and,  if  a  few  freeholders  should  be- 
come possessed  of  all  the  land,  they  would  become 
the  rightful  sovereigns  :  nay,  more,  if  a  State  should 


THE  NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  71 

by  any  cause  become  depopulated,  the  sovereignty, 
being  in  the  land,  would  be  as  complete  and  perfect 
as  ever,  which  is  a  manifest  absurdity. 

If  the  non-freeholders  of  that  day  made  any  surren- 
der, or  disclaimer,  to  the  freemen,  of  their  own  right- 
ful shares  in  the  succession,  the  evidence  of  it  can  be 
produced ;  and  our  opponents  are  bound  to  produce 
it.     No  such  surrender  was  ever  made. 

If  it  had  been  made,  we  should  then  have  to  ask — 
what  right  has  one  generation  to  bind  another  in 
this  manner;  and  what  rights  of  sovereignty  can  one 
generation  baiter  or  give  away,  which  their  succes- 
sors have  not  the  right  to  reassume  ? 

The  Sovereign  power  and  the  Legislative  power, 
being,  in  the  American  system  of  government,  dis- 
tinct, and  the  latter  being  derived  from  the  former  by 
consent  expressed,  or  implied,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
long  exercise  of  the  latter  power  by  the  freemen  in- 
consistent with  the  exercise  of  the  former  power  by 
the  whole  People,  when  they  shall  judge  the  proper 
time  to  have  arrived. 

Sovereign  power  from  its  nature  can  and  ought  to 
be  but  rarely   exercised.     A  Constitution   if  it   be 


72  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

wisely  framed,  secure  all  just  rights,  and  contain  an 
equitable  provision  for  its  own  amendment,'  is  made 
to  last;  and  will  become  the  permanent  rule  of  gen- 
erations and  a^es  to  to  come,  in  a  free  country. 

It  cannot  therefore  be  inferred  from  the  unfre- 
quent  exercise,  or  the  non-exercise  of  the  sovereign 
power  that  it  has  ceased  to  exist.  The  king  of  Eng- 
land made  no  amendment  of  our  Charter  government 
from  1663  to  1776,  a  period  of  one  hundred  and  thir- 
teen years;  but  he  did  not  lose  the  power  to  amend. 
The  People  of  Rhode  Island  have  made  no  amendment 
in  the  form  of  government,  from  1776  to  1841,  a  period 
of  65  years  ;  neither  have  they  lost  the  power  to  amend. 
14  Time  does  not  run  against  the  king  ;  "  nor  does  it 
run  against  the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  the  People. 

The  agent  may  act  in  place  of  his  principal ;  the 
Legislature  may  act  under  the  consent  of  the  sover- 
eign ;  but,  in  both  cases,  the  source  of  power  remains,. 
— the  right  of  revocation  remains.  What  was  con- 
ferred by  assent  may  be  taken  away  by  dissent.  If  the 
present  government  be  valid,  because  the  People  as- 
sent  to  it,  it  may  become  invalid  by  their  dissent,  defi- 
nitely expressed.     The  one  power  involves  the  other. 


THE  NINE  LAWYEFwS'    OPINION.  73 

The  time  of  exercising  this  sovereign  power  is  to  be 
determined  by  the  People  ;  who  are  also  the  judges  of 
the  necessity,  Neither  the  People  nor  the  Legislature 
took  any  steps  (beyond  an  inquiry)  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  Constitution  in  1776  ;  the  government  of 
the  State  being  in  the  hands  of  the  majority,  and  by 
semi-annual  elections, — and  the  State  being  deeply 
involved  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  subjected 
to  invasion.  The  necessity  for  a  total  reformation 
has  been  increasing  during  the  last  forty  years  ;  and, 
in  the  judgment  of  the  people,  has  now  become  abso- 
lute. 

The  mode  of  proceeding  by  the  People  is  also 
immaterial.  They  are  the  judges  of  this  also;  and, 
deeming  the  right  time  to  have  arrived,  they  have,  by 
Delegates,  elected  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  every 
fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  formed  a  Constitution. 

Great  stress  is  laid  on  the  fact,  that  the  Conven- 
tion which  framed  the  People's  Constitution  was  not 
called  by  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly.  Such  an 
act  was  not,  in  our  judgment,  necessary  to  give  validi- 
ty to  the  proceedings  of  that  Convention,  or  to  the 
votes  of  the  People  for  that  Constitution. 


74  HISTORICAL  TRACT. 

The  greater  power  inherent  in  the  People,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  sovereignty,  to  form  a  Constitution,  in- 
volves the  less  power,  viz :  that  of  proceeding  in  the 
way  and  manner,  which  the  People  deem  proper  to 
adopt. 

Further,  there  is  no  mode  whatsoever  established 
in  this  State  by  any  Constitution,  Charter,  law,  or 
usage,  according  to  which  the  People  are  to  proceed 
in  framing  and  adopting  a  Constitution.  The  king 
of  England  having  power  to  make  a  supplemental 
grant  to  the  Charter,  that  instrument  of  course  con- 
tained no  provision  for  its  own  amendment.  And  no 
way  of  amending  our  Government  has  been  estab- 
lished since  the  Revolution.  One  of  the  complaints 
made  in  fact  is,  that  we  have  no  such  Constitutional 
mode  of  amendment  in  this  State. 

Still  further,  the  General  Assembly  never  have 
passed,  nor  can  pass  a  law  for  the  People  to  assemble 
and  make  a  Constitution.  A  law  has  no  force  as  law, 
unless  its  execution,  if  it  be  not  complied  with,  can 
be  compelled,  or  a  non-obedience  to  its  mandate  sub- 
ject the  offender  to  penalty  or  damages.  Now,  there 
can  be  no  penalty  to  a  law  for  the  call  of  a  Conven- 


H 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  75 

tion.  The  people  cannot  be  compelled  to  elect  dele- 
gates, nor  punished  for  not  electing  them.  Nor  can 
the  delegates  be  punished  for  not  making  a  Constitu- 
tion. They  tried  to  do  this  in  1834,  and  failed  ;  but 
they  were  not  treated  as  criminals  for  their  failure. 
All  that  the  Assembly  can  do  is  to  request  their 
constituents,  or  the  People,  to  make  a  Constitution. 
If  they  do  not  see  fit  to  comply  with  the  request,  it 
goes  for  nothing.  The  request  of  the  Assembly  has 
no  more  binding  effect  as  laiv,  than  any  other  request 
— than,  for  instance,  the  usual  resolutions  for  Thanks- 
giving, with  which  the  people  comply,  but  yet  are  ncc 
punishable,  if  they  do  not. 

The  only  difference,  therefore,  between  the  Free- 
holders' Convention  and  the  People's  Convention  is, 
that  the  former  sat  by  request  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, which  was  not  a  law ;  and  the  latter  sat 
without  a  request  from  the  Assembly,  but  by  a  re- 
quest from  the  People.  This  is  all  that  can  possibly 
e  meant,  when  it  is  said  by  any  one,  that  the  Peo- 
ple's Convention  sat  "  Without  law."  In  this 
respect,  both  Conventions  were  alike. 

Again,  if  there  be  so  much  efficacy  in  the  call  or  re- 


76 


HISTORICAL   TEACT. 


quest  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  no  Convention 
of  the  Freeholders,  or  of  the  People,  can  be  valid 
without  it,  then  the  General  Assembly  have  a  right 
to  make  a  Constitution  themselves ;  because  they 
have  the  right  to  do  that  themselves,  which  others 
cannot  do  without  their  permission  or  authority.  If 
the  Legislature  can  command  others  to  do  an  act,  it 
is  clear  that  they  have  the  power  to  do  the  same 
act  themselves.  And  thus  the  Legislative  servants 
of  the  people,  are  greater  than  the  people  themselves. 

This  doctrine  of  a  necessary  permission,  authority 
or  request,  from  the  General  Assembly  to  the  People, 
before  they  can  rightfully  proceed  to  form  a  Consti- 
tution, is  an  English  doctrine,  borrowed  from  the 
Parliament  of  England,  in  which  body  the  sovereignty 
is  lodged  by  the  theory  of  the  English  Constitution. 
It  is  a  doctrine  which  has  no  application  in  this  coun- 
try, where  the  sovereignty  resides  in    the  people. 

The  proceedings  of  the  People,  therefore,  in  calling 
their  Convention,  and  in  making  and  voting  their 
Constitution,  in  our  opinion  have  been  rightful,  and 
not  against  law,  and  are  only  without  law  in  the  sense 
before  explained,  viz  :    that  they  were   tvithout  a  re- 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS     OPINION. 


77 


quest  of  the  General  Assembly ;  which  request,  if 
made,  would  have  given  no  additional  validity  to 
said  proceedings. 

The  opponents  of  the  People's  Constitution,  are  in 
this  difficulty.  They  say,  that  the  People  have  no 
right  of  themselves  to  make  a  Constitution  ;  that  the 
General  Assembly  have  no  right  to  make  a  Consti- 
tution ;  and  that  the  Freeholders  and  Freemen  have 
no  right  to  make  a  Constitution,  unless  called  and 
authorized  thereto  by  the  General  Assembly,  which 
has  no  power  !  So  that  there  is  really  no  power  in 
this  State  to  make  a  Constitution!  The  People  have 
rightfully  determined,  that  the  power  is  in  them,  and 
have  exercised  it. 

That  the  Government,  when  set  up,  under  the 
People's  Constitution,  will  be  recognized  as  such  by 
the  General  Government,  we  believe,  is  beyond 
doubt  or  question  ;  as  that  Government,  in  all  its  de- 
partments, will  look  no  farther  than  the  fact,  that 
the  Government  here  is  established. 

We  can  present  only  a  portion  of  the  authorities 
by  which  the  positions  that  we  have  taken  are  sup- 
ported.    We  ask  all  our  fellow-citizens  to  read  them, 


78 


HISTORICAL   TRACT. 


and  to  judge  for  themselves.  It  is  proper  to  say  of 
the  writers  quoted,  that  Jefferson  and  Madison  alone 
were  members  of  the  democratic  party  in  general 
politics. 

The  authorities  go  much  farther  than  the  case 
presented  in  R.  Island,  where  we  have  no  Charter, 
Constitution,  Law  or  usage,  which  prescribes  any 
mode  of  amending  the  Government ;  and  they  assert, 
in  the  clearest  and  most  express  language,  that, 
where  there  is  a  Constitution,  the  people  are  not 
bound  to  proceed  in  the  manner  prescribed  in  it  for 
its  own  amendment,  though  this  may  be  most  conven- 
ient or  expedient ;  but  that  they  may  rightfully  pro- 
ceed in  the  mode-and  manner  which  they  deem  most 
proper. 

I^^It  will  be  remembered  that  the   Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  not  made  by  virtue  of  any  call  or 
power  from  the  then  existing  Congress  or   General  Gov- 
ernment, but  by  the  voluntary  unauthorized  act  of  the 
several  States. 

AUTHORITIES. 

The  Declaration  of  American  Indepen- 
dence ;   which  the  Representatives  of  the  freemen, 


THE  NI1SE   LAWYERS     OPINION. 


79 


in  General  Assembly  convened,  formally  ratified  and 
adopted,  at  their  July  session,  in  1776.  They  there- 
by adopted  the  principles  it  contains  as  the  princi- 
ples of  our  political  system. 

This  Declaration  says  that  "  all  men  are  created 
equal."  It  asserts  that  liberty  (including  political 
liberty)  is  one  of  their  "  inalienable  rights."  Also, 
that  governments  derive  "  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed" —  all  the  governed.  And 
again,  that  "  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  [that  is  the 
governed]  to  alter  or  abolish "  their  government, 
whenever  they  deem  it  expedient,  and  "  to  institute 
new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  prin- 
ciples and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as  to 
them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and 
happiness" 

The  Declaration  of  1790— The  Convention  of 
freemen  which  assembled,  in  this  State  in  that  year, 
to  act  upon  the  federal  Constitution,  adopted  the 
same  with  a  protest,  which  includes  a  Declaration  of 
rights.  This  Declaration  says,  (section  1,)  "  That 
there  are  certain  natural  rights  of  which  men,  when 
they  form  a  social  compact,  cannot  deprive  them  or 


80 


HISTORICAL   TRACT. 


divest  their  posterity ;  among  which  are  the  enjoy- 
ment of  life  and  liberty,  with  the  means  of  acquiring, 
possessing  and  protecting  property,  and  pursuing  and 
obtaining  happiness  and  safety."  2d,  "  That  all 
power  is  naturally  vested  in,  and  consequently  derived 
from  the  People  :"  and  consequently — 8d,  "  That  the 
power  of  government  may  be  reassumed  by  the  Peo- 
ple, whensoever  it  shall  become  necessary  to  their 
happiness,"  of  which  they  are  the  judges.  Our 
fathers  of  1700  say,  that  by  the  People  they  mean 
their  posterity,  their  successors,  who  are  the  men  of 
the  present  day. 

Washington  says,  in  his  Farewell  Address,  "  The 
basis  of  our  political  systems  is  the  right  of  the  People 
to  make  and  alter  their  Constitutions  of  government  ; 
but  the  Constitution  which  at  any  time  exists,  till 
changed  by  an  explicit  and  authentic  act  of  the  whole 
People  is  sacredly  obligatory  upon  all."  By  the  Peo- 
ple we  understand  that  this  great  man  intended  the 
governed;  and  by  the  act  of  the  whole  People,  the  act 
of  the  majority,  and  not  of  any  portion  or  class,  how- 
ever favored  by  law.  The  "  established  government  " 
is  valid  and  receives  obedience,  until  it  is  rightfully 


s 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS     OPINION. 


81 


superseded  by  an  "  explicit  and  authentic  act"  of  the 
People. 

Jefferson  says — "It  is  not  only  the  rigid  but  the 
duty  of  those  now  on  the  stage  of  action  to  change  the 
laws  and  institutions  of  government,  to  keep  pace 
with  the  progress  of  knowledge,  the  light  of  science, 
and  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  society. 
Nothing  is  to  be  considered  unchangeable  but  the 
inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  man." 

Madison,  in  advocating  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  says: 

"  The  first  question  that  offers  itself  is,  whether  the  gene- 
ral form  and  aspect  of  the  government  be  strictly  republican? 
It  is  evident  that  no  other  form  would  be  reconcileable  with 
the  genius  of  the  people  of  America,  with  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  revolution,  or  with  that  honorable  deter- 
mination which  animates  every  votary  of  freedom,  to  rest  all 
our  political  experiments  on  the  capacity  of  mankind  for  self- 
government.  If  the  plan  of  the  Convention,  therefore,  be 
found  to  depart  from  the  republican  character,  its  advocates 
must  abandon  it  as  no  longer  defensible." 

"  It  is  essential  to  such  a  government,"  (that  is  republican,) 
"  that  it  be  derived  from  the  great  body  of  the  society,  not  from 
an  inconsiderable  proportion  or  a  favored  class  of  it;  otherwise 
a  handful  of  tyrannical  nobles,  exercising  their  oppressions 


82  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

by  a  delegation  of  their  power*  might  aspire  to  the  rank  of 
republicans  and  claim  for  their  government  the  honorable 
title  of  republic/' 

Speaking  of  the  states  to  which  the  title  of  republican  has 
been  improperly  applied,  he  says  : — "  The  same  title  has 
been  bestowed  on  Venice,  where  absolute  power  over  the 
great  body  of  the  people  is  exercised  in  the  most  absolute 
manner  by  a  small  body  of  hereditary  nobles."  We  cite  this 
last  passage  to  show  that  in  the  preceding  passage  Madison 
means  by  "  the  great  body  of  the  society,"  not  the  great  body 
of  the  rulers  or  those  invested  with  the  government,  but  the 
great  body  of  the  whole  society,  ruled  as  well  as  rulers. — 
Federalist,  No.  30,  p.  203—4. 

"  The  opinion  of  the  Federalist  has  always  been  considered 
as  of  a  great  authority.  It  is  a  complete  commentary  upon 
our  constitution;  and  is  appealed  to  by  all  parties,  in  the 
questions  to  which  that  instrument  has  given  birth.  Its  in- 
trinsic merit  entitles  it  to  this  high  rank;  and  the  part  two  of 
its  authors  performed  in  framing  the  constitution,  put  it  very 
much  in  their  power  to  explain  the  views  with  which  it  was 
framed."— G  Wheaton's  Reports,  413  to  423,  cited  3  vol. 
Story's  Commentaries,  p.  612,  note. 

Hamilton,  says,  Federalist  No.  22,  p.  119 : 

;i  The  fabric  of  American  Empire  ought  to  rest  on  the 
solid  basis  of  the  consent  of  the  pcoiile.  The  streams  of  na- 
tional power  ought  to  flow  immediately  from  that  pure  original 
fountain  of  all  legitimate  authority." 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  83 

Jay,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  says  : 

"  At  the  Revolution,  the  sovereignty  devolved  on  the  Peo- 
ple; and  they  are  truly  the  sovereigns  of  the  country;  but 
they  are  sovereign  without  subjects,  (unless  the  African 
slaves  among  us  may  be  so  called,)  and  have  none  to  govern 
but  themselves:  the  citizens  of  America  are  equal  as  fellow- 
citizens,  and  as  joint  tenants  in  the  sovereignty." — 2  Dallas's 
Reports,  419. 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  says  : 

"  It  has  been  said  that  the  people  had  already  surrendered 
all  their  powers  to  the  State  sovereignties,  and  had  nothing 
more  to  give.  But  surely  the  question  whether  they  may 
resume  and  modify  the  powers  granted  to  government  does 
not  remain  to  be  settled  in  this  country." — 1  Wheaton's  Re- 
ports, 405. 

Justice  Wilson  furnishes  our  next  authority. 
He  was  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ; 
was  a  member  of  the  Convention  which  formed  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Convention  which  adopted  it ;  a  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  ;  a  Pro- 


84  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

fessor  of  Law,  and   Revivor  of  the  Laws  of  Pennsyl- 
vania.    He  says, 

"  Of  the  right  of  a  majority  of  the  whole  people  to  change 
their  government  at  will,  there  is  no  doubt.1' — 1  Wilson,  418. 
—1  Tucker's  Black.  Comra.  165,  cited  321  p.  Vol..  1.  Story 
Comm. 

The  same  Judge. — :' Permit  me  to  mention  one  great 
principle,  the  vital  principle  I  may  well  call  it  which  diffuses 
animation  and  vigor  through  all  the  others.  The  principle 
I  mean  is  this,  that  the  supreme  or  sovereign  power  of  the 
society  resides  in  the  citizens  at  large;  and  that,  therefore, 
they  always  retain  the  right  of  abolishing,  altering  or  amend- 
ing their  Constitution,  at  vjJtatever  time,  and  in  whatever 
manner,  they  shall  deem  expedient.'1— Lectures  on  Law,  vol. 
1,  p.  17. 

"  Perhaps  some  politician,  who  has  not  considered  with 
sufficient  accuracy  our  political  systems,  would  answer  that, 
in  our  government,  the  supreme  power  was  vested  in  the 
Constitution.  This  opinion  approaches  a  step  nearer  to  the 
truth  "  (than  the  supposition  that  it  resides  in  the  Legisla- 
tures) "  but  does  not  reach  it.  The  truth  is  that  in  our  gov- 
ernment, the  supreme,  absolute  and  uncontrollable  power 
remains  in  the  People.  As  our  Constitutions  are  superior  to 
our  Legislatures,  so  the  People  are  superior  to  our  Constitu- 
tions. Indeed,  the  superiority  in  this  last  instance,  is  much 
greater,  for  the  People  possess,  over  our  Constitutions,  con- 
trol in  act,  as  well  as  right."— Works  3d  vol.  p.  292. 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  85 

"  The  consequence  is,  that  the  People  may  change  the 
Constitution,  whenever  and  however  they  please.  This  is  a 
right  of  which  no  positive  institution  can  deprive  them." 

"  These  important  truths,  sir,  are  far  from  being  merely 
speculative;  we,  at  this  moment,  speak  and  deliberate  under 
their  immediate  and  benign  influence.  To  the  operation  of 
these  truths,  we  are  to  ascribe  the  scene,  hitherto  unparal- 
leled, which  America  now  exhibits  to  the  world:  a  gentle,  a 
peaceful,  a  voluntary  and  a  deliberate  transition  from  one 
Constitution  of  government  to  another,  (from  the  Confedera- 
tion to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.)  In  other 
parts  of  the  world,  the  idea  of  revolution  in  government  is, 
by  a  mournful  and  indissoluble  association,  connected  with 
the  idea  of  wars,  and  all  the  calamities  attendant  on  war." 
(This  is  the  case  in  Ehode  Island,  which  has  forgotten  the 
principles  of  American  government.) 

"  But  happy  experience  teaches  us  to  view  such  revolu- 
tions in  a  very  different  light — to  consider  them  as  progres- 
sive steps  in  improving  the  knowledge  of  government,  and 
increasing  the  happiness  of  society  and  mankind."    p  293. 

"  Oft  have  I  viewed  with  silent  pleasure  and  admiration 
the  force  and  prevalence  through  the  United  States  of  this 
principle,  that  the  supreme  power  resides  in  the  people,  and 
that  they  never  part  with  it.  It  may  be  called  the  panacea 
in  politics.  If  the  error  be  in  the  legislature  it  may  be  cor- 
rected by  the  Constitution;  if  in  the  Constitution,  it  may  be 
corrected  by  the  people.  There  is  a  remedy,  therefore,  for 
8 


8b  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

every  distemper  in  government,  if  the  people  are  not  want- 
ing to  themselves,  r^r"  For  a  people  wanting  to  themselves 
there  is  no  remedy." — Works,  vol.  3,  p.  293. 

"  A  revolution  principle  certainly  is,  and  certainly  should 
be  taught  as  a  principle  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  every  State  in  the  Union.  This  revolution 
principle — that  the  sovereign  power  resides  in  the  People, 
they  may  change  their  Constitution  and  government  when- 
ever they  please — is  not  a  principle  of  discord,  rancor  or  war:' 
it  is  a  principle  of  melioration,  contentment  and  peace.7' — 
Wils.  Diet.  vol.  1.  p.  21. 

"  The  dread  and  redoubtable  sovereign,  when  traced  to  his 
ultimate  and  genuine  source,  has  been  found,  as  he  ought  to 
have  been  found,  in  the  free  and  independent  man."  "  This 
truth,  so  simple  and  natural,  and  yet  so  neglected  or  de- 
spised, may  be  appreciated  as  the  first  and  fundamental 
principle  in  the  science  of  government." — Lect.  on  Law, 
vol.  1.  p.  25. 

The  same  Judge.  "  A  proper  regard  to  the  original 
and  inherent  and  continued  power  of  the  Society  to  change  its 
constitution,  will  prevent  mistakes  and  mischief  of  a  very 
different  kind.  It  will  prevent  giddy  inconstancy;  it  will 
prevent  unthinking  rashness;  it  will  prevent  unmanly  lan- 
guors'—Wilson, Vol.  1,  p.  420. 

Justice  Patterson,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  says,  "  The  Constitution  is  the  work  of  the  People 
themselves,  in  their  original,  sovereign  and  unlimited  capaci- 


87 


ty."  "  A  Constitution  is  the  form  of  government  delineated 
by  the  mighty  hand  of  the  people,"  is  "paramount  to  the  will 
of  the  Legislature,"  and  is  liable  only  "  to  be  revoked  or  al- 
tered by  those  who  made  it."— Dallas  Rep.  p.  304. 

Justice  Iredell,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  in  speaking  of  the  difference  between 
the  principles  of  European  governments  and  those  of 
our  own,  3  Vol.  Elliot's  Debates,  says, 

"Our  government  is  founded  on  much  nobler  principle.-. 
The  people  are  known  with  certainty  to  have  originated  it 
themselves.  Those  in  power  are  their  servants  and  agents. 
And  the  People,  without  their  consent,  may  remodel  the  gov- 
ernment, whenever  they  think  proper,  not  merely  because  it 
is  oppressively  exercised,  but  because  they  think  another  form 
is  more  conducive  to  their  welfare."" — Cited,  Story  Comm. 
_  Vol.  1,  p.  326. 

The  Supreme  Couet  of  the  United  States  say, 
by  Marshall,  Ch.  Justice, — 

"  That  the  People  have  an  original  right  to  establish  for 
their  future  government,  such  principles,  as,  in  their  opinion, 
shall  most  conduce  to  their  own  happiness,  is  the  basis  on 
which  the  whole  American  fabric  has  been  erected.  The 
exercise  of  this  original  right  is  a  very  great  exertion:  nor 
can  it,  nor  ought  it  to  be  frequently  repeated." — 1  C  ranch. 
157,  cited  431.  Story  Com.  Vol.  3. 


88  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

Mr.  Rawle,  a  distinguished  Commentator  on  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  has  the  following 
•  passage : 

"  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  Constitution  should  be  in 
writing;  but  the  superior  advantages  of  one  reduced  to 
writing  over  those  which  rest  on  traditionary  information, 
or  which  are  to  be  collected  from  the  acts  and  proceedings  of 
the  government  itself,  are  great  and  manifest.  A  dependence 
on  the  latter  is  indeed  destructive  of  one  main  object  of  a 
constitution,  which  is  to  check  and  restrain  governors.  If 
the  people  can  only  refer  to  the  acts  and  proceedings  of  the 
government  to  ascertain  their  own  rights,  it  is  obvious  that, 
as  every  such  act  may  introduce  a  new  principle,  there  can 
be  no  stability  in  the  government.  The  order  of  things  is 
inverted;  what  ought  to  be  the  inferior  is  placed  above  that 
which  should  be  the  superior,  and  the  legislature  is  enabled 
to  alter  the  constitution  at  its  pleasure." — Eawle  on  the  Con- 
stitution, p.  16. 

The  same  writer  goes  on  to  say, 
"  Vattell  justly  observes,  that  the  perfection  of  a  State  and 
its  aptitude  to  fulfill  the  ends  proposed  by  Society,  depend 
upon  its  Constitution.  The  first  duty  to  itself  is,  to  form  the 
best  Constitution  possible,  and  one  most  suited  to  its  circum- 
stances, and  thus  it  lays  the  foundation  of  its  safety,  perma- 
nence and  happiness.  But  the  best  Constitution  which  can 
be  framed  with  the  most   anxious  deliberation  that  can  be 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS1    OPINION.  89 

bestowed  upon  it,  may,  in  practice,  be  found  imperfect  and 
inadequate  to  the  true  interests  of  society.  Alterations  and 
amendments  then  become  desirable.  The  people  retains,  the 
people  cannot  perhaps  divest  itself  of,  the  power  to  make  such 
alterations.  A  moral  power  equal  to  and  of  the  same  nature 
with  that  which  made,  alone  can  destroy.  .  The  laws  of  one 
Legislature  may  be  repealed  by  another  Legislature,  and  the 
power  to  repeal  them  cannot  be  withheld  by  the  power  that 
enacted  them.  So  the  people  may,  on  the  same  principle,  at 
any  time  alter  or  abolish  the  Constitution  they  have  formed. 
This  has  been  frequently  and  peacably  done  by  several  of 
these  States  since  1776.  If  a  particular  mode  of  effecting 
such  alterations  has  been  agreed  upon,  it  is  most  convenient 
to  adhere  to  it,  but  it  is  not  exclusively  binding." — Rawle  on 
the  Constitution,  p.  17. 

Justice  Story,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  says,  in  his  Commentaries  on  the  Con- 
stitution, 

;;  The  Declaration  puts  the  doctrine  on  the  true  ground — 
that  governments  derive  their  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed.  And  the  people,"  plainly  intending  the  majorit}- 
of  the  people,  "  have  aright  to  alter  it,"  &c. — Page  300, 
vol.  1. 

The  same  Judge  also  says, 

;"  The  understanding  is  general,  if  not  universal,  that  hav- 
ing been  adopted  by  a  majority  of  the  people,  the  Constitu- 


90  HISTORICAL   TRACT. 

tion  of  the  State  binds  the  whole  community,  propria  vigore:" 
(by  its  own  innate  power,)  "  and  is  unalterable,  unless  by  the 
consent  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  or  at  least  by  the  qualified 

voters  of  the  Stale,  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  Con- 
stitution, or  otherwise  provided  by  the  majority.  Xo  right 
exists,  or  is  supposed  to  exist,  on  the  part  of  'any  town  or 
county,  or  any  organized  body  within  the  State,  short  of  the 
whole  people  of  the  State,  to  alter,  suspend,  resist,  or  disown 
the  operations  of  that  Constitution,  or  to  withdraw  them- 
selves from  its  jurisdiction.  Much  le^s  is  the  compact  sup- 
posed liable  to  interruption,  or  suspension,  or  dissolution  at 
the  will  of  any  private  citizen  upon  his  own  notion  of  its 
obligations,  or  of  any  infringement  of  them  by  the  consti- 
tuted authorities.  The  only  redress  for  any  such  infringe- 
ments, and  the  only  guaranties  of  individual  rights  and 
property,  are  understood  to  consist  in  the  peaceable  appeal  to 
the  proper  tribunals  constituted  by  the  government  for  such 
purposes;  if  these  should \  fail,  by  the  ultimate  appeal  to  the 
good  sense  and  justice  of  the  majority.  And  this,  according 
to  Mr.  Locke,  is  the  true  sense  of  the  original  compact,  by 
which  every  individual  has  surrendered  to  the  majority  of 
the  Society  the  right  permanently  to  control  and  direct  the 
operations  of  the  government  therein.' ' — Story,  Comm.  Vol. 
I,  p.  305— G. 

The  same,  Vol,  I,  p.  803,  says, 

"  It  is  certain,  that  a  right  of   the  minority  to  withdraw 


THE   NINE   LAWYERS'    OPINION.  91 

from  a  government  and  to  overthrow  its  powers,  has  no  just 
foundation  in  any  just  reasoning." 

By  which  it  appears  that  the  minority  of  this  State 
will  be  bound  by  the  act  of  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple in  establishing  the  government  under  their  Con- 
stitution. 

Judge  Pitman,  of  the  United  States  Court  for 
this  District,  in  a  recent  Address  to  the  Members  of 
the  General  Assembly,  says,  respecting  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  People.  £3f°  "  We  must  settle  this  ques- 
tion for  ourselves;  it  belongs  not  to  Congress,  nor  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a 
question  of  State  Government,  which  neither  Con- 
gress, nor  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
has  any  constitutional  authority  to  settle  for  us." 

"  If  you  suffer  your  government  to  be  put  down, 
and  the  government  of  the  Suffrage  men  to  become 
the  government  of  the  State,  Congress  and  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  will  not  inquire 
into  the  question  of  right.  The  only  question- will  be 
the  question  of  fact.  Is  it  a  government  in  fact  f  Nei- 
ther Congress  nor  the  Supreme  Court  lias  any  autho- 
rity to  inquire  farther?  " 


92  HISTORICAL    TRACT. 

We  respectfully  submit  to  you,  fellow  citizens,  that 
that  the  People's  Constitution  "  is  a  republican 
form  of  government,"  as  required  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  people  of  this 
State,  in  forming  and  voting  for  the  same,  proceeded 
without  any  defect  of  law,  and  without  violation  of 
any  law. 

SAMUEL   Y.   ATWELL. 
JOSEPH  K.  ANGELL, 
THOMAS  F.  CARPENTER. 
DAVID  DANIELS, 
THOMAS  W.  DORR, 
LEVI  C.  EATON, 
JOHN  P.  KNOWLES, 
DUTEE  J.  PEARCE, 
AARON  WHITE,  Jr. 

Providence,  R.  I.  March  14,  1842. 


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