[ Autographs ] THOMAS WILSON DORR (1805 - 1854) American politician and lawyer, the leader of Dorr's Rebellion in Rhode Island. He organized the People's Party in 1841 which submitted a new liberal constitution that was almost unanimously approved by the electorate, but was declared illegal by state authorities. In turn, the state submitted its own constitution which failed to garner electorate support in 1842. Dorr was elected Governor the same year under the People's constitution, thereby giving Rhode Island two governments. When the Federal government declined to interfere, Dorr resorted to a show of arms in May. After an abortive attempt on the Providence Armory, he was indicted for high treason, tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor, but released a year later. Fine content A.L.S. "Thos. W. Dorr" 1p. large 8vo., Providence,Aug, 19, 1853, to Nahum Capen, Esq. In part: "...Our General Assembly,at the May session, `53, in inviting a Convention to form a new Constitution, did not call on the whole People as votes, but only on the electors. As the act to be performed by the People was an act of sovereignty, if the Assembly (who, as in Mass., are not authorized by the Constitution to call a Convention) could invite a portion of the adult resident citizens to perform this act, a portion they could, with the same right, invite the whole People...in whom the sovereigntyresides. This omission of the Assembly caused dissatisfaction, and wasamong the chief causes that led to the defeat of the Convention in June. The articles relate to the subject of sovereignty, and to the question thus raised between the People and the democratic members of the Legislature...". When the Democrats came back into power in Rhode Island in 1851, they restored Dorr's civil and political rights, and an annulled his treason conviction. He died just over one year after penning this letter, on Dec. 27, 1854. A fine, late example, in very good condition. Uncommon with this political content. Sold with a first edition of The Dorr Rebellion by Marvin E. Gettleman, New York,Random House, 1973.