1. Our smallest state took its time getting a constitution. That wasn’t until 1843. What took so long? Elite rule, civil disorder, royal decrees, & more! #50Weeks50Constitutions travels to what Federalists termed “Rogue Island” & George Washington said “baffled all calculation.” 
2. A grouping, of sorts, of small colonies received a Royal Charter in 1663. It gave Rhode Islanders a large degree of self-rule. Tho there were property qualifications to vote, most adult males met them, & the colony was seen as the most “democratic” by 1776.
3. I don’t want to say that Rhode Islanders were smugglers, but with their nautical nature, Rhode Islanders were smugglers. Thus, when the British started passing stuff like the Intolerable Acts, taxing & regulating all kinds of trade, the colony broke for Independence hard.
4. As we’ve seen, most colonies adopted new constitutions in 1776 or so. But the smugglers, sorry citizens of Rhode Island, had a pretty sweet gig in their Charter. So when accepting the Dec of Independence they just also replaced the word “colony” w/ “state” in the Charter.
5. But that was it. Then, after some tussle in adopting the U.S. Constitution (including a referendum that rejected it 2,708 to 243!), the state acquiesced to the new political order, & joined the Union with a “Royal” Charter as its governing document.
6. As you might remember, Connecticut, which also had a tradition of local autonomy under its old Charter, did the same thing for a while. But when it adopted a new constitution in 1818, R.I. remained as the sole non-constitutional outlier.
7. Eventually, b/c of apportionment problems favoring rural seats, the legislature called a constitutional convention. Its modest constitution, however, was rejected 2-1 by the voters in 1824. Another convention 10 years later couldn’t even come up with a draft.
8. Finally, the rebellion came. No, not the Civil War. A couple decades before that, Rhode Island had a bit of a war of its own. By 1840 less & less citizens were eligible to vote under the property qualifications. The rural v. urban imbalance grew worse. Something had to give.
9. A group labeling itself the R.I. Suffrage Association & committed to an equitably apportioned & wider electorate called its own “People’s Convention.” This was entirely without any sanction from the state legislature. Its leader became Thomas Wilson Dorr.
10. The convention drafted a “People’s Constitution,” went to the (expanded) voters (again, w/o any “legal” backing) & passed it 13,944 to 52 (!). Meanwhile, the legislature countered with its own convention under old, restrictive, voting, & drafted a “Freemen’s Constitution.”
11 The Freemen’s Constitution was then narrowly rejected at the polls (again under the old voting eligibility rules). Weeks later, per the “People’s Constitution” Dorr was “elected” governor. At the same time, under the old system the current governor, Samuel King, was reelected.
12. So who was in charge? On May 3, 1842 Dorr & his followers paraded thru Providence (w/ a brass band & small militia) to the statehouse. But, the doors were locked. So they went to a nearby unfinished building to meet as the “legislature.”
13. The failure to occupy the statehouse may have been the victory the establishment needed. Their “Law & Order Party” authorized the use of force against Dorr’s people. Dorr then tried to seize the state arsenal, but was unsuccessful & fled into exile. “Law & Order” had won.
14. But, the Law & Order Party did move forward with adopting an actual constitution. The voters ratified it in Nov 1842 & it went into effect in May 1843. It had a full bill of rights, improved apportionment, & removed property qualifications for voting for native-born citizens.
15. But it still imposed a property qualification of $134 for naturalized citizens, designed to keep immigrant Irish Catholics out of the polls. This wasn’t removed until 1888.
16. For the next 140 years the constitution was amended a number of times, but various reformers fought for larger constitutional change. Every time, for whatever reason, they were defeated. Finally, in 1986 the voters adopted amendments that were a wholesale redrafting.
17. This 1986 Constitution created an ethics commission, gave budgetary powers to the governor, & banned felons from holding office for 3 years after their sentence is completed. Since no state has adopted a new constitution since then it is the country’s most recent.
18. Sources:
Conley & Flanders, The Rhode Island State Constitution (2007)
Raven, The Dorr War (2010)
rihs.org/assetts/files/…
Conley & Flanders, The Rhode Island State Constitution (2007)
Raven, The Dorr War (2010)
rihs.org/assetts/files/…
