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Law and Order Party | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Samuel Ward King James Fenner Byron Diman |
| Founded | 1842 |
| Dissolved | 1847 |
| Split from | Whig Party |
| Merged into | Whig Party |
| Headquarters | Old Colony House, Newport, Rhode Island |
| Ideology | Anti-Dorr |
| Colors | Teal |
The Law and Order Party of Rhode Island was a short-lived political party in the state of Rhode Island in the 1840s, brought into existence as a consequence of the Dorr Rebellion.
In 1840, Rhode Island still used the King's Charter of 1663 as its constitution, which held that only landowners with $134 in property could vote. This effectively disenfranchised 60-percent of the state's freemen.
In 1841 and 1842, Rhode Island Governor Samuel Ward King faced opposition from Thomas Wilson Dorr and his followers in the Rhode Island Suffrage Party who wanted to extend suffrage to a wider group of citizens. Governor King put together a Law and Order coalition of Whigs and conservative Democrats to put down the opposition. King and his coalition declared martial law on May 4, 1842. The state militia ended the rebellion by the end of the summer of 1842. [1]
The Law and Order Party were initially opposed to extending suffrage, but they realized that the 1663 charter was archaic. After the rebellion, it became clear that they needed to compromise. In November 1842, they drafted a "Law And Order Constitution" which extended the right to vote to all native-born adult males, including black men. [1] Effective May 1843, this new Constitution replaced the old King's Charter of 1663.
The Dorr Rebellion (1841–1842) was an attempt by residents to force broader democracy in the state of Rhode Island. It was led by Thomas Wilson Dorr, who mobilized his followers to demand changes to the state's electoral rules. The state was still using its 1663 colonial charter as a constitution, which required that voters own land as qualification to vote. The rebellion established a parallel government alongside the existing chartered government and wrote a new constitution for Rhode Island. It failed, but it forced the rewriting of the state constitution to expand eligibility to vote.
Samuel Ward King was the 15th Governor of Rhode Island from 1839 to 1843. He was born in Johnston, Rhode Island to William Borden King and Welthian Walton King.
The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 representatives, and the upper Rhode Island Senate with 38 senators. Members are elected in the general election immediately preceding the beginning of the term or in special elections called to fill vacancies. There are no term limits for either chamber. The last General Assembly election took place on November 3, 2020.
Elisha Reynolds Potter was a politician, jurist and historian from Kingston, Rhode Island. He was a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and served one term in the United States House of Representatives.
Thomas Wilson Dorr, was an American politician and reformer in Rhode Island, best known for leading the Dorr Rebellion.
Marcus Morton was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Taunton, Massachusetts. He served two terms as the governor of Massachusetts and several months as Acting Governor following the death in 1825 of William Eustis. He served for 15 years as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, all the while running unsuccessfully as a Democrat for governor. He finally won the 1839 election, acquiring exactly the number of votes required for a majority win over Edward Everett. After losing the 1840 and 1841 elections, he was elected in a narrow victory in 1842.
Lemuel Hastings Arnold was an American politician from the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A Whig, he served as the 12th Governor of the State of Rhode Island and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The history of Rhode Island is an overview of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and the state of Rhode Island from pre-colonial times to the present.
Nathan Fellows Dixon was an attorney and bank president from Westerly, Rhode Island. The son of Nathan F. Dixon and father of Nathan F. Dixon III, he was best known for his service as a United States representative from Rhode Island from 1849 to 1851, and again from 1863 to 1871.
The Constitution of the State of Rhode Island is a document describing the structure and function of the government of the U.S. State of Rhode Island.
The presidency of John Tyler began on April 4, 1841, when John Tyler became President of the United States upon the death of President William Henry Harrison, and ended on March 4, 1845. He had been Vice President of the United States for only 31 days when he assumed the presidency. The tenth United States president, he was the first to succeed to the office intra-term without being elected to it. To forestall constitutional uncertainty, Tyler took the presidential oath of office on April 6, assumed full presidential powers, and served out the balance of Harrison's four-year term, a precedent that would govern future extraordinary successions and eventually become codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Charles Jackson was the 18th Governor of Rhode Island from 1845 to 1846.
The following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of Rhode Island:
Since the Great Depression, Rhode Island politics have been dominated by the Rhode Island Democratic Party, and the state is considered part of the Democrats' "Blue Wall." Democrats have won all but four presidential elections since 1928, with the exceptions being 1952, 1956, 1972, and 1984. The Rhode Island Republican Party, although virtually non-existent in the Rhode Island General Assembly, has remained competitive in gubernatorial elections, having won one as recently as 2006. Until 2014, Democrats had not won a gubernatorial election in the state since 1992, and it was not until 2018 that they won one by double digits. The Rhode Island General Assembly has continuously been under Democratic control since 1959.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to the U.S. State of Rhode Island:
The Rhode Island Royal Charter provided royal recognition to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, approved by England's King Charles II in July 1663. It outlined many freedoms for the inhabitants of Rhode Island and was the guiding document of the colony's government over a period of 180 years.
Seth Luther was an American antebellum workers' and suffrage organizer based in Providence, Rhode Island. A carpenter by trade, Luther was renowned in his time for his oratory skills and early work to organize workers into trade unions in the New England area. He was a key player in Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion of 1842, where the working people of Rhode Island took up arms in an ill-fated crusade to expand voting to non-property holding men. Later in life, he was arrested and institutionalized after trying to rob a bank in the name of American President James K. Polk. He died in the Brattleboro Asylum on April 29, 1863. In 2001, the Rhode Island Heritage Society inducted Luther into its Hall of Fame in recognition of his pioneering work on behalf of union organizing in Rhode Island.
Catharine R. Williams was a Rhode Island writer and poet and a leading figure in the Dorr Rebellion in support of universal suffrage. In 2002, she was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
Alfred Niger was a free Black activist who lived in Providence, Rhode Island and worked as a barber. Niger was a leading influential figure in the movement for Black suffrage in early 19th century Rhode Island, during the onset of the Dorr Rebellion.
Rhode Island political parties | ||
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