Post-Revolutionary War to Civil War
Rhode Island Dorr Rebellion "The Four Traitors" Illustrated Political Broadside Matted and Display Framed
c. 1845, Graphic Illustrated Political Broadside titled, "The Four Traitors" Dorr Rebellion of Rhode Island Related, Framed, Choice Extremely Fine.
Illustrated Printed Political Broadside, measures 9.25" x 13" (by sight) matted and attractively framed (no glass) to an overall size of 14.75" x 19". Apart from a light central horizontal fold, this print is in excellent crisp condition. The banner title reads:
"The Four Traitors, Who most infamously sold themselves to the Dorrites, for Office and Political Power. Let us not reward Traitors, but with just indignation abandon them as 'Scape-Goats,' to their destiny - forever."
The "Dorrites" referred to supporters of Thomas Wilson Dorr, who had set up a parallel shadow government that sought to give universal suffrage to all white men. After a failed attempt top take the arsenal at Providence, Dorr fled the state. When Dorr returned in 1843, he was arrested, found guilty of treason, and imprisoned. The four Rhode Island Whigs illustrated here broke party ranks to support a popular movement to free Dorr.
This Broadside's author alleges political opportunism in the alliance of the Four Traitors, from left to right, Charles Jackson, Samuel F. Man, James F. Simmons, and Lemuel H. Arnold, who sided with Democrats to support a 'liberation' ticket in the spring elections of 1845. This notice, evidently published after the April canvass, laments the election of "an obscure individual like [James] Polk" and "a pompous, self-conceited man like [Charles] Jackson" as well as "foreigners, ignorant, barbarous and uncivilized...", "radicals, disorganisers and abolitionists assuming to be jurists' in general...".
The "Four Traitors" are crudely caricatured. Jackson holds a proclamation of liberation, probably the act of June 1845 pardoning Dorr. Samuel Man is depicted as obese, sitting in a chair and holding an infant. Simmons thumbs his nose at Man, and his own coattails are in turn held by Lemuel Arnold. Only one similar copy was located searching online, it having a tape repair and not framed offered at $1,375. Few people today have ever heard of the Dorr Rebellion, so this historic Broadside will generate interest.
The Dorr Rebellion (1841-1842) (also referred to as Dorr's Rebellion, Dorr's War or Dorr War) was an attempt by disenfranchised residents to force broader democracy in the U.S. State of Rhode Island, where a small rural elite was in control of government.
The rebellion was led by Thomas Wilson Dorr, who mobilized the disenfranchised to demand changes to the state's electoral rules. The state was still using its 1663 Colonial charter as a Constitution; it 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.
Although the rebellion was crushed militarily, it forced the state of Rhode Island to rewrite its Constitution and expand eligibility to vote.
This Broadside by another online dealer is described as follows:
Broadside (approx. 14" x 9"); woodcut caricature of the "four traitors" beneath the running head; old tape stain in the lower right margin (sense remains clear); all else very good. An illustrated broadside reviling four Rhode Island Whigs who broke party ranks to support a popular movement to free the imprisoned radical Thomas Wilson Dorr. The broadside concludes: "The conduct of these men; two of them in particular, toward Governor Fenner, who fearlessly and nobly, sustained the State, through all its recent difficulties, is so treacherous, base and execrable, and is so well understood by the intelligent part of the community, that it needs no comment." "Diatribe reflecting the belief of some Law and Order supporters that Charles Jackson sold himself out in accepting the Liberation endorsement for governor in the 1845 election.
Includes caricatures of Charles Jackson, Samuel Man, James Simmons, and Lemuel Arnold. Handwritten note on RPB copy attributes text to Thomas Man." Botelho, Right and Might, The Dorr Rebellion and the Struggle for Equal Rights, pp. 67-68:
"In Rhode Island politics, Dorr's harsh sentence united moderate Whigs with Dorr Democrats. A liberation coalition, headed by Charles Jackson, captured the 1845 state elections and set about accomplishing its limited aim - to release Dorr from prison .
Under an act of general amnesty, Dorr was finally freed on June 27, 1845, having served twenty months of his sentence." See Conley, Democracy in Decline, pp. 366-68; DeSimone & Schofield, 155 (locating 5 copies - all at either Brown or RI Historical. OCLC adds AAS, Harvard, LC, and Dartmouth. Not in American Imprints.