Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/603

 THE DORR WAR. 493 Joseph Adams, Major, 1795; Lieut. -Colonel, 1799. Allin Bicknell, Major, 1814-15 ; Lieut. -Colonel, 1816. Ebenezer Peck, Major, 1799, 1800, i, 2,3. John Short, Jr., Major, 1806. Jeremiah S. Drown, Major, 1807. Benjamin Medbury, Major, 1824. Suchet Mauran, Major, 1827; Colonel, 1829-30. N. C. Smith, Jr., Major, 1836. E. G. Medbury, Major, 1837-8. John R, Richmond, Brigade Inspector, 1828. The Dorr War. "The Dorr War," as it is called, was an incident in Rhode Island history in the progress of the people towards univer- sal, manhood suffrage. Under the Old Charter, which was the Bill of Rights of the people until 1842, suffrage was en- joyed only by freemen. A freeman, by the act of 1723-4, was a man who had real estate to the value of one hundred pounds, or had an annual income of forty shillings arising from real estate. The eldest son of a freeman might vote in right of his father's freehold. This law remained unchanged except in the value of the required freehold, for one hundred and twenty years, or until 1843, when the present State Constitution was adopted. Several unsuccessful attempts had been made between 1793 and 1842 to secure a State Constitution which should give larger scope to the franchise. In 1798 the freehold qualification was changed from the col- onial to the decimal currency, and was fixed at $134 in value, or $7 in income from real estate. Thomas Wilson Dorr, an educated and influential citizen of Providence, advocated, (i) The extension of the suffrage beyond landed qualifications; (2) The removal of unequal representation in the legislative body ; and (3) The regula- tion of the power and functions of the General Assembly by constitutional limitations. Mr. Dorr and his followers urged the republican doctrine that sovereign power was vested in