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 history, of prime importance is F. G. Bates, Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union, Chaps. V, VI (N. Y., 1898); cf. Arnold's Rhode Island, II, 536–564 (4th ed.); Curtis, Constitution, II, 598–604 (ed. 1860), or I, 692–697 (ed. 1897); Elliot's Debates, I, 336, 337.

To the President, Senate and House of Representatives of the eleven United States of America, in Congress assembled:

The critical situation in which the people of this state are placed, engage us to make these assurances, in the behalf of their attachment and friendship to their sister states, and of their disposition to cultivate mutual harmony and friendly intercourse. They know themselves to be a handful, comparatively viewed, and although they now stand as it were, alone, they have not separated themselves, or departed from the principles of that Confederation which was formed by the sister states, in their struggle for freedom and in the hour of danger. They seek by this memorial to call to your remembrance the hazard which we have run, the hardships we have endured, the treasures we have spent, and the blood we have lost together in one common cause, and especially the object we had in view&mdash;the preservation of our liberty&mdash;wherein ability considered they may truly say, they were equal in exertions with the foremost. The effects whereof in great embarrassments and other distresses, consequent thereon, we have since experienced with severity, which common sufferings and common danger we hope and trust will yet form a bond of union and friendship not easily to be broken. Our not having acceded to or adopted the new system of government found and adopted by most of our sister states, we doubt not have given uneasiness to them. That we have not seen our way clear to do it, consistent with our idea of the principle upon which we all embarked together, has also given pain to us; we have not doubted but we might thereby avoid present difficulties, but we have apprehended future mischief. The people of this state from its first settlement have been accustomed and strongly attached to a democratical form of government. They have read in the constitution an approach toward that form of government from which we have lately dissolved our connection at so much hazard of expense of life and treasure,&mdash;they have seen with pleasure the administration thereof, from the most important