Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/307

 DORR

DORSET

DORR, Thomas Wilson, political leader, was born in Providence. R.I., Nov. 3, 1805; son of Sullivan and Lydia (Allen) Dorr; grandson of Ebenezer Dorr, and a descendant in the seventh generation from Joseph Dorr, who joined the Massachusetts Bay colony about 1670. His grand- father, Ebenezer, warned the people of Roxliurj' of the de- signs of the British soldiers to attack the military stores of the patriots, and after- ward met Paul Re- vere at the Rev. Jonas Clark's house with a message from General Warren to Revere, and with him was captured, but after- ward released by the British on the gener- al alarm sounded by the church bells in the distance. Thomas Wilson was prepared for college at Phillips academy, Exeter, and was graduated at Harvard in 1823 with second honors. He studied law in New York city under Chancellors Kent and McCoun and was admitted to the bar in 1827. He represented his native citj- in the general assembly of the state 1834-37. At this time the right of sulfrage in Rhode Island was limited by a property qualifi- cation and extended only to the eldest son of freeholders, and Dorr with others sought to extend the suffrage and secure more equal i;epresentation. The question at issue divided the state into the Law and Order party, contending that only legal voters had a right to meet in convention and change the constitution, and the Suffrage party, led by Dorr, who upheld the right of the people in their sovereign capacity to convene and decide on a proper change in the constitution. After several meetings and adjournments a People's convention, composed of representatives from every town in the state, met at Providence the first Monday in October, 1841, framed a constitu- tion, and asked every male citizen over twenty- one years old, who had resided in the state one year, to vote. The voters were 13,944 votes for the People's constitution and fifty-two against it. About 5000 freeholders voted for it and Dorr and his friends claimed this to be a majority of legal voters under the constitution then in force, and that under the new constitution Thomas W. Dorr was elected governor. The new legislature met in Providence and Governor Dorr delivered his in- augural address to both houses in joint session. On the same day the Charter general assembly was in session in Newport and declared the new

administration illegal and that only state officers and members of the general assembly elected under the charter restrictions had authority to control the affairs of the commonwealth. In this emergency Governor Dorr ordered the forcible possession of the state house and other public property. In the meantime the Law and Order party invoked the aid of the United States govern- ment. On May 18, 1843, Governor Dorr with less than three hundred men marched to the state arsenal and demanded its surrender, which was refused. Dorr then withdrew his force and retired outside the boundaries of the state. Governor King offered a reward of §1000 for his arrest. A few weeks later Dorr returned and took up his headquarters at Gloucester, from which place lie issued a proclamation, June 25, convening the General assembly at Chepachet, R.I., on July 4. On the same day the Law and Order general as- sembly passed an act placing the state under martial law, troops were sent to Chepachet, Dorr the second time fled from the state, and Governor King increased the reward for his arrest to $5000. After remaining out of the state about eighteen months he returned to Providence, was arrested for treason and lodged in jail. On Feb. 29, 1844, he was transferred to Newport, and on April 26, 1844, his trial before the supreme court was called, and continued for about four weeks, resulting in his conviction and sentence to imprisonment in state's prison for the rest of his life and to be kept at hard labor in separate confinement. He was committed, June 27, 1844, and one year later he was released under a general act of the assembh- discharging from prison all persons convicted of treason. As time passed the people became con- vinced that Dorr had been wrongfull}' convicted and across the face of the judgment under which he was imprisoned as recorded in the supi-eme court, is written " Reversed and annulled bj' order of the General assembly at their January session, A.D., 1854." His brother, Henry C. Dorr, born in Providence, R.I., in 1820, defended him and effected his release, afterward residing in New York city, where he practised law, was a member of Trinity church, of the Century association and of the New York historical society, and died Nov. 13, 1897. Thomas W. Dorr died in Providence, R.I., Dec. 27, 1854.

DORSE Y, Anna Hanson, author, was born in Georgetown, D.C., Dec. 12, 1815; daughter of

the Rev. William and (Lingan) McKen-

ney. She was married in 1837 to Lorenzo Dorsey of Baltimore, son of Judge Owen Dorsey, and soon afterward became a convert to the Roman Catho- lic faith. She wrote numerous poems, dramas and short sketches and stories for periodical litera- ture, and published among other books: The Stu- dent of Blenheim Forest (1847) ; Flowers of Love