Before the 1840s, several attempts were made to replace the colonial charter with a new state constitution that provided broader voting rights, but all failed.

The Rhode Island General Assembly had failed to reapportion the legislature based on demographic changes as the cities acquired much larger populations.

Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Social media Miscellaneous Other In 1841, suffrage supporters led by Dorr gave up on attempts to change the system from within.

At the same time, the state's General Assembly formed a rival convention and drafted the Freemen's Constitution, with some concessions to democratic demands.

In early 1842, both groups organized elections of their own, leading in April to the selections of both Dorr and Samuel Ward King as Governor of Rhode Island.

President John Tyler sent an observer, then decided not to send soldiers because "the danger of domestic violence is hourly diminishing".

Nevertheless, Tyler cited the U.S. Constitution and added: If resistance is made to the execution of the laws of Rhode-Island, by such force as the civil peace shall be unable to overcome, it will be the duty of this Government to enforce the constitutional guarantee—a guarantee given and adopted mutually by all the original States.Most of the state militiamen were Irishmen newly enfranchised by the Dorr referendum, and they supported him.

The Irish who played a growing role in Democratic politics in other states, such as Tammany Hall in New York City, gave Dorr their verbal support, but sent no money or men to help.

The new constitution greatly liberalized voting requirements by extending suffrage to any native born adult male, regardless of race, who could pay a poll tax of $1, which would go to support public schools in the state.

[7][8] The constitution retained the property requirement for non-native born citizens and prohibited members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe from voting.

[11][12] Dorr returned in 1843, was found guilty of treason against the state, and was sentenced in 1844 to solitary confinement and hard labor for life.

[14] Coleman (1963) explored the complex coalition that supported Dorr, with the changing economic structure of the state in mind, noting that the middle classes, the poor farmers, and the industrialists mostly peeled off after the 1843 Constitution gave in to their demands.

"[15] Henry Bowen Anthony wrote a poetical satire of the events, which was published without attribution in Boston by Justin Jones in 1842.

[16] It was republished in 1870, again without attribution to Anthony, along with another work concerning the events entitled The Dorriad, and The Great Slocum Dinner, by Sidney S. Rider & Brother, Providence.