From 1663 until 1842, Rhode Island's governing state constitution was its original colonial charter granted by King Charles II of England, a political anomaly considering that while most states during the War of Independence and afterwards wrote scores of new constitutions with their newly found independence in mind, Rhode Island instead continued with a document stamped by an English king.

By the 1840s, Rhode Island was the only state whose official legal document was passed by a foreign monarch and the document essentially restricted voting rights to a very small population of elite, rural, landowning native-born white males.

[1] In September 1842, a Constitutional Convention was held at the Colony House in Newport to confront the issue of expanding suffrage.

[1] When the constitution was put to a public vote in November 1842, voters rejected that voting rights should be restricted to whites only by a three to one margin, thus making Rhode Island the first state to grant suffrage to African-Americans.

As well as presiding over the body, the Speaker is also the chief leadership position, and controls the flow of legislation.