Road to Ratification: Rhode Island
How Rhode Island rejected the Constitution of the United States and how it heroically resisted the coercion of the Federal Government until it was brought down by force and deceit.
The Constitution of the United States has always had its detractors. When the document was first presented to “the People,” of the several states, alarm bells were almost immediately set off on the new “consolidated” government. Common refrains included concerns over the lack of jury trials in civil offenses as well as criminal, the onerous length of Congressional representatives (terms of two and six years seemed obscene when many state legislators had terms as short as six months) and above all, the “unlimited power of laying and collecting taxes, duties, imposts and excises.”
Nowhere, though, was opposition to the Constitution more fully realized than in Rhode Island. Rhode Island would be only one of two states, along with North Carolina, who would refuse Ratification of the Constitution, preferring self reliant liberty rather than dependent subjugation.
How could anyone blame the Rhode Islanders? While states like Massachusetts were suffering heavy strain from a Post - Revolutionary War economic downturn, leading to heavy debt loads and high interest rates, compounded with severe taxation, Rhode Island was well on the path of recovery. The radical Country Party was in charge in Rhode Island and through a tactical issuance of paper money and powerful enforcement of anti-speculation and debt collection laws, debt across the state was declining. Farmers in Rhode Island were able to see light at the end of the tunnel, while those Massachusetts ended up rising up in open revolt.
A central government which explicitly promised to ban paper money (Article 1, Section 10) not only threatened the future of Rhode Island, it certainly smelled of monied interests trying to steal the farms of hard working Rhode Islanders. Certainly, the supporters of the Constitution, the Federalists, who typically came from a mercantile or urban background, condemning Rhode Island describing them as “an excess of democracy,” or the catchier “Rogue Island,” did not help disabuse the the typical Rhode Islander of such notions.
Still, though, the legislature was willing to put the Constitution up for debate and present it before the People of Rhode Island. But instead of calling together a Convention, as stipulated in the Constitution, the radicals did one better: they held a referendum.
In the modern day, the Conventions are often seen as democratic element. A method to give full force to the notion of “We the People.” But to the Rhode Island legislature, it was a halfway measure, partially designed by the framers as a method to trick rural yeoman in voting against their interests. One couldn’t blame the legislature for thinking this. Rhode Island Federalists, like so many other states, were urban and mercantile, and as such, much more articulate than their rural counterparts. Federalists themselves admitted, they relied on their advantage in letters to convince Nays to Yays. The Country Party of course didn’t see the Federalists as convincing anyone, but rather as “decoying,” honest men.
If the benefits of the Constitution were so apparent, then it would sink or swim on its own merits before the full voting public.
When all was said and done, 91% of the vote turned out Nay. The People of Rhode Island had spoken. They refused to bend.
This of course, did not sit well with the Federalists. The Constitution would come to be ratified by all twelve other states, even recalcitrant North Carolina, by 1790, but proud Rhode Island would resist unto the bitter end.
The legislature of Rhode Island refused to call a convention, apparently seeing the matter as settled. Rhode Island was moving along fine outside the new Union, and requested only that the new Congress keep trade open. Rhode Island wanted a simple a customs agreement, rather than unified government. The new Federal government, however, would brook no threat to its authority. A deadline was set for mid-January 1790 on exemptions for shipping and tonnage.
While an outright majority in the Lower House was willing to call a convention, the Upper House maintained it’s opposition. It was only by calling into session the legislature and holding a vote when several of the nays were fulfilling their Sunday Duty, that the Legislature was able to convene a convention.
The Convention met in March of that year, and after five days of debate and discussion, it would adjourn without a decision. A soft “no,” to Federal government. It seemed that the people of Rhode Island were once again willing to hazard the unknown, to trust in their own self reliance, and accept whatever imposts that Congress would set.
Rather than accepting Rhode Island’s choice as legitimate, the nascent Congress chose to vindictively make an example out of Rhode Island. Rather than simply issue an impost, Congress brought up a bill one month later, which would have banned any and all trade with Rhode Island by land or by sea. Any merchant caught doing business with Rhode Island would be fined upwards of $500 and be thrown in prison for potentially six months. Furthermore, Rhode Island would be forced to pay out $25,000 of debt to the United States by December of 1790.
Extortionate could not even begin to describe actions of the Federal government. With this Sword of Damocles hanging over the state, many merchant towns would begin contemplating secession from Rhode Island, so as to be able join the Union.
By May 24th, Rhode Island’s Convention would convene again. Five days later, the Constitution would pass with a vote of 34-32. Yet, even this two vote majority, would have an asterisk over it. On the day the vote was held, whether by trickery or a pre-arranged charade, four members of the Nays were absent from the proceedings. The people of Rhode Island it seemed were willing to chance whatever oblivion the Federal Government would foist upon them, than submit to the shackles of the Constitution.
In a sense, a minority, in collaboration with an outside (one could even justifiably have called it a foreign) power, overwhelmed the popular Will of the People of Rhode Island.
The original Union, the compact made between the thirteen states, was established not with speeches and majority decisions, but with blood and iron.
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