STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS,
General Assembly, May Session, in the City of Providence, A.D. 1842.
Resolved, That the governor be requested to inform the President of the United States that the government of this State has been duly elected and organized under the constitution of the same, and that the general assembly are now in session and proceeding to discharge their duties according to the provisions of said constitution.
Resolved, That the governor be requested to make the same communication to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be laid before the two Houses of the Congress of the United States.
Resolved, That the governor be requested to make the same communication to the governors of the several States, to be laid before the respective legislatures.
A true copy.
Witness:
[L.S.] WM. H. SMITH,
Secretary of State.
MAY 9, 1842.
Governor KING, of Rhode Island.
SIR: Messrs. Randolph and Potter will hand you an official letter, but I think it important that you should be informed of my views and opinions as to the best mode of settling all difficulties. I deprecate the use of force except in the last resort, and I am persuaded that measures of conciliation will at once operate to produce quiet. I am well advised, if the general assembly would authorize you to announce a general amnesty and pardon for the past, without making any exception, upon the condition of a return to allegiance, and follow it up by a call for a new convention upon somewhat liberal principles, that all difficulty would at once cease. And why should not this be done? A government never loses anything by mildness and forbearance to its own citizens, more especially when the consequences of an opposite course may be the shedding of blood. In your case the one-half of your people are involved in the consequences of recent proceedings. Why urge matters to an extremity? If you succeed by the bayonet, you succeed against your own fellow-citizens and by the shedding of kindred blood, whereas by taking the opposite course you will have shown a paternal care for the lives of your people. My own opinion is that the adoption of the above measures will give you peace and insure you harmony. A resort to force, on the contrary, will engender for years to come feelings of animosity.
I have said that I speak advisedly. Try the experiment, and if it fail then your justification in using force becomes complete.