F 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
t