 In July 1842, Rhode Island had two state governments divided into armed camps. The rest of New England watched, wondering if what they called the Rhode Island question would spill into a widespread civil war. The fight was over which of the state's two dueling authorities was legitimate. The charter government established in 1663 by King Charles II, or the People's Constitution, which bypassed the legislature with a popular convention and vote. In both major engagements at the Providence Arsenal and Akats Hill in Chappatchet, doors warriors fled at the first signs of actual battle. These were no soldiers and few of them ever expected to fire shots. The ragtag force of young men in old mechanics broke and ran at the first signs of resistance from state militia. Over the summer and into the early fall, the old state government filled the jails to bursting with suffragists who participated in either the rogue state or doors military efforts. Where men dropped their weapons and ran, women picked them back up and charted their own course for reform. Throughout New England, women activists hosted clambakes as fundraising political feasts. Today we would say they were raising awareness. They raised funds to relieve prisoners' families, discourage cooperation with the state's old government, and spread a radical, proto-libertarian philosophy called loco-focuism. These were the high watermark of the door movement, far more successful than doors own abortive civil war. Welcome to Liberty Chronicles, a project of Libertarianism.org. I'm Anthony Comegna. Much as we might appreciate the revolutionary, even anarchistic implications of doors ideas, it must be admitted that he was a terribly ill-equipped leader. Charging ahead into battle without having built real political support, door soon lost every suffragist who favored peaceful action. Eager to be the new people's governor for real, door rushed ahead to fight it out with state troops. It was a huge disappointment, a complete failure, almost comical if the matter at hand weren't so serious. Several Republicans across the north poured out contempt on doors' deserter-filled army and Rhode Islanders' weak-willed republicanism. One correspondent wrote to Levi Slam's New York Daily plebeian, immortalizing the Rhode Island catastrophe in verse. The Rhode Island Catastrophe by Nuff said, New York Daily Plebeian, July 2, 1842. The moral force New Englanders, ye peacemen, won in awe. Up, up, and praise Rhode Islanders, as loud as ye can bawl. Laud first Rhode Island charterists, they have been quite humane. Laud next the mild-free suffragers, for no one have they slain. Yet never were such words of blood, and yet so little shed. If either party would have stood, the other would have fled. Both parties cried aloud for aid. They were in such a fright, and both were willing to look on, while others fought their fight. Oh, never yet were such she men, not since the world began. Rhode Island has no true free men, tis feared she'd never can. The cause of freedom oft has met, with daring manly foes. Unlike the braggart, soulless set, the charter rights compose. And freedom's sons have ever been, the gallant and the true. Like Rhode Island suffragers, a craven-hearted crew. The great commander, yellowed king, with she-rows great and small. He took chapuchet camp, without gunpowder, swore at our bawl. A cow was shot, the best blood shed, a woman fainted quick. An officer by chance shot dead, and by a lunatic. And thus the revolution ceased, twas all a sounding brass. It opened with sublimity, but ended like a fass. The moral force New Englanders, ye peace men, won and all. Up, up, and praise Rhode Islanders, as loud as ye can bawl. While Rhode Island's male suffragists, either languished in prison cells, or crept back into the countryside, women overtook the movement. They connected exiled suffragists with their allies across the region, especially the old loco-foco faction of radical Democrats in New York City. Francis Whipple, a writer, journalist, abolitionist, and suffrage activist, wrote to Levi Slam's Daily Plobean that the door war was not confined to tiny Rhode Island. It was a moment of world historical importance. It was a contest to save the very vitals of republicanism, the right to revolution, and the right to a genuinely popular government. Despite the failures of suffragist men, she still had hopes for military efforts. Fortunately for the cause of peace, the very next day, suffragist women in Rhode Island began their own peaceful reformist movement. They wanted to revive a grand Narragansett Indian tradition, which had become a New England favorite, the community clam-bake, and grafted into Jacksonian politics. As news of their planning filtered out to wig party presses, conservatives who uniformly hated the doorites, the suffragists' every move was suspect. The Providence Evening Chronicle on August 4, 1842 reported, �We have reason to believe that serious mischief is contemplated. We have all along thought that violence would be attempted by certain people out of this state. Those certain people out of this state were New York loco-focos, those radical proto-libertarians who spent two years battling Tammany Hall for prominence in the state and national party. Chronicle referred to �a loco-foco gathering� about to happen, and asked its audience, �Let us be watchful�. Clambakers streamed through the streets of Providence and boarded steamers and ferries bound toward Pumham Rocks Lighthouse across the Massachusetts border. The Chronicle suggested, �There ought to be a strong patrol on duty this evening, while the whole military of the city should be under arms, ready to move at a moment's warning.� Three to four thousand Rhode Islanders and sympathizers from Massachusetts gathered there in the Bay, two-thirds of them women and children. One door-friendly paper later snarkily remarked that the nervous-wig presses should feel ashamed of themselves for having sounded alarms. The Bay State Democrat of Saturday gives a long and interesting account of a clam bake and chowder party on Thursday last at Medbury Grove, Seaconk, Massachusetts, under the direction of the suffrage ladies of Providence and vicinity. About four thousand men, women and children were present, and the proceedings were conducted in a manner highly creditable to the patriotic ladies of Rhode Island. Spirited resolutions were adopted and addresses were made. The clam bake set the charter party in Rhode Island in a great stew. We copy the Democrats' description of the repast. The gentle breeze from the Bay and healthy exercise naturally created a pretty good appetite, and the ladies, under whose patronage the whole affair was conducted, had anticipated these wants and provided an abundant supply of all the necessaries and luxuries that the most nice in these matters could desire. But the great clam and chowder entertainment deserve particular attention. It was a grand affair, got up on a grand scale, and consisted of no less than eighty bushels of clams and four barrels of chowder, the latter being made in a cauldron of that size, which was fully filled and of the finest quality. The process of baking the clams is simple and unique and deserves particular description. A hole was dug in the sand, which was lined with clean stones from the bottom to the top. This reservoir or cauldron was then filled with dry fuel, which was set on fire and burned till the stones became well charged with caloric. The coals were then swept out clean, and the hole nearly filled with clams. Over these seaweed, wash clean, was thrown to prevent the heat from escaping. The steam from the water of the clams being prevented from escaping, together with the heat of the stones, cooked the clams in the most excellent manner. Eighty bushels, as before stated, of clams of the finest sort, were cooked in this way and served up to the multitude, who were assembled in groups under the shade of trees, according to their tastes and wants. The proceedings, while radical and tone and content, went off completely tame. In a description widely quoted in other papers, the Bay State Democrats showed how peaceful and pleasant radicalism could be. The Grand Army, the New Hampshire Patriot, and State Gazette, August 11, 1842. The Providence Chronicle of the Fourth this month recommended that a strong patrol be on duty in Providence that evening, and that the whole military of the city be under arms ready to move at a moment's warning, because a number of men and women were partaking of a clam bake in that vicinity. It is a pity that the editor of the Chronicle couldn't have had his head baked with the clams, for it must be softer than that of any shellfish to sound the above alarm. The following is the account of the terrible affair which called for a strong patrol and the arming of all the Providence military as given by the Providence Journal Charterists. The suffrage clam bake, which has been announced for some week, took place yesterday at Palmham Rocks on the Massachusetts side of the bay. A number went in a steamboat, and when it left the wharf, one of the discharge prisoners called out. Three cheers for Governor Dorr and the Constitution. The cheers were given, but rather feebly, speeches were made by men from Boston, and clams and patriotism were served up in great profusion. The number present was variously estimated at from 800 to 3,000, about two-thirds of them women and children. New England Whigs ridiculed the clam bakers, saying their resolutions were pretty fair for a parcel of spunky women while their hen pecked husbands were sitting and looking on, a nice little petticoat revolution truly. What Whigs really feared, though, was that those resolutions written by women and adopted by huge crowds, they really, truly were radical. They outright pronounced the charter null and void, the outdated instrument of a profligate degenerate king. They declared for the people's Constitution and their proper governor, Thomas W. Dorr. They slashed at the charter regime and its Whig supporters, calling them soulless usurpers. And they said President John Tyler deserved nothing but hatred from every good Republican for having threatened federal interference. The speeches followed suit with the resolutions. The question was whether the people were sovereign, or if the forms of government possessed sovereignty of their own. When you strip events down to what actually happened, the people of Rhode Island overwhelmingly voted for a new government. And the old one, whose authority derived from a 17th century king, almost immediately began orchestrating a counter-revolution to snuff out the new one. What else then could you call it, when an armed aristocratic government forcibly overturned and imprisoned the people's elected governors? It could only be a tyranny, an attempt at feudal, European counter-revolution in these formerly free republics of America. And though the immediate prospects for victory were dim, history guaranteed it in the end. This was humanity's Republican destiny becoming manifest and real by people taking direct action. First in Rhode Island, then across the world, power could be beaten back and the cycle of history broken. Speaker George Barstow looked forward to the day when tyranny is dead and tyrants are remembered only to be executed. The next clam bake was held on August 24th in Somerset, Massachusetts. The weather was rainy and the crowd small, but still 1,590 people showed up to eat 100 bushels of clams and 500 pounds of fish. Suffragist women were convinced that the charter regime would not charge hundreds of ladies with treason. So on they went with it. On August 30th, between 5,000 and 10,000 gathered at Palmer Rock's lighthouse again. Another paper reported 10 to 15,000 of them, including once again Ann Parlin, who then and there vowed to personally lead an army of women to release the Dorite political prisoners. While I kind of wish they'd gone through with that idea, the hungry activists instead settled in for what people were then calling the Great Clam Bake. Among the features were letters of address from former President Martin Van Buren, former Massachusetts Governor Marcus Morton, Pennsylvania Senator and future President James Buchanan, and General James McNeill of New Hampshire. General McNeill's letter was especially militant and anti-British. He demanded millions rise in revolution to restore the people's government. New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, September 22, 1842. The following is General McNeill's reply to the invitation to go to the clam bake. Hillsborough, August 29, 1842. My dear sir, I acknowledge with pleasure your invitation to meet the friends of free suffrage at the mass clam bake and regret that it is not in my power to be present on that interesting occasion. Accept my thanks for the flattering terms in which you are pleased to speak of my attachment to the cause of liberty and equal rights. I trust I shall never be found sympathizing with those who would strengthen the hands of tyrants and crush the liberties of man. If men can be found in America, who will take their stand upon a British charter and attempt to enforce by martial law the arbitrary doctrines of the English monarchy, may millions of free men arise and bring the contest to a speedy termination. I regard this struggle in which you are engaged as involving the same principles contended for in the revolution, the right of the people to establish government, and I believe the result will be the same now as in the days that tried men's souls. Come what may, that great principle must not be yielded up. I am gratified to see that public opinion is rapidly coming over to your side. As fast as the people understand the nature of your struggle, they unite to sustain your cause. You have made no unreasonable demands. You have only required universal suffrage and equal representation. These are your birthrights as free men and you have a right to demand them. I would urge you to stand by your constitution and your governor, Thomas W. Dore, and it is my ardent wish to see every free heart in American warmly espouse your cause. As winter set in, the clam-baking ground to a halt. As early as the 9th of February, 1843, Boston Democrats staged the next clam-bake. Dore himself was rumored to be in attendance, though he did not appear. Both Whig and Democratic Press' claim the rumor was a hoax got up to sell the tickets. As the Daily Atlas was quick to note, though, something of the original fire had gone out of the clam-bakes and the plot failed to produce a sizable audience. By September 1843, Democrats sufficiently replicated the original clam-baking phenomenon. They became a completely partisan affair with little left of the original Doreite message. A large crowd gathered at Bellingham, Massachusetts for music, political speeches, and what one paper called those potent Whigscares Baked Clams. The speeches and resolutions endorsed Martin Van Buren for president in 1844 and concluded business. But Van Buren came out against annexing Texas earlier that spring, and it killed his chances in convention. His stance made him unacceptable to Southern expansionists and those Northerners who believed Republicanism was a global cause. Clam-baking Doreites easily shifted from the Van Buren to the Polk camp. Remember, though a handful of them were hardcore abolitionists, most of them were your average racist Northerners. And Polk had a sterling reputation as a strong equal rights man in the House in the late 1830s. It was he that had pushed through much of the Van Buren program, which won back over the New York Loco Focos. In Woonsocket, three months before the election, Doreite women activists gathered six to 8,000 people. All the friends of Polk, Dallas, and Mr. Doar were invited to attend the Daily Atlas reported. A month later, 25,000 Democratic supporters of Polk and Dallas, Governor Doar, Equal Laws and Equal Rights, et cetera, hosted the final act in a long drama at Swamsket, Massachusetts, the largest clam-bake of the era. Portsmouth, New Hampshire Gazette, September 10th, 1844. 25,000 Democrats at Swam Scott Hill. The Democratic gathering at the Swam Scott clam-bake on Friday last was very large, exceeding by tens of thousands the most sanguine expectations of our friends. A careful computation proved the number to be not less than 25,000, including at least 5,000 ladies. The grand procession was formed at 10 o'clock and was at least one mile and a half in length, decked out with flags and banners with the watch words, Polk and Dallas, Governor Doar, Equal Laws and Equal Rights, et cetera. The place for holding the convention was admirably adapted to the purpose being on an eminence commanding distinct views of Bunker Hill Monument, Nahant, Egg Rock, Phillips Beach, Marblehead, and the bread bosom of Massachusetts Bay. The fires were lighted in seven vast ovens, 30 feet in circumference for roasting clams of which 170 barrels have been provided together with 1,000 lobsters with all the needful for a chowder of which 200 gallons were cooked. A beautiful structure was erected for the orators covered with evergreens and be decked with garlands, wreaths, and festoons which afforded an agreeable shade for the speaker. A magnificent arch had been erecting bearing the inscription welcome friends of free suffrage. The head of the procession was composed of a superb military escort led by Captain A.B. Ingalls of the Hayam Rifleman and Adjutant Burbank of the Artillery, the Marblehead Infantry, and the Hayam Rifleman each accompanied with a full ban. At one o'clock, the convention was called to order and Jonathan C. Stickney Esquire was unanimously chosen president with some dozen vice presidents and a half dozen secretaries. On taking the chair, the president delivered an eloquent address of vowing his hearty concurrence in the principles and measures of the party. When said he, the sovereign power of public opinion that great lever by which the world is now moved and turned shall have been directed to his case, the emancipation of governor will be speedily accomplished. Colonel Hart of New York afterwards dashed into a bold and animated speech and promised a majority of from 10 to 20,000 in New York for Polk and Dallas. The meeting was also ably and eloquently addressed by Mr. Randtul, Wright, Jocelyn, and others. The Rhode Island question, the bank, Texas and Oregon were in turn discussed to the visible gratification of all present. A series of excellent resolutions were passed and a succession of cheers for Polk and Dallas, Bancroft and Childs, and Governor Dorr. The convention was declared to be dissolved. The claimbanks left us a complicated legacy. On the one hand, they were fabulous examples of grassroots activism and political education. On the other hand, they easily became co-opted by scheming politicians. They began as defiant calls to withdraw completely from the politics of compromise. They ended with a whoop and a holler for one of the South's great planters, James K. Polk, the man who concocted a war to steal half of Mexico and set up the United States as a continental empire. Liberty Chronicles is a project of libertarianism.org. It is produced by Test Terrible. If you've enjoyed this episode of Liberty Chronicles, please rate, review, and subscribe to us on iTunes. For more information on Liberty Chronicles, visit libertarianism.org.