DEAR SIR:  In pursuance of the arrangement made when you were in Boston, I have visited the State of Rhode Island, and, so far as could be done, possessed myself of a knowledge of the existing state of things there.  I had a full and free interview with Governor King and his council, as well as with several other gentlemen upon each side of the matter in controversy.  All agree that, so far as the people of Rhode Island are concerned, there is no danger of any further armed resistance to the legitimate authorities of the State.  It was never intended, probably, by the majority of those called the suffrage party to proceed in any event to violence, and when they found themselves pushed to such an extremity by their leaders they deserted their leaders and are now every day enrolling themselves in the volunteer companies which are being organized in every part of the State for the suppression of any further insurrectionary movements that may be made.  A large majority of those elected or appointed to office under the people’s constitution (so called) have resigned their places and renounced all allegiance to that constitution and the party which supports it, so that the insurgents are now without any such organization as would enable them to carry out their original purposes if they otherwise had the power.

Governor King and his council alone, of all the intelligent persons with whom I consulted, fear an irruption upon them of an armed force to be collected in other States, and this is the only difficulty of which they now have any apprehension.  This fear is excited by the boasts frequently made by the few who still avow their determination to adhere to the constitution that they have at their control large bodies of armed men, as well as camp equipage, provisions, money, and munitions of war, which have been provided for them in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.  The supposition that Rhode Island is to be invaded by a foreign force, when that force would neither be led nor followed by any considerable number of the people of the State, does not seem, to say the least, to be a very reasonable one.  If those who think they are suffering injustice are not disposed to make an effort to redress their supposed wrongs, they would hardly expect the work to be done by others.

The ostensible object of the insurgents now is not the real one.  They meditate no further forcible proceedings.  They bluster and threaten for several reasons: 

First.  Because they suppose they shall thus break their fall a little and render their retreat a little less inglorious than it would be if they should beat it at once.

Second.  They believe that if they keep up a shew of opposition to the existing government they shall be more likely to revolutionize it by peaceable measures; and

Third.  They think they can make their influence so far felt as to operate favorably upon those who are now under arrest for treason or who may be hereafter arrested for the same offense.