We saw how a charter had been granted to Newport and taken from her. In 1829 an attempt was made to obtain a charter for Providence and failed. Two years later a serious riot occurred in which some property was destroyed and some lives were lost. It became evident to the friends of good order that a more efficient government was required to hold in check a population of sixteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-two souls; for to that number had Providence risen in 1830. A charter was applied for and easily obtained, and on the 22d of November, 1832, the Town of Providence became a city. Samuel W. Bridgham was the first Mayor. Though never the seat of war during the war of 1812, the name of Rhode Island is closely connected with it, through Oliver H. Perry, one of the greatest of naval commanders. She bore her part also in the sufferings occasioned by the embargo, and the other rash measures of a government which rushed headlong and wholly unprepared into a war with the most powerful nation on earth. Fully sharing also in the just discontent of the Eastern States, she sent four delegates to the much maligned Hartford Convention. CHAPTER XXXI. THE DORR REBELLION. We have seen that the relation of the citizen to the State became the subject of attention and experiment at an early period in the history of Rhode Island. Although an avowed democracy, she regarded suffrage not as an inherent right, but as a privilege dependent upon the fulfillment of certain specified conditions. Inequality of representation was a natural consequence of the unequally increased population; some towns growing faster than others, but having no more voice in legislation than they had had at the beginning of their civil existence. The right to vote was held to be an important right, and great pains were taken to secure purity at the polls. But it was evident that all the tax-payers would sooner or later claim to be voters. This question recurs from time to time in all its ramifications, and though long deferred, became at last the chief question of Rhode Island politics. For more than two-thirds of a century she had lived under the Charter of Charles II., first as a Colony and lastly as a State. This Charter was framed in the broad and liberal spirit of Roger Williams and John Clarke, and left room for large developments in every department of legitimate thought and action.