Judge of Supreme Court and Anti-federalist Leader
West served as a Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (then called the Superior Court of Assize, and General Gaol Delivery) from 1787 to 1789. While a judge, West was also a leader in the rural opposition to the adoption of the Constitution, known as the "Country Party (Rhode Island)". The party supported honoring paper money as legal tender, and the party was in power from 1786 through 1790. West led nearly 1,000 armed, rural citizens to Providence to protest an ox roast celebration and reading the Constitution on the 4th of July in 1788 (shortly after the ninth state had ratified it). Fortunately, a compromise between the federalists and anti-federalists was reached, and civil war was averted (the federalists agreed to celebrate only independence, not the adoption of the Constitution). Resistance to the Constitution, however, remained strong, and Rhode Island was the last of the 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution in 1790.
Read more about this topic: William West (Rhode Island Politician)
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