Country Party

The Country party, known contemporarily in Rhode Island politics as the majority, was an early political faction and later party in Rhode Island in the Confederation and early Federal periods, lasting from about March 1781 until the end of Governor James Fenner’s tenure in May 1811. At its peak of influence, it controlled the Rhode Island General Assembly and dominated state politics from 1785 to 1790. A stridently Anti-Federalist party, it was instrumental in resisting ratification of the Constitution and was the organized vehicle for political expression of popular views that led to Rhode Island both disrupting consensus among states under the Articles of Confederation and being the last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution.