Freedom Circle logo
Freedom Circle

Where Can You Find Freedom Today?

The Ocean State - ratified Constitution 29 May 1790

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest state in area, the seventh least populous and is the second most densely populated. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and its most populous city.

Geographical type: Territory

Latitude: 41.7° N — Longitude: 71.5° W

Area: 3,144 km²

ISO 3166-2 code: US-RI

Birthplace of

John Bates Clark, in Providence, on 26 Jan 1847

Deathplace of

Albert Jay Nock, in Wakefield, on 19 Aug 1945

Measures of Freedom

Freedom in the 50 States 2015-2016 | Rhode Island | Cato Institute
2014: Overall rank: 43, fiscal policy rank: 38, regulatory policy rank: 45, personal freedom rank: 17, economic freedom rank: 42
LP State-by-State Membership Numbers [PDF], Libertarian Party News, Apr 2006
31 Dec 2005: Number of Members: 32

Articles

Paper Money and the Constitution, by Rick Lynch, Freedom Daily, Jan 2009
Examines the historical period of the Articles of Confederation and how it led to controls on the issuance of paper money in the U.S. Constitution
[I]t was the example of Rhode Island that most horrified the Framers. The legislature, dominated by indebted farmers, circulated paper money that creditors naturally refused to accept. The legislature then made acceptance mandatory. Many creditors ... actually fled the state ... The government's answer was simply to pass more corrupt legislation, this time allowing debtors to legally discharge the debt by depositing money with courts ... When Rhode Island's supreme court declared the paper-money law unconstitutional, the legislature threw the court out of office and replaced the justices.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rhode Island" as of 6 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.