Quill Project

Throughout the platform round icons are events relating to individuals and their right to have an opinion in particular debates:

Person joining a committee

Person leaving a committee

Person elected to a position

Roll-call

Parchment-coloured, square icons relate to the creation and amending of documents:

Create a new proposal

Create a new document that is a line-by-line revision of another document (noted by the pen icon in the corner)

Document amendment proposed

Document taken from another committee (note arrow in corner)

Amendment taken from another committee

Debate a proposal

Documents that have an explicit subtype can be displayed with a slightly different icon:

Legislative text

Formal Resolutions

A message to be sent elsewhere

A petition to be considered

Rules and Orders of Business

Diamond-shaped, purple icons relate to decisions taken:

Drop a proposal

Refer a proposal to another committee

Adopt a proposal

Other vote (continue debate)

Reject a proposal

Postpone a debate

Blue, hexagon-shaped icons relate to 'procedural' proposals that do not directly alter text but affect how a committee does its work (and are usually used only for transient things, such as a point of order.)

Procedural motion

Procedural motion with sub-decisions

Debate on a procedural motion

This page displays an overview of the events a person was involved in during a convention and the votes that he/she won or lost.

Select the relevant committee on the left. Along the top, the line of the selected committee's events will highlight those moments where an event is tagged with this person.

In the lower part of the page a list of the votes taken will allow you to see whether this person was on the winning or losing side (where it is known).

The Road to Civil War

James F. Simmons

(September 10, 1795 — July 10, 1864) James Fowler Simmons, a Senator from Rhode Island; born on a farm near Little Compton, Newport County, R.I., September 10, 1795; attended a private school in Newport, R.I.; moved to Providence, R.I., in 1812; employed in various manufacturing concerns in Rhode Island and Massachusetts; engaged in the manufacture of yarn at Simmonsville, N.H., in 1822; moved to Johnston, R.I., in 1827 and resumed the manufacture of yarns and engaged in agricultural pursuits; member, State house of representatives 1828-1841; elected as a Whig to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1841, to March 3, 1847; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1846 and for election in 1850 to the United States Senate; chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Printing (Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses); returned to Johnston, R.I., and resumed his former pursuits; again elected to the United States Senate as a Republican and served from March 4, 1857, to September 5, 1862, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Patents and the Patent Office (Thirty-seventh Congress); resumed his former manufacturing pursuits; died in Johnston, R.I., July 10, 1864; interment in North End Cemetery, Providence, R.I. [Source: “Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present,” available at https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/S000417]

Member of Rhode Island Delegation - The Road to Civil War [this display].

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Member of the following committees and involvement

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Voting details of

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