Was Peleg Place of Mount Vernon, Rhode Island a Whig?

This blogger has made a circumstantial case that Jeremiah Phillips' family was a Republican-Democrat (i.e. democratic) under the influence of the two Daniel Howard's (father and son), as was much of north Foster, Rhode Island, later identified with Foster Center, Rhode Island.

The voting tended to be a 2:1 ration of Republican-Democrats to Whigs until the Dorr Rebellion, at which time the Daniel Howards switched to the "Law and Order Party".

From whence the Whigs?

Mount Vernon, Rhode Island.

How do we know this?  The most powerful authority political parties had from Andrew Jackson onward was the ability to appoint a local post master.  In the 1840's, when "franking" (the ability of a congressman to mail free mail, propaganda) became fully authorized, the post master also became the local precinct captain, in today's parlance.

Here is what I would call a "smoking gun". (I love Google as it allows the direct copying of many primary documents into Blogger).  On 22 June 1841, Peleg Place was appointed by Tyler as the postmaster.  The document is listed below, the preface by the president and Postmaster General, and page 22 listing the notable Peleg Place, of the Mount Vernon Bank.

One does not get to be a local postmaster lightly.  It means communing with the Governor, the U.S. senators, likely contributing to the party significantly, and getting the vote out.  If Peleg Place was a Whig in 1841, then the cashier, Raymond G. Place, would also be a Whig.  This would indicate that a youthful Robie A. Place, then of Rice City, would also have been Whiggish, though unable to vote.

This leads to a scenario:  After the Dorr Rebellion, Daniel Howard the younger, and Horace Howard, his son, were Law & Order men.  The voting patterns of Foster, Rhode Island slowly began to change.  At the same time of the disintegration of the Whigs, and the split of the Republican-Democrats to "Democrats", and the beginning to the "Republican Party", Jeremiah Phillips died, and James Wheaton and Whipple, V. came directly under the influence of the more conservative Raymond G. Place, their guardian.

Therefore, we can almost exactly time the transition of this branch of the Phillips family to the Republican Party during the years between 1844 and 1849, the most formative years of James (b. 1830) and Whipple (b. 1833).