boston, January 4th
I have this day received your favor of the 2d, with an
enclosed printed paper, to which my signature is requested, to be “immediately”
returned. I should have preferred a little time for reflection on a proposal of
so much gravity, and it would be presumptuous in me to decide off-hand that a
law might not by possibility be framed in the present state of the
country by which slavery should be constitutionally prohibited by Congress. I
must own, however, that I do not find in the Constitution (from which alone
Congress derives not only its powers but its existence) any authority for such
a purpose. If this view is correct (and I am not aware that it has ever been
contested by any party), the passage of a law like that proposed would be the
inauguration of a new revolution; that is, the assumption of powers of the
widest scope, confessedly not conferred by the frame of government under which
we live. The legislation to which General Washington referred, in his letter of
1786, quoted in the printed paper, was, of course, State legislation. So was
that of Pennsylvania, so justly commended in the paper. I would fear that an
attempt like that prayed for would not only render more difficult the adoption
of the constitutional amendment now pending, but throw obstacles in the way of
the prohibition of slavery now in rapid progress under State authority, with reference
to which there is no doubt.*
_______________
* This letter was among the last Mr. Everett wrote; eleven
days after the date of it he died ; and Mr. Bryant, though he had been no
admirer of his earlier political course, paid handsome tributes to his memory
in speeches before the New York Historical Society and the Union League Club. (a)
_______________
(a) See “Orations and Addresses.” D. Appleton &
Co.
SOURCE: Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen
Bryant, Volume 1, p. 224
No comments:
Post a Comment