John J. Crittenden to Congressman Presley Ewing, March 6, 1854

FRANKFORT, March 6, 1854.

In reply to telegraph, I am clear that Congress ought to leave it to the States preparing for admission into the Union to form their constitutions in respect to slavery as they please.

Hope the North may concur in substituting this principle for the rule fixed by the Missouri Compromise. But without such numerical concurrence of Northern representatives as would fairly indicate the assent of the North to such substitution, I don't think the South ought to disregard that compromise, to which it was a party.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

Hon. PRESLEY EWING, Washington City.

SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, pp. 103-4