will be crowned with a rich reward; and I am sure that the people of this state will find their interests promoted by a direct access to the great seat of American manufactures. It is the good fortune of New York to possess within her territory the channel through which the exchange of productions between the east and west must pass. The great work you are completing will increase our inland trade, while it will open to the people of Massachusetts a direct and easy route to the new states. But these results are inconsiderable in comparison with the political benefits which will result from bringing the western states and this commonwealth into an intimate connection with Massachusetts and the eastern states.

I trust, sir, the time is near at hand when the chain of railroads which now binds together the valley of the Merrimack, the Connecticut, the Housatonic, the Hudson, the Oswego, the Genesee, and the Niagara, will reach the Mississippi. Nor do I believe the day is far distant when the country lying on the northern shores of the great lakes will be opened to the inland commerce of the United States. Both these events must be taken into consideration in estimating the advantages Massachusetts is to derive from the Western railroad.

With much respect and esteem, your obedient servant.

TO HON. JAMES BOWEN.

ALBANY, November 10, 1842.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of resolutions passed by the New York and Erie Railroad Company, expressing favorable opinions concerning my public action in relation to the New York and Erie railroad; which resolutions are accompanied by a medal, designed to be preserved as a token of the sentiments thus expressed.

Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances which now surround that enterprise, I firmly retain the opinion that its accomplishment can not be prevented, nor even long delayed; and that when the road shall have been made, it will justly be regarded as at least the second in usefulness among the works of internal

improvement in the United States. I therefore need make no elaborate expression of the grateful emotions I experience in receiving testimonials which, when the generous givers and the receiver shall have passed away, can not fail to be regarded by those into whose hands the token may fall as proving that I was not altogether unworthy of their remembrance.

I shall hereafter possess only the ability of a private citizen to promote this and the other physical improvements so necessary to the security of the state, and conducive to the welfare of its citizens. But I beg leave to assure the members of the association of my exalted admiration of their perseverance, their patriotism, and their sacrifices; that I shall not fail to maintain the obligation of the several states of our confederacy to re-establish their credit-of the government of the United States to lend effective aid to the efforts of the states for that purpose-and of this state to support that policy, and either to assume the construction of the New York and Erie railroad upon terms equal and just to the association, or to render to the association the aid necessary to an early accomplishment of the great enterprise confided to their care by the legislature.

I should do violence to my own feelings, and injustice to you, my dear sir, if I omitted to make grateful acknowledgments for the very kind manner in which you have communicated the sentiments of the association over which you preside, and to congratulate you on the enviable position you enjoy. You were honored in receiving charge of the great enterprise while it was receiving liberal support from your fellow-citizens, and the favor of the state. But the fidelity and firmness you display in a season which I trust will be of short duration, when, owing to causes foreign to the merit of the work, that support has in a great measure ceased, and that favor been withdrawn, deserves and will assuredly secure a large measure of public gratitude.

I remain your obedient servant.

TO THE PACIFIC RAILROAD CONVENTION AT ST. LOUIS.

FLORIDA, N. Y., October 8, 1849.

GENTLEMEN: Your letter of the 28th of August, inviting me to attend the national convention to be held at St. Louis, to deliberate on the importance of communications across the continent by railroad and telegraph, and tendering to me the hospitalities of the city on that interesting occasion, has been received.

When we contemplate, for only a moment, our expansive territorials on the Pacific coast, and the almost magical developments of moral, social, and political elements in the colonies planted there, separated as they are from us by mountain-barriers, desert wastes, and stormy seas; when we look upon the full tide of European immigration beating upon our eastern shores, and consider the volume that is ready to break upon the Pacific coast, the ultimate unity of the races of men reveals itself to us, and we are irresistibly impressed with a conviction that this unity is to be perfected in our own country, under our own democratic institutions.

While we are yet bewildered in endeavoring to obtain a full conception of the ultimate influence of railroads and magnetic telegraphs upon civilization and empire, we see that they are indispensable agencies in perfecting the integrity of the nation, and in attaining its destiny. All previous enterprises of internal improvement have involved preliminary questions of practicability and of necessity, or at least of expediency, which perplexed the popular mind, and hindered, delayed, or altogether defeated, the action of the government. But the connection of the oceans is an inevitable and immediate consequence of progress already made, which can not be retarded. The banks of the Mississippi, so long and until so recent a period the barrier between the European powers-whose dominion on this continent has passed

away for ever-are a fitting place for consultation; and I should deem it among the most gratifying incidents of my life if I could control circumstances around me so as to avail myself of the instructions which the convention will afford. But this will be impossible. I pray you to accept my grateful acknowledgments for the respect implied by your invitation, and my sincere assurance that the most disinterested and diligent efforts shall be put forth on my part in support of such a system for perfecting the proposed enterprises as shall seem most likely to gain the favor of the national legislature.

I speak of Congress, because I deem it right and necessary to demand, not merely the toleration or consent of that body, but its direct and effective action. Undoubtedly a railroad to the Pacific ocean would ultimately be constructed by the enterprise of citizens and of states, as other national works of internal improvement have been built. But the interest of this generation, and even the security of the nation, can not abide such delays. The action of our government concerning internal improvements hitherto has not conformed to the plainly-expressed anticipations of its founders. It was universally and confidently supposed, when the constitution was adopted, that all works essential to the public defence and to the improvement of internal commerce would be constructed by the national arm and with the national treasury. But the government has hitherto remained, for the most part, inactive and inert, by reason of disputes about the relative utility of such enterprises, and real or affected apprehensions of improvidence and demoralization consequent on the exercise of federal power in that direction. This inaction has resulted in deep and pervading doubts about even the constitutional power of Congress to construct any works of internal improvement. The first and most important step toward the fulfilment of the wishes of the people is the removal of these doubts; and this can be done only by full expositions, in every popular form, of the indispensable necessity and vast utility of the enterprises which will engage the attention of the convention. This must be done, or it will be left for states yet to be organized, and even yet to be peopled, to construct, link by link, the chain which the federal power ought to forge at a single blow.

I am, gentlemen, with great respect and esteem, your humble

servant.

SLAVERY.

TO WILLIAM JAY AND GERRIT SMITH, ESQS.

AUBURN, October 22, 1838.

GENTLEMEN: Your letter proposing to me certain questions in behalf of a numerous meeting of my fellow-citizens at Utica, has been received.

You must be aware, gentlemen, that the convention which has designated me as the representative of the whig party in this state, in the approaching election, has done so without any reference to the subjects indicated in your inquiries, and that those subjects enter not at all into the political creed of that large body of freemen whose candidate I have become. Persons selected as the representatives of political principles can have no right to compromise their constituents, by the expression of opinions on other subjects than those in reference to which the selections were made. Upon this ground, a candidate might perhaps decline to answer any inquiries, other than such as should relate to the political matters agitated among the people. He might, with even greater propriety, excuse himself from answering a body of men who do not profess to form a political party, and who do not declare that their votes will be in the least influenced by the answer they may receive, but who, on the contrary, in their official communication say, that their "inquiry is prompted by no desire to promote or defeat the success of any particular candidate, but is made solely for the purpose of affording to the electors information important to the faithful and intelligent exercise of the elective franchise." But, gentlemen, I am disposed to treat the matter with more enlarged and elevated views. I am unwilling that the intelligent, virtuous, and patriotic citi