MRS. RIPLEY TO MR. DICKINSON.

OGDENSBURGH, N. Y., October 13, 1845.

HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON-Dear Sir-You may be surprised to receive a letter from an entire stranger, upon neither legal nor political subjects; but I presume no apology will be required when I tell you there was a time when a visit from your parents and their children formed one of the greatest joys of my childhood. A general happiness was also diffused through the family circle; and, though many years have since passed, and stamped on all the actors of that period the impress of time, or laid them low in the dust, still those scenes are now, and ever will be, the dearest of my recollections. Many a time have I listened, with close attention, to our fathers' conferences on the public men and measures of those days. Their sentiments were in perfect harmony. Jefferson was their idol; and though they both partook largely of party. spirit, patriotism was always in the ascendant.

The principal object of this communication is to inquire after our relatives. How many of your father's family are still living? and where are the two sons of uncle David Caulkins? You are aware that my father, your uncle, Roswell Caulkins, emigrated to the State of Ohio from Connecticut about the same time that your father removed to Chenango County, New York. He died twenty-two years ago. My mother is still living. Nearly all the family reside in Ohio. I have been a resident of this town seventeen years. My husband, Christopher Ripley, was a captain in the army during the last war. Our only son graduated at West Point two years since, and is now assistant professor of mathematics at that institution. We have two daughters married and settled here.

I forget the names of your brothers, but well remember your sister, Pomona.

Some English writer has said, that on no people do the ties of consanguinity sit so lightly as on the Americans. This is easily accounted for. Relatives are often so widely scattered in early life, that they rarely ever meet to renew their first attachment.

Present my best respects to your family. I shall be very happy to hear from them.

Very respectfully yours,

JULIA C. RIPLEY.

MR. DICKINSON TO MR. STRAHAN, CHAIRMAN, &c.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 1845.

DEAR SIR-I am favored with yours of the 15th, inviting me, in behalf of the Democratic Republican Young Men's General Committee of the City of New York, to address a public meeting of the Democratic Republican Young Men of that city, to be held at Tammany Hall on Friday evening next, upon the subjects of Constitutional Reform and of National and State policy. It would afford me high gratification could I comply with your request; but absence from my seat at this time would be incompatible with official duty.

I most heartily concur in the declaration of principles shadowed forth in the resolutions accompanying your invitation, and admire the frank and manly tone in which they are expressed. The present is an auspicious moment for the profita ble discussion of principles. No important elections are pending to quicken official ambition or to stimulate mere partisan zeal; but questions of high national moment and abiding interest claim our best consideration, and the framework of the fundamental law of our own State is about to be reconstructed by the people.

The aspect of our national affairs, so far as relates to the administration of our own government, could scarcely be more gratifying. Lofty as were the expectations created by the memorable struggle and triumphant success of 1844, they have been more than realized. The patriotic tone and manly bearing of the Executive, in his official communication, has gladdened the heart of every true American, has strengthened the hands of his friends, wrung unwilling praise from his opponents, and is destined to command the respect and admiration of the civilized world. Nobly was he sustained as the standard bearer of democracy, and thrice well has he discharged the office.

That elevated policy which has resulted in reuniting to us an extensive and fertile region of country, a free and independent people, allured by the beauty of our institutions, and won by the arts of peace, has furnished a memorable and instructive chapter in the history of human progress; an imperishable record of the triumph of truth over error; of a liberal and enlightened philosophy over a narrow and bigoted prejudice and of the ceaseless and onward spirit of the age over that timidity and selfishness which runs only in the grooves of its own formation. Though the first conquest of peace, it will not be the last, and the time is not far distant when the American citizen will only wonder why it should have found an opponent on this side of the Atlantic.

But I need not say that the all-absorbing topic of the day is the territory of Oregon, to a portion of which Great Britain has, as usual, interposed her claim. Having as good a right to the whole as any portion, and none to either, she has rejected offers for a compromise which I trust she will not have the opportunity to reject again, and negotiation seems to have terminated. Our title to the whole territory has not only been boldly asserted by the distinguished statesmen who have conducted the negotiation, but has literally been shown to be "clear and unquestionable." Great Britain may now, perhaps, consent to divide it, especially if her craving propensity for aggrandizement shall be sufficiently indulged; while the American people will insist upon the whole of their own, remembering that it was the spurious and not the natural mother who proposed to sever the disputed offspring.

Among the most interesting questions which will demand the consideration of the Convention for the revision of the Constitution in our State, is that of limiting the power of the Legislature to create debt for the purpose of internal improvement. The exercise of this questionable function of government, under any circumstances, can be justified only by necessity. Whatever may have been the occasion for its employment, or however great its advantages, or manifold its abuses, such necessity with us exists no longer. Works of the first magnitude are undertaken and completed by associated private enterprise, and no one is probably contemplated within our borders entitled to a moment's consideration, but such as may readily be

accomplished by the same or similar means. The exercise of this power has proved a fruitful source of mischief and irritation; and, having largely offended, the motive is strong to obey the Scriptural injunction to cut it off. But the attempt to remedy it by stripping the representative of the powers and dignity of his station: to render him irresponsible in the estimation of the people, and degraded in his own, must increase the evil it is designed to remedy, and proclaim to the world that a representative government is not to be trusted in matters which concern the interests of the people.

The Judicial Department of the government requires, as your resolutions indicate, and doubtless will receive, thorough and radical reform and reorganization; and it is but reasonable to indulge the hope, that, following this improvement, the practice and proceedings in courts of law and equity may be disrobed of the star-chamber drapery which has so long concealed their features from the people; that the numerous absurd and antiquated forms and fictions which embarrass the administration of justice may be abolished, and truth and sense, becoming the spirit of the age, be substituted for fiction and jargon.

The right of suffrage is merely conventional, and the question upon whom it shall be conferred should be determined as well upon principles of justice as of expediency; and while we should not deprive the negro of his rights, no mistaken conception of abstract equality should induce us to yield him our own, or attempt thus to compensate him for the bondage of a portion of his race. It is clearly apparent that two races of men, so unlike in physical development, can never associate together, in any of the concerns of life, upon terms of equality, without that intermingling of relations which degrades both. The mere privilege of bestowing his suffrage, without the right to receive that of his fellow-citizens in return, would prove an idle mockery; and even the right to become such a recipient, with the knowledge that through all time it was to be denied in practice, would prove equally valueless and unavailing. It might, by the aid of political traders, embody and congregate the roving and worthless of this unfortunate race, especially previous to important elections; but it would never elevate or ameliorate the condition of the African. He would

stand like Tantalus with his lips to the fountain, without being permitted to taste its blessings. Nor can his condition be essentially improved while he mingles with a people who, however virtuous he may be, cannot and will not extend to him the hand of social equality.

But time will not permit me to enlarge upon the various topics so significantly enforced by your resolutions, and in a few hurried words I desire to say, that I will cordially join you in inculcating sentiments which shall tend to enlarge the boundaries of rational freedom, and to render its foundations more broad and deep; which shall as well secure to industry its reward and to labor the bread it has earned, as to the affluent his fair inheritance or honest accumulations; which shall restore to the people, as far as is practicable, the appointment of their own servants, and shall simplify and correct all that is involved and erroneous in the machinery of government; which shall war with privilege and inequality in whatever imposing garb they may appear, or however specious their disguises; which shall raise still higher the standard of morals and of social order, and cause the rich blessings of civil and religious liberty to flow onward, to fertilize and bless the extended domains of humanity. With high considerations of regard,

I am your friend and fellow-citizen,

D. S. DICKINSON.

EDWARD STRAHAN, Chairman Committee of Arrangements.

MR. STILWELL TO MR. DICKINSON.

NEW YORK, March 17, 1846.

DEAR DICKINSON-I have received your speech on the Oregon question, and read it with attention. I have been a close observer of events connected with the subject of your remarks, and it is but just for me to say to you, as I do most freely and candidly, that I have derived more full and complete information from the speech you have sent me, than I have been able to gather from all other sources.

Of course, this commercial place is anxious for peace on any terms, but I am satisfied that the public view will sustain you