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when, owing to causes foreign to the merit of the work, that support has in a great measure ceased, and that favor been withdrawn, deserves and will assuredly secure a large measure of public gratitude.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 ref erence 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

zens, who have called upon me to become their candidate, shall be subjected to the reproach of having selected a citizen who either held any opinions that he was desirous to conceal, or who was unwilling to trust to the intelligence and liberality of his countrymen, for the honest indulgence of sentiments that any of them might deem erroneous, on subjects of great difficulty, and in relation to which the wisest and best men of our country do not agree.

I am unwilling, moreover, to impair the force of the great republican principle which recognises the right of the constituent to know the opinions of the representative, in order that the will of the people may be fully expressed, and which acknowledges also the duty of obeying that will when ascertained.

Your first inquiry is: "Are you in favor of a law granting to persons in this state claimed as fugitive slaves, a trial by jury?" To me it seems that the more humble and degraded the individual over whom arbitrary power is attempted to be exercised, the stronger is his claim to the protection of a trial by jury. This inestimable institution, derived by us, with the choicest and dearest principles of liberty, from the purest period of England, can be neither too highly appreciated nor too widely extended. Its provisions are peculiarly applicable to the case of the wretched being whose services are claimed as the property of another. But, gentlemen, I am not aware that any further legislation is necessary to secure this right to the persons in question. Abundant provision already exists in our laws, and in my judgment its provisions are in perfect harmony with the institutions of civil liberty. It is true that the question is now pending in the court for the correction of errors, whether this provision conflicts with the constitution of the United States. Should that law be sustained, there are, I think, very few citizens who would desire its repeal, and certainly I am not one of them. If, however, the statute shall be decided to be unconstitutional, and any other can be passed which will avoid that objection and secure the right, it would find in me a firm supporter.

Your second inquiry is: "Are you in favor of abolishing all distinctions in the constitutional rights of the citizens of this state, founded solely on complexion?"

This question is very general, and I am at a loss to perceive its application to any other subject than the provision of the con