Beschreibung:

ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY Autograph letter signed ("John Quincy Adams") TO THE NOTED ABOLITIONIST GERRIT SMITH of New York; Washington, D.C., 5 April 1837. 4 pages, 4to, closely written. Fine condition. "THE CONDITION OF THE AFRICAN RACE IN THIS UNION HAS EVER BEEN TO ME A SUBJECT OF DEEP CONCERN...I HAVE FELT AN ANXIOUS WISH THAT SLAVERY MIGHT BE ABOLISHED...THROUGHOUT THE UNION AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD... " An outstanding, very frank letter in which the former President reaffirms his unrelenting opposition to slavery and his determination to see it abolished, in spite of the infamous Gag Rule invoked by Congress to silence debate on the subject. Adams furnishes a pessimistic analysis of the political situation, the power of the slave states in Congress, the pro-slavery attitude of President Van Buren and the electorate's opposition. Adams reports that the "two Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia" arrived "in the midst of my trials." He thanks Smith for them but observes that "petitions for the abolition of slavery were...so unwelcome to a very large majority of the late House...that for the last four weeks they disregarded all the rules of the House...for the express purpose of excluding them, and at the expiration of Congress I was left with your two petitions, and about [150] others...which I had...been refused...permission to present. The condition of the African race in this Union has ever been to me a subject of great concern...and I have felt an anxious wish that Slavery might be abolished, not only in the District of Columbia, but throughout the Union and throughout the world..." But, he had hoped the states of Virginia and Maryland might take such action themselves, "and that the emancipation of the slaves would be effected silently and without convulsions"; he feared "the harmony, and perhaps the peace of the Union would be greatly disturbed, if Congress should take the lead in this process of emancipation; and that it would be naturally and easily accomplished by the regular and irresistible progress of public opinion, without any Agency of Congress..." But, he goes on, "I have been constrained to abandon the hope that the states of Virginia or Maryland, will ever voluntarily surrender their worship of the Moloch of Slavery." Therefore abolition in the District of Columbia, he explains, is even more difficult: "I see the whole slave representation in both Houses of Congress...arrayed against it...I see all the individual ambition in all the free states, enlisted against it; I see a native of New York [Van Buren], elected President of the United States by slave representations...that he would pronounce his constitutional negative [veto]...upon any...act for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia..." Van Buren's promise, Adams asserts, is "a needle pointing to the Pole Star of present public opinion -- as a measure of Northen sevility to Southern servitude"; and this weakness "pervades all the political parties, and their leaders; and especially every aspirant to the office of President, Vice President, Chief Justice or Speaker of the House...Every one of those office is now held by the tenure of anti-Abolition opinions; and...no man holding or even suspected of holding the adverse opinion will...ever attain either of those stations. The people of the free States are spell-bound by the talisman of Ambition to sustain the slavery of the South, and ambition is the most heartless of human passions..." "The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia...is viewed by the abolitionists themselves, as well as by their opponents, as a mere stepping stone to that of Slavery in the States"; how can "Congress interfere" in the case of the District of Columbia without the states "stipulating that it should be abolished, as had been done in the organization of the Northwestern Territory? But the subject is too copious. It would require a pamphlet to explain...my objections to the imme