Pierce, Franklin (1804-1869) to D. W. Burroughs
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02634 Author/Creator: Pierce, Franklin (1804-1869) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 18 March 1838 Pagination: 4 p. : docket ; 25.3 x 20.3 cm. Order a Copy
Pierce, writing as a United States Senator from Vermont, responds to a letter from Reverend Burroughs. In reference to their conflicting views on slavery, promises to send Burroughs a copy of the United States Constitution, as he requested. Writes, "I am no advocate of slavery. I wish it had no existence upon the face of the Earth, but as a public man, I am called upon to act in relation to an existing states of things- one, which neither you or I have had any agency in producing- One older than that Constitution of our Country and expressly recognized by it." Argues that violent abolitionists in the North have "postponed the Emancipation of the colored population in Maryland and Kentucky..." Notes that slavery in the South can only be abolished, "by the consent and agency of the Southern people themselves or by revolution." Perceives that a civil war would "carry ruin & desolation to every portion of this Country and probably result in the extermination of the coloured population upon this Continent." Forgives the "three pages of abuse, which you have lavished upon me, in consideration of the high state of excitement and manifest delusion under which you wrote..."
D. W. Burroughs was likely the Reverend Daniel W. Burroughs of Massachusetts, who moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he became a newspaper publisher and conductor on the Underground Railroad.
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