Letter to Editor, 15 April 1844, as Published in Times and Seasons
Source Note
JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to the editor of Daily Globe [], [], 15 Apr. 1844. Version published in “The Globe,” Times and Seasons, 15 Apr. 1844, vol. 5, no. 8, 508–510. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
tion relative to a National Bank, in ’s remarks, is, that the mother bank should be located at .
This is correct, for as a city, collectively or individually, cannot be reproached with dishonor, crime, corruption or bribery.— Neither has a Swartwout or Price mingled his millions with the majesty of monarchs by walking out of the unwalled and ungated . The blood of Commodores and Congressmen, shed by the heaven-daring, hell-begotten, earth-disgracing practice of dueling, has never stained the virtuous soil or city of . Nor does a slave raise his rusting fetters and chains, and exclaim, O liberty where are thy charms? Wisdom, freedom, religion, and virtue, like light, love, water and air, ‘spread undivided, and operate unspent,’ in the beloved ; while the gay world, and great politicians may sing, and even the ‘great Globe’ itself may chime the melodious sounds:—
Hail , “free and equal”—
Lo, the saints, the Mormons, bless ye!
Felt thy glory most severely,
When gave them jesse.
Hail , “free and equal”—
Negro slaves, like common cattle,
Bought and sold for cash at auction;
Prayers and chains together rattle!
Hail , “free and equal,”—
“Liberty,” (as patriots won it;
Crown’d the “head” of freemen’s money:
Now the goddess sits upon it!
Hail , “free and equal”—
“Gold and silver” is thy “tender;”
Treasury notes, (aside from [Nicholas] Biddle,)
Foreign loans, and fallen splendor!
As the “world is governed too much” and as there is not a nation or dynasty, now occupying the earth, which acknowledges Almighty God as their law giver, and as ‘crowns won by blood, by blood must be maintained,’ I go emphatically, virtuously, and humanely, for a Theodemocracy, where God and the people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteousness. And where liberty, free trade, and sailor’s rights, and the protection of life and property shall be maintained inviolate, for the benefit of ALL. To exalt mankind is nobly acting the part of a God; to degrade them, is meanly doing the drudgery of the devil. Unitas, libertas, caritas—esto perpetua!
With highest sentiments of regard for all men, I am an advocate of unadulterated freedom.