JS, Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to , Fort Hill, Pickens Co., SC, 2 Jan. 1844. Version drafted 2 Jan. 1844; handwriting of ; docket and notation in handwriting of ; eleven pages; JS Collection, CHL.
as the Jewels of eternity, to read in the 8th section and first article, of the constitution of the , the first, fourteenth and seventeenth “Specific” and not very “limited powers” of the Federal government, what can be done to protect the lives, property and rights, of a virtuous people, when <the administrators <of> the laws and law makers are> unbought by bribes, uncorrupted by patronage, untempted by gold, unawed by feared and uncontaminated with tangling alliances;— <even> Like [C]aes[a]rs wife, notonly[unsp]ottedbutunsuspected!— and God, who cooled the heat of a Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace, or shut the Mouths of Lions for the honor of <a> Daniel, may <will> raise your <mind> above <the> narrow notion, that the general government has no power,— to the sublime idea that Congress, with the president as executive, is as almighty in its sphere as Jehovah is in his.
With great consideration I have the honor to be your Obt Sevt