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.
theywilljudgearighteousjud[g]ment— law or no law: for laws and opinions, like the vane of a Steeple, changes with the wind. One congress passes a law, and another repeals it. And one statesman says that the Constitution means this, and another that, and who does not know that both <all> may be wrong:— The opinion and pledge therefore, in the first sentence <paragraph> of your reply to my question, like the forced steam from the engine of a Steam baot [boat], makes the show of a <bright> cloud at first, but <when it comes in connection <contact> with a purer atmosphere,> dissolves to common air again.
Your Second paragraph leaves you naked before yourself, like a likeness in a mirror, when you say that “according to your viewof <the> Federal Government, as<it is> <is> one of limited and specific powers,” it <and> has no Jurisdiction in the case <of> the mormans. So then, a state can at any time, expel any portions of her citizens with inpunity and <in> the language of , frosted over with your gracious “viewofthecase,” “though <the> cause is ever so just, government can do nothing for you them, because it has no power!”
Go on, then, , after another set of inhabitants. (as the did) [p. [2]]