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1836 · 2129gls — New York: Wiley and Long 1836. Octavo string-bound wrappers 30 pp. Top leaf loose neat former-owner signature soiling to wrappers. “Sir:-- / When one charged with the responsible duties of a legislator forgets the nature of the trust which he holds for the Commonwealth and instead of consulting the common interests alone endeavors to procure the enactment of laws of a purely local tendency which whilst they momentarily affect one portion of the country favorable bear at the same time prejudicially upon others and in the end become of permanent disadvantage to the whole -- when one vested with the authority of a statesman narrows down his views to the attainment of some object of petty ambition instead of following out an enlarged and liberal system of policy by “giving up to party what was meant for mankind†-- when one clothed in the invulnerable armor of a representative of the people’s sovereignty becomes so lost to a proper sense of the dignified attitude in which he has been placed by his constituents as under cover of the aegis of their majesty to let fly with an irresponsible and unsparing hand the shafts of personal invective against individuals or classes of his fellow citizens there is a point where neither the exercise of charity which supposes honest motives in all nor the forbearance to which even the prejudices of well meaning ignorance are entitled nor the respect of silence due to those whose power is thus abused and misdirected can longer be classed as virtues; and that point is when wrong-headedness the result at first of ignorance is perservered in through sheer obstinancy in spite of the weight of testimony of the most respectable and impartial witnesses against the errors and folly of such a course. With your career sir as a legislator and a statesman I have nothing to do. That is a subject which must rest of examination in the hands of your legitimate judges your own constituents. Wiley and Long, 1836. hardcover