To Samuel Galloway1Jump to section
My dear Sir: July 28. 1859
Your very complimentary, not to say flattering letter of the 23rd. Inst. is received. Dr. Reynolds2Jump to section had induced me to expect you here; and I was disappointed, not a little, by your failure to come. And yet I fear you have formed an estimate of me which can scarcely be sustained on a personal acquaintance.
Two things done by the Ohio Republican convention---the repudiation of Judge Swan,3Jump to section and the ``plank'' for a repeal of the Fugitive Slave law---I very much regretted. These two things are of a piece; and they are viewed by many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, as a struggle against, and in disregard of, the constitution itself. And it is the very thing that will greatly endanger our cause, if it be not be [sic] kept out of our national convention. There is another thing our friends are doing which gives me some uneasiness. It is their leaning towards ``popular sovereignty.'' There are three substantial objections to this. First, no party can command respect which sustains this year, what it opposed last. Secondly, Douglas, (who is the most dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious one) would have little support in the North, and by consequence, no capital to trade on in the South, if it were not for our friends thus magnifying him and his humbug. But lastly, and chiefly, Douglas' popular sovereignty, accepted by the public mind, as a just principle, nationalizes slavery, and revives