The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter to the Hon. Samuel Eliot,
Representative in Congress From the City of Boston, In Reply to His Apology For Voting For the Fugitive Slave Bill., by Hancock
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Title: A Letter to the Hon. Samuel Eliot, Representative in Congress From the City of Boston, In Reply to His Apology For Voting For the Fugitive Slave Bill.
Author: Hancock
Release Date: February 5, 2010 [EBook #31191]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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A
LETTER
TO
THE HON. SAMUEL A. ELIOT,
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE CITY OF BOSTON,
in reply to his
APOLOGY FOR VOTING FOR THE FUGITIVE
SLAVE BILL.
BY HANCOCK
BOSTON:
WM. CROSBY & H. P. NICHOLS,
111 WASHINGTON STREET.
1851.
CAMBRIDGE:
METCALF AND COMPANY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
A LETTER, &c.
SIR;--
An English courtier procured a colonial judgeship for a young dependant
wholly ignorant of law. The new functionary, on parting with his patron,
received from him the following sage advice,--"Be careful never to
assign reasons, for whether your judgments be right or wrong, your
reasons will certainly be bad." You have cause to regret that some
friend had not been equally provident of your reputation, and intimated
that it was only expected of you to vote for Mr. Webster's measures, but
by no means to assist him in vindicating them. You did, indeed, vote
precisely as those who procured your nomination intended you should;
yet, on your return home, you found your name had become a byword and a
reproach in your native State. Another election approached, but you
declined submitting your recent course to the judgment of the electors,
and withdrew from the canvass. But although the people were thus
prevented from voting against you, they persisted in speaking and
writing against you. Anxious to relieve yourself from the load
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