ew belongs not, therefore, to the department of
Morals, and is transferred to that of Politics to be politically
regulated.

"The accidents of the relation of master and slave, like the accidents of
other social relations, are to be praised or condemned as such
individually and in accordance with the circumstances of every case, and,
whether adjudged good or bad, do not affect the character of the relation
itself."

On the subject of foreign immigration he was most outspoken, and replying
to an enquiry of one of his political friends concerning his attitude
towards the so-called "Know Nothings," he says:--

"So far as I can gather from the public papers, the object of this
society would seem to be to resist the aggression of foreign influence
and its insidious and dangerous assaults upon all that Americans hold
dear, politically and religiously. It appears to be to prevent injury to
the Republic from the ill-timed and, I may say, unbecoming tamperings
with the laws, and habits, and deeply sacred sentiments of Americans by
those whose position, alike dictated by modesty and safety, to them as
well as to us, is that of minors in training for American, not European,
liberty.

"I have not, at this late day, to make up an opinion on this subject. My
sentiments 'On the dangers to the free institutions of the United States
from foreign immigration' are the same now that I have ever entertained,
and these same have been promulgated from Maine to Louisiana for more
than twenty years.

"This subject involves questions which, in my estimation, make all others
insignificant in the comparison, for they affect all others. To the
disturbing influence of foreign action in our midst upon the political
and religious questions of the day may be attributed in a great degree
the present disorganization in all parts of the land.

"So far as the Society you speak of is acting against this great evil it,
of course, meets with my hearty concurrence. I am content to stand on the
platform, in this regard, occupied by Washington in his warnings against
foreign influence, by Lafayette, in his personal conversation and
instructions to me, and by Jefferson in his condemnation of the
encouragement given, even in his day, to foreign immigration. If this
Society has ulterior objects of which I know nothing, of these I can be
expected to speak only when I know something."

As his opinions on important matters, political and religious, appear in