eelings, and all other unkind feelings,
let them originate from what cause they may, shall be buried, at
least while the great question is pending. I will write and ask
the same favor of Mr. Birkbeck. I have but little news. From all
I can learn a considerable majority of the people of the counties
situated in the north-west part of the State, as far south as
Monroe, St. Clair and Washington, are opposed to a call of a
convention, but great and extraordinary efforts are already
making to induce the people to vote for it.

Present my respectful compliments to Mrs. F. and family, and to
your son and his lady, and be assured of my respect and esteem.

EDWARD COLES.

GOVERNOR COLES TO NICHOLAS BIDDLE

_Dear Sir_:--It has been a long time since I either wrote to you
or heard from you. I made a visit last summer to my relations in
Virginia, and intended to have extended my tour as far as
Philadelphia, which I should certainly have done, for I am still
more attached to Philadelphia than any other city in the Union,
but for my trip having been delayed by a severe attack of bilious
fever, and having been prolonged in Virginia beyond the time I
expected, and the necessity I was under to be back here by the
meeting of the Legislature, to enter on the duties of the office
to which I had been recently elected. I assure you, when about to
leave Washington (where I staid only four or five days) and to
turn my face to the west, there was a great struggle between a
sense of duty which dragged me here, and my inclinations and many
strong attractions which drew me to your charming city. There has
long existed in this State a strong party in favor of altering
the constitution and making it a slave-holding State; while there
is another party in favor of a convention to alter the
constitution, but deny that Slavery is their object. These two
parties have finally, by the most unprecedented and unwarrantable
proceedings (an account of which you have no doubt seen in the
newspapers), succeeded in passing a resolution requiring the
sense of the people to be taken at the next general election
(August, 1824), on the propriety of calling a convention for the
purpose of altering the constitution. Knowing that this measure