MORRIS BIRKBECK, ESQ.,
Wanborough, Edwards County.

MR. BIRKBECK TO GOVERNOR COLES

WANBOROUGH, Feb. 19, 1824.

_My Dear Sir_:--I have just received your letter of January 29,
and I assure you the receiving of it has given me unfeigned
pleasure, although its contents, as far as the unworthy conduct
of the party is productive of vexation to you, I as sincerely
lament. I am sorry that it should be at your expense; but as it
tends to expose the badness of the cause and the iniquity of its
supporters, the friends of liberty and virtue can hardly regret
that they should have thus displayed their true characters.

For myself, my private situation screens me in great measure from
persecution, though I presume, not from the honor of their
hatred. I am glad, you approve my little pamphlet; if I could
afford it I would spare the society at Edwardsville the expense
of republishing, &c. I have the satisfaction of knowing that it
has done some good, by changing the sentiments of several, who
through want of reflection or knowledge, had been advocates of
Slavery. And as there are many up and down in all parts of the
State, who are in that situation, I trust its general circulation
will be useful. I am continually plying the Slave party, through
the Illinois Gazette, with popular discussions and sometimes with
legal arguments, under the signature of Jonathan Freeman, and
some others. You will see, if you read that paper, an ironical
proposal of a plan for raising a fund to colonize the negroes as
an appendage to limited Slavery, signed J., which I think may
show the absurdity of that argument. The Edwardsville Spectator
published about a dozen of those short letters, and I suppose
that you will see a few more of them shortly. As they present
the question in various lights, pointing out the wickedness and
folly of the slave scheme, dissected as it were into distinct
portions, I imagine they make an impression on some readers more
effectually than a continued course of argument. I submit, with
great deference, a thought that some of these would be useful if
published by way of appendix to the _Appeal_. Perhaps you will
revert to them, and notice a few more which you will soon see;
then do as you see