s are not now in your
custody, and they will not bother you to see them. Hoping to see you
soon, I remain as ever.

Fraternally yours,
Rock Spring, Ill.
July 17, 1857.
J. M. PECK.

PIONEER LETTERS

IX. SENATOR DOUGLAS'S LETTER

(From _Belleville Advocate_, April 10, 1908. Clipping,
I.B.H.C.,--K11)

Springfield, Illinois. Mar. 10, 1857

Rev. James Lemen,
Collinsville, Illinois,

Dear Sir:--In a former letter I wrote you fully as to my views as to
the "Jefferson-Lemen Anti-Slavery Pact," and that there is no doubt
but that the anti-slavery contest of your father, Rev. James Lemen,
Sr., and the organizing of Bethel church as one of the results,
eventually led to our free state constitution. I also thank you again
for the privilege of reading Jefferson's letters to your father, and
other papers in connection with the matter, but desire to add a
thought or two, or more properly expound [expand] some points in my
recent letter.

The anti-slavery pact or agreement between the two men and its far
reaching results comprise one of the most intensely interesting
chapters in our national and state histories. Its profound secrecy and
the splendid loyalty of Jefferson's friends which preserved it, were
alike necessary to the success of the scheme as well as for his future
preferment; for had it been known that Jefferson had sent Lemen as his
special agent on an anti-slavery mission to shape matters in the
territories to his own ends, it would have wrecked his popularity in
the South and rendered Lemen's mission worse than useless.

It has always been a mystery why the pressing demands of Governor
Harrison and his Council for the repeal of the anti-slavery clause in
the Ordinance of 1787 which excluded slavery {p.47} from the
Northwest Territory, could make no headway before a encession [?] of
pro-slavery Congress; but the matter is now clear. The great
Jefferson, through his confidential leaders in Congress [held that
body back, until Mr. Lemen, under his orders], had rallied his friends
and sent in anti-slavery petitions demanding the maintenance of the
clause, when the Senate, where Harrison's demands were then pending,
denied them. So a part of the honor of saving that grand clause which
dedicated the territory to freedom, belongs to your father. I