puss has got! As a Greek might say, hysteron proteron: the cart before the horse; but his mighty whisk through the great national fire, for the presidential chestnuts, burnt the locks of his glory with the blaze of his folly!
In the United States the people are the government, and their united voice is the only sovereign that should rule, the only power that should be obeyed, and the only gentlemen that should be honored at home and abroad, on the land and on the sea. Wherefore, were I the president of the United States, by the voice of a virtuous people, I would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers of freedom; I would walk in the tracks of the illustrious patriots who carried the ark of the Government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the people, and when that people petitioned to abolish slavery in the slave states, I would use all honorable means to have their prayers granted, and, give liberty to the captive by paying the Southern gentlemen a reasonable equivalent for his property, that the whole nation might be free indeed!
When the people petitioned for a National Bank, I would use my best endeavors to have their prayers answered, and establish one on national principles to save taxes, and make them the controllers of its ways and means. And when the people petitioned to possess the territory of Oregon, or any other contiguous territory, I would lend the influence of a Chief Magistrate to grant so reasonable a request, that they might extend the mighty efforts and enterprise of a free people from the east to the west sea, and make the wilderness blossom as the rose. And when a neighboring realm petitioned to join the union of liberty’s sons, my voice would be, Come: yea, come, Texas; come Mexico; come Canada; and come, all the world—let us be brethren; let us be one great family; and let there be a universal peace. Abolish the cruel customs of prisons (except certain cases), penitentiaries, court-martials for desertion; and let reason and friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance and barbarity; yea, I would, as the universal friend of man, open the prisons; open the eyes, open the ears, and open the hearts of all people, to behold and enjoy freedom, unadulterated freedom; and God who once cleansed the violence of the earth with a flood; whose Son laid down His life for the salvation of all His Father gave him out of the world; and who has promised that He will come and purify the world again with fire in the last days, should be supplicated by me for the good of all people.
With the highest esteem, I am a friend of virtue and of the people.
Nauvoo, Illinois, February 7, 1844.
