Tyler, John (1790-1862) to Spencer Roane
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03670 Author/Creator: Tyler, John (1790-1862) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 14 February 1820 Pagination: 5 p. : address : free frank ; 24.6 x 20.1 cm. Order a Copy
Written by Tyler as Republican Congressman from Virginia to Roane as Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Writes to Roane about issues surrounding the Missouri Compromise debates. Tyler was concerned with Northern arguments that claimed Congress could restrict slavery in the Territories through their Constitutional powers. Says he is worried "about the nature of the power which is attempted to be exercised by Congress[.] you and myself cannot fail to agree in pronouncing it a bold and daring assumption - warranted neither by the constitution or the principles of justice." Describes the political jockeying on the bills to admit Missouri and Maine. Claims "restriction on the Territories is unjust, not to say unconstitutional." Speculates on President's Monroe's opinions. Fears the growing population of North, saying the power of the slaveholders will decrease with the next census.
Spencer Roane (1762-1822) was a prominent Virginia judge and son-in-law of Patrick Henry.
In this letter, John Tyler (1790-1862), the future President from Virginia who was then serving in the House of Representatives, reflects on the meaning of the Missouri Crisis.
In 1819, a financial panic swept across the United States. Unemployment mounted, banks failed, mortgages were foreclosed, and agricultural prices fell by half. The panic unleashed a storm of popular protests. Many debtors agitated for "stay laws" to delay repayment of debts and for the abolition of debtors' prisons. Manufacturing interests called for increased protection from foreign imports, while many Southerners blamed high tariffs for reducing the flow of international trade. The panic also led to demands for the democratization of state constitutions, an end to restrictions on voting and office holding, and hostility toward banks and other "privileged" corporations.
In the midst of the panic, a crisis over slavery erupted with stunning suddenness. It was, Thomas Jefferson wrote, like "a firebell in the night." The crisis was ignited by Missouri's application for statehood and it involved the status of slavery west of the Mississippi River. East of the Mississippi, the Ohio River formed a boundary between slave states and free states. West of the Mississippi, there was no clear line demarcating the boundary between free and slave territory.
Representative James Tallmadge (1778-1853) of New York provoked the crisis in February 1819 by introducing an amendment that would prohibit the further introduction of slaves into Missouri and provide for the emancipation of the children of slaves at the age of 25. Voting along ominously sectional lines, the House approved this very moderate amendment, but the Senate defeated it.
Compromise ultimately resolved the crisis. In 1820, Congress voted to admit Missouri as a slave state. To preserve the sectional balance, it also voted to admit Maine, previously a part of Massachusetts, as a free state, and to prohibit the formation of any slave states within the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30' north latitude.
Southerners won a victory in 1820, but they paid a high price. While many states would eventually be organized from the Louisiana Purchase north of the compromise line, only two (Arkansas and part of Oklahoma) would be formed from the southern portion. If the South was to defend its political power against an antislavery majority, it had but two options in the future. It would either have to forge new political alliances with the North and West, or it would have to acquire new territory in the Southwest - inevitably reigniting northern opposition to the further expansion of slavery.
The era of good feeling ended on a note of foreboding. Sectional antagonism, Jefferson wrote, "is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only.... A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle...will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." John Quincy Adams agreed. The Missouri Crisis, he declared, is only the "title page to a great tragic volume." (See David B. Davis' "The Boisterous Sea of Liberty" for further information.)
Washington February 14th 1820 -
Dear Sir:
The time has arrived when I shall make an apology for addressing you. Honor'd as I have been by your confidence and that of the public, it devolves on me as a duty to communicate freely with those who from their high standing in society controul in a great measure the public sentiment. If the people of Virginia feel uneasy at the present condition of affairs, believe me there only experience sentiments which are common also to us. The great question which now agitates the nation is one well calculated to illicit sensibility and feelings - about the nature of the power which is attempted to be exercised by Congress you and myself cannot fail to agree in pronouncing it a bold and daring assumption - warranted neither by the constitution or the principles of justice. My intention is to represent to you as accurately as may be the actual position of affairs in relation to it - Maine and Missouri are both before us as applicants for admission into the Union - The Maine Bill passed our house unincumber'd but on the motion of Mr. Barbour of the Senate, was refer'd to a select committee who amended it by answering a Bill for the admission of Missouri - This [2] amendment has been so far unsuccessfully oppos'd by the advocates of restriction, but a proposition to inhibit the further introduction of slaves as [inserted: a] condition of admission has been propos'd - and [strikeout] [inserted: has] been negatived in that Body. This majority against the restriction however has been obtained by votes from now - slave holding states - a proposition [struck: however] has been or will be made to incorporate in the same bill a provision extending the inhibition to the territories north of a given degree of latitude and a majority in the Senate will I have every reason to believe, without aid from the Slave holding states be found to support the measure. It is then probable that the Bill thus amended will come down to the house of representatives - But its fate with us is much more uncertain - Those or a majority of those who are advocates of restriction will vote for no Bill which shall permit Missouri to come in to the Union unrestricted and believing as I do with almost all the South that the restriction on the Territories is unjust, not to say unconstitutional - we shall al[struck: l]so vote against the Bill because of its containing that provision - Thus the great probability is that the Bill from the Senate will be lost and that neither Missouri or Maine will be admitted - When this game is over another will be play'd - a joint resolution restricting the territories will pass our house and the Senate, and if approved by the President, will become a law. This being general in its termes will not only [3] embrace, as has been imagined, the territory north of Missouri, but Missouri itself, it remaining a territory, and Arkansas also - I do not believe however that a regulation of this character would meet with countenance from the President. This opinion is not founded on any authentic information, but is more properly the creature of hope mix'd up with confidence in the firmness of Mr. Monroe - Be that as it may Missouri will not become a state at this or the next session nor to speak candidly do I believe that she will for the next ten years by the voluntary assent of the North and North West. unless she will abandon the struggle for sovereignty and submit to conditions - The non slave holding States now have the majority of us and that majority will be increas'd at the next census - In what then does our present safety [consist]? In nothing but in the firmness of the President - I am told that he has not committed himself in any way, but has declar'd his opinion to be made up and that nothing earthly shall shake him or cause him to waver - In the absence then of a public avowal on his part what course should Virginia pursue? Shall she continue to [live] her unqualified support, or delay an expression of sentiment until his official act makes known his opinion? If her nomination be delay'd will it not produce a watchfulness in other States and induce them to organize an opposition in the event of Mr. Monroe's exercising his veto? Concentrate the now-slaving holding states against him and he will cease to fill his present station - who would be the Successor? Many influential men on the other side have declard that they would prefer Clin[4]ton with restriction to Monroe without it - But further say that Mr. Monroe's course is unsatisfactory to us who can we take up except upon great uncertainty - I mean in regard to these important questions - I would, I hesitate not to confess, sooner trust the decision of this question to the President than to any other assistant to the chair. The reasons which would operate to produce delay on the part of the Legislature are certainly cogent - unqualified confidence of public servants would betray a carelessness of which our State has not yet furnished an example. But even if Mr Monroe disappointed all our wishes his successor would "out Herod, Herod" - and would fix on us evils of the most pernicious character - Intrigue is here at work altho' it has so far work'd in the dark - This question will be its [food and raiment] until it dare appear in public - We act above board - all over movements are known for they spring only from honest views - not so does our enemy -
I have submitted these considerations to you, not venturing the expression of an opinion on them myself - If they shall aid you in arriving at the correct conclusion in any way, I shall not have thrown away my time in addressing you, and knowing the influence which you deservedly possess in the opinions of many of the actors of the day, I shall consider myself as having render'd a service - For myself permit me to add, that I have planted myself on the constitution and the principles of right, and that I will not yield an inch of ground to any power on earth - a crisis [5] like the present requires stout hearts and resolute minds, and altho' we may regret the approach of the storm, it becomes us to meet it like men -
With sentiments of the very highest respect
I have the honor to be
Yr Most Obt Servt
John Tyler
[address]
The Hon:
Spencer Roane
Of the court of Appeals
Richmond
Virginia
[free frank]
Free
J. Tyler
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