Phelps, Samuel Shethar, 1793-1855 to unknown
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03678.02 Author/Creator: Phelps, Samuel Shethar, 1793-1855 Place Written: Washington, District of Columbia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 August 1850 Pagination: 6 p. : docket ; 25 x 20.2 cm. Order a Copy
Docketed with blue ink. Possibly to J. H. Barrett (refer to GLC03678.01). Discusses the Compromise of 1850 (the Pearce Act) in detail. Phelps offers his opinion on the act, which related to the extension of slavery in territories acquired by the Mexican American War: "... this country is and will remain a desert and neither slavery or population will ever exist there." Phelps voted for the Compromise of 1850 because, "there was danger that the govt. itself might be dissolved if these questions about slavery were not disposed of... It was not violence that I apprehended but the... silent workings of disease in the body politic." Notes that other supporters include Webster, Winthrop, Green, Truman Smith and others (presumably Senators Daniel Webster, Robert Winthrop, and Albert Green).
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