William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of SlaveryTuckerman, Bayard
History
William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery
Tuckerman, Bayard
Antislavery movements -- United States; Jay, William, 1789-1858; United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
[C] During Judge Jay's absence in Europe a striking anti-annexation
Texas meeting was held at the Tabernacle in New York, on the 24th of
April, 1844. It had been called by members of the King, Duer,
Townsend, Goodhue, Sedgwick, Field, Griswold, and Hyslop families
and many leading merchants of New York. The call was subsequently
presented by John Jay to the New York Historical Society, for
preservation in its records. A letter was read from Chancellor Kent
denouncing the annexation of Texas without the consent of Mexico as
a breach of national faith which would be universally condemned.
Speeches were made by Theodore Sedgwick and D. D. Field. But the
most imposing feature of the manifestation was the presence in the
chair of Albert Gallatin, the last survivor of Jefferson's cabinet,
who, despite his age and infirmities, had been carried to the
meeting to protest in his own name and in that of his historic chief
against so flagrant a violation of national honour and public faith.
The appeal of Gallatin for a time promised to be successful. Van
Buren, whose views had been doubtful, wrote, under its influence,
his letter to Hammett objecting to annexation. But an annexation
meeting was held in Richmond to counteract that at New York, and
when the Democratic Convention met at Baltimore an adroit change of
policy in regard to nominations displaced Van Buren and nominated
Polk.
[D] The later history of international arbitration is set forth by
Sir Lyon Playfair in the _North American Review_ for December, 1890.
[E] Among those with whom Judge Jay was most often in communication
may be mentioned: Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Rev.
A. A. Phelps, Robert Vaux, E. Wright, Jr., Joshua Leavitt, Samuel J.
May, Reuben Crandall, James G. Birney, Theodore Sedgwick, Beriah
Green, Gerrit Smith, John Scoble of England, Mrs. L. M. Child, Miss
Grimke, Wm. Goodell, G. Bailey, Jr., Rev. Dr. Morrison of England,
Gov. R. W. Habersham, W. W. Anderson of Jamaica, W. I., Joseph
Sturge of England, Jabez D. Hammond, Geo. W. Alexander of England,
William Slade, John Quincy Adams, Wm. H. Seward, S. P. Chase, Prof.
C. D. Cleveland, Thomas Clarkson of England, Sir W. Colebrook,
governor of New Brunswick, Charles Sumner, Chief-Justice Hornblower,
J. G. Palfrey, and John P. Hale.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
Text in italics is surrounded with underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from
the original.
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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