Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-04-17
Ertract Of a letter .t'om Il gentleman in Fasting
ton to his friend in Illinois.
TO THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS.

Fellow Citizens,
AT the close of the present session
OF Congress feel it my duty to endea-
vor to satisfy that anxiety, which you as
free people, must, and ought to feel,
to know what public measures have been
adopted affecting the general, as well as
your particular interests, and briefly to
state the views which have governed me
in the discharge of those. important du-
ties which you thought proper 10 assign
to me.
in doing this l am also governed by
the opinion, that, as the government was
made BY, and should be admins. cred
Tor The teohfe, it is, therefore, the right
OF the people to know as far as is pracl-
cable the views of their Representatives
for The purpose of knowing whether
those views accord with their own.
And | deem this course the more ne
cessary on the present occasion, because
1t was not III my power, So folly and
freely, to correspond with you during the
session, as many OF you no doubt ex-
pected, and as most earnestly desired,
a correspondence that was rendered i'm
practicable by the undivided attention
which was required of me by the many
subjects agitatcI, discussed, and acted
upon by Congress, and which without an
abandonment ofduty | could not neglect.
Upon those subjects which are local
10 the state, with tie exception of the
act confirming the location Of the seat of
government, and the act to enable the
state to receive lis school fund, nothing
OF importance could be affected, more
however for the want of time, il is be-
lieved, than favorable disposition on
the part of Congress. There were seve-
raj bills granting relief, in cases of indi-
vidual hardship, in a state of forward
ness, and advanced under state OF leel-
ing in the house which indicated favor
able and satisfactory decision upon
these subjects, such decision may be
hoped for at the next session.
Upon the sub ect OF The debt due for
the public lands, which more deeply
than any other, affected your interests,
Congress has given an imperishablc evil
dence OF the fact, that our government
is administered fr the pcople--that it
will listen to, and relieve their distress
ses. Connected with the recognition of
this truth, is another no less honorable,
and 10 less deserving public approba-
ton, it is, that the government like
tender parcn, deals out its favors with
increased lDerali,y to its younger and
more feeble members. Aware Of the
wealth that an enforcement of the origi-
nal contracts might throw inc the Trea-
sury by forfeiture 81 the land, as we'll
as the money which had already been
paid-and aware also of the absence of
any legal obligation to relin1ush this adj
vantage, the government, unlike those
despotisms of Europe, which swell, their
exchequersby forfeitures, often procured
by perjury, did not hesitate 10 give up
this advantage, and even to extend the
soothing hand of liberality and indul-
gence. With evidence like this of the
benign influence of the representative
principle n the administration of our
government, the preservation OF that
principle n its purity, becomes the high
est political duty of freemcn. 1t is a.
principle upon the preservation Of which,
the happiness ofthe community as much
depends, as does that of an individual
upon the inviolate enjoyment OF his own
domicil; and like that domicil, it looks
to the people themselves for its prcser-
walton.
The embarrassed condition of the
Treasury gave rise to the suggestion of
many expedien,s for lessening the cx-
penses Of the government. But in a
government like ours, which is Just
rising from infancy into manhood, the
expenses of which must increase, with
its expansion, unless our predecessors
had been thoughtlt ssly extravagant, or
wantonly corrupt, which, watched as
they have always been, by aspiring cp-