Page 1

University of Va.
Feb. 28. 1861

My dear Sir,

I am afflicted with too intense an
anxiety to learn definitely, the impression the
Peace Conference Compromise has made upon
the Convention, - I mean the rational part of it, -
to weigh the reasonableness of begging you -
engrossed as I doubt not your time is, - to inform
me. I received it myself, with a joy & satisfaction
almost unalloyed. I was indeed, at
first somewhat uneasy at the phraseology of
the 1st Section, touching the introduction of slave
property into the territories south of 36 degree 30, fearing
that the master's rights were left to be determined
by the Common Law. A second reading, however,
showed that the Common Law was intended only
to regulate the cognizance of the Counts. And
yet I must {still} confess that I could have wished
it more clearly confessed by what law the master's
rights are to be determined.

As to complicating the skein, already
to dangerously led by insisting on
a provision for territory hereafter to be acquired,

University of Va.
Feb. 28. 1861

My dear Sir,

I am afflicted with too intense an
anxiety to learn definitely, the impression the
Peace Conference Compromise has made upon
the Convention, - I mean the rational part of it, -
to weigh the reasonableness of begging you -
engrossed as I doubt not your time is, - to inform
me. I received it myself, with a joy & satisfaction
almost unalloyed. I was indeed, at
first somewhat uneasy at the phraseology of
the 1st Section, touching the introduction of slave
property into the territories south of 36 degree 30, fearing
that the master's rights were left to be determined
by the Common Law. A second reading, however,
showed that the Common Law was intended only
to regulate the cognizance of the Counts. And
yet I must {still} confess that I could have wished
it more clearly confessed by what law the master's
rights are to be determined.

As to complicating the skeins, already
to dangerously led by insisting on
a provision for territory hereafter to be acquired,