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Adams, John Quincy (1767-1848) Autograph Letter Signed, 20 April 1837. One folded wove paper bifolium inscribed on four pages, congressional stationery. To Elijah Hayward (1786-1864), thanking Hayward for his support and explaining his absolute objection to slavery on political, philosophical, moral and theological grounds, and his hopes for the future of his country. Unframed, with old folds, and a round spot, likely from the original sealing wax, 7 3/4 x 10 in. folded. Elijah Hayward Esq[uire] Columbus, Ohio Washington 20 April 1837 Dear Sir, Although I have seldom had the opportunity of personal intercourse with you, I have a very distinct and pleasing recollection of you as Commissioner of the General Land Office and of the liberality and kindness which on more than one occasion I experienced in your administration of the duties of that station. I remember also that you mentioned to me once that you was [sic] a native of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whence I also derive my birth, and of whose felicities I believe it one of the greatest, that from her originated that Ordinance for the Northwestern Territory the first abolition of Slavery on this continent, which has already given to this Union four of its most flourishing states, in which there is neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless as punishment for crime. It was therefore not surprising though highly gratifying to me, to receive in your letter of the 13th instt the assurance that my speech in the House of Representatives of the United States, at the recent session of Congress on the right of petition, and the right of free discussion in Congress had been read by you with entire approbation. I regret that it has not been published in pamphlet form; that I might have the pleasure of sending you a copy of it. There is yet a possibility that it may be so published, in which case I will not fail to transmit a copy to you. I believe with you that the debate opened by the discussion upon which that speech was delivered, is destined to descend to our posterity of the next generation and possibly to theirs. I believe the day will come when there will be neither war, slavery, nor hereditary kings upon earth. How many centuries it will take to accomplish this revolution it is not given to me to foretell. If the population of the North American continent should increase for two centuries to come in the same proportion as it has regularly done for the half century since the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, in two hundred years from this day there will be three thousand millions of the human race living on its surface. There is room for them all, and for as many more on the continent of South America. The steamboat and the railway have already approximated distances so that we travel five hundred miles in a day. Speed is power, and the multiplication of that power in the last half century has at least kept pace with that of population. And in the same half century, notwithstanding the bloody wars that have waged, the uniform tendency of the minds and hearts of civilized men towards each other has been from cruelty to benevolence, from harshness to humanity. The question whether man has in any case whatever the right to take the life of man is sinking deeper and deeper into the consciences of men. The right of offensive war has not only fallen into disfavor but has become exceedingly problematical. Personal imprisonment for debt is gradually disappearing from all Christian codes. Even the right of defensive war has been denied in theory, and the denial has been supported by powerful arguments. The right of man to property in man has been for many years scoured out of all decent moral and intellectual company. With shame and confusion of face I ask it that countrymen of ours at this time are laboring to roll this rock of Sisyphus uphill and are heaping Pelion upon Ossa, to prove that slavery is sanctioned by the laws of nature and of God; but if