LETTER FROM B.W. LEIGH, ESQ. TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA.
[Washington: 1836]. 15, [1 blank] pp. Caption title, as issued. Stitched. Inner blank margins of title leaf spotted, some margin dusting. Good+.
The Letter illustrates the dispute over a State Legislature's right to instruct its United States Senators to take a position on a particular issue. The Virginia General Assembly, controlled by Jacksonians, instructed Senator Leigh to vote to expunge the Senate resolution censuring President Jackson for his removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. "Leigh, in a letter of noble dignity, refused either to comply or resign" [DAB], the latter course having been taken by Virginia's other Senator, future President John Tyler.
Leigh asserts, "I do not hold myself bound to obey, and I cannot obey, any instruction that commands me to do an act which, in my conscientious opinion, would be, in itself, a plain violation of the constitution, and, in its consequences, dangerous and mischievous in the extreme." Leigh says only the U.S. Senate has power to determine the contents of its Journals.
Haynes 10579. Sabin 39916n. AI 38497 [5]. Not in Cohen. Item #32195
Price: $150.00