[, (Viator, pseud.)], Letter, , Hancock Co., IL, to the Editor of Boston Daily Bee, , Suffolk Co., MA, 17 July 1843, draft; handwriting of and ; four pages; “Truthiana No. 7,” Truthiana, 1843, drafts, CHL.
MrEditor: <after an abrupt leave> In again— and having been for many years what is called a Constitutional man; and feeling a deep interest in the common welfare of all, so far as the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” are concerned, you will pardon me as a legal advocate of vested rights, (Not your religious tenets, or any others, for I consider that <them> as a matter connected with the soul) for once more offering you a little “Beebread.” I am much pleased with the liberal powers of the charter of the goodly city of . The vestedrights, in that public document, are sufficient for all necessary purposes of a people whose greatest object appears to be to benefit mankind in this world, and happify them in the next.
It is evident from a p[e]rusal <on the face of> of the instrument in question, that the Legislature of , or more properly the people of , through their representatives, have vested in the Corporate body of , over a certain District of territory, which may be increased in size at pleasure, all the rights, privileges and powers which the said possessed in her constitutional capacity, or could claim under the broad folds of the Constitution of the . When I first read the charter I supposed it was circumscribed by the statutes of the , but upon a second reading, I saw the beauty of that “MagnaCharta.”— I saw that the Legislature of , had ceded to the City council of the city of , the power to legislate for the common weal of :— For a part of the 11th section of that “Act” reads as follows:— Thecitycouncilshallhavepowerandauthority, tomakeordain, establishandexecuteallsuchordinances, notrepugnanttotheConstitutionofthe , orofthis , astheymaydeemnecessaryfor [p. [1]]