Vermont State Papers: Being a Collection of Records and Documents, Connected With the Assumption and Establishment of Government by the People of ... First Constitution; 1779 to 1786, Inclusive
(Excerpt from Vermont State Papers: Being a Collection of ...)
Excerpt from Vermont State Papers: Being a Collection of Records and Documents, Connected With the Assumption and Establishment of Government by the People of Vermont; Together With the Journal of the Council of Safety, the First Constitution; 1779 to 1786, Inclusive
It will be seen by a reference to the act, in pursuance of which this pub lication was undertaken, that little more was originally contemplated, than to collect such records as should perpetuate a history of the Legisla tion of the State, down to the year 1787. In prosecuting the collection, however, and particularly, in the etl'ort to recover that portion of the jour nal of the Council of safety which was unrecorded in any publick oflice, a great number of valuable historical papers were discovered, connected with a period, anterior to the formation of a regular government, and com mencing previous to the existence of any kind of political organization in the State. On examining these paper's, it was found that they were sus ceptible of an arrangement which would exhibit a connected view of the principal events which form the early history of Vermont.
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Speech of Mr. Slade, of Vermont, on the Right of Petition; The Power of Congress to Abolish Slavery and the Slave Trade in the District of Columbia; ... Other in Forming the Constitution; And The...
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William Slade, Jr. was an American statesman and educator.
Background
He was born on May 9, 1786 at Cornwall, Vermont, United States, the son of Capt. William Slade, a veteran of the Revolution, who had moved to Vermont from Washington, Connecticut, about 1783. He was a descendant of William Slade who was in Lebanon, Connecticut, as early as 1716. The youngest William's mother was Rebecca (Plumb).
Education
After preparatory work in the Addison County grammar school at Middlebury and four years at Middlebury College, where he was graduated in 1807, Slade studied law in the office of Judge Joel Doolittle of Middlebury.
Career
Admitted to the bar in the summer of 1810, he at once opened an office in the same village. Clients, however, were few, and the excitement of a bitter political contest in his state drew him into politics.
Slade in 1813 helped to found the Columbian Patriot, a weekly newspaper, which two years later became the National Standard. Soon he was its proprietor and editor, conducting in connection with it a book printing and selling establishment. The Patriot was a decided political success; as a business venture, however, it was a failure and by 1817 Slade was ruined.
Refusing bankruptcy, he was saddled with a heavy debt which he struggled the rest of his life to repay; hence, in part, his eager search for political office.
Fortunately, the Democratic triumph of 1815 carried him into the office of secretary of state, a post which he filled with credit until 1823. Meanwhile (1816 - 22), he was judge of the court of his county. Having relinquished his state offices, he served as a clerk in the Department of State, at Washington (1824 - 29), until discharged at the beginning of Jackson's administration.
While serving as state's attorney for Addison County he was elected in 1830 to Congress, where he sat for twelve years, in the course of time joining the Whig party.
For one year (1843 - 44) after his retirement from Congress he was reporter of the state supreme court, resigning to become governor, in which office he served from 1844 to 1846. Before the end of his second term as governor he had lost the support of many influential Whig leaders, partly because of his bitter public controversy with Samuel S. Phelps, Whig senator from Vermont, whom, it was charged, Slade wished to supersede.
His political career ended, he became corresponding secretary and general agent of the Board of National Popular Education. Indefatigable in this congenial work, which he continued until a few weeks before his death, he traveled through most of the Northern states, founding local societies and recruiting teachers in the East for service along the Western frontier.
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Politics
Like his father he was an ardent Democrat and he devoted himself heart and soul to the interests of his party. His speeches and pamphlets were puny weapons against the Federalist press of Middlebury. Later he joined the Whig party.
Personality
Though not a great orator, he was a quick-witted and a ready debater with a command of searing phrases. He bitterly opposed the admission of Texas to the Union and the policy which led to war with Mexico.
Connections
He had married Abigail Foote of Middlebury, February 5, 1810, by whom he had nine children, including James M. Slade.