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Letters of Dr. Thomas Cooper, iS2^-i8j2 727 owing to my expecting you w write to me if the time suited. As I have not heard from you I think it may have miscarried. INIy consolidation pamphlet ' has affronted Col. Hayne and M° Duffie sadly. Nor will my petition be supported by Jackson's friends who go with Calhoun in his views on this subject. However, act as you see fit. In the H. of Repre- sentatives, I c^ not trust from our State Hamilton or Poinsett, who are of the Calhoun and Adams politics : and Gist, Tucker, and Wilson are not of standing to take a lead. My Compts to Mr Gaillard. I remain Dear Sir Yours truly Th. Cooper. II. CoLUMBi. South Carolina Feb. 13. 1S26 Dear Sir I have not yet heard of the two boxes." A bookseller John Doyle of New York, writes to me that he saw 2 small boxes [direcjted for me at the former store of Wilder and Campbell [books] ellers at New York who have broken and quitted the store. [He] says he has taken them and sent them on to me. These may or may not be the boxes you were so kind as to send : if you [recol]lect to whom they were consigned in New York, pray write for me to John Doyle Bookseller Park Place New York, and recjuest him to look after them for me. 1 have written to Major Hamilton, such hints and suggestions as oc- curred to me, presuming he would communicate them to you. If he has not, pray ask him for my letters ; they may furnish some ideas : if not they are soon perused. Do not let my personal interest in the petition stand in the way [of] any public measure, for a moment. If you can carry any [bil]l or any resolution valuable to the public by giving up my [cla] im, do not hesi- tate a moment. What I want is, to impress the public out of doors with the absolute necessity of full and free discussion of every question within the range of human enquiry in order to arrive at Truth. The whole doctrine of Libel is in direct hostility with the improvement of mankind. I know of no question so important as the right of free discussion, un- trammelled a priori, and subject to no punishment for its exercise. Of course I mean to confine this to public questions, and not to give the reins to private slander. But I include political measures as to their motives and tendency, and the public character and conduct of all public men. I include also every metaphysical and theological question. If Error be not brought to the light how can it be confuted ? Have [you] looked at Mill's essay on the right of free discussion in [the] Supplement ' Consolidation : An Accoimt of Parties in the United Slates, from the Convention of 17S7 to the Present Period, by Thomas Cooper, Columbia, 1S24. 2 Of minerals. In another letter Dr. Cooper says that these boxes "interest me, I believe, full as much as the petition." 'James Hamilton, jr., M.C. , afterward go