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General Assembly of Connecticut, fully referred to by Dwight, in which
Governor Grisvvold's conduct in this affair was entirely approved.
" Sir,
" Hartford, Aug. 4*', 1812."
" His Honour Gov. Smitii has put into my hands your letter of the 14''' of
July, and it is with surprise I notice the construction you have put on my letter of
the 17"" of June. The unusual and exceptionable terms, also, in which your letter is
expressed, have not escaped notice ; I shall not, however, descend to any comment
upon its particular expressions, but perform my duty to the General Gov'nt in giving
the explanation which appears proper.
" When you communicated the request of the President, that any future requisi-
tion from General Dearborn for a part of the drafted militia might be complied with,
it was uncertain whether such requirement would be made, or, if made, under what
circumstances it might take place. Confident, however, that the President would
authorize no requisition which was not strictly constitutional, and particularly that
the order would not exceed the conditions of the Act of the lo"" of April to which
you had referred, I felt no hesitation in giving a general assurance that such requisi-
tion as the President might make through General Dearborn would be complied
with. I then thought, as I do still, that decency and a due respect to the first Magis-
trate of the Union required that my assurance should be general, and that no expres-
sion should be used which carried with it a suspicion that the President might
transgress the Constitution in the direction he might give. I also expected that this
early and general assurance would be considered as evidence of a disposition which
has been uniformly felt in this State to execute every constitutional requisition from
the general gov'nt. In whatever light, however, my expressions may have been
viewed, I trust I shall be now understood, when 1 assure you that I did not intend, or
expect to be understood, by the general language of my letter, or any expression it
contained, to engage that I would execute any order which I thought, on considera-
tion, to be repugnant to the Constitution, from whatever authority it might emanate.
The light in which I have viewed the requisition now made through General Dearborn
has been already communicated by Gov. Smith ; and it is only proper to add that my
opinion of its unconstitutionality remains unchanged, and is happily confirmed by
the unanimous opinion of the Council of this State.
" The new light in which you have presented the subject in your letter to Gov.
"" History of the Hartford Convention. ... By Theodore Dwight. . . . New
Boston, 1833, pp. 237-67.
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