University of Virginia Library

7676. ROWAN (A. H.), Asylum for.—

Should you choose Virginia for your asylum,
the laws of the land, administered by upright
judges, would protect you from an exercise of
power unauthorized by the Constitution of the
United States. The Habeas Corpus secures
every man here, alien or citizen, against everything
which is not law, whatever shape it May
assume. Should this, or any other circumstance,
draw your footsteps this way, I shall
be happy to be among those who may have an
opportunity of testifying, by every attention
in our power, the sentiments of esteem and
respect which the circumstances of your history
have inspired. [439]
To A. H. Rowan. Washington ed. iv, 257. Ford ed., vii, 281.
(1798)

 
[439]

Archibald Hamilton Rowan was one of the
leaders in the rebellion in Ireland in 1798. He was
a refugee in Wilmington, Delaware, when Jefferson
wrote to him.—Editor.