[ Editor’s note: In this 1835 essay , the great anti-slavery Jacksonian— and enemy of central bankers —William Leggett provides an early example of “secessionist abolitionism” in his call for...
William Leggett
William Leggett (April 30, 1801 – May 29, 1839) was an American poet, fiction writer, and journalist. He was a laissez-faire populist Jacksonian Democrat, but he often attacked fellow Andrew Jackson supporters for failing to carry their egalitarian principles far enough. He also became an outspoken opponent of slavery.
His more influential editorials have been collected as Democratick Editorials: Essays in Jacksonian Political Economy.
Latest work
A Collection of the Political Writings of William Leggett, selected and arranged, with a preface, by Theodore Sedgwick, in two volumes. (1839) This collection provides important example of populist laissez-faire opinion from the Jacksonian Era in the
[ In this 1836 editorial, William Leggett laments how Wall Street and the “privileged” orders of the American upper class employ the power of the state to protect their own financial interests at the...
