February 13, 1850

Taylor, Zachary, 1784-1850

Pamphlet

Title: Message from the President communicating a copy of The Constitution of California

A copy of the first Constitution of California was given to President Zachary Taylor by California Senator William M. Gwin. Articles signed by R. Semple, President of the Convention and Delegate from Benicia. The first Constitution of California was adopted on November 13, 1849. Taylor transmitted the Constitution of California to the United States Senate on February 13, 1850. California wasn't admitted to the Union until September 9, 1850. California currently operates under a constitution adopted in 1879. Senate Ex. Doc 28.

GLC00267.134

1850

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Remarks of Mr. Clay of Kentucky, on introducing his propositions to compromise on the slavery question.

Delivered in the Senate of the United States, 29 January 1850. Proposes an amicable arrangement to the controversies between the free and slave states on the issue of the extension of slavery. Printed by Jno. T. Towers, Washington, D.C.

GLC00267.135

12 June 1841

Alabama. Legislature.

Printed document

Title: Resolutions of the legislature of Alabama responsive to those of South Carolina on the subject of controversy between the States of Maine and Georgia.

27th Congress, 1st session. House of Representatives document no. 11. Concerns the stealing and carrying away of a slave named Atticus by Daniel Philbrook and Edward Kilbron from Georgia to Maine. Maine refused to surrender Philbrook and Kilbron as fugitives from justice. Resolves that states are required to return fugitives of justice according to the U.S. Constitution.

GLC00267.136.02

February 11, 1862

New Jersey Legislature

Printed document

Title: Resolutions of the Legislature of New Jersey in favor of the Compromise measures.

32nd Congress, 1st session, House of Representatives document no. 13. Resolves to support the compromise measures passed by Congress addressing slavery and the boundaries of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War.

GLC00267.145.01

1852

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Freedom national; Slavery sectional. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on his motion to repeal the Fugitive Slave Bill.

Delivered in the Senate of the United States 26 August 1852. Sumner attacks the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and calls for its repeal. Printed by Buell & Blanchard.

GLC00267.146

1864

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Pamphlet

Title: [Report submitted by Senator Charles Sumner calling for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]

Sumner, a United States Senator from Massachusetts, also asks for "the repeal of all acts for the rendition of fugitive slaves..." Report intended to accompany bill No. 141. Also includes a minority report, submitted 1 March 1864 by Senators John Carlile and Charles R. Buckalew, opposing the repeal of laws under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Report no. 24. 38th Congress, 1st session.

GLC00267.155

1854

Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 1813-1861

Pamphlet

Title: Speech of Hon. S. A. Douglas, of Illinois, in the Senate, January 30, 1853, on the Nebraska Territory.

Printed at the Sentinel Office. Fragile. Bound with string.

GLC00267.156

1856

New England Emigrant Aid Company

Pamphlet

Title: Memorial of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, praying indemnification for the destruction of property, at Lawrence, Kansas, May 21, 1856.

37th Congress, 3d Session, Senate. Mis. Doc. No. 29. Offers eye-witness accounts of the sack of Lawrence, Kansas, including an account submitted by William Hutchinson, secretary of the Kansas Central Committee and a special correspondent for the New York Times.

GLC00267.159

1856

Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 1813-1861

Pamphlet

Title: Report of the committee on territories, on "A bill to authorize the people of the territory of Kansas to form a constitution and state government...

(title continues)... preparatory to their admission into the Union, when they have the requisite population," etc. Also, the views of the minority of said committee. 34th Congress, 1st Session, Senate. Published by A. O. P. Nicholson, Senate printer. Uncut and unopened. Rep. Com. No. 198. Presented by Senator Stephen Douglas. Minority report presented by Jacob Collamer.

GLC00267.163

1857

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Pamphlet

Title: [Message of the President of the United States regarding Kansas]

President Buchanan submits a report of Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, with other correspondence and documents related to the Kansas Territory. Contains correspondence of Robert John Walker, Governor of Kansas Territory, among others. 35th Congress, 1st session, Senate. Ex. Doc. No. 8. Concludes with Cass's reply to Walker's resignation.

GLC00267.167

1858

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Pamphlet

Title: Message of the President of the United States, communicating a constitution for Kansas as a State, and presenting his views in relation to the affairs of that Territory.

United States 35th Congress, 1st session, Executive Document no. 21, Senate. Second half of pamphlet includes a proposed constitution for the state of Kansas. Article VII, on slavery, states "The right of property is before and higher than any constitutional sanction, and the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same, and as inviolable as the right of the owner of any property whatever."

GLC00267.168

1858

Green, James S., 1817-1870

Pamphlet

Title: [Senate report to accompany bill 161, including the Lecompton Constitution]

35th Congress, 1st session, Senate. Rep. Com. No. 82. Opens with a report submitted by Senator Green from the Committee on Territories. Includes a Constitution for Kansas, submitted by John Calhoun, President of the Kansas Constitutional Convention (this constitution is known as the Lecompton Constitution, intended to admit Kansas into the Union as a slave state). Includes the minority report, submitted by Senator Stephen Douglas, who states, "there is no satisfactory evidence that the constitution formed at Lecompton is the act and deed of the people of Kansas, or that it embodies their…

GLC00267.169

1848

Mann, Horace, 1796-1859

Pamphlet

Title: Speech of Hon. Horace Mann, on the right of Congress to legislate for the territories of the United States, and its duty to exclude slavery therefrom:

First Boston edition, with an added letter from Hon. Martin Van Buren, a free soiler, and Rev. Joshua Leavitt. Opposes the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. Delivered in the House of Representatives on 30 June 1848. Printed in Boston by J. Howe.

GLC00267.121

1864

Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866

Header Record

Title: Memoirs of Lieut.-General Scott, LL.D.

Published by Sheldon & Company. Written by Scott in two volumes.

GLC00267.128

1849

Upham, Charles Wentworth, 1802-1875

Pamphlet

Title: Mr. Upham's speech on the extension of slavery: together with the ordinance of 1787.

Opposes the extension of slavery and argues that it compromises the Constitution. Delivered in the House of Representatives 20 February 1849. Printed at the Tri-weekly gazette office in Salem, Massachusetts.

GLC00267.129

1850

Livermore, Abiel Abbot, 1811-1892

Book

Title: The War with Mexico reviewed

Autographed inscription reads "G.L. Wston Esqr., With the respects of John Ball."

GLC00267.130

1850

Stuart, Moses, 1780-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Conscience and the constitution with remarks on the recent speech of the Hon. Daniel Webster on the subject of slavery.

Published by Crocker & Brewster. Stuart discusses the problems of ending slavery. In closing, writes "The last thing I have to say, is, to ask the question, whether it would not be a feasible thing, and the best thing we can do, to colonize the blacks, as we have the Indians? Let them have a Territory and a government of their own, we being merely watchful guardians over their welfare and safety, and for a while reserving the ultimate control of important measures, until they attain to a state in which they will be competent to take care of themselves." Front cover is detached from…

GLC00267.138

1850

Clark, Rufus Wheelwright, 1813-1886

Pamphlet

Title: A Review of the Rev. Moses Stuart's pamphlet on slavery, entitled conscience and the Constitution.

Published by C. C. P. Moody. Clark, pastor of the North Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, rebuts Stuart's argument regarding slavery (Stuart argued for colonization; refer to GLC00267.138). In closing, writes "...notwithstanding the strong efforts that are made to sustain and to extend American slavery... this system is doomed ere long to fall." Calls the Fugitive Slave Bill "the most extraordinary, disgraceful, and atrocious, that was ever recorded upon the statute books of this nation." Stuart's pamphlet had been a reply to a speech by Senator Daniel Webster. Contains slight water…

GLC00267.139

1850

Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884

Pamphlet

Title: Review of Webster's speech on slavery.

Published by the American Anti Slavery Society in Boston, Massachusetts. Printed by J.B. Yerrinton and Son, Printers, Boston.

GLC00267.140

1850

Spencer, Ichabod S. (Ichabod Smith), 1798-1854

Pamphlet

Title: Fugitive slave law. The religious duty of obedience to law: a sermon, preached in the Second Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, Nov. 24, 1850.

Published by M. W. Dodd. Argues against resistance to government and law, and upholds citizens' religious duty to obey the law. Writes, "I am not justifying slavery... I am not justifying the fugitive-slave Law. It may be wrong: it may be unwise and unconstitutional... But, be it wrong- be it unwise and unconstitutional; there are civil courts to decide upon its constitutionality, and no man has any right to decide for himself that it is unconstitutional, and act upon that decision..."

GLC00267.141

1850

Thompson, Joseph Parrish, 1819-1879

Pamphlet

Title: The fugitive slave law; tried by the Old and New Testaments.

Argues against obeying laws from the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850. Published by William Harned, New York, printed by B. L. Hamlen, New Haven, Connecticut. Reprinted from the New Englander for November 1850. Thompson was the pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle Church.

GLC00267.142

January 9, 1851

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

Printed document

Title: Anti-fugitive slave law meeting: at a large meeting of persons from various parts of the state of New York, held in the City of Syracuse January 9th 1851...

[Title continued] and of which Frederick Douglass was president, the following resolutions and address were unanimously adopted. The Address is the same, and, with an inconsiderable exception, the Resolutions are the same, as those, which were reported by Gerrit Smith to the State Convention held in said City, January 7th, 8th, 9th, 1851. Previous documentation suggests this is a first edition. Place of publication is not cited.

GLC00267.143

1851

Pamphlet

Title: The South Bend fugitive slave case, involving the right to a writ of habeas corpus.

Reports on the legal case of Norris vs. Newton. Case pertains to an enslaved person seeking emancipation. Marked for sale at the Anti-slavery office, 48 Beekman Street, 1851.

GLC00267.144

1852

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Freedom national, slavery sectional: Mr. Sumner's speech for the repeal of the fugitive slave bill.

Published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.

GLC00267.147

1854

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Pamphlet

Title: Defence of Massachusetts. Speeches of Hon. Charles Sumner, on the Boston memorial for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill, ...

Title continues, "... and in reply to Messrs. Jones of Tennessee, Butler of South Carolina, and Mason of Virginia." Delivered in the Senate of the U.S. 26 and 28 June 1854. Printed by Buell & Blanchard.

GLC00267.148