January 11, 1828

South Carolina General Assembly, Senate

Pamphlet

Title: Report of a special committee of the Senate of South Carolina on the Resolution submitted by Mr. Ramsay on the Subject of State Rights.

Marked 20th Congress, 1st Session. Printed by Duff Green. Report of a committee formed to inquire into the various issues of states' rights, the Constitution, and the power of the federal government within the states. The report supports states' rights and promotes a strict constructivist position opposing tariffs and improvements within particular states that are not for the common defense. First edition.

GLC00267.015

January 16, 1833

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845

Pamphlet

Title: State of the Union. Message from the President of the United States, on the state of the Union.

House document no. 45, 22nd Congress, 2nd session. Transmits all the relevant documents relating to the South Carolina nullification controversy. First edition. Uncut.

GLC00267.017

06 April 1836

United States. Congress (24th, 1st session : 1835-1836). House

Printed document

Title: Amend the Constitution of the United States

[Title continued] memorial of citizens of North Carolina, upon the subject of amending the Constitution of the United States.Twenty seven petitioners request: "In case that any State in the Union, either by the Legislature thereof, or by a convention chosen by the people of the same, shall solemnly declare their belief that any act which is or may be passed by both houses of Congress and approved by the President of the United States, is unconstitutional, the said State, by their Legislature or convention, shall make up a case, containing the grounds of their belief of its unconstitutionality…

GLC00267.020

1837

Calhoun, John C. (John Caldwell), 1782-1850

Header Record

Title: [Two senate motions] [Decimalized .01-.02]

Two motions, one submitted by John C. Calhoun and one by John Norvell. Calhoun's resolution is well-known for establishing the orthodox state rights position. In his resolution, Norvell, the Democratic-Republican Senator from Michigan, agrees with Calhoun.

GLC00267.021

20 May 1846

Michigan, Legislature

Pamphlet

Title: Resolutions of the Legislature of Michigan relative to leasing of the mineral lands.

House document no. 204. 29th Congress, 1st session. Discusses Michigan state rights. Denies the right of the federal government to lease federal mineral lands if the state where the lands are located is opposed to it. Includes report of Flavius J. Littlejohn of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate of Michigan "in relation to the sovereign right of Michigan to the mines and minerals within her borders."

GLC00267.025

December 2, 1817

Monroe, James, 1758-1831

Pamphlet

Title: Message from the President of the United States, to both houses of Congress, at the commencement of the first session of the fifteenth Congress.

Monroe reports that Amelia Island, near the Georgia boundary, had been seized and was "being made a channel for the illicit introduction of slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for fugitive slaves from the neighboring states, and a port of smuggling of every kind." He calls for its suppression. Printed by Edward De Krafft, Printer, Washington City.

GLC00267.030

January 10,1818

United States. Congress

Pamphlet

Title: Report of the Committee to whom was referred so much of the President's Message as relates to the introduction of slaves from Amelia Island.

The report reflects the early distaste for the slave trade in the U.S. House Document 46, 15th Congress, 1st session. Accompanied with a bill supplementary to the act, to prohibit the importation of enslaved people into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States: passed 2d March 1807. Endpaper states: "The first copy of this report being incorrectly printed, is to be cancelled, and this copy substituted." First edition (thus).

GLC00267.031

26 March 1818

Monroe, James, 1758-1831

Pamphlet

Title: Message from the President of the United States ... relating to the occupation of Amelia Island.

Full title reads, "Message from the President of the United States, transmitting, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th instant, information, not heretofore communicated, relating to the occupation of Amelia Island." House Document 175. Printed by E. De Krafft. Amelia Island is an island off the coast of Florida that was under Spanish control before being occupied.

GLC00267.032

December 7, 1824

Monroe, James, 1758-1831

Pamphlet

Title: Message from the President of the United States, to both houses of Congress, at the Commencement of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress.

Describes the joint efforts of the U.S. and Britain to suppress the slave trade, which the Monroe administration proposed to define as piracy. Also discusses the rights of U.S. vessels during recent wars. Document no. 2. Printed by Gales & Seaton. Stitched.

GLC00267.033

December 27, 1825

Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848

Pamphlet

Title: Slave Trade. Message from the President of the United States, communicating correspondence with Great Britain in relation to the Convention for suppressing the slave trade.

Relating to the convention for the suppression of the slave trade. House Executive Document 16, 19th Congress, 1st session, Document no. 16. Secretary of State Clay advises the British that the Senate will not agree to British right of search along American coastal waters. Printed by Gales & Seaton.

GLC00267.034

1830

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 1778-1858

Pamphlet

Title: Slave trade.

Mercer reports for "the committee to whom were referred the memorial of the American Society for colonizing the free people of color of the United States; also, sundry memorials from the inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, and a memorial from certain free people of color of the State of Ohio..." The bulk of the report consists of appendices on the American Colonization Society, Liberia and material from earlier Congresses relating to the slave trade and colonization. 21st Congress, 1st session, House Doc. 348. Removed from previous binding; cover is missing.

GLC00267.035

27 May 1840

Society of Friends

Pamphlet

Title: Memorial of the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, praying the adoption of measures for the suppression of the African slavetrade.

Message to Congress emphasizing the "horror and brutality of the middle passage." The memorial states that the trade is being "prosecuted to a greater extent, and in a manner more destructive to its victims, than it ever was before." 26 Congress, 1st session, document no. 491. Printed by Blair & Rives.

GLC00267.036

May 1858

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Pamphlet

Title: Message of the President of the United States, communicating in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, papers in regard to the seizure of the American barque Panchita on the coast of Africa.

35th Congress, 1st session, Senate Executive Document 61. The Panchita was an American slave ship seized by British vessels off the coast of Africa. Although the British admitted seizure violated U.S.-British accords, they argued it was in good faith.

GLC00267.040

May 1858

Buchanan, James, 1791-1868

Pamphlet

Title: Message of the President of the United States, communicating, in answer to a resolution of the Senate, information concerning the recent search or seizure of American vessels by foreign armed cruisers in the Gulf of Mexico.

35th Congress, 1st session, Senate Executive Document 59. Describes ships stopped in the Gulf of Mexico by British vessels searching for boats engaged in the slave trade. Includes narratives and American reactions, including a response of Secretary of State Lewis Cass.

GLC00267.041

March 1862

Smith, Caleb B. (Caleb Blood), 1808-1864

Pamphlet

Title: Letter of the Secretary of the Interior, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of 27th day of March, 1862, in relation to the slave vessel the "Bark Augusta."

37th Congress, 2d session, Senate Executive Document 40. Tells the story of the "Augusta," ostensibly a whaler but suspected of being a slaver. It was confiscated by the New York federal courts. The U.S. Marshall charged that federal officials had colluded with the slavetraders when the "Augusta slipped out of port under suspicious circumstances."

GLC00267.042

28 April 1828

Tazewell, Littleton Waller, 1774-1860

Pamphlet

Title: In Senate of the United States. April 28, 1828. Mr. Tazewell made the following report:

20th Congress, 1st session, doc no. 178. The Committee on Foreign Relations report declares Congress has no authority to find territory on the coast of Africa for colonization, or to appropriate money for colonization, because such powers are not expressly granted by the Constitution.

GLC00267.045

19 February 1829

Missouri, Legislature

Pamphlet

Title: Resolution of the legislature of Missouri, declaring, in their opinion, that Congress has no power to appropriate moneys to aid the American Colonization Society.

20th Congress, 2d Session, document no. 89. Congress has no power to appropriate money to aid the American Colonization Society (based on strict construction of the Constitution). The resolution mentions the concern that the next step would be Congress buying slaves for the purpose of liberating and colonizing them.

GLC00267.046

16 April 1832

Clay, Henry, 1777-1852

Pamphlet

Title: In Senate of the United States. April 16, 1832. Mr. Clay, from the Committee on Manufactures, made, to the Senate, the following Report:

22d Congress, 1st Session, document no. 128. Discusses the history of land surveying and selling after the Revolution, the Louisiana purchase, and the acquisition of Florida. There was fear in the South that proceeds would be used to advance a colonization agenda. The report recommends distributing proceeds to the states based on population.

GLC00267.047

18 May 1832

King, William R., 1786-1853

Pamphlet

Title: In the Senate of the United States. May 18, 1832. Mr. King made the following report:

22d Congress, 1st Session, document no. 145. Unfavorable report on the proposal to use proceeds from sales of public lands for education, internal improvements, and "the colonization of free negroes upon the western coast of Africa."

GLC00267.048

22 March 1844

Society of the District of Columbia for the Colonization and Civilization...

Pamphlet

Title: Memorial of the society of the District of Columbia for the colonization and civilization of Africa, praying ...

28th Congress, 1st session, Senate document no. 218. Calls upon the government for "The establishment of a commercial agency at the colony of Liberia, and asking an appropriation to forward the objects of said society, and for the benefit of said colony." Wants this commercial agency to enter into an agreement with "African chiefs for the overthrow of the slave trade...." Published by Society of the District of Columbia for the Colonization and Civilization of Africa.

GLC00267.053

1850

Gurley, Ralph R., 1797-1872

Book

Title: Report of the Secretary of State communicating the report of the Rev. R. R. Gurley, who was recently sent out by the government...

(title continues)... to obtain information in respect to Liberia. Pamphlet bound as a book. With introductory note by Daniel Webster, Secretary of State 1850-1852. 31st Congress, 1st session, Senate Executive Document No. 75. Contains a University Library at Lewisburg stamp on page one. Contains six pages of illustrations (apparently engravings), and a fold-out map of Liberia.

GLC00267.054

1857

Howard, Benjamin C., 1791-1872

Pamphlet

Title: Report of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the opinions of the judges thereof, in the case of Dred Scott versus John F. A. Sandford.

Printed by Cornelius Wendell. Contains original paper cover, from which several large fragments are missing.

GLC00267.058

January 20, 1843

Winthrop, Grenville Temple, 1807-1852

Pamphlet

Title: Free colored seamen - Majority and minority reports.

27th Congress, 3d session, House of Representatives document no. 80. Concerns South Carolina law jailing all free blacks in Charleston. Winthrop as senator from Massachusetts, protests on behalf of the citizens of Boston, against the jailing of free blacks working on ships arriving in Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans.

GLC00267.062

January 28, 1846

Georgia. Legislature

Pamphlet

Title: Resolutions of the legislature of Georgia, relative to the controversy between Massachusetts and the states of South Carolina and Louisiana.

House document no. 87, 20th Congress, 1st session. Georgia legislature supports the states' rights position taken by South Carolina and Louisiana. Resolves that Georgia opposes Massachusetts' interference in those states' affairs and will cooperate with South Carolina and Louisiana should such a thing occur in Georgia.

GLC00267.065

1804

Pamphlet

Title: A defense of the legislature of Massachusetts, or the rights of New England vindicated

Pamphlet defending the Massachusetts legislature's attempt to repeal the three fifths clause of the Constitution. Claims that the repeal is necessary for Massachusetts to retain any influence in national government. Argues that this clause gives Virginia the most power of any state, and that the policy favors the Southern states as a whole, but Virginia in particular. Also proposes changes regarding presidential election "to provide for the choice of Electors of President and Vice President by a General Ticket." With an appendix that lists the number of enslaved people registered in each…

GLC00267.007