Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Commonwealth. extra. [(August 26, 1852)]

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02226 Author/Creator: Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Newspaper Date: 26 August 1852 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 69 cm, Width: 52.3 cm Order a Copy

Sumner's argument for the appeal of the Fugitive Slave Law was that the slaveholding southern states, and not the United States as a whole, condone the institution of slavery, and thus having a national law in which such an institution is aided and perpetuated in those states who have entered the Union as free (or have since outlawed slavery) is injust.

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources