ADDRESS OF THE REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE TO THE ELECTORS OF RHODE ISLAND.

Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co, 1857. Original printed wrappers [corner wear, upper forecorner clipped] with wrapper title [as issued]. Stitched, 18pp. Very Good.

The only significant national question is "whether freedom or slavery shall be national, one party claiming, with the framers of the constitution, that the national government shall do nothing whatever to extend or sustain the claim of property in man, and the other that it shall afford it everywhere the same protection that it does to any other species of property." All other issues are "obsolete." When the Constitution was adopted a broad consensus prevailed in all Sections that slavery was founded on despotism, and the notion of property in man abhorrent; it was hoped that slavery would die out. But today the national government actively nurtures the expansion of slavery. This pamphlet was issued about a week before James Buchanan's inauguration, and just before the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Dred Scott case.
FIRST EDITION. Not in Sabin, Dumond, Blockson, LCP. Item #23086

Price: $275.00

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