STATE OF NEW-YORK. NO. 53. IN SENATE, FEBRUARY 26, 1839. REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY IN RELATION TO THE RIGHT OF PETITION.
[Albany: 1839]. 27, [1 blank] pp. Stitched, untrimmed, generously margined. Light scattered foxing. Very Good.
A flood of anti-slavery petitions to Congress in the late 1830's stimulated southern demands that such petitions "be laid on the table without being referred, printed or debated." Anti-slavery activists, and others opposing suppression of the First Amendment's guarantee of the right of petition, fought such 'Gag Rules,' as they were called.
The New York General Assembly passed resolutions deploring this "violation of the rights of the people of this State." But second thoughts, expressed in this Report, soon surfaced: "Should the northern States fan the flames of abolitionism by a Legislative sanction, greater desolation and more extended misery would result, than was consequent upon the revocation of the edict of Nantz. The same spirit would be uncaged and let loose in a broader field, and would compromit the fate of millions instead of thousands of human beings...If a social and servile war must drench in blood this fairest heritage of man, let not the dire catastrophe be hurried on by the action of this Senate."
AI 57564 [3]. Item #27309
Price: $125.00