TO THE PEOPLE OF NORTH-CAROLINA.
[np: 1868]. Caption title, as issued. 46, 2 pp. Stitched. Very Good but for two old rubberstamps [one in upper margin of title page, the other in lower margin].
The pamphlet consists of an Address explaining the proposed 1868 Constitution, plus the printed Constitution, with Ordinance submitting it to the People for ratification. Its signers are listed in type at the end. The Constitution repudiates the doctrine of secession and asserts citizens' paramount loyalty to the United States. "All the male inhabitants of the State, without regard to race, color, or previous condition" have the right to vote and hold office.
The drafters forcefully rebut "the charge" that the Constitution "favors the social equality of the races. It is untrue. With the social intercourse of life, government has nothing to do; that, must be left to the taste and choice of each individual. . . Some persons have been so bold or so ignorant as to allege, that white and colored people, are required to be enrolled in the same militia company, and white and colored children to attend the same schools, and that intermarriage between the races are encouraged. All these assertions are false, as any reader of the Constitution will see." Similar efforts to excite a "false prejudice" against adoption of the Constitution are deplored.
Thornton, Official Publications 419 [1- NcU]. Sabin 55698. OCLC records a regrettable mish-mash of facsimiles and originals. Item #38056
Price: $850.00