A MEMORIAL TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, ON THE SUBJECT OF RESTRAINING THE INCREASE OF SLAVERY IN NEW STATES TO BE ADMITTED INTO THE UNION. PREPARED IN PURSUANCE OF A VOTE OF THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON AND ITS VICINITY, ASSEMBLED AT THE STATE HOUSE, ON THE THIRD OF DECEMBER, A.D. 1819.
Boston: Sewell, Phelps, Printers, 1819. 22pp. Stitched and lightly worn. Good+.
Webster's earliest printed expressions on Slavery, during the Crisis over Missouri's admission to the Union, support a Congressional ban on new Slave States. Webster headed the Committee -- which included Josiah Quincy, James Austin, George Blake, and John Gallison -- which prepared the Memorial.
"The Boston Memorial, which undoubtedly expressed Webster's opinion, held that Congress was constitutionally empowered to exclude slavery in new States" [Peterson The Great Triumvirate 62]. The later Webster, fearing dissolution of the Union, pulled back when he supported the Compromise of 1850. But his arguments in this piece became bedrock doctrine for Free Soilers and Republicans in the 1840's and 1850's.
FIRST EDITION. LCP 6623. Sabin 47707. 136 Eberstadt 475. Work 330. Item #38360
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