REMONSTRANCE OF THE GRAND JURY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, IN RESPECT TO PETITIONS TO CONGRESS FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. JANUARY 17, 1837.
Washington, D.C. 24th Cong., 2d Sess. [75], 1837. 3, [1 blank] pp. Single leaf, folded. Caption title as issued. Lightly foxed. Very Good.
During the 1830s antislavery groups flooded Congress with petitions to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Congress had plenary authority over the District of Columbia including, presumably, the power to abolish slavery there.
In response, opponents of emancipation and Congressmen simply annoyed at the disruptions caused by these petitions, enacted the Gag Rule: Any petitions "relating in any way...to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and no further action whatever shall be had thereon."
This fight over the Gag Rule "brought slavery truly to the center of congressional politics for the first time since the Missouri crisis." Fehrenbacher Dred Scott Case 121. This document identifies "great and growing evils" caused by the petitions, which threaten "the peace and tranquillity of the whole federal community."
Nathan Lufborough was Foreman of the Grand Jury. He and his sixteen colleagues sign the Remonstrance in type.
OCLC 82628903 [2- Harvard, Lib. VA] as of September 2026. Item #42459
Price: $350.00