TWO LETTERS ON SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ESQ - Rare Book Insider
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Hammond, J[ames] H.

TWO LETTERS ON SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, ADDRESSED TO THOMAS CLARKSON, ESQ

Allen, McCarter, & Co. The South-Carolinian Press., Columbia: 1845
  • $500
51, [1] pp. Stitched. Light to moderate foxing. Rubberstamp and gum label in blank upper margin of title page; rubberstamp on page [3], touching but not obscuring three letters in the caption title. Good+. The South Carolina Governor and Senator, who believed that slavery was the cornerstone of civilization, defends the Peculiar Institution against its indictment by Clarkson and the English abolitionists. "You will say that man cannot hold property in man. The answer is, that he can and actually does hold property in his fellow all the world over, in a variety of forms, and has always done so." Hammond cites the expected scriptural authority for this provocative remark and "repudiates, as ridiculously absurd, that much-lauded but no where accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson, that 'all men are born equal'.'" Hammond's spirited argument was widely distributed in the South and reprinted, with additional letters, in Charleston in the same year. FIRST EDITION. III Turnbull 6. AI 45-2988 [5]. Work 315. LCP 4543.
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BY THE HONORABLE JAMES KENT, ESQUIRE CHANCELLOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME OR MAY CONCERN: KNOW YE, THAT [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] HAVING BEEN DULY EXAMINED AND REGULARLY ADMITTED AS A [COUNSELLOR] IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, IN THE TERM OF [JUNE] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] I DO HEREBY AUTHORIZE AND LICENSE THE SAID [JAMES TALLMADGE JUNIOR] TO APPEAR IN THE SAID COURT, AND THERE TO PRACTICE AS A [COUNSELLOR] ACCORDING TO THE RULES AND CUSTOMS OF THE SAID COURT, AND THE LAWS OF THIS STATE. GIVEN UNDER MY HAND AND THE SEAL OF THE SAID COURT, AT [NEW YORK] THE [ELEVENTH] DAY OF [JULY] IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND [FOURTEEN] [signed in ink manuscript] JAMES KENT

Kent, James 7" x 10-3/4". Printed certificate on thick paper, the New York State seal at the bottom left corner. Printed in typescript with several fonts, completed in ink manuscript [as noted by the brackets]and signed in ink by James Kent. Text surrounded by an ornamental rectangular border. Acknowledgment in ink manuscript on verso, dated and signed by Isaac L. Kip, Assistant Registrar. Very Good. James Kent [1763-1847] the son of Moss Kent, a lawyer, is considered one of the great jurists of any era. Admitted to the New York Bar in 1785, he was a State Assemblyman, the first professor of law in Columbia College, Governor Jay's appointee as Master in Chancery; New York's Chief Justice; and a member of the 1821 State Constitutional Convention, where he unsuccessfully opposed raising the property qualification for Negroes. His four-volume COMMENTARIES ON AMERICAN LAW is a foundation of American jurisprudence. Tallmadge became a Congressman and author of the Tallmadge Amendment, which would have prohibited Slavery in the contemplated State of Missouri.
  • $375