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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.)
REPUBLICAN PARTY.
National
Platform of the Know Something
Party.
Small broadside, 9
1
/
2
x 5
1
/
4
inches;
left margin trimmed.
Cleveland: A. Crawford Greene, 14 June
1855
[400/600]
“As servility to the Slave Power characterizes
the national organizations of the existing polit-
ical parties, and as this servility is perilous to
the
MANHOOD
of the North and the Liberty
of the Republic, We Declare—” An early piece
anticipating the creation of the Republican
Party in the highly charged atmosphere of the
last few years of the 1850s. “Border Ruffian”
violence had already begun in Kansas, and
within a year the state would erupt in virtual
warfare over the slavery question.
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.)
NEW YORK STATE.
An Act to
Insure Freedom to all Persons Within
the State.
Narrow folio letterpress docu-
ment, 12 x 6
1
/
2
inches; a couple of small
chips at the top.
Albany, NY, 9 April 1857
[350/450]
In reaction to the Dred Scott Decision which
had come down in the December 1856 Term
of the Supreme Court, the Assembly of New
York State passed this “Act to secure Freedom
to all persons within this state. . . . Neither
descent, near or remote from an African,
whether such African is or may have been a
slave, or not, nor color of skin shall disqualify
any person for being, or prevent any person
from becoming a citizen of this state; nor
deprive such person of the rights and privileges
of a citizen thereof.”
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