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Crowell, John : Slavery in the District of Columbia. Speech of Mr. Crowell, of Ohio, on Slavery in the District of Columbia. Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, July 26, 1848

J. & G. S. Gideon, Printers., Washington, D.C.

Original publisher's beige paper wrappers. Text printed in black ink. A few leaves are partially unopened. No date, circa 1848. 5 3/4" x 9." Sixteen pages, complete. Pages are clean and intact except for light age toning, moderate foxing (mostly on last two leaves), two small chips limited to upper corner of fore-edge on last two leaves, and slight chipping and splitting along spine. A Very Good copy. A speech that was originally delivered before the United States House of Representatives on July 26, 1848 by John Crowell (1801-1883), an American lawyer and politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1847-1851. He was a Whig. In this speech, Crowell makes an ardent plea to abolish slavery and the slave trade in Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia). Central to his address is that the people of the District of Columbia do not wish to interfere with slavery as it exists in slave states, but he also says they do not want slavery or the slave trade in D.C. He cites that laws passed by Congress in January 27, 1801 and February 1801 have allowed loopholes for slavery to continue in D.C. Among those acts are provisions that explicitly transferred the state laws of Maryland and Virginia, which permit slavery, when their respective portions were carved out to form D.C. Crowell acknowledges that such laws permit slavery, but he clearly states that from a fundamental moral perspective, those laws should be repealed. Much of Crowell's address is a denouncement of slavery. He says, "The institution of slavery is repugnant to reason, to the rights of man, and the principles of natural law and Christian morality." He continues and quotes eminent jurists, such as Lord Mansfield, who stated, "[Slavery] is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law." Crowell also quotes a Mississippi judge who, while trying to justify slavery, even admitted its opposition to "reason and the laws of nature." Crowell gives several examples of the abhorrent character of slavery and the slave trade. Among them is a first-hand account by a Mr. Walsh of a slave ship that had landed off the coast of Brazil. Walsh describes in unflinching detail the abject state of the slaves on board including the tortuous environment in which hundreds of slaves were packed like sardines, the constant threat of the whip, being branded with hot iron, how some slaves were emaciated, and how many of the children appeared to be dying. Walsh's account reads, in part, "The space was so low that they sat between each other's legs, and stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down, or changing their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, and were shipped on account of different individuals, they were all branded like sheep, with the owner's marks, of different forms." Crowell also notes the examples of "secret prisons" in which slave traders can legally abduct free people and place them in makeshift prisons for the purposes of enslaving them and fugitive slave laws that allow circumvention of due process in which slaveholders can claim, with little to no evidence, that individuals are their escaped slaves. One of Crowell's later remarks is as follows: "Slavery was imposed on us originally as a mark of vassalage to a foreign prince, and it is the only bade of our colonial servitude that has survived the Revolution. And none of the gifted champions of slavery on this floor or elsewhere, can offer a decent apology for continuing to wear it.". Book. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Soft cover

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