SIXTEENTH LEGISLATURE. No. 45 SENATE. STATE OF MAINE. IN SENATE, MARCH 1, 1836. THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE, TO WHOM WAS REFERRED THE MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR, COMMUNICATING THE REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURES OF NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND ALABAMA, ON THE INCENDIARY PROCEEDINGS OF THE ABOLITIONISTS IN THE NON-SLAVE-HOLDING STATES.[caption title and beginning of text]

Maine]: [Slavery]

Published by [N.p. likely Augusta, 1836

About this Item

6,[2]pp. Folded sheets, stitched. Minor foxing and toning. Very good. Untrimmed. A rare Maine slip-bill document resolving that the citizens from Maine and other states should not interfere with the issue of slavery in slave-holding states. The legislature writes: "Any interference, therefore, of a State or the inhabitants of a State with the domestic concerns of another State, is dangerous, as having a direct tendency to create jealousies between the States, and thereby weakening the attachment to the Union, which is our only security against domestic dissensions and foreign aggressions." This is a somewhat surprising position for the state of Maine to have taken at the time. Maine came into the Union in 1820 as a free state to balance the admission of the slave- owning state of Missouri. Also, Maine opposed the admission of the Republic of Texas in 1836 (the same year the present document was printed) on the basis of Texas' position on slavery. It is curious that they would take two seemingly opposite positions in the same year. Still, the legislature printed the resolution and authorized copies to be sent to the four southern slave-owning states mentioned in the title. Seller Inventory # WRCAM52765

Bibliographic Details

Title: SIXTEENTH LEGISLATURE. No. 45 SENATE. STATE ...

Publisher: [N.p. likely Augusta

Publication Date: 1836