DOUGLASS, FREDERICK | Frederick Douglass'sSpeech to the Free Soil Party Convention on the Fugitive Slave Law, printed in Frederick Douglass's Paper, Vol. V, No. 35. Rochester, August 20, 1852

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

DOUGLASS, FREDERICK

Frederick Douglass'sSpeech to the Free Soil Party Convention on the Fugitive Slave Law, printed in Frederick Douglass's Paper, Vol. V, No. 35. Rochester, August 20, 1852

Large folio, 4 pages (26 1/4 x 19 in.; 670 x 490 mm) on a bifolium on wove paper, inner masthead with the paper's motto "All Rights for All!," text in seven columns; some soiling and marginal chips and tears, small loss at central intersecting folds not affecting Douglass's text. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

"Slavery has no rightful existence anywhere": Douglass's passionate speech decrying slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law printed in his own newspaper. The Free Soil Party was a short-lived predecessor of the Republican party, dedicated to preventing the expansion of slavery into the Western territories, although many of its members were also ardent abolitionists. In 1852, the Free Soilers nominated John P. Hale, a United States Senator from New Hampshire, as their standard bearer. Passed by Congress in September 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law required officials and citizens of free states to cooperate with the return of escaped slaves. Douglass, a delegate to the convention, told the other delegates gathered in Pittsburgh that "The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make half a dozen or more dead kidnappers." 

While the convention did not quite adopt that policy, its platform (also printed in this issue) made clear the party's position on the matter: "the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is repugnant to the Constitution, to the principles of the common law, to the spirit of Christianity, and to the sentiments of the civilized world. We, therefore, deny its binding force upon the American people, and demand it[s] immediate and total repeal." Another plank in the platform unequivocally states "No more Slave States, no Slave Territory, no nationalized Slavery, and no national legislation for the extradition of Slaves."

By 1856, the Free Soil Party had given way to the Republican, which nominated John C. Frémont for president, allowing the candidate to add his name to the Free Soilers' motto: "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, Free Men, Frémont." The second Republican nominee for president, in 1860, was Abraham Lincoln, who twice met with Douglass in the White House.