Subject: Dred Scott Decision

Speech delivered by Judah P. Benjamin, Democratic Senator from Louisiana, on the floor of the United States Senate on May 22, 1860. Benjamin responds to a speech by Stephen A. Douglas, arguing against legislation restricting slavery in new states and territories. He cites the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision (1857), which ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and that the federal government could not interfere with states' rights regarding slavery. Benjamin criticizes Douglas's perceived inconsistency on the issue of slavery, highlighting the political divisions within the Democratic Party leading up to the Charleston Convention and the Southern secession from the Union. [np, nd. 1860]

This congressional record contains the speech delivered by Judah P. Benjamin, Senator from Louisiana, in the United States Senate on May 22, 1860. Benjamin's speech directly responds to Stephen A. Douglas's arguments on popular sovereignty and vehemently opposes any limitations on slavery in new states and territories. He cites the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision to support his position. This document is a key artifact of the escalating tensions leading to the Civil War, reflecting the deep divisions within the Democratic Party and the Southern states' determination to protect slavery.

This 32-page pamphlet contains the speech delivered by Judah P. Benjamin, Democratic Senator from Louisiana, on the floor of the United States Senate on May 22, 1860. Benjamin's speech is a response to Stephen A. Douglas, arguing against legislation restricting slavery in new territories. He references the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision (1857) to support his arguments regarding states' rights. The speech highlights the tensions leading to the disintegration of the Democratic Party and the eventual secession of the Southern states.

This pamphlet contains the speech delivered by Judah P. Benjamin, Senator from Louisiana, in the United States Senate on May 22, 1860. Benjamin's speech was a key component of the Breckinridge & Lane campaign documents and was distributed by the National Democratic Executive Committee. It directly addresses Stephen A. Douglas's concept of popular sovereignty and argues for the protection of slavery in the territories, referencing the Dred Scott decision. This pamphlet represents a significant moment in the fracturing of the Democratic Party leading up to the Civil War.

Congressional Record - KANSAS BILL. SPEECH OF HON. J.P. BENJAMIN, OF LA., DELIVERED IN SENATE OF UNITED STATES ON THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1858. SLAVERY PROTECTED BY THE COMMON LAW OF THE NEW WORLD. GUARANTIED BY CONSTITUTION. VINDICATION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE U.S. Washington: Gideon. 1858. A brilliant justification of the Dred Scott decision by the Louisiana lawyer and Senator, who also rebuts Stephen Douglas's Popular Sovereignty doctrine, that inhabitants of a territory had the power to vote slavery up or down, as they saw fit. Benjamin argues, "independently of the authority of the [Dred Scott] decision," that the early colonists "brought with them the common law of England as their birthright...I shall not hazard too much in the assertion that slavery was the common law of the thirteen States of the Confederacy at the time they burst the bonds that united them to the mother country." He supports his thesis with much detail, including the early law and custom of England, aspects of the Dred Scott decision, and in colloquy with Senator Fessenden of Maine. Benjamin's theoretical work presaged the escalation of Southern demands for Congress to pass Slave Codes which would prohibit, not merely Congress, but a territorial legislature as well, from restricting slavery in the territories; and require Congress to protect slaveholders from hostile territorial inhabitants should such a legislature fail to do so. This is evidently the only edition of this work. FIRST EDITION. Sabin 4705. LCP 1093. Not in Work, Harv. Law Cat., Singerman, Eberstadt, Decker, Blockson, Marke, BEAL.

This is a speech delivered by Judah P. Benjamin in the United States Senate on March 11, 1858, regarding the Kansas Bill and the issue of slavery. Benjamin, a Louisiana Senator, eloquently defends the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision and refutes Stephen Douglas's Popular Sovereignty doctrine. He argues that slavery was part of the common law of the thirteen original colonies, supported by historical legal precedent and customs. This first edition pamphlet, printed by Gideon in Washington, is a significant contribution to the debate surrounding slavery and its expansion in the United States. It showcases Benjamin's legal acumen and foreshadows the escalating Southern demands for Congressional protection of slavery in the territories.