Sermons and Speeches
New York: Ross & Tousey, 1861. Frontispiece, 198p. Original cloth over boards with the title lettered on the front board. Gerrit Smith (1797-1874) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Vorenberg p192-193 writes how "Smith wrote a public letter that postulated the existence of two Constitutions, one "literal" and the other "historical". Smith had originally opposed an anti-slavery amendment because it suggested that the literal Constitution was a pro-slavery document. He became convinced that the amendment was necessary to correct the historical Constitution, the imagined charter fixed on Americans minds by pro-slavery politicians". A fresh clean copy with only some light rubbing to the extremities. Item #10024
Price: $225.00