Speech of Mr. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, on the Political Aspect of the Slave Question
Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 26th, 1848 Washington DC: Printed by J. & G. S. Gideon, 1848.
First Edition. Wraps. Wraps. 9.5" x 6". Folded paper. Front pages close to being detached. Some other pages are uncut or unopened. Light edge wear to the paper. Good. Item #22074
From wikipedia:
Palfrey was elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He was a "Conscience Whig" who opposed slavery, having freed sixteen slaves inherited from his father, who, like his two brothers, was a successful Louisiana plantation owner. In Washington, he was a member of a small group of anti-slavery congressmen, including Joshua Giddings, who met regularly. His anti-slavery views alienated him from more conservative members of his district, such as the "Cotton Whigs," and in 1848 he was unsuccessful in his campaign for re-election on the Free-Soil ticket. (The seat remained vacant for the 31st Congress despite multiple elections, in which no candidate achieved the needed 51% majority.) He was also the Free-Soil candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1851.
In addition to opposing slavery, Congressman Palfrey advocated for the rights of free blacks traveling in the South and attempted unsuccessfully to remove provisions that limited suffrage to whites in Oregon's Territorial Constitution.[3]
As the anti-slavery movement grew in Massachusetts and the Republican Party emerged, Palfrey's political fortunes improved again. After Abraham Lincoln's election in 1861, Senator Charles Sumner secured him appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a post he held from 1861 to 1867. He suffered a stroke in the mid-1870s and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 26, 1881. He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.
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