Personal Liberty Bill. March 1859

[Peterboro?], 1859. Four page bilfolium, 12 ½ x 8 inches. Fine condition. Fine. An uncommon imprint likely printed by Gerrit Smith in Peterboro, in 1859, the bulk of which reprints one of Smith’s speech from June 17, 1857 in Milwaukee. The speech mostly addresses the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act, a piece of legislation which galvanized the abolition movement and convinced many that violent resistance was justified. The preamble to Smith’s speech lists three of duties of the New York Legislature: to close the dramshops, to prevent withholding suffrage from black men, and to protect the "weary and heart-broken fugitive slaves" within state limits.