1860-1862 – Four speeches by John A. Bingham, Congressman from Ohio, regarding the political debate as to whether or not the Southern States had the right to secede from the Union
Washington, DC. Pamphlet. John Armor Bingham was closely aligned with the Radical Republicans, although some historians maintain that his positions fell somewhat in between their and the more moderate Unionists. He was active in the abolition movement and maintained that it was the South who manipulated the Constitution to justify slavery. Later he served as the Assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of President Lincoln’s assassins, a House Manager (prosecutor) during the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, and, most significantly, as the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment which gave former slaves the right to vote.
His Congressional speeches in this lot are:
April 24, 1860 – The President’s Message – The Sectional Party (in which he objected to President Buchanan’s branding of Republicans as “the sectional party,” instead arguing that it was the Democrats who were truly sectional by weaponizing federal power to protect and potentially expand slavery)
January 22, 1861 – State of the Union (in which he strongly opposed compromises with the seceding Southern states. He argued that secession was an unjustified revolution and maintained that the federal government had the duty to preserve the Union and uphold the Constitution without surrendering to threats of rebellion)
January 15, 1862 – The Power and Duty of Congress to Provide for the Common Defence and the Suppression of the Rebellion (in which he maintained that the federal government possessed the inherent constitutional right and absolute duty to suppress the Confederate rebellion to preserve the Union, and that the constitutional power to "provide for the common defense" gave Congress sweeping authority to use military force and enact emergency measures against secession, as the Southern states forfeited their constitutional privileges by turning into organized conspiracies that were in rebellion against the federal compact)
March 12, 1862 – Self-Preservation the Right and Duty of the General Government. The Rebel States but Organized Conspiracies – Not Constitutional States, nor Entitled to States Rights (in which he argued that self-preservation is an inherent right and supreme duty for the national government, especially as the Southern states were in open rebellion, maintained that the Southern states forfeited any Constitutional standing because of their rebellion, asserted that the Confederacy was merely an "organized conspiracy" of usurpers which were not entitled to claim states’ rights while waging war against the Constitution, and that the Union had broad constitutional power to suppress the rebellion and restore lawful federal authority over the states that had seceded.
In nice shape. All complete with some edgewear, minor soiling, and scholarly pencil annotations.
. Very good. Item #010823Price: $150.00