Restoration of the Missouri Compromise

The arguments relative to the admission of Kansas to the Union, and whether she would be a free or slave state, were many and varied. Mr. Pettit, in his Speech of Hon. John U. Pettit, of Indiana, on the Restoration of the Missouri Compromise. Delivered in the House of Representatives, August 2, 1856, tried a different approach to the problem. Since the Kansas-Nebraska act left the choice of free vs slave to the governments of the Territories, there were continued battles to establish whether the proposed government of Kansas represented its inhabitants or not. These arguments would never have occurred if the Missouri Compromise, which was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska act, was still in force. Mr. Pettit said "...Now, if the Missouri compromise, passed March 6, 1820, which excluded slavery from that Territory, had been permitted to remain in force, and had not been repealed, the question of slavery there would have been prejudged and settled. The seditious malcontents from the North, of whom the gentleman from Georgia furnished an amiable sketch, would have had nothing left to ask, and the friends of slavery would have had nothing left to hope. The repeal of the Missouri compromise is, therefore, the cause of these disorders, because, in the absence of this repeal, none of these disorders could have occurred...".

This First Edition copy of the speech, printed in 1856 at The Congressional Globe Office in Washington, is contained in a 23 page double-column booklet, without covers, that measures approximately 5 ¾ x 9 inches. The pages are tanned, with occasional foxing, but the text is clear and easily read. The overall condition of the item is good.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the title page and first page of the speech.

John Upfold Pettit (September 11, 1820 – March 21, 1881) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana. Pettit was elected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress and reelected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3, 1861). He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Thirty-fourth Congress). [Wikipedia]