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Millard Fillmore ALS 1857 Re: Slavery

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:0.00 USD
Millard Fillmore ALS 1857 Re: Slavery
"WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED AFTER THE AUCTION ENDS BY THE AUCTIONEER ONCE ALL BIDS HAVE BEEN PROCESSED TO DETERMINE THE WINNER FOR EACH LOT."
Millard Fillmore autograph letter signed. Single page, octavo, datelined 25 February 1857, Buffalo, New York, to E.H. Wade, Esq., a Free Soil candidate who was serving his second term in the House. Fillmore pens in full: “Buffalo, Feb. 25, 1857, E. H. Wade, Esq. / Sir, / I have your letter desiring to know whether in my opinion the ‘Missouri Compromise was constitutional or not.’ I understand this question is now pending before the Supreme Court of the United States, where it has been ably argued, and will soon be decided. Under such circumstances it would be arrogance in me to assume to give an opinion. My duty is to submit to this decision as the last appeal known to our Constitution. / Respectfully yours Millard Fillmore.” Written just nine days prior to the Supreme Court decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford and days before President Buchanan referred to the territorial question as “a matter of but little practical importance,” this letter cites one of the pivotal issues facing the country – the issue prohibiting slavery. In the Dred Scott Decision, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney asserted that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was Unconstitutional. Scott was a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri into the free state of Illinois and territory north of the latitude 36°30’and then back to Missouri. Scott sued for his freedom and the Supreme Court overruled a lower court’s decision in favor of Scott. The Court ruled that Scott had never ceased to be a slave and so could not be considered a citizen with the right to sue in a federal court. The most far-reaching impact of the decision came from the claim that Congress had no right to deprive citizens of their property (such as slaves) anywhere within the United States and thus no authority to prohibit slavery in the federal territories. A fascinating letter with great content penned during the height of the slavery controversy and divisive events that led to the secession crisis a few years later. Light toning otherwise fine condition.