REPORT OF THE DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE OPINIONS OF THE JUDGES THEREOF IN THE CASE OF DRED SCOTT VERSUS JOHN F. A. SANDFORD. DECEMBER TERM, 1856
Washington DC: Benjamin C. Howard, 1857. First Thus. Soft cover. Poor. Item #2507047
1857 Washington printing said to be issued at or about the same time as the New York edition. Original string-tied printed wraps. LACKING ORIGINAL PAPER COVERS, TITLE PAGE, AND LAST LEAF (page 239) the last two of which have been replaced by your bookseller as new pages. In this famous and convoluted case Scott, a slave who had also lived in free Wisconsin Territory and Illinois, sued for his freedom (as did his wife). A lower court in Missouri ruled in his favor. This ruling was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court, whereupon Scott appealed to the US Supreme Court where he lost in a 7-2 decision when the winds of slavery politics blew to smithereens the up-to-then accepted "doctrine" that, "once free" (as in having lived in a free state or territory), "always free." This decision has come down through US history as one of the biggest failures of the US Supreme Court. As noted above, the title page is missing. I have supplied. cutting to proper dimension, a modern page of the same, which is laid in. This copy is also missing the last page (p.339), but I have supplied the entire text of the last page and also cut it to proper dimension and laid it in. Otherwise the copy, string-tied as noted, has water tidelines upper half of the first leaf, which tideline extends to a decreasing degree into the 63pps. Clarity of readability is not compromised. Quite minor foxing to a few margins. Minor edge chipping to first and last pages. To be obviously handled with care, but a quite serviceable reading copy if you desire this text in its original form pps (3) - 228. Very scarce. This document in book form is #68 in the famed Grolier Club's One Hundred Influential American Books Printed before 1900 published in 1947.
Price: $495.00