Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 29

4. Massachusetts, Senate, Memorial, Senate no. 34 (N.p., [1861]). (16 p.)

Petition objecting to repeal of the state’s Personal Liberty Law of 1855, which provided safeguards from abuses of the Fugitive Slave Law. Pressure to repeal the law originated among persons seeking to appease slave-states following the election of Abraham Lincoln. The title of Section IX of the petition reads as follows. “Our Laws should not be weakened to accommodate Slave Owners.”