Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 64

26. J[esse] R. Burden, Speech Hon. J. R. Burden of Philadelphia Co. in the Senate of Pennsylvania, on the Abolition Question, February, 1838. Also His Valedictory Address as Speaker of the Senate, April, 1838 (Philadelphia: Democratic Association of Pennsylvania, 1838). (16 p.)

Critique of the abolitionist movement, which “has been humane in the abstract, but dreadfully cruel in reality.” The speaker asserts that “Modern abolitionism has . . . held out expectations to the coloured people which cannot be realized—it has led to their young men to a course which has produced reaction—it has revived a prejudice which had been slumbering—it has given to the wanton and unthinking an excuse for persecution—it has brought on your tables memorials to prohibit colored people from voting at elections—it has induced the convention for amending the constitution to agitate the question of their right of suffrage.”