Very scarce in any state with no copies in the auction record or in the trade we can trace, the present 946pp Journal of the deliberations of the 31st Senate [1849/1850] was the House of Representatives original resource copy, complete with their attractively preserved period lithographed plate on the front board.
There are dozens and dozens of instances of discussion regarding the status of slaves, the impending fugitive slave act, legal rights of children born to fugitives, the criminality of harboring fugitives, etc., A critical moment in history, and an historically central physical copy used by those deliberating the Act.
Of additional interest are extensive discussions on California statehood, etc.,
United States, Congress, Senate. Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Thirty-First Congress: Begun and Held in the City of Washington, December 3, 1849, in the Seventy-Fourth Year of the Independence of the United States. Washington. Printed for the Senate. 1849-50. 946pp.
A fair copy only, bound in leather with the boards detached, generally solid, light foxing and some stains.
