1860 ALVAN STEWART. The Anti-Slavery and Underground Railroad Speeches & Actions of Alvan Stewart

Alvan Stewart [1790-1849] is an absolutely fascinating character in the history of the abolitionist and underground railroad movements of the first half of the 19th century.

Always with a wildly independent streak, he was enlisted from the University of Vermont to take a teaching job in Canada in 1812 as a spy for the United States government. He was arrested there and held prisoner. 

Upon his eventual release, he returned to the States and continued teaching while enrolling in law school. Afterward he move to Kentucky and gained a reputation as a brilliant lawyer.

It was there though that his life would change. Having seen slavery first-hand, in practice, he returned to Utica New York to practice law, but gave an ever-increasing amount of time to the anti-slavery cause. By 1835 he had formed and was president of the New York Anti-Slavery Society. He raised money, organized meetings, and held public debates, which were often broken up by angry mobs.

Stewart approached abolitionism with his legal expertise, arguing that slavery was in violation with the Constitution and should be abolished. He was a fire-brand against slavery on the abolitionist speech circuit. Nowhere was his willingness to push the boundaries more evident though than in his work with the Underground Railroad. In the famed Utica Rescue in which Stewart volunteered to defend two "freedom seeking" negroes, i.e. run-aways, who had been captured in Utica, New York. He used his novel approach of arguing that they were Constitutionally protected. The unique argument caused the judge to delay trial a day, and in the evening the two were broken out of the jail, likely with Stewart's involvement, and transported to a safe haven, likely Canada. 

This excellent volume of Stewart's anti-slavery writings includes his first published speech against slavery [1835]; a memoir of his abolitionist activities and views; his 1836 address to the New York Anti-Slavery Society; his response on slavery to the Governor; his court arguments in the State Vs Post in which he argued that the New Jersey Constitution formally abolished slavery in that State; etc. etc. 

[Abolition; Alvan Stewart] Luther Rawson Marsh [ed.]. Writings and Speeches of Alvan Stewart on Slavery. New York. A. B. Burdick. 1860. First Edition. 426pp.

Good + in original cloth, faded as shown, but solid and attractive with minor nick to cloth. Engraving of Stewart ghosting to two other sheets. Textually good, crisp, and clean with some light foxing only. A very nice example of a desirable volume.