"TANTAMOUNT TO AN ACT OF WAR": FIRST EDITION OF THE LEMMON SLAVE CASE REPORT, 1860

(SLAVERY) (JAY II, John) (LEMMON, Jonathan) (PAINE, Elijah). N.Y. Court of Appeals. Report of the Lemmon Slave Case: Containing Points and Arguments of Counsel on Both Sides, and Opinions of All the Judges. New York: Horace Greeley & Co., 1860. Octavo, period-style full calf-gilt, red morocco spine label, marbled endpapers. $4200.

Uncommon first edition of the Report of the Lemmon Slave Case (1860) concerning the transit of slaves owned by Virginia slaveowners through New York, seen as an opening wedge to impose slavery on the North—"the relationship between Dred Scott and the Lemmon Slave Case was palpable."

The Report of the Lemmon Slave Case, a core case in the legal history of American slavery, covers "one of the most extreme examples of hostility to slavery in Northern courts… This case was discussed by both Northern and Southern politicians in the late 1850s" and its printings, in this scarce first edition and later issues, "during the election of 1860 and the secession crisis of 1861, underscore the importance of the case to the politics and law of slavery" (Finkelman, 57). The Lemmon Slave Case was a crucial test on "whether slaves brought temporarily to New York City were, as state law stipulated, freed persons" (Wilentz, 714). In 1852 the Lemmons, Virginia slaveowners, were temporarily in New York with their eight slaves when "they were discovered by a black named Louis Napoleon, who secured a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of the slaves. Seven days later Judge Elijah Paine of the New York Superior Court released the slaves from the custody of the Lemmons and declared them to be free persons under New York law. The Lemmons were indemnified for their loss by a group of New York businessmen, and they then returned to Virginia. The state of Virginia, however, hired counsel and appealed this decision to the New York Supreme Court." When that court upheld Paine, Virginia took the case to the New York Court of Appeals where, in 1860, "that court upheld the original decision in the case. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was expected, but the election of Lincoln and the subsequent secession of Virginia foreclosed any further legal action in the case." This pivotal work contains the opinion of Judge Paine, the writ of habeas corpus, the arguments of Blunt, O'Conor and Evarts before the New York Court of Appeals and the opinions of Justice Denio, Justice Wright and Justice Clerke. The arguments of O'Conor and Evarts represent the fullest legal examination of slave transit and comity before the Civil War. Publisher Horace Greeley viewed this case as "an attempt to introduce slavery into the Empire State and perhaps to force slavery on the North… Some called it 'the next Dred Scott Case.' By publishing his Report, Greeley was educating the public to the political issues raised by the case" (Finkelman 54-7, 9). "The relationship between Dred Scott [1857] and the Lemmon Slave Case was palpable" (Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York).

"The slavery controversy was the most important single influence on American constitutional development before the Civil War." At war's end, due to debates of slavery in the courts, "the American people recreated their Constitution, embedding in its 13th and 14th Amendments the elements of antislavery constitutionalism" (Wiecek, Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 15, 287). NY's court action in the Lemmon case was deemed "tantamount to an act of war" (Finkelman, Imperfect Union, 296). This highly inflammatory case had its beginnings in the 1841 repeal of the state's "sojourner" statute that had allowed slave owners in transit from other states to bring slaves in for up to nine months. That repeal proved fundamental when Virginia slave owners Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon arrived by ship in 1852 with their eight slaves. Warned not to bring the slaves ashore, they nevertheless took them to a hotel, prompting Black abolitionist Louis Napoleon to petition for writ of habeas corpus. John Jay II, grandson of the former chief justice, and E D. Culver argued for the writ, and Henry Lapaugh argued for the Lemmons at a hearing on November 6, when the slaves were brought before Judge Elijah Paine. Seven days later Paine "released the slaves from the custody of the Lemmons and declared them to be free persons under NY law" (Finkelman, Slavery in the Courtroom, 56). Napoleon and his fellow abolitionists decided, at the time "to be safe… [and] send the slaves to Canada" (Sinha, Slave's Cause, 536).

"Lemmon was, in the words of the Springfield Republican, 'second only to the Dred Scott case in the importance of the general principles involved'" (Finkelman, Imperfect, 301). "The Lemmons were indemnified for their loss by a group of NY businessmen, and they returned to Virginia. The state of Virginia, however… appealed this decision to the NY Supreme Court. In 1857 that court upheld Paine's decision. The state of Virginia then appealed to the NY Court of Appeals… In 1860, by a vote of five to three, the justices of the NY Court of Appeals upheld the original decision. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was expected, but the election of Lincoln and the subsequent secession of Virginia foreclosed any further legal action" (Finkelman, Slavery, 56). The Lemmon case was "the culmination of 88 years of Anglo-American case law… the antebellum courts… became the battlegrounds where the struggles over the issues and slavery and freedom could be fought" (Finkelman, Imperfect, 310-11). The case was also central to South Carolina's 1860 Declaration of Immediate Secession, which included statutes of 14 states as proof of a deliberate refusal "'to fulfill their constitutional obligations'… among the proofs they had in mind was the Lemmon case" (Delbanco, War Before the War, 348). It was, as well, pivotal in the 1860 election, and the 1861 secession crisis also underscores "the importance of the case to the politics and law of slavery" (Finkelman, Slavery, 57).

This Report "contains the original petition for the writ of habeas corpus, the opinion of Judge Paine… the opinion of Justice Mitchell in the NY Supreme Court, the arguments of O'Conor on behalf of the Lemmons and those of Evarts for the state before the NY Court of Appeals, including the opinion of the court, the concurring opinion, and all three dissents. Thus, it brings together most of the printed material available on this case. The only reported materials not here are the arguments of counsel before the NY's intermediary appellate court, the NY Supreme Court. The arguments of O'Conor and Evarts represent the fullest legal examination of slave transit and comity before the Civil War. The decision represents the most complete application of the pro-freedom doctrines" of England's Somerset v. Stewart (1772) and the major decision in the U.S. of Commonwealth v. Aves (1836). "The Lemmon case is one of the most extreme examples of hostility to slavery in Northern courts. In dissent, Justice Clerke of the NY Court of Appeals warned that 'the violation of the right yielded by what is termed comity… would, under certain circumstances, be a just cause of war'" (Finkelman, Slavery, 57). Scarce first edition, preceding the Tinson printing of the same year. Sabin 40003. Work, 346.

Title page and following leaf expertly cleaned and remargined at gutter's edge, following few leaves with light dampstaining at gutter's edge, not affecting text. Last leaf of text and advertising leaf remargined at gutter's edge, only affecting text on advertising leaf. Beautifully bound, a very good copy.