LibGuides: US Civil War and Slavery Primary Sources: Lead up to the Civil War

Primary sources at CMU

Adams, Charles Francis. Speech (on Secession of Southern States). 1861 January 31. US House of Representatives.

Bingham, John A. The Assault Upon Senator Sumner, a Crime Against the People. 1856 July 9. US House of Representatives.

Calhoun, Senator. Speech (on abolition of slavery), circa 1850. US Senate.

Colfax, Schuyler. The “Laws” of Kansas. 1856 June 21. US House of Representatives.

Crawford, M. J. Election of the Speaker. 1859 December 15. US House of Representatives.

Davis, H. Winter. Election of Speaker. 1860 February 21. US House of Representatives.

Ferry, Orris S. of Connecticut. Speech (on slavery). 1860 February 10. US House of Representatives.

Giddings of Ohio. Privilege of the Representative – Privilege of the People: On the Trial of Preston S. Brooks, for an Assault on Senator Sumner. 1856 July 11.

Grow, G. A. Nebraska and Kansas. 1854 May 10. US House of Representatives.

Hale, John P. The Wrongs of Kansas. February 1856 February. US Senate.

Hibbard, Harry. Nebraska and Kansas. 1854 May 8. US House of Representatives.

Howard, William A. Kansas – Lecompton Constitution. 1858 March 23. US House of Representatives.

Humphrey, James. The State of the Union. 1861 February 6. US House of Representatives.

Keitt, Larence, M. Slavery, and the Resources of the South. 1857 January 15. US House of Representative.

Lincoln, Abraham. General Appropriation Bill: Speech of Mr. Lincoln in Reply to Mr. Ogle. 1840 April 16. US House of Representatives.

Morrison, G. W. Nebraska and Kansas Bill. 1854. US House of Representatives.

Seward, William H. Freedom in Kansas. 1858 March 3. US Senate.

Sherman, John. Lecompton Constitution. 1858 January 28. US House of Representatives.

Somes, Daniel E. Treason Should Not Be Dignified by Concessions to Traitors. 1861 February 16. US House of Representatives.

Wade, Benjamin F. Property in the Territories. 1860 March 7. US Senate.

Wade, Benjamin F. The State of the Union. 1860 December 17. US Senate.

Wilson, Henry. Democratic Leaders for Disunion. 1860 January 25. US Senate.

Report and Resolves on the Subject of Slavery. Senate No. 56. Joint Special Committee publication. 1836 January 16.

McKeen, Silas. Heroic Patriotism: A Sermon Delivered at Bradford, VT., Sabbath Afternoon, April 28, 1861, in the Presence of the Bradford Guards, When under Call to Join the First Regiment of the Vermont Volunteers, and Go Forth in Their Country's Service. 1861.

Light, George W. The North and The South: An Important Enterprise for Promoting the Triumph of Freedom in 1860. (Statement published in the New York Tribune.) circa 1859-1860.

Hale, Sarah Josepha. Northwood; or, Life North and South: Showing the True Character of Both. New York: H. Long & Brother. 1852.

The Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Hon. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860.

Burr, William Henry. Speech of Theodore Tilton in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. The American Board and American Slavery. 1860 January 28.

Hunker Lament: An Epistolary Lament with Explanatory Notes. Concord, New Hampshire: Jones & Cogswell, 1855.

Report of the Committee on Anti-Slavery Memorials, September 1845. Boston, MA: Press of T. R. Marvin for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Code of Virginia with the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Rigths and Constitution of Virginia by Virginia
Call Number: KFV 2430 1849 .A2
Publication Date: 1849
Interesting narrative being a journal of the flight of Alfred E. Mathews, of Stark Co., Ohio, from the State of Texas, on the 20th of April, and his arrival at Chicago on the 28th of May, after traversing on foot and alone a distance of over 800 miles... by Alfred Edward Mathews
Call Number: NC 1075.M36 A53 1961a
Publication Date: 1861
Life of Sam Houston: The hunter, patriot, and statesman of Texas, the only authentic memoir of him ever published by C. Edwards Lester
Call Number: F 390.H8 L4 1860
Publication Date: 1860

The Diary of William H. Tinnin is also available to view and handle in person in Special Collections and Archives on the 3rd floor of Tomlinson Library.

Diary of William H. Tinnin
Digital reproduction of the first half of William H. Tinnin's diary. Tinnin lived in Texas and owned slaves to farm his plantation. The diary covers the years before, during, and after the Civil War.
Transcript of the Diary of William H. Tinnin
A partial transcript through page 55 of William H. Tinnin's diary. The pages transcribed do cover the years leading up to, during, and after the Civil War to 1870.