Substance of Two Speeches, Delivered in the Senate of the United States on the Subject of the Missouri Bill

Printed pamphlet written by King as an anti-slavery U.S. Senator from New York. King also signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. King was asked to write the pamphlet, which summarized his two anti-slavery speeches given before the U.S. Senate during the Missouri Compromise debates of 1819. This is the only record of the speeches, as they were not recorded for the official records of Congress. King was the floor leader of the Federalist Party in the Senate during the debates, but his views were held by both Federalist and Republican Party members in the North. The pamphlet's main thesis is that since Congress had the power to regulate the territories, it had the ability to exclude slavery from them. King and his allies were trying to stop the Missouri Territory from entering the Union as a slave state. Pamphlet was bound by string, but has become detached.