Beschreibung:

Autograph Letter Signed 2 pp.+ docketing leaf. To Beman Gates (Marietta, Ohio). The border issue had festered for over a year after two Abolitionists were kidnapped by Virginians on the Ohio side of the Ohio River. They were taken to Virginia and arrested on a charge of kidnapping seven slaves belonging to a plantation owner in Parkersburg, Virginia, ferrying them to freedom in Ohio. Congressman Vinton took the advice of fellow abolitionist Salmon Chase that the Parkersburg controversy could best be resolved by a legalistic agreement about state boundaries and legal jurisdiction “without reference to slaves.” To resolve the Parkersburg case, the Whig Governor of Ohio had proposed, “a commission to adjust the questions of jurisdiction and boundary” between Virginia and Ohio, to “meet in a proper temper and with a disposition to do what will promote the mutual convenience of the people on both side of the lines…it is desirable not to do anything on our part….that would impose an obstacle in the way of the adjustment which Gov Bebb proposes…If we had a commission made up of some of our most distinguished men…I think they would be able to adjust the whole subject both with Va and Kentucky in such way as to save future collision and controversy.” Salmon Chase was later President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.