Letter to Hon. Reverdy Johnson, on the proceedings at the meeting, held at Maryland institute....[drop titleÑLetter penned on January 11th 1861]]
first edition
by LEGRAND John C.
Baltimre: Murphy & Co., Printers, 1861. . 8vo, modern gray plain wrappers; paper slightly browned; unopened. FIRST EDITION. Sabin 39872.LeGrand (1814Ð 28 December 1861), a believer in secession by Maryland argues against Johnson's desire to save the Union at any cost, even to force the South "into slavish submission." He equates South Carolina's resistance to oppression to "the great congress of the colonies in 1774." LeGrand's political career was as follows: a member of the House of Delegates, Baltimore City, 1839-41. Speaker of the House, 1841. Maryland secretary of state, 1842-44. Associate Judge, Sixth Judicial Circuit of Maryland, 1844-1851. Chief Judge, Maryland Court of Appeals, 1851-61. Defeated for reelection to the court in 1861 by a Unionist candidate, Silas Morris Cochran of Baltimore City, after publishing an open letter to the Baltimore Sun of January 14, 1861, calling on the state to secede from the Union. Reverdy Johnson was a conservative Democrat, he supported Stephen A. Douglas in the presidential/election of 1860. He was the defending attorney for the slave-owning defendant in thel 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford.H e was personally opposed to slavery and was a key figure in the effort to keep Maryland from seceding from the Union during the American Civil War." (Inventory #: 2686)