New York Senator Rufus King passionately opposes Missouri’s bid to join the union as a pro-slavery state. In two speeches, King outlined his position, and a surviving pamphlet illustrates some of his key points. “Using the formal tone and logical arguments of a lawyer, as well as his authority as one of the few remaining members of the Senate who had signed the Constitution, King made a case that the power of Congress included the right to regulate the conditions of new states, including the restriction of slavery,” notes a history from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. This photo shows the Rufus King house in New York in 1933.
Photo credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, C. & King, R. (1933) Rufus King House, 150th Street & Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, Queens County, NY. Jamaica New York Queens County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ny2046/.