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(ABOLITION.) Charles Terry Collins. A Yale student's essay titled "The Amendment of the Constitution Abolishing Slavery." 7 manuscript pages, 8 x 5 inches, on 2 folding sheets, signed "C.T. Collins," with docketing on final blank; vertical fold, minimal wear. [New Haven, CT?], 4 March 1865
Describes the incomplete liberty gained in the American Revolution: "This much talked of victory, this boasted freedom, much as we prided ourselves upon it, in the eyes of every just man, and in the eyes of a righteous God, was a lie. Our equality was founded in distinctions of color, our vaunted freedom clothed in slavery. There could be no lasting union between such antagonistic elements. . . . The firstborn of the hydra--slavery--still lurked in the Citadel. . . . This amendment of the Constitution is what the Declaration of Independence was in 1776. The Declaration of Independence as a mere legal act was powerless, but supported by the strong arm of a determined people it cut the chains of Tyranny; and this Amendment of the Constitution has already virtually severed the coils which slavery has thrown around the American republic, and erased the lie that blotted her fair fame."
Charles Terry Collins (1845-1883) was a white man from a wealthy Connecticut family, and at the time of this writing was a student at Yale University. He later became a Congregational minister in Cleveland. Provenance: acquired from a Collins descendant.
