"[the] peculiar institution"

[Joel S. Berson]

I find the following suggestive.

OED2 does not have "[the] peculiar institution" as a
headword.  (Should it?)  It has for its earliest instance "1837 W. E.
Channing Annex. Texas Wks. (1884) 541/2 Strange, that the South
should think of securing its 'peculiar institutions' by violent means."

In his February 1835 "Old News I", Hawthorne wrote:

"Slave labor being but a small part of the industry of the country,
it did not change the character of the people; the latter, on the
contrary, modified and softened the institution, making it a
patriarchal, and almost a beautiful, peculiarity of the times."

Not quite "peculiar institution", of course, just "the institution"
that was a "peculiarity".

Hawthorne and Channing surely knew each other.

Channing published _Slavery_ in 1835.  Google Books (Harvard College
Library copy) tells me Channing did not write "peculiar institution"
there, but used the word "peculiar" thrice and "peculiarity" not at
all.  Two are interesting:
         It may be asked, whether, by this language, I intend to
fasten on the slave-holder the charge of peculiar guilt.
         I acquit slaveholders of all peculiar depravity.

Joel

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