CONGRESS, U. S. 



337 



Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 

 Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, and California, and that 

 said persons shall be distributed to and among the said 

 States pro rota according to the population of the 

 same. 



He said : " While I speak in support of that 

 amendment, I will simply say, to be frank with 

 the Senate, that I intend to vote against the 

 bill in any shape in which it can be presented. 

 I offer this amendment, however, upon the 

 principle adopted by the Senator from Ken- 

 tucky (Mr. D;ivis) yesterday, of perfecting the 

 bill, as far as I can, before the final vote; and 

 I do think that if gentlemen who are not in- 

 terested in this question will persist in freeing 

 the slaves in this District or elsewhere, they 

 ought to be willing to take them among them- 

 selves; and they ought not to throw this class 

 of persons, idle and vicious and worthless, as 

 we know they will be, upon this District, which 

 already, I am told, has a population of eleven 

 thousand free negroes. If they should persist 

 in setting the additional number of three thou- 

 sand free, the nineteen Free States ought cer- 

 tainly, having so few among themselves, to be 

 willing to share the burden with the people of 

 this District, by dividing the freed slaves among 

 themselves, still leaving this District with the 

 burden of eleven thousand free persons of 

 color. It would be one of the most sublime 

 examples of philanthropy I have ever seen. By 

 your fruits you shall be known. If it is a spir- 

 it of philanthropy and a love of freedom that 

 prompts you, gentlemen, to set these three 

 thousand slaves in the District of Columbia 

 free; render that philanthropy and that love 

 of freedom sublime in the sight of all human 

 kind, by taking into your own embrace, in your 

 own midst, the slaves thus liberated. Prove 

 that you are sincere." 



Mr. Wilkinson, of Minnesota, advocated the 

 passage of the bill, saying : " Believing, as I do, 

 that human slavery is the great sin of this coun- 

 try, that it is in violation of every principle of 

 justice and of truth, that its influence upon this 

 country, and upon the world, has a tendency 

 alike to encourage everything that is evil, and 

 to repress everything that is good in the State ; 

 that its evil influences are visited alike upon the 

 master and the slave ; that it affects us for evil 

 in our political as well as in our social relations, 

 and that it is the primary cause of the wicked 

 rebellion which has risen up against the con- 

 stitutional authorities of the Government, I 

 feel bound, by every vote which I am called 

 upon to give, and by every word which I may 

 utter rtpon this question, to do everything in my 

 power toward its final extinction ; and, so far 

 as my influence goes, to blot out the last re- 

 mains of slavery upon this continent. 



" Thus believing, I cannot place expediency 

 in the scales against justice, nor shall I fail to 

 perform a simple duty for fear of the conse- 

 quences which may result from such action." 

 Mr. Sunmer, of Massachusetts, next took the 

 VOL. IL 22 



floor, saying : " It is surely enough for the 

 present to consider slavery at the national capi- 

 tal ; and here we are met by two inquiries so 

 frankly addressed to the Senate by the clear- 

 headed Senator from Kansas (Mr. Pomeroy) : 

 first, has slavery any constitutional existence at 

 the national capital ? and, secondly, shall money 

 be paid to secure its abolition ? The answer to 

 these two inquiries will make our duty clear. 

 If slavery has no constitutional existence here, 

 then more than ever is Congress bound to inter- 

 fere, even with money ; for the scandal must 

 be peremptorily stopped, without any postpone- 

 ment or any consultation of the people on a 

 point which is not within their power. 



" It may be said that, whether slavery be 

 constitutional or not, nevertheless it exists, and 

 therefore this inquiry is superfluous. True, it 

 exists as a monstrous fact ; but it is none the 

 less important to consider its origin, that we 

 may understand how, assuming the form of 

 law, it was able to shelter itself beneath the 

 protecting shield of the Constitution. And 

 when we shall see clearly that it is without any 

 such just protection, that the law which de- 

 clares it is baseless, and that in all its preten- 

 sions it is essentially and utterly brutal and un- 

 natural, we shall have less consideration for the 

 slave tyranny, which, in satisfied pride, has 

 thus far not without compunction at different 

 moments ruled the national capital, reducing 

 all things here public opinion, social life, and 

 even the administration of justice to its own 

 degraded standard, so as to fulfil the curious 

 words of an old English poet : 



It serves, yet reignes as King; 

 It lives, yet 's death : it pleases full of paine. 

 Monster! ah, who, who can thy beeing faigne? 

 Thou shapelesse shape, live death, paine pleasing, ser- 

 vile reigne. 



" It is true, there can be no such thing as 

 property in man ; and here I begin to answer 

 the questions propounded by the Senator from 

 Kentucky (Mr. Davis). If this pretension is 

 recognized anywhere, it is only another instance 

 of the influence of custom, which is so power- 

 ful as to render the idolater insensible to the 

 wickedness of idolatry, and the cannibal in- 

 sensible to the brutality of cannibalism. To 

 argue against such a pretension seems to be 

 vain ; for the pretension exists in open defiance 

 of reason as well as of humanity. It will not 

 yield to argument; nor will it yield to per- 

 suasion. It must be encountered by authority. 

 It was not the planters in the British islands or 

 in the French islands who organized emanci- 

 pation, but the distant Governments across the 

 sea, far removed from the local prejudices, who 

 at last forbade the outrage. Had these planters 

 been left to themselves, they would have clung 

 to this pretension as men among us still cling 

 to it. Of course, in making this declaration 

 against the idea of property in man, I say 

 nothing new. An honored predecessor of the 

 Senator from Maryland (Mr. Kennedy), whose 

 fame as a statesman was eclipsed, perhaps, \>j 



