108 GIDDINGS, JOSHUA E. 



GRATTAN, THOMAS U. 



1. Resolved, That prior to the adoption of the Fed- 

 eral Constitution, each of the several States compos- 

 ing this Union exercised full and exclusive jurisdic- 

 tion over the subject of slavery within its own terri- 

 tory, and possessed full power to continue or abolish 

 it at pleasure. 



2. Resolved, That by adopting the Constitution no 

 part of the aforesaid powers were delegated to the 

 Federal Government, but were reserved by, and still 

 pertain to each of the several States. 



3. Resolved, That by the eighth section of the first 

 article of the Federal Constitution, each of the sev- 

 eral States surrendered to the Federal Government 

 all jurisdiction over the subjects of commerce and 

 Navigation upon the high seas. 



4. Resolved, That slavery being_ an abridgment of 

 the natural rights of man, can exist only by force of 

 positive municipal law, and is necessarily confined to 

 the jurisdiction of the power creating it. 



5. Resolved, That when a ship, belonging to the 

 citizens of any State of this Union, leaves the waters 

 and territory of such State, and enters upon the high 

 seas, the persons on board cease to be subject to the 

 laws of such State, and thenceforth are governed in 

 their relations to each other by, and are amenable to, 

 the laws of the United States. 



6. Resolved, That when the brig "Creole," on her 

 late passage for New Orleans, left the jurisdiction of 

 Virginia, the slave laws of that State ceased to have 

 jurisdiction over the persons on board, and they be- 

 came amenable to the laws of the United States. 



7. Resolved, That the persons on board said ship, 

 in resuming their natural rights to liberty, violated 

 no law of the United States, incurred no legal penal- 

 ties, and are justly liable to no punishment. 



8. Resolved, That all attempts to regain possession 

 of, or to reenslave said persons, are unauthorized by 

 the Constitution or laws of the United States, and 

 are incompatible with our national honor. 



9. Resolved, That all attempts to exert our national 

 influence in favor of the coastwise slave trade, or to 

 place this nation in the attitude of maintaining a 

 commerce in human beings, are subversive of the 

 rights, and injurious to the feelings and interests of 

 the people of the free States ; are unauthorized by the 

 Constitution and prejudicial to our national char- 

 acter. 



The reading of these resolutions created great 

 excitement in the House, and an attempt was 

 made to compel an immediate vote on them, 

 when Mr. Giddings, at the suggestion of some 

 of his friends, withdrew them, stating that he 

 should present them for action again on the day 

 when resolutions should again be in order. 



When they were withdrawn, Mr. J. M. Botts, 

 of Virginia, offered a resolution to censure and 

 condemn Mr. Giddings for offering such resolu- 

 tions. Objection being made on technical 

 grounds to a Virginian offering a resolution of 

 censure, and a suspension of the rules being de- 

 nied, Mr. Weller, of Ohio, renewed Mr. Botts's 

 resolutions, which were passed the next day 

 without allowing Mr. Giddings an adequate 

 opportunity of defence, by 125 yeas to 69 nays. 

 Mr. Giddings thereupon resigned his seat hi the 

 House at once, and returned to his home, but 

 was reflected by the people of his district by an 

 overwhelming vote, and in five weeks returned 

 to Washington to resume his duties. He was 

 reflected to each successive Congress till 1861, 

 when he declined a nomination and was ap- 

 pointed by Mr. Lincoln Consul-General for 

 Canada, the duties of which office he dis- 

 charged at Montreal till his death, which was 



the result of disease of the heart, by which ho 

 had previously been twice prostrated. 



He was twenty-one years in Congress. Ha 

 supported Gen. Harrison and Mr. Clay with 

 great ardor, but opposed the election of General 

 Taylor to the Presidency, and Eobert 0. Win- 

 throp as Speaker of the House on anti-slavery 

 grounds. In 1850 he opposed, with decided 

 ability and great strenuousness, the compromise 

 measures, and especially the fugitive slave law. 

 In most other cases he voted with the Whigs 

 while they existed as a party, and afterward 

 steadily with the Eepublicans. Mr. Giddinga 

 published works consisting of a series of polit- 

 ical essays, over the signature of " Pacificus," 

 published in 1843 ; an interesting narrative of 

 the oppression exercised by the slaveholders 

 of Florida over the negroes, Indians and mixed 

 races of that peninsula, under the title of 

 "Exiles of Florida," published in 1858; a vol- 

 ume of his speeches in Congress, issued the 

 same year ; and " A History of the Eebel- 

 lion, its authors and causes," which is mainly 

 a history of the anti-slavery struggle of the 

 last twenty-five years in Congress, and was 

 published just after his death. 



GEATTAX, THOMAS COLLET, a British au- 

 thor, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1796 (according 

 to some accounts in 1794), died in London", 

 July 4, 1864. At the age of 15 -he was 

 articled to a Dublin attorney, but seems to 

 have taken little interest in the law, his atten- 

 tion being absorbed by miscellaneous literature, 

 of which he became a prodigious reader, and 

 by the then all-prevailing enthusiasm for 

 military life and adventure. Having obtained 

 a commission in a British regiment of the line, 

 he left England to enter upon his new duties, 

 but was met at Valenciennes by the news of 

 the battle of Waterloo, which terminated the 

 war. But being still intent upon a military 

 career he determined to join Bolivar in South 

 America. Before this purpose could be ac- 

 complished he fell in love with a lady residing 

 in the South of France, his subsequent marriage 

 with whom reconciled him to more peaceful 

 avocations. After living a year or two at Bor- 

 deaux, he made his first essay at authorship by 

 the production of "Philibert" (1819), ametrical 

 romance in Scott's manner, which proved a 

 mortifying failure. Nothing daunted by this 

 mishap, he tried his strength in the less ambi- 

 tious field of magazine writing, and in 1823 

 reappeared before the public in a three volume 

 book, entitled " Highways and Byways ; or, 

 Tales of the Eoadside, Picked up by a Walking 

 Gentleman," comprising tales of Continental 

 adventure and wandering, the agreeable and 

 picturesque style of which rendered them very 

 successful. In 1824 he published a second 

 series, and in 1827 a third, each in 3 vols., 

 which were received with equal favor. About 

 1828 he changed his quarters from France to 

 Belgium, residing principally at Brussels, and 

 during the next ten years pursued a busy 

 literary career. During this period he pro- 



