376 APPENDIX. 



one. 3d, That the measure originated with Thomas Jefferson, 

 the favorite son of Virginia and of the nation, and who was 

 assisted by Chase, a prominent son and distinguished jurist of 

 Maryland. And 4th, That with the knowledge of these facts, 

 and immediately after their occurrence, Virginia and Maryland 

 ceded the district of Columbia to the United States, without 

 restriction as to the prohibition of slavery, or indeed without 

 imposing as many restrictions as Virginia did when she ceded 

 the northwest territory. 



Seeing, then, what Congress had done in abolishing slavery 

 in what had been a part of Virginia, and in which territory 

 there were a considerable number of slaves, how can it be said 

 that Virginia and Maryland would not have ced«d the district 

 of Columbia, if they had supposed Congress would ever abolish 

 slavery in it? or that the doing so now, at the expiration of 

 near half a century, can be conceived to violate any implied 

 faith to those two states? 



I will only add, in conclusion, what a strange contrast the 

 proceedings of 1787 present to those of 1837 ! Then the aboli- 

 tion of slavery in an extensive territory, bordering on the slave- 

 holding states, met with no opposition. No fears were then en- 

 tertained that such an act would endanger the Union, or tend 

 to disturb the quiet of any portion of it. It was not then de- 

 nounced as the first step of Congress to abolish slavery in the 

 slaveholding states. JNo; slavery was then considered by all 

 as an evil ; now it is pronounced by some a blessing. What 

 strange perversion! What strange delusion! Especially in 

 this enlightened and liberal age, when there is abroad an ameli- 

 orating spirit, more powerful in its effects in the moral and poli- 

 tical world than the steam-engine is in the mechanical. 



