Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Speech of Mr. Schenck, of Ohio, in Reply to Mr. Giddings, in the House of Representatives, December 27, 1849: In Debate Upon a Resolution to Appoint the Standing Committees
Mr. Schenck. I will read the title of the'bili, for I have itnow before me. It is entitled a bill° to prohibit the introduction of slaves into the Dis trict of Columbia for merchandise, sale, or hire, and its provisions, including the various penalties of fine and imprisonment for the violation of them, cor respond with that title. It IS long, or I would read it all, if permitted. But I will advise gentlemen, who are curious to examine for themselves, that the whole bill may be found printed at large m the Congressional Globe for the 2d session of the 30th Congress, at page 415, under date of the proceedings of the 3lst of January, 1848. It is true that bill did not entirely prohibit the sale of slaves here - the transfer from one person to another residing within the District; or, in other words, it did not entirely abolish slavery in this District, for the one would amount virtually to the other. It has been justly said, how ever, by the gentleman from Massachusetts, that it did more than had ever been proposed by any bill 1n this House before. I remember well it was known and spoken of, and regarded at the time, as a bill to abolish the slave trade inthe District of Columbia. It was so understood then; and whatever the extent of its provisions, and how ever such alaw might be considered as failing to aecom plish all that 1s desirable, it must not be denied that it went farther than any committee of members from either North or South had ever endeavored to go. Before. And what was the action on this bill subsequently m the House, to show the position and disposition of the members of that committee on the subject? A motion made by Mr. Haralson, of Georgia, to lay it upon the table, was rejected by 172 nays to 72 yeas; and among the nays, in favor of. The bill, were six out of the nine members of the committee, including Mr. Gaines, of Kentucky; and of the other three, one (mr. Brown, of Mississippi) declared himself entirely lil favor of the bill, and another (mr. Chapman, of Maryland) waswilling it should pass with an amendment which he proposed And this is the committee for the appointment of which my colleague had to 1° laboi° to defeat the re-election of a Whig Speaker, and a northern man - a com mittee and a Speaker, under whose auspices a more nearly successful effort was made than ever before by any other to abolish those slave pens, and heart-rending scenes of human wo, and mournful processions through the streets, to which he has treated us with stereotyped phrase again to -day, and over which he sheds so many tears, real or affected. Sir, I am very much afraid sometimes that my colleague does not really wish to get rid of the slave pehs. That womd be to lose a part of his capital - his political stock in trade. But I would rather not entertain such suspicions, and h0pe I am mistaken.
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