SPEECHES INCONGRESS.

BY

JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.

CLEVELAND, OHIO:

JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHINGTON,

LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by

JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS,

REMINGTON STREET.

PREFACE.

WHEN, fifteen years since, I entered Congress, the nation was engaged in the Florida War. Our army was actively employed in capturing and returning fugitive slaves to their owners; and I then learned that hostilities had been commenced for that purpose; while the principal expense was expected to be borne by the people of the free States.

Conscious that they were not informed of those facts, I commenced a series of Speeches intended to show the manner in which the freemen of the North were involved in the expense, the crimes, and disgrace of southern slavery; while at the same time I would trace as clearly as possible the constitutional line of demarcation intended by the founders of our government, to separate us from the burdens and responsibilities of that institution.

In compiling this volume, I have selected only those Speeches which have reference to that subject, omitting such portions as relate to other questions, or which constitute a re-argument of some point previously ex