Iowa, Mr. Dixon (Rep.) of Connecticut, Mr. Morrill (Rep.) of Maine, Mr. Wade (Rep.) of Ohio, Mr. Anthony (Rep.) of Rhode Island, Mr. Kennedy (Dem.) of Maryland, and Mr. Powell (Dem.) of Kentucky. Mr. Grimes, chairman of the committee, Mr. Morrill, and Mr. Wade, were recognized by their associates and by the country as thorough and uncompromising opponents of slavery in every form. Mr. Dixon and Mr. Anthony were fair representatives of the feelings and views of conservative Republicanism. Mr. Kennedy came into the Senate a type of the moderate, conservative, respectable Whigism of the Border slave States; but was soon borne, like many others of that halting, timid school, by the current of events, into the ranks of Democracy. Mr. Powell was an original Democrat, of the faith and creed of the slaveholding school, and an earnest, bold, and adroit advocate of its policy. In moving the reference of his resolution to this committee, Mr. Wilson expressed the hope that the chairman "would deal promptly with the question.'

Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts, on the 16th of December, obtained leave to introduce a bill for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia; which was read twice, and ordered to be printed. The bill provided for the immediate emancipation of the slaves, for the payment to their · loyal owners of an average sum of three hundred dollars, for the appointment of a commission to assess the sum to be paid, and the appropriation of one million of dollars. On the 22d of December, on the motion of Mr. Wilson, the bill was referred to the District Committee.

Mr. Morrill, on the 13th of February, 1862, rcported back from the Committee on the District of Columbia the bill, introduced by Mr. Wilson on the 16th of December, for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia, with amendments. Mr. Wilson, on the 24th of February, introduced a bill to repeal certain laws and ordinances in the District of Columbia relating to persons of color, and moved its reference to the District Committee. This bill proposed to repeal the act of Congress extending over the District the laws of Maryland concerning persons of color, to annul and abrogate those laws, to repeal the acts giving the cities of Washington and Georgetown authority to pass ordinances relating to persons of color, to abrogate those ordinances, and to make persons of color amenable to the same laws to which free white persons are amenable, and to subject them to the same penalties and punishMr. Wilson briefly recited the laws and ordinances it was intended to repeal and abrogate. Mr. Wilmot (Rep.) of Pennsylvania thought the Senate should act promptly upon the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District. We should be the most derelict in our duty of any body that ever sat in the seats of power, if we adjourn this Congress without the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia." Mr. Wilson would say to the senator from Pennsylvania, that the bill was very carefully prepared; that it had been reported, with very slight amendments, by the committee; and that it should be taken up for action at an early day. "The bill," he said, "which I have introduced this morning, is only following up that bill,

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and repealing the black code of the District, — the laws applicable to persons of color in the District. It is a necessary bill to be passed also; and I hope, when we have done that, we shall go a step further, and offer to the State of Maryland the same terms that we offer to the people of the District, and clear this thing out of our neighborhood."

On the 27th of February, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Morrill, made the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District the special order for the 5th of March. The bill on the 12th, on motion of Mr. Morrill, was taken up; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to its consideration. The amendments reported by the committee were agreed to: and Mr. Morrill then moved to add an amendment, that no claim shall be paid for any slave brought into the District after the passage of the act, or which originates in or by virtue of any transfer heretofore made, or which shall hereafter be made, by any person who has in any manner aided or sustained the Rebellion against the Government of the United States; and it was agreed to. Mr. Morrill moved still further to amend the bill by adding, that any person who shall kidnap or in any manner transport out of said District any person discharged or freed by the provisions of this act, or any free person, with intent to re-enslave or sell such person into slavery, or shall re-enslave any of said persons, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor; and, on conviction, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than five nor more than twenty years. Mr. Howard (Rep.) of Michigan would strike out "misdemeanor," and insert "felony."

Mr. Morrill accepted the suggestion; and the amendment as modified was agreed to. Mr. Morrill then moved that all acts of Congress and all laws of the State of Maryland in force in said District, and all ordinances of the cities of Washington or Georgetown, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed; and the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. Davis (Opp.) of Kentucky moved to add as a new section, that all persons liberated under this act shall be colonized out of the limits of the United States; and the sum of a hundred thousand dollars, out of any money, shall be expended, under the direction of the President of the United States, for that purpose. Mr. Doolittle (Rep.) of Wisconsin "understood the effect of this amendment to be to colonize them, whether they are willing to be colonized or not. If the amendment of the senator was to offer to appropriate the sum of a hundred thousand dollars to be used for transporting and colonizing such of the free colored persons of this District as might desire to be colonized, I should vote for the amendment; but, as it is, I cannot vote for it." Mr. Davis thought he was "better acquainted with negro nature than the honorable senator from Wisconsin. He will never find one slave in a hundred that will consent to be colonized when liberated. The liberation of the slaves in this District and in any State of the Union will be just equivalent to settling them in the country where they live; and whenever that policy is inaugurated, especially in the States where there are many slaves, it will inevitably and immediately introduce a war of extermination between the two races. . . . The negroes that are now liberated, and that remain in