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was immediately placed under arrest, and a detachment of the Missouri State militia - men in the pay of this Government and under the command of Gen. Halleck — were sent in pursuit of the fugitives. The hunt was successful. The slaves were caught, and returned to their traitor master, but not until one of them had been shot by order of the soldier in command of the pursuing party. How long, think you, will this method of dealing with the rebels be endured by the freemen of this country? Are our brothers and sons to be confined within the walls of the tobacco-warehouses and jails of Richmond and Charleston, obliged to perform the most menial offices, subsisted upon the most stinted diet, their lives endangered if they attempt to obtain a breath of fresh, air or a beam of God's sunlight at a window, while the rebels captured by those very men are permitted to go at large upon parole, to be pampered with luxuries, to be attended by slaves, and the slaves guarded from escape by our own soldiers?"

On the 1st of May, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Wilson, resumed the consideration of the resolution; the pending question being the amendment moved by Mr. Grimes. Mr. Sumner was grateful to the senator from Iowa for the frankness with which he exposed and condemned the recent orders of our generals." Mr. Sumner then examined and condemned the orders of Generals Hooker, M'Cook, Buel, Halleck, and the Provost Marshal of Louisville. He contrasted and commended the action of Gen. Doubleday and Gen. McDowell. He closed his speech by saying, "Sir, we are making history now. Every victory adds something to that history; but such an order is worse for us than

place, demand that justice shall be done them, and that free white men, who have done nought to injure their country, to destroy its institutions or its Union, shall be protected, and that inquiry shall be made to see if further legislation is necessary to secure them in their rights." Pending the question, the President called up the Confiscation Bill, which was the order of the day: the bill went over, and was not again taken up.

4

COMMITTEE.

MR. WILSON'S RESOLUTION.

THE DISTRICT
MR. WILSON'S BILL.MR. MORRILL'S
REPORT, WITH AMENDMENTS. MR. WILSON'S BILL TO REPEAL THE
SLAVE CODE.- COMMITTEE'S AMENDMENTS ADOPTED. MR. MORRILL'S
AMENDMENTS. MR. DAVIS'S AMENDMENTS. MR. DOOLITTLE'S AMEND-
MENT. -REMARKS BY MR. DAVIS. MR. HALE. MR. DOOLITTLE.
MR. POMEROY. MR. WILLEY. MR. SAULSBURY. MR. KING. — MR.
DAVIS. MR. WILSON. MR. KENNEDY.-MR. SAULSBURY.-MR. HAR-
LAN. MR. WILKINSON. MR. SAULSBURY'S AMENDMENT.-MR. SUM-
NER. MR. WRIGHT. MR. FESSENDEN. MR. DAVIS'S AMENDMENT.
- MR. CLARK'S AMENDMENT. MR. WILLEY'S AMENDMENT. MR.
CLARK'S AMENDMENT. MR. DAVIS. - MR. MORRILL. MR. M'DOU-
GALL. MR. SUMNER'S AMENDMENT. MR. WRIGHT'S AMENDMENT.
MR. BROWNING'S AMENDMENT.- MR. WILMOT. MR. COLLAMER'S
AMENDMENT. MR. DOOLITTLE'S AMENDMENT.-MR. POWELL. MR.
BAYARD.-PASSAGE OF THE BILL. HOUSE. MR. STEVENS'S MOTION.
-MR. THOMAS. MR. NOXON. MR. BLAIR. MR. CRITTENDEN. MR.
RIDDLE. MR. FESSENDEN. - MR. ROLLINS. MR. BLAKE. MR. VAN
HORNE. MR. ASHLEY. MR. HUTCHINS. — MR. WRIGHT'S AMENDMENT.
-MR. HICKMAN. MR. WADSWORTH. MR. HARDING'S AMENDMENT.
MR. TRAIN'S AMENDMENT. MR. LOVEJOY. MR. WICKLIFFE'S AMEND-
MENT.- MR. HOLMAN'S AMENDMENT. MR. COX. - MR. MENZIES'
AMENDMENT.-PASSAGE OF THE BILL.

THE

HE first Congress under the Constitution was deeply absorbed by the question of the permanent location of the seat of the Federal Government. The Eastern States would have been content to let it remain in New York. Pennsylvania sought to win it back to Philadelphia. Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia would fix it on the Potomac. The conflicting

claims of sections defeated, in 1789, all propositions for the permanent location of the seat of Government; but it was determined at the next session, by three majority in the House of Representatives, to locate it on the banks of the Potomac. Clothed by the Constitution with the "power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever" over the District, Congress, instead of providing a code of humane and equal laws for the government of the national capital, enacted, in 1801, that the laws of Maryland and Virginia should continue in force. By this act, the colonial slavecodes of Maryland and Virginia were accepted, reaffirmed, and re-enacted. Washington and Georgetown adopted oppressive and inhuman ordinances for the government of slaves and free persons of color. For half a century the slave-trade was carried on, to the lasting dishonor of the nation; and for two generations the public men of the country were surrounded by an atmosphere tainted by the breath of the slave, and by the blinding and perverting influences of the social life of slaveholding society.

On the 4th of December, 1861, after the announcement of the Standing Committees of the Senate, Mr. Wilson (Rep.) of Massachusetts introduced a resolution, that all laws in force relating to the arrest of fugitives from service, and all laws concerning persons of color, within the District, be referred to the Committee on the District of Columbia; and that the committee be instructed to consider the expediency of abolishing slavery in the District, with compensation to loyal holders of slaves. The committee to whom the resolution was referred consisted of Mr. Grimes (Rep.) of