"But again: Who was it that stimulated that mob? It was members in this hall. While their galleries were filled with slave-dealers-men who drove whole families to the market, and bartered men, women, and children for gold-honora. ble members stood up here in this House, and declared that they justified the mob to the fullest extent. And did he (Mr. Giddings) ask for protection from such men? Such a declaration had been made, and repeated, and reiterated here. This was not the place to which he should go for protection. Yes, members of this House of Representatives stood in their places and proclaimed, not only to this country, but to the whole civilized world, that in their capacity of legislators they stood by and sustained those wretches in their lawless violence. And it was with humility and deep abasement that he acknowledged that these declarations came principally from members of the political party to which he himself belonged. He also felt compelled to acknowledge that, while this was going on here, the President of the United States, to whose party he (Mr. Giddings) did not belong, was said to have been making efforts to put down the mob. It was due to the President that he should state this fact. The people should know it. No man there would accuse him of being a friend to the President; but he honored him, nevertheless, for his efforts to suppress these riotous proceedings, and for his exertions to stop those disgraceful outrages which were about to disgrace the whole Union. He took pleasure in vindicating the President for that act.

“When the pending resolution was brought forward, it was immediately seized upon by gentlemen from the South, and made the subject of an exciting discussion. It was gentlemen from the Southern States who did this, and it was those gentlemen who insisted upon going back into an inquiry respecting all the facts and circumstances which had given rise to the mob. And what were the facts? Why, that from seventy to eighty men, women, and children-persons who had as good a natural right to liberty as any gentleman here, who were entitled to the rights which their Creator had given them-feeling the galling chains of slavery chafing and festering in their flesh, themselves bowed down in bondage, and shut out from the social and intellectual enjoyments of life, sought the blessings of liberty; and it was said that they were assisted by three or four white men from the free states. But, in the attempt to escape from the custody of those who held them in bondage, they were arrested, and placed in a prison erected with the money of this nation; and this was done under the authority of the laws of this district, enacted by Congress, and sustained by members on this floor. In that prison they were kept two or three days; and on Friday last, this very man, Slatter, of Baltimore, who had headed the mob at the prison on Tuesday, purchased some forty or fifty of those fathers, brothers, and sons, mothers, daughters, and sisters, and marched them to the depôt, where their friends had collected to take their final leave ere they proceeded to the South, to drag out a miserable existence in the rice-fields and cotton plantations of that region. There a scene was presented which he thought not even a slaveholder could have looked upon without some sympathy for those victims of slaveholding cupidity. Sighs, and groans, and tears, and unutterable anguish characterized a transaction which would have disgraced the slave-market of Constantinople. It was a scene which could not have failed to excite every sympathy of our nature for suffering humanity. And by whose authority were they thus sold, and doomed to hopeless suffering at the hands of worse than Mohammedan masters? Here, if he could, he would make an appeal to this House; he would appeal even to the gentleman who had just addressed the House, and he would ask that gentleman if he could lay his hand on his heart, and in the presence of his God declare that he had dealt out to those people who were his fellow-men that justice which he had expected at the hands of his fellow-man? Had he shown them that mercy which he hoped to receive

from his God? He would ask that gentleman if he could thus conscientiously lend his voice and his official influence to the dealers in human flesh? Would he lend his vote to encourage these hucksterers in our common humanity? It was a humiliating reflection that our laws caused these men and women, and children and tender babes, to be thus sold and sent to the ceaseless toil and cruel tortures of our slave-consuming states, there to wear out a life of wretchedness and misery. 'If the gentleman who had just addressed the Honse could approve and sanction such cruelty, and torture, and barbarous murder, he (Mr. Giddings) could not do it. He would not do it; it was unbecoming a Christian nation; it was a disgrace to the age in which we live. What a spectacle did we present to the civilized world! Yesterday the members of this House gathered together with the citizens of this district to rejoice, and shout, and sing in honor of France for freeing herself from the bonds of oppression, and driving her king from her shores, thereby relieving herself from oppression, and giving liberty to her slaves. While we were thus before the world expressing our sympathy with France, we were here in this district maintaining a slave-market more shocking to the feelings of humanity than any to be found within the jurisdiction of the grand sultan.

"It had been urged by gentlemen on this floor that he, and others who acted with him, had engaged in this House in discussions of the subject of slavery within the states. With one exception, that accusation was not true. Some four years ago, he admitted, he had been induced to go into that subject by the remaks of a distinguished Southern gentleman, a member of the executive cabinet (Mr. Calhoun), who, in his official correspondence, had argued that slavery was a Christian and humane institution. On that, and on no other occasion, had he permitted himself to be drawn into a discussion of the effects of slavery in the states. He thought he would not again be dragged into it; but he would discuss the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia and in the territories of these United States at all times, when Southern men forced it upon him.

"He would now direct his attention to the remarks of some gentlemen who had preceded him, and would briefly notice some of the doctrines which had been advanced in the course of this discussion. The gentleman to whom he wished first to direct his attention not being in his seat, he would turn to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Haskell), to an extract from whose speech he would call the attention of the House. That gentleman, in the course of his remarks on Wednesday last, was reported to have said,

"Now, a strange state of things was presented here. Members of this body, as he believed and felt ready to charge, had been engaged, by the course of conduct they pursued on this floor and out of this hall, in the deliberate attempt to scatter the seeds of insurrection and insubordination, if not rebellion, among the slaves in this district. Men on this floor, under the garb of philanthropy and love of human liberty, had been endeavoring to perpetrate felonies for which they ought to swing as high as Haman. He spoke the plain truth. He was willing to have his words measured, and he held himself responsible for the language he used. An attempt had been made on this floor to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia in the form of law, if they could, and in violation of the Constitution; and, baffled and foiled in that, these mock philanthropists were now, as he believed before God, attempting to abolish slavery in this district by inciting the negroes to leave their masters.

The speaker here interposed, and reminded the gentleman that the question before the House was upon the appeal.

Mr. Haskell (continuing) charged that the conduct of these men, their language on this floor and out of this House, had been such as to produce this state of things-a disposition to insurrection and rebellion among the slaves in this dis

trict. He held in his hand a resolution which he intended to move, and which he should move, by way of amendment, when this House entertained the resolution of the gentleman from Massachusetts, having for its object an inquiry into the con duct of these members, and, if they were found guilty, their expulsion from this body, as unworthy to hold seats on this floor.

"Mr. Giddings said, before he proceeded to comment on this extract, he would correct an error into which a gentleman opposite (Mr. Stanton) had fallen. That gentleman said that he (Mr. Giddings) denied all connection with the transaction in reference to these slaves. The remarks which he had made were that he knew nor had heard nothing of the persons engaged in carrying these slaves away. He had not denied having enticed away the slaves himself. He had said nothing on that subject. When such a charge should come from a respectable source, he would consider the propriety of answering it. He did not feel called on at this time to admit or deny it.

"He would now return to the gentleman whose remarks had announced his intention to expel him (Mr. Giddings) from this House; and he would say to that gentleman that it was rather too late to attempt to seal his lips and the lips of Northern members to prevent the discussion of constitutional questions in this House. He gave notice to that gentleman and to all others, that, as he had the right to do it, he should say what he thought. He intended to call things by their right names, and, so far as able, would make himself understood by this House; and, when this hall again ceased to be a place of free discussion, his constituents would be represented by some other gentleman, or they would cease to be represented here. The slave power had once reigned triumphant here. Not so at this time: we had regained the freedom of debate, and it would never again be surrendered. Gentlemen, in making such threats, appeared to forget that they were not now on their plantations, exercising their petty tyranny over slaves, who, in their degradation, crouched and trembled at their master's bidding. Or did those gentlemen suppose that they could bring the practices of their plantations into these halls? Those gentlemen should know that this was not the place for that kind of demeanor. This was no place for the display of supercilious dictation. It belonged not to the dignity of legislation. The American Congress was no place for the manifestation of those traits which characterize the overseer of the South. It would not be tolerated among men who knew their rights, and possessed the spirit to maintain them. Such language ought never to be used among men who felt the dignity of their office. Was he to stand there and not to speak what he thought? Why, such an idea was unworthy of a deliberative body in this land of freedom, and was more becoming of the tyrannies of Europe or of Turkey. He would tell those gentlemen, when he ceased to have the right to speak freely in this House, he would take his departure from it. His constituents sent him here to represent them, to express their wishes, and he should do it freely, without restraint, or not at all, notwithstanding the spasmodic eloquence of the gentleman who wished to have him expelled for exercising the right to express his thoughts. Yes, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Haskell) wished to have him expelled for words spoken on this floor! Did not that gentleman know that such an attempt had once before been made? And had he not seen the consequence? Was he now to be told that he must ask Southern gentlemen for permission to speak, and were they to be the judges of what he should say, and when he should say it? Never, so long as his fellow-men were held in bondage in this district, would he submit to any restraint on the freedom of debate; nor so long as he continued to hold a seat here would he relax an iota of truth to please the slave power. He would not disguise the truth, even if its utterance should be the means of striking off the shackles of every slave in the VOL. I.-U

Union. He had no fears of its affecting slave property here. He would not hesitate from this forum to tell the truth to all who heard him, even if slaves were list ening to him. If he had the power, he would give to every slave a perfect knowl edge of all his God-given rights. He would open their minds to understand the oppression that weighed down their intellects, and shut out knowledge and truth from their comprehension. He would give them a knowledge of the outrage upon humanity which holds them as chattels, and subjects them to sale like brutes in the market. He would inform them that they came into the world from the hands of the same Creator as those who lord it over them; that they were brethren, creat ed by the same hand, endowed with the same rights, and candidates for the same immortality.

“Mr. Gayle asked the gentleman from Ohio if the utterance of these sentiments was not in the hearing of the slaves.

"Mr. Giddings said the gentleman from Alabama could answer that question as well as himself. But this he would say to that gentleman, that if the utterance of such truths would release them from bondage, God knows it should be done. Let gentlemen teach their bondmen to tremble, but let them not come here to threaten freemen. Gentlemen might hold their grasp on their fellow-men, and deprive them of the rights conferred by the God who created them, and make their lacerated flesh quiver with the lash, but they need not come here and tell him that he should only speak by their permission.

"Mr. Gayle inquired if the gentleman alluded to him when he spoke of the flesh being made to quiver by the lash. He never used the lash on his slaves, who would not, however, accompany him here, because they were afraid that the Abolitionists would skin them.

"Mr. Giddings replied that the gentleman's statement showed to what degree of degradation slavery can reduce the immortal mind. The gentleman from Alabama, it appeared, had succeeded to that extent, and he came here to boast of it. He had carried his oppression so far as to blot from the intellect of his fellow-man his natural and instinctive love of freedom. He had taught his slaves to hug their chains, to shudder at the thought of being free; and now stood up here, before the American people, and boasted of the success of his experiment. His whole statement was in keeping with the institution of slavery. It degraded the im mortal mind, and reduced man to the level of brutes. He asked that gentleman if he taught his slaves to read the Word of God? or was it not an offense under their laws to teach slaves to read that sacred book? Was not such an offense punishable by incarceration in the penitentiary? They had only to go a few rods across that river (the Potomac), and they would expose themselves to the penalties of such a law if they should attempt to teach slaves to read the Scriptures. Yes, to instruct slaves in the way of salvation, by enabling them to read the Word of God, was deemed a crime in this Christian land-this land of Bibles and ministers, and sabbaths and of slaves.

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But to return to the proposition of the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Haskell), who had expressed himself so strongly in regard to his exercise of the freedom of speech. The gentleman thought that he (Mr. Giddings) should hang as high as Haman for thus daring to speak his sentiments. That he supposed to be slaveholding punishment for speaking truth. But he could spend no more time upon the gentleman's proposition. Another gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Venable) had spoken to the same effect on this subject. That gentleman seemed to intimate that he (Mr. Giddings) had treated the institution of slavery with great want of respect in saying that if a slave defended himself on Ohio soil, even to killing his master, they would not hang him to please all the slaveholders in Christendom. That gentleman, if he was not misinformed, belonged to, and was a mem

ber of, a church founded by that good man, John Wesley. He believed the gentleman from North Carolina was a Methodist, and yet the respected founder of that Church had denounced slavery as the sum of all villainies.'

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'Mr. Venable said the gentleman was mistaken; he was a Presbyterian. "Mr. Giddings. The gentleman was a Presbyterian, and yet he held slavery to be a blessing! Would the gentleman from North Carolina sit down with his slave and brother in Christ at the sacramental board commemorative of the Lord's Supper and sacrificial death? Would he partake of the bread and wine in remembrance of the crucified Savior one day with his slave and brother, and on the next sell him who thus bears the image of God for paltry pelf, and still say he was a Presbyterian? He (Mr. Giddings) denied it; the gentleman could be no Presbyterian. No man could be a Presbyterian who sold God's image, and transformed the immortal mind into a state of degradation, and shut out the Scriptures of eternal life from his brother. It was impossible. He could scarcely realize that he lived in the nineteenth century, or in a Christian land. He could scarcely realize that he lived in an age when the principles of our holy religion were perverted for the purpose of degrading our fellow-man, and shutting out from him the hope of eternal life.

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Mr. Venable begged to say to the gentleman from Ohio, as he had alluded to the subject of religion, that he was no Methodist, though he highly respected that sect. He was a Presbyterian; but he should not enter with the gentleman from Ohio into a religious discussion. He wished not either to hear any thing of the gentleman's history, nor should he stay to dilate upon his own; but he would refer the gentleman to the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, from which that gentleman would learn that Paul did not tell servants to run away from their masters, but to return back to them. When the gentleman from Ohio could bring evidence to show that he was better, wiser, and holier than Paul, he would listen to his counsels, and not till then.

"Mr. Giddings said the gentleman from North Carolina was rather too much excited for a Presbyterian. But it was not enough that professors in this hall should pervert our holy religion to the purpose of justifying the crimes of slavery, but the Scriptures of Truth were to be prostituted to the maintenance of that institution. Had it come to this, that a member of this House and of a Christian church could here stand up and justify what such a man as John Wesley had called, not murder, nor theft, nor adultery, but the sin of all villainies' compounded? The substance of all their crimes are brought into the significant expression of slaveholding. He trusted that neither the gentleman from Tennessee, who was disposed to hang him, nor the gentleman who had felt hurt at his former remarks, would take offense at what he was saying. If they did, he would inform them that they could probably find room in the Rotundo until he should close what he had to say. "It had been said in the other end of the Capitol, by a gentleman of high distinction, that the average life of slaves on the sugar plantations was but five years, and on the cotton plantations only seven years. Thus whole generations are murdered in those regions every seven and five years. Gentlemen would remember that he spoke from high authority-upon slaveholding data. And these murders were attempted to be justified by Scripture; and because he had denounced the system and the practice, he was deserving to be, not only mobbed, but hanged, according to the opinion of gentlemen in this hall. Indeed, it was attempted to involve St. Paul in these crimes by saying that he justified slavery while writing under Divine inspiration. If such was the fact, he would abjure his religion and turn Turk.

"He would pass over much which he had intended to say on some other topics, as his time was nearly exhausted. If he should write out his remarks, he might