and much debated in the House, which finally sanctioned the following resolution, and directed the same to be entered upon its Journals:—
"That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them, within any of the States; it remaining with the several States to provide any regulations therein, which humanity and true policy may require."
This resolution, declaring the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States, was adopted by the same Congress which had solemnly affirmed the prohibition of slavery in all the existing territory of the Union; and not only by the same Congress, but at the same session, so that one may be regarded as the complement of the other. And it is on these double acts, at the first organization of the Government, and the recorded sentiments of the founders, that I take my stand, and challenge all question.
At this time there was strictly no dividing line in the country between anti-slavery and pro-slavery. The anti-slavery sentiment was thoroughly national, broad, and general, pervading alike all parts of the Union, and uprising from the common heart of the entire people. The pro-slavery interest was strictly personal and pecuniary, and had its source simply in the self-interest of individual slave-holders. It contemplated slavery only as a domestic institution—not as a political element—and merely stipulated for its security where it actually existed within the States.
