k or any other port:

"_Provided_, That nothing in this section shall be so
construed as to prevent any States in which involuntary
servitude is prohibited, from restraining by law the
transfer of such persons, or of any right or interest in
their services, from one individual to another, within the
limits of such State."

Mr. GUTHRIE:--I insist there is not the slightest necessity for this
amendment. I hope gentlemen will stop interposing these useless
propositions; they confound the sense of the article, and we are
guarding against questions which by no possibility can arise.

The vote was then taken on the amendment of Mr. McCURDY, and resulted
as follows:

AYES.--Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and
Kansas--11.

NOES.--Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and
Missouri--10.

And the amendment was agreed to.

Messrs. LOGAN and PALMER, of Illinois, dissented from the vote of that
State.

Mr. HOWARD:--I would ask the gentleman from Connecticut if he ever
knew or heard of a case where a slave was sold in a free State?

Mr. McCURDY:--I do not intend to argue that question; but as I am
appealed to, although the proviso is adopted, I will state the grounds
on which it rests.

Mr. CLAY:--I wish to know whether the object of the amendment is to
prevent the making of contracts connected with the purchase or sale of
slaves in the free States?

Mr. McCURDY:--My object is apparent from the amendment. It explains
itself. I wish to prohibit any transactions concerning the purchase or
sale of slaves, either within the free States or the navigable waters
connected therewith, or under free State jurisdiction. If there were
no such prohibition, a cargo of slaves might be brought from the coast
of Africa into the port of New York, and transferred there to parties
residing in the slave States. The free States have a right to direct
what shall, and what shall not be a subject of commerce within their
limits. I presume it is not intended that the Constitution shall
prohibit the exercise of this right. I desire not to leave this open
to construction, but to make the section declare that no such
intention exists.

Mr. GUTHRIE:--I am now satisfied that we shall get nothing here that
is satisfactory to the people of the south side o