the free States
would do under such a provision as this in the Constitution. There
will be an underground railroad line along every principal route of
travel. There will be depots all along these lines. Canoes will be
furnished to ferry negroes over the Potomac and Ohio. JOHN BROWN & CO.
will stand ready to kill the master the very moment he crosses the
line in pursuit of his slave. What officer at the North will dare to
arrest the slave when JOHN BROWN pikes are stacked up in every little
village? If arrested, there will be organizations formed to rescue
him, and you may as well let the "nigger" go free at once. You are
opening up the greatest scheme of emancipation ever devised.

Mr. BACKUS:--I move to amend the amendment proposed by Mr. ORTH by the
substitution of the following:

"And the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner
from further claim to said fugitive."

It is claimed that this is a scheme of emancipation. It is nothing of
the sort. It is not intended that the owner shall be obliged to accept
compensation for his slave. That is left optional with him. He may
take it or not as he likes. The effect of accepting compensation would
be just the same as if he sold his slave to the North. The gentleman
from Virginia raises a curious objection; that the owner does not
receive a full compensation because he pays a portion of it himself.
Well, I suppose the owner would pay the one hundred and
thirty-millionth part of the price! Does not the same objection lay
against the payment of any tax whatever? It is asked, Does this
payment transfer the legal title to the slave? Well, it probably goes
to the party who pays for it. If the payment is made in a free State,
where slavery is not tolerated, the title would not pass at all. I
submit to our friends from the South, whether they wish to have the
Government become a slave-trader, to set it up as a huckster of slaves
in the shambles. My amendment imposes the responsibility upon
Congress. I have no doubt Congress will legislate properly upon the
subject.

Now let me say one word to gentlemen, friends of the South, in all
kindness. I have appreciated your position, and it has influenced my
action. I have not refused to give you any reasonable guarantees, and
I shall not refuse them. But I submit to you, whether it is in good
taste for you to declare that, if we do not yield all these little
points to you, the Government is to be broken up; that t