g words) to escape from such claimant, as, for instance, refusing
to join in a slave-hunt when required, shall be fined not exceeding
$1,000, be imprisoned six months, and pay the claimant $1,000. I hope,
Sir, you are now able to perceive that your law has a preeminence in
barbarity over its predecessor. And now, Sir, please to recollect, that
party discipline, aided by the influence of Messrs. Webster and Clay,
and the factory and cotton interest of Boston and New York, could not
procure for this atrocious law the votes of _one half_ the members of
the House of Representatives. Of two hundred and thirty-two members,
only one hundred and nine dared to place their names on an enduring and
shameful record, while many basely deserted their seats, fearing alike
to vote either for or against it. You, Sir, following Mr. Webster's
advice, "conquered your prejudices," and in company with _two_ more
Northern Whigs, one of them a native of Virginia, cast your vote for
this bill of abominations. But, although you voted for the law, you do
not wish your constituents to suppose you approved of it. "It will not,
I trust, be inferred from any thing I have said, that I consider the law
which has passed unexceptionable. There are amendments which I strongly
desire to be introduced into it." What are the exceptionable features of
the law, what are the amendments you desire, you refrain from
specifying. But you tell us that you would have labored for these
amendments "had it been possible, but every body knows that it was
_impracticable_." You allude to the _previous question_, which prevented
both discussion and amendments. But why, then, did you vote for an
objectionable bill which could not be amended? Here, again, we have one
of your unfortunate reasons. "I deem conformity to the design of the
Constitution more important than the objectionable details of the bill."
So, by your own confession, had there been no previous question, you
would have swallowed the bill with all its objectionable details, out of
reverence for the _design_ of the Constitution, although that design
neither embraced nor required a single one of those details. Did you,
Sir, vote _against_ the previous question? On this point you are silent,
and the minutes afford no information; but _if_ you did, your vote was a
most remarkable aberration from your proslavery course in Congress.
_After_ the previous question had been seconded, it was moved to lay the
bill on the ta