irginia voted in favor of the Ordinance, which
abolished slavery in the North-West Territory; and this too,
notwithstanding, that, in the Act of 1784, by which she ceded the
North-West Territory to the Confederacy, she provided, that the
"citizens of Virginia" in the said Territory, many of whom held slaves,
should "be protected in the enjoyment of their rights." This fact
furnishes striking evidence that at, or about, the time of the cession
by Virginia of her portion of the District of Columbia, her statesmen
believed, that the right to hold slaves in those portions of our country
under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, was not beyond the reach
of the controlling power of Congress.]

I will, however, suppose it true, that Virginia and Maryland would not
have made the cessions in question, had they foreseen, that Congress
would abolish slavery in the District of Columbia:--and yet, I affirm,
that it would be the duty of Congress to abolish it. Had there been
State Prisons in the territory, at the time Congress acquired
jurisdiction over it, and had Congress immediately opened their doors,
and turned loose hundreds of depraved and bloody criminals, there would
indeed have been abundant occasion for complaint. But, had the exercise
of its power in the premises extended no farther than to the liberation
of such convicts, as, on a re-examination of their cases, were found to
be clearly guiltless of the crimes charged upon them; the sternest
justice could not have objected to such an occasion for the rejoicing of
mercy. And are not the thousands in the District, for whose liberation
Congress is besought, unjustly deprived of their liberty? Not only are
they guiltless, but they are even unaccused of such crimes, as in the
judgment of any, justly work a forfeiture of liberty. And what do
Virginia and Maryland ask? Is it, that Congress shall resubject to their
control those thousands of deeply wronged men? No--for this Congress
cannot do. They ask, that Congress shall fulfil the tyrant wishes of
these States. They ask, that the whole people of the United
States--those who hate, as well as those who love slavery, shall, by
their representatives, assume the guilty and awful responsibility of
perpetuating the enslavement of their innocent fellow men:--of chaining
the bodies and crushing the wills, and blotting out the minds of such,
as have neither transgressed, nor even been accused of having
transgressed, a single human l