er it available, comfortable, and convenient as a
seat of the government of the whole Union." I thank you for an
admission, which can be used, with great effect, against the many, who
maintain, that Congress is as much bound to consult the interests and
wishes of the inhabitants of the District, and be governed by them, as a
State Legislature is to study and serve the interests and wishes of its
constituents. The inhabitants of the District have taken up their
residence in it, aware, that the paramount object of Congressional
legislation is not their, but the nation's advantage. They judge, that
their disfranchisement and the other disadvantages attending their
residence are more than balanced by their favorable position for
participating in Governmental patronage and other benefits. They know,
that they have no better right to complain, that the legislation of
Congress is not dictated by a primary regard to their interests, than
has the Colonization Society, of which you are President, to complain,
that the Capitol, in which it holds its annual meetings, is not
constructed and fitted up in the best possible manner for such
occasions. They know, that to sacrifice the design and main object of
that building to its occasional and incidental uses, would be an
absurdity no greater than would Congress be guilty of in shaping its
legislation to the views of the thirty thousand white inhabitants of the
District of Columbia, at the expense of neglecting the will and
interests of the nation.

You feel, that there is no hazard in your admission, that the paramount
object in relation to the District of Columbia, is its suitableness for
a seat of Government, since you accompany that admission with the
denial, that the presence of slavery interferes with such suitableness.
But is it not a matter of deep regret, that the place, in which our
national laws are made--that the place from which the sentiment and
fashion of the whole country derive so much of their tone and
direction--should cherish a system, which you have often admitted, is at
war with the first principles of our religion and civil polity;[A] and
the influences of which are no less pervading and controlling than
corrupting? Is it not a matter of deep regret, that they, whom other
governments send to our own, and to whom, on account of their superior
intellect and influence, it is our desire, as it is our duty, to commend
our free institutions, should be obliged to learn