rn of a
selfish disposition, common to white people, to esteem themselves
superior to others.

The history of emancipation and of these constitutional amendments
belongs, logically, to periods during and at the end of the war.

There are, however, two important acts relating to slavery which
passed Congress during the War of the Rebellion, not strictly the
_result_ of that war, though incident to it, which must be
mentioned.

(116) Kansas joined later, and Michigan, California, and Oregon
were not represented; nor were the then seceded Southern States,
or Arkansas, represented.

(117) Blaine (_Twenty Years of Congress_, vol. i., p. 269), says:
"Puleston, a delegate from Pennsylvania, a subject of Queen Victoria,
later (1884) of the British Parliament, was chosen Secretary of
the Conference."--This is an error. He was not a delegate: only
one of several assistant secretaries.

On the next page of Blaine's book he falls into another error in
saying the Wilmot Proviso was embodied (1848) in the Oregon
territorial act. It was never embodied in any act. The sixth
section of the Ordinance of 1787 is embodied in that act word for
word.

(118) _Hist. of Rebellion_ (McPherson), pp. 68-9.

(119) _Ibid_., p. 76.

XXVII
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--SLAVERY ABOLISHED--1862

The District of Columbia, acquired by the United States in 1791
for the purpose of founding the city of Washington as the permanent
Federal Capital, was, by the laws of Virginia and Maryland, slave
territory. The District was originally ten miles square, and
included the city of Alexandria. Later (1846) the part acquired
from Virginia (about forty square miles) was retroceded to that
State. Congress had complete jurisdiction over it, though the laws
of Maryland and Virginia, for some purposes, were continued in
force. It was, however, from the beginning claimed that Congress
had the right to abolish slavery within its boundaries.

Congress is given the right "to exercise exclusive legislation in
all cases whatsoever over such District."(120) But slavery was
claimed to be excepted because of its peculiar character.

The institution of slavery was therefore perpetuated in the District,
and in the Capital of the Republic slave-marts existed where men
and women were sold from the auction block, and families were torn
asunder and carried to different parts of the country to be continued
in bondage. In the shadow of the Capitol the voice of the auc