tioneer
proclaiming in the accustomed way the merits of the slave commingled
with that of the statesmen in the Halls of Congress proclaiming
the boasted liberty of the great American Republic! Daniel Drayton
(1848) was tried in the District for the larceny of seventy-four
human beings, his crime consisting of affording means (in the
schooner _Pearl_) for their escape to freedom.(121)

Under the laws of the District many others were punished for like
offences.

As late as 1856, when the sculptor Crawford furnished a design for
the _Statue of Liberty_ to crown the dome of the Capitol, Secretary
of War Jefferson Davis ordered the "_liberty cap_" struck from the
model, because in art it had an "established origin in its use as
a badge of the freed slave."(122)

We have seen how much the consciences of just men were shocked,
and how assiduously such men labored to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, and with what tenacity the slave party fought
to maintain it there, and even by constitutional amendments to fix
it there forever.

But when slavery had brought the country to war, the emancipation
of slaves in the District was early considered.

Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, December 16, 1861, introduced a bill
in the Senate, which, after a most memorable debate in both Houses
of Congress, passed, and on April 16, 1862, became a law, with the
approval of President Lincoln. This act emancipated forthwith all
the slaves of the District, and annulled the laws of Maryland over
it relating to slavery and all statutes giving the cities of
Washington and Georgetown authority to pass ordinances discriminating
against persons of color.

(120) Con. U. S., Art. I., Sec. 8, par. 17.

(121) Drayton did not succeed in the attempt to afford these slaves
means to escape. He was tried on two indictments for larceny,
convicted, and on each sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary.
The Circuit Court reversed these convictions on the erroneous charge
of the trial judge (Crawford), to the effect that a man might be
guilty of larceny of property--slaves--without the intent to
appropriate it to his own use. On re-trial Drayton was acquitted
on the larceny indictments; but verdicts were taken against him on
seventy-four indictments for transporting slaves--not a penitentiary
offense--and he was sentenced to pay a fine of $10,000, and to
remain in prison until paid. He was most ably defended by Horace
Mann of Boston, and J. M