thin the District
other and still more appalling scenes--scenes well calculated to
awaken the deepest emotions of the human heart. The slave-trade exists
here in all its HORRORS, and unwhipt of all its crimes. In view of the
very chair which you now occupy, Mr. President, if the massy walls of
this building, did not prevent it, you could see the prison, the
_pen_, the HELL, where human beings, when purchased for sale, are kept
until a cargo can be procured for transportation to a Southern or
foreign market, for I have little doubt slaves are carried to Texas
for sale, though I do not know the fact.

Sir, since Congress have been in session, a mournful group of these
unhappy beings, some thirty or forty, were marched, as if in derision
of members of Congress, in view of your Capitol, chained and manacled
together, in open day-light, yes, in the very face of heaven itself,
to be shipped at Baltimore for a foreign market. I did not witness
this cruel transaction, but speak from what I have heard and believe.
Is this District, then, a fit place for our deliberations, whose
feelings are outraged with impunity with transactions like this?
Suppose, sir, that mournful and degrading spectacle was at this moment
exhibited under the windows of our chamber, do you think the Senate
could deliberate, could continue with that composure and attention
which I see around me? No, sir; all your powers could not preserve
order for a moment. The feelings of humanity would overcome those of
regard for the peculiar institutions of the States; and though we
would be politically and legally bound not to interfere, we are not
morally bound to withhold our sympathy and our execration in
witnessing such inhuman traffic. This traffic alone, in this District,
renders it an uncomfortable and unfit place for your seat of
Government. Sir, it is but one or two years since I saw standing at
the railroad depot, as I passed from my boarding house to this
chamber, some large wagons and teams, as if waiting for freight; the
cars had not then arrived. I was inquired of, when I returned to my
lodgings, by my landlady, if I knew the object of those wagons which I
saw in the morning. I replied, I did not; I suppose they came and were
waiting for loading. "Yes, for slaves," said she; "and one of those
wagons was filled with little boys and little girls, who had been
bought up through the country, and were to be taken to a southern
market. Ah, sir!" continued she,