tian
nation, a moral and religious people. I speak for the free States, at
least for my own State; and what a contrast do the very streets of
your capital daily present to the Christianity and morality of the
nation? A race of slaves, or at least colored persons, of every hue
from the jet black African, in regular gradation, up to the almost
pure Anglo-Saxon color. During the short time official duty has called
me here, I have seen the really red haired, the freckled, and the
almost white negro; and I have been astonished at the numbers of the
mixed race, when compared with those of full color, and I have deeply
deplored this stain upon our national morals; and the words of Dr.
Channing have, thousands of times, been impressed on my mind, that "a
slave country reeks with licentiousness." How comes this amalgamation
of the races? It comes from slavery. It is a disagreeable annoyance to
persons who come from the free States, especially to their Christian
and moral feelings. It is a great hindrance to the proper discharge of
their duties while here. Remove slavery from this District, and this
evil will disappear. We argue this circumstance alone as sufficient
cause to produce that effect. But slavery presents within 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 u