Mr. Speaker, I have nearly finished what I intended to say. If
my opponents, who have pursued me with unparalleled bitterness, are
satisfied with the present condition of this affair, I am. I return
my thanks to my friends, and especially to those who are from
nonslave-owning States, who have magnanimously sustained me, and felt
that it was a higher honor to themselves to be just in their judgment
of a gentleman than to be a member of Congress for life. In taking my
leave, I feel that it is proper that I should say that I believe that
some of the votes that have been cast against me have been extorted by
an outside pressure at home, and that their votes do not express the
feelings or opinions of the members who gave them.

To such of these as have given their votes and made their speeches
on the constitutional principles involved, and without indulging in
personal vilification, I owe my respect. But, sir, they have written me
down upon the history of the country as worthy of expulsion, and in no
unkindness I must tell them that for all future time my self-respect
requires that I shall pass them as strangers.

And now, Mr. Speaker, I announce to you and to this House, that I am no
longer a member of the Thirty-Fourth Congress.

(Mr. Brooks then walked out of the House of Representatives.)

JUDAH P. BENJAMIN,

OF LOUISIANA. (BORN 1811, DIED 1864.)

ON THE PROPERTY DOCTRINE, OR THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN SLAVES;

SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 11, 1858.

MR. PRESIDENT, the whole subject of slavery, so far as it is involved
in the issue now before the country, is narrowed down at last to a
controversy on the solitary point, whether it be competent for the
Congress of the United States, directly or indirectly, to exclude
slavery from the Territories of the Union. The Supreme Court of the
United States have given a negative answer to this proposition, and
it shall be my first effort to support that negation by argument,
independently of the authority of the decision.

It seems to me that the radical, fundamental error which underlies the
argument in affirmation of this power, is the assumption that slavery
is the creature of the statute law of the several States where it is
established; that it has no existence outside of the limits of those
States; that slaves are not property beyond those limits; and
that property in slaves is neither recognized nor protected by
the Constitution of the United States, nor