arges against the Maryland
scheme; but he (Mr. T.) would hereafter fully support them, and show,
too, that the National Colonization Society was equally culpable,
having at its ensuing annual meeting fully approved of the plan, and
recommended it as a bright example for the imitation of other states.

* * * * *

MR. BRECKINRIDGE then rose. He had last night understood Mr. Thompson
to say, that this evening he would take up and expose the colonization
scheme. It was possible that he had been wrong in this; but such was
certainly the impression made upon his mind. Instead of adopting such
a course, however, Mr. Thompson had treated them to a second edition
of his last night's speech the only difference being that the one they
had just heard was more elaborate. If they were to be called on to
hear all Mr. Thompson's speeches twice, it would be a considerable
time before they finished the discussion. He congratulated Mr.
Thompson on his second edition, being in some respects an improvement,
on his first. It was certainly better arranged. In the observations he
was about to make, he would follow the course of the argument
exhibited in Mr. Thompson's two speeches; but he, at the same time,
wished it to be understood that he would not be cast out of the line
of discussion every night in the same manner. As to what had been said
about the 'handful,' he did not think it necessary to say much. He
would simply remind Mr. T., that however great or however small the
'handful' might be, one pervading evil might pollute it all. A dead
fly could cause the ointment of the apothecary to stink. But to come
to the point. Mr. Thompson had said that the question was national as
it respected America, because slaveholding states had been admitted
into the confederacy. The simple fact of these states having been
admitted members of the Union, was, in Mr. Thompson's estimation,
proof sufficient, not only that slavery was chargeable on the whole
nation, but that there had been a positive predilection among the
American people in favor of slavery. In clearing up this point, a
little chronological knowledge would help us. He would therefore call
the attention of the audience to the real state of matters when the
confederacy was established. At that period, Massachusetts was the
only State in which slavery had been abolished; and even in
Massachusetts its formal abolition was not effected till some time
after. For in