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pressed a day or two before the battle of New Orleans. The horse and negro were killed, and the cart destroyed; and when the claim came before Congress, compensation was allowed for the horse and cart, but Congress refused to pay for the negro, on the ground that compensation ought not to be made for persons. Notwithstanding, the executive power had usurped the legislative functions of the government, and, in paying for slave property, had brought this government to support the immoral and detestable institution of slavery. Mr. Giddings then went on to explain the treaty under which Indians were compelled to pay for property stolen by them, and went into a statement in relation to claims that had been made on the Creek Indians by the slaveholders of Georgia for negroes that had run away, and been retained by such Indians, for which they were made to pay more than three or four times the value, the money having been deducted out of their annuities. He also stated that the slaveholders of Georgia, not satisfied with this, claimed $149,000 which was in the hands of the government, belonging to the Indians; and a committee of this House, a majority of whom were slaveholders, made a report, containing the monstrous proposition that this $149,000 should be appropriated to those slaveholders of Georgia, as a compensation for the value of the children that would have been born of their runaway negro women, had they remained in slavery.

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This proposition was so monstrous that it was not adopted by the House. Now, it would be asked, what had all this to do with the bill before the committee? Why, a number of negroes who ran away in Florida, and fled to the Seminole bands, intermarried with these Indians, and many of the chiefs had negro wives and negro children. Now, when the Florida Indians were subdued, and were about to be removed from that territory, they refused to go into the district allotted to the Creeks, because they demanded that they should surrender up their negro wives and children to them, on the ground that they had been, prior to this. compelled to pay for runaway negroes three or four times as much as they ought to have paid. It was to these points he had called the attention of the committee, and he wished to call the attention of the country. He desired to call the attention of the executive department and the people to the fact that legislative functions had been usurped by the executive within the past few years in a manner never before known in the country.

“Mr. E. J. Black desired to say a few words, not in reply to the gentleman from Ohio, because he did not think it necessary to reply to him. That gentleman had been used up, and kicked about in every corner of the House too often for him to think it worth while to notice him. The course of that member had been such, that, if the colony of Monrovia was one of the appendages of the government, and he was President of the United States, he would send him there; for he did not know a man in the United States that would be better fitted for the society there. The speech of the member was an old song that he had often sung before, and always sung the worse every time he repeated it. He remembered, four years ago, when the member stood in Sleepy Hollow there, and delivered the same speech; but it was a much better speech then than now, because it was new. Did not the gentleman remember how he replied to him, and told him that slavery was no evil, and that the people of Georgia did not consider it as an evil? He would tell him now that they did not consider it an evil. Did the gentleman contradict him? If the gentleman thought that the people of Georgia, or a single, solitary district of Georgia, thought slavery an evil, he would yield him the floor to enable him to say so, and give his authority for it.

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Mr. Giddings rose and said, 'Have I the floor, Mr. Chairman ?'

"Mr. Black. I yield the gentleman the floor for that purpose only-to reply to my question.'

"Mr. Giddings. I have the floor, I believe?'

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“Mr. Black. To reply to that question only. I retain the floor, so that I can answer him.'

“Mr. Giddings. I intend to reply at length.' Mr. Giddings then made a few remarks, which the reporter did not distinctly hear, when

"Mr. Black rose and said he had yielded the floor to the gentleman to answer one single question. He had told him that the people of Georgia did not regard slavery as an evil, and that he would yield him the floor to deny it, if he thought proper. For no other purpose would he yield him the floor.

"Mr. Giddings would say, with all due deference to the House, that he did not think it incumbent on him to answer the low, dirty, and vulgar tirade of abuse that had been heaped on him by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Black). This was not a place for statesmen to indulge in or reply to such language.. He came not here the people he represented never sent him here-for any such purpose; for, when they sent their servants here, they expected them to speak on subjects interesting to them and to the nation.

“Mr. Black here called on the gentleman to answer his question.

“Mr. Giddings continued. The people expected their representatives to speak of the manner in which the money drawn from their pockets had been paid over to the slave-drivers of Georgia, without reference to the low and vulgar tirades of abuse that might be uttered on that floor.'

“Mr. Black again called on the gentleman to answer his question.

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'Mr. Giddings continued. He said that, in consequence of paying the slaveholders of Georgia for unborn children that were never begotten [laughter], when the government took from his constituents their money for this execrable purpose, they expected that he, their representative, should speak of it in the terms it deserved. It was true that he did, four years ago, bring these facts to the notice of the House; and how many of the reporters were there who noticed what he said? How many members were there who knew them? Had the press thundered these astounding facts in the ears of the people of the North? He thanked his God that the time was coming when the press would be obliged to speak out on this subject. The North was waking up, and would, before long, demand that this government should no longer sanction the immoral and inhuman institution of slavery.

"In reference to the gentleman's question, he would say that he had no idea that the people of his district should estimate the value of Southern slaves, born or unborn, begotten or unbegotten. That was the gentleman's peculiar business, and to him he would leave it. But,' said Mr. Giddings, when he calls on us to pay for them, then it becomes the duty of every Northern man to speak out, and to let the country know that their rights are thus trampled on. The freemen of the North, Whigs or Democrats, when they find themselves taxed, and their money taken from them to pay for Southern slaves, expect their representatives to raise their voice against it.'

"He proceeded to say that he and his friends did not interfere with, nor encroach on the rights of the people of the South; and if the gentleman from Georgia could show that it was their duty to interfere with the institution of slavery, let him do so.

“Mr. E. J. Black asked the gentleman from Ohio to answer the question and discuss the point which he had put to him. He had spoken fifteen minutes without touching the point, whether the people of Georgia, or any portion of them, denounced slavery as an evil.

"Mr. Giddings said he was not the representative of Georgia.

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Mr. E. J. Black then called the gentleman from Ohio to order.

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"Mr. Giddings said he had the floor, and he would not yield it until he had exhausted his hour.

Mr. E. J. Black said he had only yielded the floor for a particular object, and if the member from Ohio did not intend to touch upon that, he (Mr. Black) should claim the floor.

"The chairman stated the gentleman from Ohio had refused to accept the floor otherwise than unrestricted, and to this the chair understood that the gentleman from Georgia assented.

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A long conversation ensued, and various appeals were taken, and ultimately the decision of the chair was reversed, and the floor was restored to the gentleman from Georgia.

"Mr. Black then resumed. He said it might be that he was in error when he undertook to speak to or of the member from Ohio. The member from Ohio had complained that he had been assailed in a low, dirty tirade. He (Mr. Black) did not regret the language he had used to that individual; he only regretted that there was occasion or necessity to speak to, or of him, at all on this floor. No well-bred man could speak to, or of that individual, or even look at him, without becoming low and dirty. He (Mr. Black) was sorry the occasion required him to repel the slanders of the member from Ohio on the people that he (Mr. Black) represented in part. He regretted that the thousand and one slanders of the member from Ohio against the people of Georgia required that he should notice that member at all. The member from Ohio talked about his character, and yet how often had he stood there and told the most marvelous stories about the oppression of the slaves? But the other day that person told an anecdote, on this floor, of a slave who first attempted to cut his throat, and afterward drowned himself in yonder canal, from fear of being sold by his owner. Now he (Mr. Black) had made it his business to investigate this matter, and he had ascertained that it was false from beginning to end. He had ascertained that the negro fellow, for whom the genti man had expressed so much sympathy, so far from drowning himself under the influence of an apprehension of the renewed horrors of slavery, pretended to cut his throat, but cut only a small piece of the flesh, which a surgeon sewed up again. He was sold, and has now a master.

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Mr. Black said it was the identical case, and the gentleman had imposed upon the House in relation to it. That negro was a fellow of the worst character; he had frequently run away from his master, stole every thing he could lay his hands upon, and was wholly unmanageable. That was a specimen of the negroes for whom the sympathies of the member from Ohio were excited, and whom he se lected as examples of the horrors of slavery. Why, did the member from Ohio not recollect that he had been charged with going upon the common here, and putting in a claim to a wagon that was used for stealing negroes-which had been used clandestinely for that purpose? The man whose wagon it was, was named Torrey, a worthy associate, and co-mate, and co-laborer of the member from Ohio-a man who was now in the Maryland penitentiary. If he were permitted by the rules of the House, he would say that the member from Ohio ought to be along with him. [Laughter.] He knew, if such a thing could be put to the vote of this House, that he would be keeping company with the Rev. Mr. Torrey. But the member from Ohio talked about his character! Now he asked that member if he had not folded up a calico frock, and sent it under frank through the post-office as a public document. The member from Ohio talked of 'garments dyed with blood,' and that had reminded him (Mr. Black) of this calie garment. And how was that dyed? It had the dye of fraud upon this gover ment upon it, and the member from Ohio, after that, should not come here and tax about morality.

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"The honorable gentleman made some further remarks, in which he told the member from Ohio to go home to his people to ascertain if he had any character there; for, before God and the country, he (Mr. Black) declared that he had none here.

"Mr. M'Dowell inquired if all this was in order.

"Mr. Giddings. 'Oh, it is very interesting indeed.'

“Mr. Burt entreated his friend from Georgia not to push this matter further. "Mr. Black resumed. He had no more to say on that point. He regretted, as much as the gentleman from South Carolina could do, that he had been led to refer to the member from Ohio. Since 1839, year after year had the gentleman from Ohio indulged in slander on the people he (Mr. Black) represented, and had said that they were slave-dealers, and men who had no regard for morality or humanity. Day after day did Southern men sit there, and cower under the assaults— the mendacious assaults of Northern members. He spoke not of the member from Ohio alone, but of members who presented abolition petitions on this floor, which, if they were carried to Georgia or South Carolina, and read to meetings there, it would be worth the life of the man who dared to slander thus the people there. When such assaults were committed, should he sit silently and take what his people would not take? Civility to these people was but 'throwing pearls be fore swine;' the only way was to pay them back in their own coin. He remembered, in 1839, the member had charged the whole people of Georgia with having instigated the Florida war by a theft on the Florida Indians. He (Mr. Black) had felt it incumbent on him at that time, amid a storm of order, to vindicate his people, and give the lie direct to the gentleman from Ohio. His people at home would have done it, and would have even gone further-to the extent, as he had then told the member, of inflicting the Lynch law upon him. There was not a member from the South or Southwest on this floor, who, if the member from Ohio were to walk up to him on the avenue, and read him a paper as personal as nine tenths of the abolition petitions presented here, would not knock him down in his tracks; and he (Mr. Black) would not surrender his natural rights here by refraining to repel such slanders upon the honor of his constituents.

"The gentleman had objected to the bill, and contended that a portion of the money due should be detained from the Indians for the slaves that they had stolen away. Thus (Mr. Black argued) the gentleman himself would encourage the Indians in these thefts. It was such a case as was made out for Rev. Mr. Fairbanks and Miss Delia Webster in Kentucky; on which case Mr. Black commented. This Delia Webster, Mr. Torrey, Mr. Walker, and others, were in the penitentiary; and when the member from Ohio was returned to the twenty-ninth Congress, no doubt that the young members would be regaled by many sad and doleful jeremiads upon the fate of these martyrs to the cause of human liberty! The gentleman's character, and the staleness of these charges, should be exposed to them.

"Mr. Black having concluded,

"On motion of Mr. Hopkins, after several points of order, the committee rose and reported progress.

"On motion of Mr. M'Kay, a resolution was adopted to terminate all debate in committee on this bill in twenty minutes after it should again be taken up in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union.

"Mr. M'Kay moved that the House again resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union.

"Mr. C. Smith moved that the House adjourn.

"The yeas and nays were asked and ordered, and, being taken, resulted, yeas 73, nays 89.

“On motion of Mr. M'Kay, the House again resolved itself into Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, Mr. Vinton in the chair, and resumed the consideration of the above bill.

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Mr. M Kay explained that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Giddings) was under very great misapprehension concerning this bill. The item from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the purchase of negroes, and for important services rendered,' did not come into the ordinary appropriation bills. In February, 1841, Congress, at the instance of Northern gentlemen-he believed a distinguished gentleman from Vermont-appropriated $100,000 for the removal, subsistence, and benefit of such Seminole Indians as should surrender for emigration. The construction put upon that act, in March, 1841, under the administration of Gen. Harrison, admitted a very broad discretion in regard to it. Mr. Bell, Secretary of War, a few days after, issued instructions to Col. Worth, commanding officer in Florida, in regard to these negroes, who had run away from their masters in Florida, that they might pay their owners for them. There were a number of these slaves (say about nine) that had ran away from their masters, and went to the Seminoles. They, the Seminoles, refused to come in, and enter into the treaty, unless a stipulation was entered into by General Worth that these slaves should accompany them when they were removed.

Mr. Giddings said he was satisfied with the gentleman's explanation. In the ordinary discharge of his duties as a representative on that floor, he assured the committee that while he did not claim to be above any member there, he did not admit himself to be inferior to any one. His people were an independent people. and their representative was as much entitled to respect as any other member on this floor.

"So far as regarded character and standing, he would say that it was for his constituents to judge if he was worthy to represent them. If they should thrust him aside as unworthy to represent them, he would have nothing more to say. If his course on that floor had been such as to meet the condemnation of his constituents, and to cause them to thrust him aside, he should hide his head with shame. The gentleman from Georgia would make his own application of this remark. Coming here, condemned as he was by the people he represented, saying that he was unworthy to represent them any longer, and then to talk about character! The gentleman talked about knocking him down. Did he think the people he represented would send a coward here? One gentleman had once drawn a Bowie knife on him, and others had used menacing and insulting language toward him. Did gentlemen think to brave the freemen of the North because they were modest and unassuming, and disapprove of fighting duels? Did the gentleman talk about knocking him down, because he dared to do his duty on that floor? [Here Mr. Black, who was in the aisle immediately behind Mr. Giddings, made some remark about knocking down, which the reporter did not hear.] Mr. Giddings continued. He had never seen an infernal coward that did not talk loud

"[Mr. Black was here observed rushing into the bar toward Mr. Giddings, with a cane upraised, but was seized and withheld from entering the bar by Mr. Hammet and other Southern gentlemen. There was much noise and confusion When the uproar subsided],

at this time, with frequent calls to order.

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The chair said that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Giddings) was entitled to the floor.

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Mr. M'Kay hoped the gentleman from Ohio would not indulge in any more personal allusions.

"Mr. Giddings continued. As regarded the anecdote he told the other day

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