.MTUyMA.MTEwNzY

Resolutions relative to Slavery and the Slave Trade

Whereas domestic slavery exists in the District of Columbia under the express authority of Congress, which at the time of the cession of the district re-enacted the slave codes of Maryland and Virginia, and whereas the sanction thus given to slavery and its continued toleration at the seat of Government from a manifest violation by this nation of the first principles of justice and have a tendency to corrupt the moral sense and lower the character of the whole people of the United States; and whereas this nation can have no higher interest either before God or in the eyes of men than the establishment of justice and strengthening the just foundation of rational honour [honor]; and whereas slavery in the District of Columbia, being thus a national concern and involving national responsibility, it is the right of the State of maine to remonstrate against the common wrong, and the degradation of national character therefore –

Resolved that Congress has, by the Constitution power to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and that there is nothing in the town or circumstances, of the acts of cession by Virginia and Maryland or otherwise, imposing any legal or moral restraint upon its exercise

Resolved, that Congress ought to take measures to effect the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia