Legislation: Declaration of Rights Amendments, 1789 (Passed)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Mr. Speaker,

The proposal brought by the gentleman from Charlottesville is made according to the best precepts of human nature, designed to offer the surest protection of human liberty. Many who have otherwise regarded our federal Constitution with fitting admiration have lamented the exclusion of a Declaration of Rights as the gravest of errors, and one which demands immediate rectification. Having reviewed the proposal and found it satisfactory on all counts, I vote that the Declaration of Rights be adopted as presented and so urge my fellow Whigs to follow.

I yield my time to the chair.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Mr. Speaker,

I detest slavery, with every fiber of my being. As an institution, its future is as doomed as its existence is morally repugnant. Yet though my personal inclination would be to see that practice perish from this earth, it is a different question entire to propose the employment of coercive force to dismember that institution in those states where the opinion of the majority sustains it. I cannot, at this fateful hour in the history of our republic, countenance any measure which would threaten to dissolve our federal union. I therefore vote against the amendment proposed by the gentleman from the City of New York and Westchester, and for passage of the bill brought by Mr. Madison unamended; which course I recommend to my fellow Whigs.

I yield my time to the chair.