Slavery in the District of Columbia –It astonishes not a little to find that John Q. Adams was opposed to abolishing slavery from the District of Columbia; he considered the subject of such a nature that he hoped never to hear it discussed on the floor of Congress. And why not? Where else can it be with more propriety discussed? The Congress of the United States bears the same relation to the District of Columbia, that the several Legislatures do to the several independent States. It rests exclusively with Congress to determine whether African slavery shall continue to exist, or be forever expelled from the District, over which Congress alone has jurisdiction. The nation has an interest in the discussion of the question, and humanity calls loudly for it. We boast, and perhaps not without reason, of being the only free people on earth; and yet the authority of the nation allows in the national domain, a portion of our fellow citizens to be held in the most abject and degrading slavery; within the hearing of the President and of Congress, the lash of the master resounds from the back of the slave. Congress legislates for the District of Columbia, and slavery is the effect of its legislation. We cannot agree with Mr. Adams, in the opinion, that the abolishing of slavery from the District of Columbia, ought not to be discussed in Congress.—–Providence American.
(Liberator, March 3,1832, pg 3)
