A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress From the City of Boston, In Reply to His Apology For Voting For the Fugitive Slave Bill

On the 10th of January, 1838, Mr. Clay moved in the Senate the following resolution, viz.: – "Resolved, that the interference by the citizens of any of the States with a view to the abolition of slavery in this District, is endangering the rights and security of the people of this District; and that any act or measure of Congress designed to abolish slavery in this District would be a violation of the faith implied in the cession by the States of Virginia and Maryland, a just cause of alarm to the people of the slaveholding States, and have a direct and inevitable tendency to disturb and endanger the Union." – Passed, 38 to 8, Mr. Webster voting in the negative. Senate Journal, 2 Sess. 25 Cong., p. 127.

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Speech, June 8, 1836.