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Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton - For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail by Daniel Drayton
page 36 of 110 (32%)

Those two abolition incendiaries (Giddings and Hale)
threw firebrands yesterday into the two houses of
Congress. The western abolitionist moved a resolution of
inquiry into the transactions now passing in Washington,
which brought on a fierce and fiery debate on the part
of the southern members, in the course of which Mr.
Giddings _was compelled to confess_, on the
cross-questioning of Messrs. Venable and Haskell, _that
he had visited the three piratical kidnappers now
confined in jail, and offered them counsel_. The reply
of Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, was scorching to an intense
degree.

The abolitionist John P. Hale threw a firebrand
resolution into the Senate, calling for additional laws
to compel this city to prevent riots. This also gave
rise to a long and excited debate.

No question was taken, in either house, before they
adjourned. But, in the progress of the discussion in
both houses, some doctrines were uttered which are
calculated to startle the friends of the Union. Giddings
justified the kidnappers, and contended that, though the
act was legally forbidden, it was not morally wrong! Mr.
Toombs brought home the practical consequences of this
doctrine to the member from Ohio in a most impressive
manner.

Hale, of the Senate, whilst he was willing to protect
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