field, when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such an
extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave Constitution, uninfluenced by
the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no
alternative, if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union.

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, it
being, as I conceive, the same as the second.

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the District
of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made
up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the
District of Columbia. I believe that Congress possesses the
constitutional power to abolish it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I
should not, with my present views, be in favor of endeavoring to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, unless it would be upon
these conditions; First, that the abolition should be gradual; second,
that it should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the
District; and third, that compensation should be made to unwilling
owners. With these three conditions, I confess I would be exceedingly
glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and,
in the language of Henry Clay, "sweep from our Capital that foul blot
upon our nation."

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say here that as to the
question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the different
States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to nothing
about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature
consideration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so
as to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, that question
has never been prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate