Senate, during the present session, had passed a bill making appropriations of land on that principle for the benefit of the State in which he resided-the State of Illinois. The alternate sections were to be given for the purpose of constructing roads, and the reserved sections were to be enhanced in value in consequence. When the bill came here for the action of this House, it had been received, and was now before the Committee on Public Lands-he desired much to see it passed as it was, if it could be put in a more favorable form for the State of Illinois. When it should be before this House, if any member from a section of the Union in which these lands did not lie, whose interest might be less than that which he felt, should propose a reduction of the price of the reserved sections to $1.25, he should be much obliged; but he did not think it would be well for those who came from the section of the Union in which the lands lay, to do so. He wished it, then, to be understood, that he did not join in the warfare against the principle which had engaged the minds of some members of Congress who were favorable to improvements in the western country. There was a good deal of force, he admitted, in what fell from the Chairman of the Committee on Territories. It might be that there was no precise justice in raising the price of the reserved sections to $2.50 per acre. It might be proper that the price should be enhanced to some extent, though not to double the usual price; but he should be glad to have such an appropriation with the reserved sections at $2.50; he should be better pleased to have the price of those sections at something less; and he should be still better pleased to have them without any enhancement at all.

There was one portion of the argument of the gentle

man from Indiana, the Chairman of the Committee on Territories (Mr. Smith), which he wished to take occasion to say that he did not view as unsound. He alluded to the statement that the General Government was interested in these internal improvements being made, inasmuch as they increased the value of the lands that were unsold, and they enabled the Government to sell lands which could not be sold without them. Thus, then, the Government gained by internal improvements, as well as by the general good which the people derived from them, and it might be, therefore, that the lands should not be sold for more than $1.50, instead of the price being doubled. He, however, merely mentioned this in passing, for he only rose to state, as the principle of giving these lands for the purposes which he had mentioned had been laid hold of and considered favorably, and as there were some gentlemen who had constitutional scruples about giving money for these purposes, who would not hesitate to give land, that he was not willing to have it understood that he was one of those who made war against that principle. This was all he desired to say, and having accomplished the object with which he rose, he withdrew his motion to reconsider."

The other speeches made at this session were a strong one in favor of internal improvements, and a witty party speech to which we have already alluded.

At this time the two houses of Congress were crowded with men of ability: Hamlin, who is now running with Lincoln on the same ticket; Houston, who at one time seemed likely to be his opponent in the present Presidential canvass; Hunter, of Virginia; Reverdy Johnson, Calhoun, Dickinson, Bell, the nominee of the Third party, Douglas, Webster, Seward, Cass, Shields, Benton,

Clayton, Corwin, Cameron, were in the Senate; and in the House, Jefferson Davis, John Quincy Adams, Wilmot, Toombs, Giddings, Greeley, Washington Hunt, and others who have since attained distinction, were his compeers. This was the session when the famous Wilmot proviso was introduced, and Lincoln voted forty-two times in its favor. He was, as we have said, the only Whig in the delegation from Illinois, and upheld the cause of his party manfully; the various questions of the Mexican War, the Texas Boundary, the Oregon Bill, and the Harbor Improvements, as they by turns engaged the attention of the Congress, afforded him ample opportunities for studying public affairs; and it is probable that their discussion, and the contact with so many minds of first rate calibre, had an influence on his own intellect, developing and maturing its powers. He thus early in his career took the stand which he has ever since maintained with the opponents of slavery: his opposition to the Mexican war, his voting for the Wilmot proviso, his speeches and votes, all were precursors of the bill he brought in, during the second session of the thirtieth Congress, providing for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, under certain restrictions, the abolition to be consummated only when the inhabitants of the District should vote in its favor. The resolutions, and a few remarks made by him in presenting them, we here append :

Jan. 10, 1849.-In the debate on the slave trade in the District of Columbia, Mr. Lincoln introduced an amendment to a bill before the House.

Mr. L. read as follows:

Strike out all after the word "resolved," and insert the following

"That the Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed to report a bill in substance, as follows:

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That no person not now within the District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resident within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery within said District.

Sec. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District: Provided, That officers of the Government of the United States, being citizens of the slaveholding States, coming into said District on public business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for that object, may be attended into and out of said District, and while there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families, without their right to hold such servants in service being impaired.

Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on or after the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1850, shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported and educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or representatives, and shall serve reasonable service as apprentices to such owners, heirs, or representatives, until they respectively arrive at the age of years, when they shall be entirely free: And the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all suitable and necessary provision for enforc

ing obedience to this section, on the part of both masters and apprentices.

Sec. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said District, shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their heirs or legal representatives: Provided that such owner, or his legal representatives, may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and for ever free: And provided further, That the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be a board for determining the value of such slaves as their owners desire to emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shall be to hold a session for the purpose on the first Monday of each calendar month, to receive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence in each case that the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class in the section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.

Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to provide active and efficient means to arrest and deliver up to their owners all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.

Sec. 6. That the elective officers within said District of Columbia are hereby empowered and required to open polls at all the usual places of holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the vote of