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yeas and nays, which were ordered; and the question being taken

"The Speaker announced the vote-yeas 90, nays 89. "The twelfth rule of the House provided,' that in all cases of election by the House, the Speaker shall vote; in other cases he shall not vote, unless the House be equally divided, or unless his vote, if given to the minority, will make the division equal; and in case of such equal division, the question shall be lost.'

"The Speaker, proceeding to discharge the duty thus imposed upon him, said:

"A case has occurred in which, under the rule of the House, it is the duty of the Speaker to vote. The Speaker regrets that in this, as in many other cases, he has been deprived of the opportunity of listening to the full discussion of the question, having heard no speech except that which has been made this morning, the debate having taken place mainly in Committee of the Whole on the private calendar.

"The Speaker also has had little opportunity, if any, to turn his attention to the principles or the facts involved in this case. He cannot shrink, however, from giving his vote. But it is a well-admitted parliamentary principle, laid down in the books, that where the Speaker has any doubt in relation to a question, his vote shall be given in such a way as not finally to conclude it. It shall be given in such a way that the consideration of the question may be again open to the House, if the House, under any circumstances, shall choose to reconsider it.

"The Speaker takes the opportunity to say, that he does not concur in full with either of the principles

which have been maintained on both sides of the House. So far as the circumstances of the case have come to his knowledge, he doubts exceedingly whether the question of property in slaves is involved. And it has been to him a matter of great doubt, from such part of the arguments as he has heard

"At this point of his remarks, the Speaker was interrupted by the Clerk, who showed him a paper containing the state of the vote.

"The Speaker said the Clerk was mistaken in the vote. The vote stands-ninety-one in the affirmative, eighty-nine in the negative.

"So the bill was declared to be passed, Mr. Lincoln voting against the passage.

"Mr. Burt moved a reconsideration of the vote just taken, and that the motion be laid upon the table; and also moved, that before the vote be taken, there should be a call of the House.

"Mr. Palfrey appealed to the gentleman from South Carolina to allow him the floor a moment, but Mr. Burt peremptorily declined.

"Mr. Wentworth demanded the yeas and nays upon the motion for a call of the House, and being ordered. and taken, the result was, yeas 78, nays 105. So the call was refused.

"Mr. Burt, with a view, as he said, to save the time of the House, withdrew his motion for reconsideration. "Mr. Cocke renewed the motion, and moved that it be laid on the table.

"Mr. Palfrey moved a call of the House, when

"Mr. Cocke withdrew his motion for reconsideration; and, after some conversation upon points of or

der, the whole subject was dropped, and the bill was considered passed.

"Mr. Wentworth rose (he said) to a privileged question, and said that a mistake had been discovered at the Clerk's desk, in the vote upon the passage of the bill for the relief of the legal representatives of Antonio Pacheco. He asked that the journal might be corrected.

"The Speaker stated that corrections of the journal would be in order on Monday morning, after the reading of the journal.

"Mr. Wentworth asked if it would not be in order now to make a correction in the vote.

"The Speaker replied that it would.

"On motion of Mr. Stephens, the House adjourned." On the following Monday, immediately after the reading of the journal, the Speaker said:

"The House will remember that the vote on the passage of the bill for the relief of the heirs of Antonio Pacheco, was originally made up by the Clerk, yeas 90, nays 89; and this record having been handed to the Speaker, and by him announced to the House, the Speaker proceeded to make some remarks upon the bill, preparatory to giving the vote contemplated in such cases by the rules of the House. While in the act of explanation, the Speaker was interrupted by the Clerk, who stated that, on a more careful count, the vote was found to be yeas 91, nays 89. The intervention of the Speaker was therefore no longer allowable, and the bill was declared to have passed the House.

"The Chair takes the earliest opportunity to state to the House, this morning, that, upon a re-examina

tion of the yeas and nays, the Clerk has ascertained that an error was still made in the announcement of the vote on Saturday. The vote actually stood, yeas 89, nays 89. The correction will now, accordingly, be made in the journal; and a case is immediately presented, agreeably to the 12th rule of the House, for the interposition of the Speaker's vote.

"At this stage of the proceedings, the Speaker was interrupted by

"Mr. Farrelly, who rose and called for a further correction of the journal, stating that he voted in the negative on Saturday last, and his vote appeared not to have been recorded.

"The Speaker decided that it was the right of the gentleman from Pennsylvania to have his vote recorded, if he voted on Saturday last.

"And the correction was accordingly made.

"The vote was then finally announced-yeas 89, nays 90.

"The Speaker stated that he came into the House this morning with the full expectation of giving his vote upon this bill, and prepared to give his reasons for the vote. But, as the question now stood, although it might be in his power to vote agreeably to the letter of the 12th rule, it was, in his opinion, not within the contemplation or intention of the rule that he should vote. The rule contemplated that the Speaker should be allowed to vote whenever he could make a difference in the result-wherever his vote would either pass or prevent the passage of the proposition before the House. Under present circumstances, the Speaker's vote could not in any way affect the decision of the

House. The bill was already lost by the vote as it stood. A vote against the bill would only increase the majority by which it was defeated; while a vote in favor of the bill would only make a tie, and the bill would still be lost. The Speaker, therefore, did not consider himself called upon to give any vote on the subject."

Subsequently the case came up again, on a motion to reconsider, and the bill was passed, ayes 98, nays 92-Mr. Lincoln voting no.

LINCOLN'S AMENDMENT TO GOTT'S RESOLUTION.

On the 16th of January, the celebrated Gott resolution against the slave-trade in the District of Colum-、 bia, was again before the House, a motion to reconsider having been entertained previously, and the consideration of the motion having been postponed to this day. It will be remembered that Mr. Lincoln voted to table the original resolution, not liking its terms. He now, by the courtesy of his colleague, Mr. Wentworth, who had the floor, offered the subjoined resolution as a substitute for the Gott resolution :

"Resolved, 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

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