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 order, 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"The House will remember that the vote on the passage of the bill for the relief of the heirs of Antonio Pacheco, was originally made up by the Clerk, yeas 90, nays 89; and this record having been handed to the Speaker, and by him announced to the House, the Speaker proceeded to make some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-examination 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 Columbia, 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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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 thereby impaired.

"SEC. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on or after the first 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 and 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 provisions for enforcing obedience to this section, on the part of both masters and apprentices.

"SEC. 4. That all persons now within said 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 and legal representatives. Provided, That any 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