Excerpt from Speech of Mr. P. P. Barbour, of Virginia: Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, February 10, 1820

These remarks, have been called forth by those, which were made by the member, Who preceded me; I now beg leave to call your attention, to the very question be fore us, and, I will endeavor to subject it, to the severest scrutiny, of which I am capable. The bill before us pro poses to authorize the people of Missouri, to form a con stitution and state government an amendment is offer cd to the bill, which requires of the proposed state, as a sine qua non, to its admission into the Union, that it should by a compact, irrevocable without the consent of Congress, make aprovision, the effect of which would be, to prevent the further introduction of slaves into that state, and to emancipate the children of all those now th ere and, the the question is, whether we have power to impose this condition, which the amendment proposes? The advocates of the amendment; contend that we have the power; on our part, it is contended, that we have not.

The question being thus precisely stated, I will re mind gentlemen, at the threshold of the discussion, that they hold the affirmative; that, therefore, the burden of proof devolves on them I do not mention any apprehension of the weakness of my position on the contrary, such is my confidence in Its strength, that I feel I can with safety assume upon myself, the burden of proof, when it belongs to my opponents; but, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that I shall con31der this, as a gratuity on my part, and not an act of duty.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.