Congressional Proceedings
Evening Star, Washington, DC, January 17, 1856
In the House yesterday, after we went to press, other gentlemen explained the reasons actuating them in voting on Mr. Thorington’s resolution, viz : Messrs. Purviance, Sherman, Dunn, Fuller of Pa., Stanton, Thorington, Wade, and Washburn of Me.
Some debate took place between Messrs. Stephens, Zollicoffer, and Richardson, in the course of which the latter took occasion to say that while he believed that, according to the letter of the constitution, Congress had the power to exclude slavery from the territory of the United States, yet that it was unjust and wrong, and in violation of the spirit of that instrument, to do so, as the constitution was made for the purpose of securing equality among the States and to the people of the whole country.
