On the contrary, God did tell him there was one tree of the
fruit of which he should not eat, upon pain of death." He did not,
however, place himself on the most advanced ground taken by the radical
anti-slavery men. He admitted that, under the Constitution, "the
Southern people were entitled to a Congressional fugitive slave law,"
although he did not approve the fugitive slave law then existing. He
declared also that, if slavery were kept out of the Territories during
their territorial existence, as it should be, and if then the people of
any Territory, having a fair chance and a clear field, should do such an
extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the
actual presence of the institution among them, he saw no alternative but
to admit such a Territory into the Union. He declared further that,
while he should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the
District of Columbia, he would, as a member of Congress, with his present
views, not endeavor to bring on that abolition except on condition that
emancipation be gradual, that it be approved by the decision of a
majority of voters in the District, and that compensation be made to
unwilling owners.
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