The question being taken, it was decided as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Hendricks, McKean—2.
Nays—Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Crittenden, Cuthbert, Davis, Ewing of Illinois, Ewing of Ohio, Goldsborough, Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Knight, Leigh, Linn, Nicholas, Niles, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbins, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Walker, Wall, Webster, White, Wright—37.
Mr. McKean moved to amend the motion by inserting between the first word “that” and the words “the prayer of the petition be rejected,” the words “inexpedient to legislate on the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia, and that.”
On this question he called for the yeas and nays, which were ordered.
The question was then taken, and decided as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Ewing of Ohio, Hendricks, McKean—3.
Nays—Messrs. Benton, Black, Brown, Buchanan, Clay, Crittenden, Cuthbert, Davis, Ewing of Illinois, Goldsborough, Grundy, Hill, Hubbard, King of Alabama, King of Georgia, Knight, Leigh, Linn, Moore, Niles, Nicholas, Preston, Porter, Robbins, Robinson, Ruggles, Shepley, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Walker, Wall, Webster, White, Wright—36.
The question being on the original motion of Mr. Buchanan, “that the prayer of the petition be rejected”—
Mr. McKean said that, in offering the amendments which he had proposed, he had discharged his conscience of an imperative duty. It had pleased the Senate to reject these amendments, and, as he was thus deprived of the power of making the motion more palatable, all that he could now do was to vote for the proposition of his colleague.