After much discussion in Congress, a bill authorizing the President to ask for and accept from their owners such a number of able-bodied negro men as he might deem expedient subsequently passed the House, but was lost in the Senate by one vote. The Senators of Virginia opposed the measure so strongly that only legislative instruction could secure their support of it. Their Legislature did so instruct them, and they voted for it. Finally, the bill passed, with an amendment providing that not more than twenty-five per cent. of the male slaves between the ages of eighteen and forty-five should be called out. But the passage of the act had been so long delayed that the opportunity was lost. There did not remain time enough to obtain any result from its provisions.
Footnote 194:[ (return) ]
Article I, section 10, paragraph 3.
Footnote 195:[ (return) ]
Ibid., section 9, Part XIII.
Footnote 196:[ (return) ]
Ibid., section 9, paragraph 16.
Footnote 197:[ (return) ]
Section 8, paragraph 15.
Footnote 198:[ (return) ]
Ibid., paragraph 16.
APPENDIXES.
[Transcriber's Note: There is no Appendix A.]