that is, the support and per- petuation of the African* slave trade. That is the real question between the ministers of America and Great Britain—whether slave-trading pirates, by merely hoisting the American flag, shall be saved from capture. I must say, that if it be true that the interference of our Minister in France (General Cass) was the occasion of the refusal by France to ratify the Quintuple treaty (for the suppression of the African slave trade), I do not hold that pro- cedure in much admu-ation; it comes too near success in doing wrong."
Now it should be recollected, that this denial of the right of visitation, and the interference of General Cass, were both sustained by the Whig party, through Mr. Webster then Secretary of State.
Mr. Adams astounded the southern members, by in- sisting, in a formal argument, that in case of war, or insur- rection, the General Government had a discretionary power to manumit the slaves, and also by his audacity in asking leave to propose the following amendment to the Constitution, to be submitted by Congress to the several States, viz. : " From and after the 4th day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout the United Slates, no hereditary slavery, but on and after that day ev^ry child born in the United States shall he free.'"
A bill having been brought in, giving the right of suf- frage " to all free white males," of the age of twenty- one years, and who had resided a certain time within the limits of Alexandria, he moved to strike out the word white, and supported his motion in an able and sarcastic speech. He asked " If this principle of universal suffrage was to be adopted, admitting paupers, idiots, lunatics, and REVIEW OF TUE MEXICAN WAR. 299 the refuse of the prisons, why a man Whose skin is not white, but who performs all the duties of a good citizen, a good husband, a good father, and a kind neighbor, should not be entitled to vote as well as a white man ?