“MR. COLFAX. Not being a lawyer, and not understanding, therefore, all the rules which govern the proceedings of the courts, I, however, say that I am informed by those who are lawyers that the rules of evidence in force in the States respectively are adopted by the United States courts in such States. And the gentleman from Massachusetts, who is a lawyer, ought to have known the fact, and, knowing it, ought not to have asked me such a question. “MR. DAWES. The gentleman from Indiana has not quite answered me.”[210] Mr. Colfax moved to lay the bill on the table, which was ordered, May 21st: Yeas 82, Nays 45. So the bill was lost. In the next Congress it was again introduced by Mr. Sumner. * * * * * A letter from William C. Nell, of Boston, well known for his volume on “The Colored Patriots of the Revolution,” shows how a single individual suffered under this discrimination of color. “Please accept my sincere thanks for your efforts to remove the disqualification of color in mail-carrying. “Mr. Phillips conveyed to me the substance of information imparted by you, to wit, the postponement of the bill in the House. To me the disappointment is heavy, presuming said action to be a finality, at least for this session, and the next one is not likely to be as liberal. “I never had more desire or more need of chances to earn money than now, and never were my opportunities so small.” The existing law was general, and Mr. Nell could not be a letter-carrier in Boston. RANSOM OF SLAVES AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON THE BILL FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, MARCH 31, 1862. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. ST. PAUL, _2 Corinthians_, XII. 15. Ornatus sacramentorum redemtio captivorum est. ST. AMBROSE, _De Officiis Ministrorum_, Lib. II. Cap. 28. Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems. MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, Book XII. 424. Let me observe, fellow-citizens, that this enterprise of unparalleled magnitude and importance, the extirpation of Slavery from the face of the earth, of which the Abolition of Slavery throughout this Union is the principal branch, and the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia a minute ramification, is an effort to purify and redeem the human race from the sorest evil with which they are afflicted in the mortal stage of their existence.--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, _Speech at Bridgewater, Mass., November 6, 1844_. * * * * *