“I have just read the speech again in pamphlet form. Your able efforts in procuring the passage of this bill add another link to the golden chain by which you are bound to the good people of my native State, and, as I believe, to posterity.” Orestes A. Brownson, able and indefatigable with his pen, recognized the idea of ransom. “I thank you for your able speech on the Ransom of the Slaves in the District of Columbia. The term _Ransom_ is happily chosen, and meets many scruples.” Frederick Douglass wrote with the effusion of a freeman once a slave. “I want only a moment of your time to give you my thanks for your great speech in the Senate on the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. I trust I am not dreaming; but the events taking place seem like a dream. If Slavery is really dead in the District of Columbia, and merely waiting for the ceremony of ‘Dust to dust’ by the President, to you more than to any other American statesman belongs the honor of this great triumph of justice, liberty, and sound policy. I rejoice for my freed brothers,--and, Sir, I rejoice for you. You have lived to strike down in Washington the power that lifted the bludgeon against your own free voice. I take nothing from the good and brave men who have coöperated with you. There is, or ought to be, a head to every body; and whether you will or not, the slaveholder and the slave look to you as the best embodiment of the Antislavery idea now in the councils of the nation. May God sustain you!” The speech, while addressed to the particular circumstances of the District of Columbia, presented considerations applicable to Slavery everywhere. It was a blow at Slavery outside the District, as well as inside, while it illustrated the power and duty of Congress over this subject. SPEECH. Before Mr. Sumner began, Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, read the following interrogatories. “It may be that the speech which the honorable Senator intends to pronounce may cover the points which I have embodied in some questions to him. If not, I should take it very kindly, if the honorable Senator will answer the questions. I will read them. “1. Are slaves in the District of Columbia, and in the slaveholding States, legally the subject of property? “2. Has Congress the power to deprive the owners of lands and houses and lots situated in the District of Columbia of that property? “3. What law or laws give the owners of real estate in the District of Columbia their right to such property? Inform us where such law or laws may be found and read.