MR. CLARK. Do not lug them in. --“and coming to questions of legitimate political economy; and especially I am glad that the Senators from Massachusetts have shown a disposition to come to such legitimate ground of legislation.” In the same speech the Kentucky Senator indulged in prophecy. “And if the slaves were liberated, if the theory of the gentlemen from Massachusetts and other Senators were carried into operation, I believe, as certainly as I believe that I am now addressing the Senate of the United States, that there would not be one fifth as much cotton raised in any year in the next five years as has been raised, according to the estimate of the Senator from Rhode Island, for the past year. I do not believe that the man lives, that the child lives, who will ever see, after the universal emancipation of the slaves, under any state of labor, or of care, or of application of labor, either the labor of men or of machinery, that the production of cotton in the United States will reach one half of five millions of bags.”[61] The amendment striking out the tax was adopted,--Yeas 20, Nays 16. * * * * * June 3d, at the next stage of the bill, the question was presented again, when Mr. Sumner renewed his opposition to the tax. In the course of his remarks the following passages occurred. MR. SUMNER. Then, Sir, as I had the honor of saying in the former debate, suppose the vacant seats on the other side of the Chamber were filled, suppose Senators here from the Cotton States, would you think of imposing a tax on cotton without in the same bill imposing a tax on the agricultural products of the North? You would not, I am sure; and, Sir, in their absence, I will not do what I would not do, if I could, were they here. MR. GRIMES. Would you not abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia? MR. SUMNER. I would do that, were they here, and propose it to their faces, and be too happy in the opportunity. June 4th, the debate was continued, when Mr. Sumner spoke as follows. I am admonished by my friend, the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN], not to say anything. I shall say very little. I am in favor of reducing the tax from one cent to half a cent, and I am also in favor of striking out the whole tax. If there must be a tax, I wish the smallest; and if I can have the attention of the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. HOWE], whose remarks were so candid, I should like to put him a question. You heard him say that he would not impose any tax which he knew would really be burdensome on the manufacturers. Other Senators have repeated the same thing.