April 19th, Mr. Sumner moved that the Senate proceed with the bill, and this motion was agreed to,--Yeas 26, Nays 10. The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, considered the bill, and it was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and was read the third time, without a division, and without a word of debate. It only remained to put the question on its final passage, when Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, remarked that he was “not prepared to see this bill passed just now”; he had “supposed the Senator from Massachusetts was to address the Senate upon it.” Mr. Sumner had “not the least desire to address the Senate”; he did “not wish to say a word upon it.” Mr. Foster “did not apprehend that the bill was to be put on its passage at the present time, and expected to say something upon it.” Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, remarked, “We may as well pass the bill now.” The Chair put the question, and the yeas and nays were ordered, when Mr. Hendricks spoke against the bill. He said: “It may be that our fathers erred in the agreement among themselves that a fugitive slave should be returned; it may be that it was a mistake on their part; but while their agreement stands, and while my oath is upon my conscience to respect that agreement, I cannot vote for a bill like this.” The debate was opened. Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, had “some doubt about the expediency of now repealing the law of 1793.” Mr. Sumner said that the Committee “felt that we had better make a clean thing, purify the country, and lift it before foreign nations, which could be only by washing our hands of Slavery.” Mr. Sherman was “not guided exactly by the motives of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts”; he would “give to the people of the Southern States, the few that are left who have the right to enforce the Constitution against us, their constitutional rights fully and fairly.” According to him, “the law of 1793 was framed by the men who framed the Constitution,” and “has been declared to be valid and constitutional by every tribunal that has acted upon it.” Mr. Sumner replied, that “it was declared to be unconstitutional in certain particulars by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Prigg case, and it is among the records in the life of Judge Story, who gave the opinion in that case, that the fatal objection of a failure to give a trial by jury in a case of human freedom was never argued before the Court, and that he personally considered it an open question.” Mr. Sherman preferred “not to repeal the law of 1793, about the constitutionality of which he had little doubt.” Mr. Sumner replied, “Then the Senator has little doubt that under the Constitution a human being may be given over to Slavery without a trial by jury.” Mr. Sherman “would not