Mr. Early, of Georgia, the chairman of the committee, inserted a clause into the bill requiring that all slaves illegally imported "should be forfeited and sold for life for the benefit of the United States." A long debate ensued and was conducted with fiery earnestness from beginning to end. It was urged in support of the above regulation, that nothing else could be done but to sell them; that it would never do to release them in the States where they might be captured, poor, ignorant, and dangerous. It was said by the opponents of the measure, that Congress could not regulate the matter, as the States had the reserved authority to have slavery, and were, therefore, competent to say who should be free and who bond. It was suggested, farther along in the debate, that Congress might order such slaves into such States as prohibited slavery, where they could be bound out for a term of years. After a great many able speeches the House refused to strike out the forfeiture clause by a vote of sixty-three to thirty-six. When the act was called up for final passage, it was amended by inserting a clause imposing a fine of $20,000, upon all persons concerned in fitting out a vessel for the slave-trade; and likewise a fine of $5,000, and forfeiture of the vessel for taking on board any Negro or Mulatto, or any person of color, in any foreign port with the intention of selling them in the United States. During these efforts at restriction the slave population was growing daily. The census of 1810 showed that within a decade the slave population had sprung from 893,041, in 1800, to 1,191,364,--an increase of 33 per cent. The following table exhibits this remarkable fact: CENSUS OF 1810.--SLAVE POPULATION. District of Columbia 5,395 Rhode Island 108 Connecticut 310 Pennsylvania 795 Delaware 4,177 New Jersey 10,851 New York 15,017 Louisiana 34,660 Tennessee 44,535 Kentucky 80,561 Georgia 105,218 Maryland 111,502 North Carolina 168,824 South Carolina 196,365 Virginia 392,518 Mississippi Territory 17,088 Indiana Territory 237 Louisiana Territory 3,011 Illinois Territory 168 Michigan Territory 24 On the 10th of December, 1817, Mississippi applied for admission into the Union with a slave constitution. The provisions relating to slavery dispensed with grand juries in the indictment of slaves, and trial by jury was allowed only in trial of capital cases.