would leave the question between the Missouri prohibition and the same
slave-holding claims entirely unaffected.' I am of a very different
opinion. But I am dealing now with the report of the Senator from
Illinois, as chairman of the committee, and I show, beyond all
controversy, that that report gave no countenance whatever to the
doctrine of repeal by supersedure.

Well, sir, the bill reported by the committee was printed in the
Washington Sentinel on Saturday, January 7th. It contained twenty
sections; no more, no less. It contained no provisions in respect to
slavery, except those in the Utah and New Mexico bills. It left those
provisions to speak for themselves. This was in harmony with the report
of the committee. On the 10th of January--on Tuesday--the act appeared
again in the Sentinel; but it had grown longer during the interval.
It appeared now with twenty-one sections. There was a statement in
the paper that the twenty-first section had been omitted by a clerical
error.

But, sir, it is a singular fact that this twenty-first section is
entirely out of harmony with the committee's report. It undertakes to
determine the effect of the provision in the Utah and New Mexico bills.
It declares, among other things, that all questions pertaining
to slavery in the Territories, and in the new States to be formed
therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing
therein, through their appropriate representatives. This provision, in
effect, repealed the Missouri prohibition, which the committee, in their
report, declared ought not to be done. Is it possible, sir, that this
was a mere clerical error? May it not be that this twenty-first section
was the fruit of some Sunday work, between Saturday the 7th, and Tuesday
the 10th?