ernment under its plighted faith is necessarily
gone, which this government has placed upon
its statute book, which the President and his
cabinet have recognized.
Government may, unless there is an express
provision, compensate after private property is
taken as well as before Unless there is an ex-
press constitutional provision requiring the
payment to precede the taking of the proper-
ty, the government may regulate by statute
law whether that compensation shall antedate
or succeed the taking of the property. At
some period—for I do not have any great as-
surance that during this excitement there will
be any appropriation, if at any time; but if
we can trust, and I do trust, in the returning
sense of justice of this great American people,
when these days of civil war shall have passed
away, when men's feelings become less em-
bittered, when reconciliation takes place,
when we review the action which may have
been taken in the beat of party strife, when
we see that the faith of the government has
• been plighted, and that this property, as it is
asserted, has been destroyed for the general
good—in some succeeding generation the
Congress or the legislature, or both acting
together, or some governmental board will
undertake to make a provision to a certain
extent for this property which is taken at
this lime and in this mode, to satisfy, it is
said, the demands of the country.
The amendment which I propose is simply
to meet this view. Abolish the institution of
slavery; turn the negroe's loose without a re-
cord to whom they belong, how many were
in the State, whether they belong to a minor
or widow, or to an individual of adult age,
without knowing in what county they were,
or by what title they were held, whether for
a term of years or as slaves for life; and then
if Congress should make this appropriation,
or if the legislature should undertake at some
future day to make provision to pay in some
.way the heirs of these owners, where will
your evidence be? I presume the evidence
in this case would be very much like the evi-
dence alluded to by the gentleman from
Howard, under the act of 1715, to establish
the right of freedom under that act.
Mr. SANDS. With a difference of one hun-
dred and fifty years in point of time"; the
difference between taking evidence touching
a fact a year old, and touching another fact
two hundred years old.
Mr. CLARKE, In point of time there is a
variation; but we have not got the appropri-
ation yet, and it may be that one hundred
and fifty years will elapse before we get it.—
We do not know what time it may be, 1
may be twenty years. I think it is very
probable that it will be one hundred and
fifty years; because really I am not acting
under any firm belief of any impression being
made so long as the present condition of
things continues. It is only a hope I has |
upon the returning sense of justice of this
great American people, which, when it will,
can review its action, and seeing the plight-
ed faith of the executive and of Congress
can provide compensation; it is only a
hope based upon that belief that the Ameri-
can people will do justice at some period,
which encourages me to go to this extent ;
together with the sense of the duty and obli-
gation which I feel to rest' upon me to pre-
serve to my constituents, so far as I can, the
evidence which will enable them, if that re-
turning sense of justice ever does lead Con-
gress to make such an appropriation, or
should the State ever make such an appropri-
ation, to reap the fruits and benefits of that
act.
All that I propose to do is to have a census
taken, not at the expense of the whole people,
not at the expense of my friends from Wash-
ington and Allegany, to preserve the census
of Prince George's, where there are so many
slaves, but that the legislature shall provide
that the census shall be taken at the expense
of each county, so that the citizens who are
to be benefited shall pay for the census. 1
propose that the census shall embrace the
slaves in the State on January 1st, 1861, just
at the outset of the rebellion, and that it
shall also embrace those in the State at the
time of the adoption of the constitution, so
that hereafter, if there should be any ques-
tion whether the general government or the
State ought or ought not to pay in par-
ticular cases, we may have the data before us
and may know bow to decide it.
1 propose further that when this census is
obtained, it shall be preserved among the
records of the counties; that the legislature
shall by law provide for preserving the evi-
dence of title. And in order that the mere
statement of the party to the census officer
may not be conclusive, when the owner shall
return so many slaves, the legislature shall
by law require such and such evidence and
proof to be furnished of the title of the party
to these negroes; that this shall then be record-
ed in the counties, just as the title to real es-
tate is recorded, and shall remain there.—
Then if at any time, in consequence of an
appropriation, this evidence should be re-
quired, the parties entitled to it would be en-
abled to procure it.
, Unless some such provision as this is
adopted, if ever an appropriation should be
made, we should be involved in the expense
of proving title, perhaps after the death of
the parties, when there were no accounts
showing when the negroes went away, and
when all this evidence is lost, depriving
many parties of the benefits of the appropria-
tion; or even if they shall finally establish
the facts, they would in the end derive no
benefit from it. We know what has taken
place with regard to the French spoliations.
The claims were admitted to be good; and |
