Mr.Early replied that this would rob the bill of all effect by depriving it of public sanction in the districts whither slaves were likely to be brought.

Those communities, he said, would never tolerate the enforcement of a law which would set fresh Africans at large in their midst.

Mr.Smilie, voicing the sentiment and indicating the dilemma of most of his fellow Pennsylvanians, declared his unconquerable aversion to any measure which would make the federal government a dealer in slaves, but confessed that he had no programme of his own.

Nathaniel Macon, the Speaker, saying that he thought the desire to enact an effective law was universal, agreed with Early that Sloan's amendment would defeat the purpose.

Early himself waxed vehement, prophesying the prompt extermination of any smuggled slaves emancipated in the Southern states.