Mr. Speaker,
While I oppose this legislation, and find it needless to rob an illustrious city such as Philadelphia of its importance to our union, I see that nearly all those in this Congress are keen on supporting a move.
I propose the following amendment to the Gentleman from Kentucky’s amendment:
I believe it is an important step to maintain the balance between free and slave states within our union; with the ascension of Kentucky, and the almost guaranteed ascension of Cumberland and Vermont into our union, we currently see an imbalanced addition of 2 territories with legal slavery and only one without; let us remedy this.
I do not believe any slavery advocates have reason to object to such an amendment, seeing as the district will be primary urban in nature and not reliant on enslaved labour for its economy.
I yield.
