[Footnote A:  Mr. Van Buren, when a member of the Senate of New-York, voted for the following preamble and resolutions, which passed unanimously:—­Jan. 28th, 1820.  “Whereas the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in the United States, is a subject of deep concern to the people of this state:  and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent its further extension:  and that the constitution of the United States clearly gives Congress the right to require new states, not comprised within the original boundary of the United States, to make the prohibition of slavery a condition of their admission into the Union:  Therefore,

    Resolved, That our Senators be instructed, and our members of
    Congress be requested, to oppose the admission as a state into the
    Union, of any territory not comprised as aforesaid, without making
    the prohibition of slavery therein an indispensible condition of
    admission.”
]

The tenor of Mr. Tallmadge’s speech on the right of petition, and of Mr. Webster’s on the reception of abolition memorials, may be taken as universal exponents of the sentiments of northern statesmen as to the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.

An explicit declaration, that an “overwhelming majority” of the present Congress concede the power to abolish slavery in the District has just been made by Robert Barnwell Rhett, a member of Congress from South Carolina, in a letter published in the Charleston Mercury of Dec. 27, 1837.  The following is an extract: 

“The time has arrived when we must have new guaranties under the constitution, or the Union must be dissolved. Our views of the constitution are not those of the majority.  AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY think that by the constitution, Congress may abolish slavery in the District of Columbia—­may abolish the slave trade between the States; that is, it may prohibit their being carried out of the State in which they are—­and prohibit it in all the territories, Florida among them.  They think, NOT WITHOUT STRONG REASONS, that the power of Congress extends to all of these subjects.”

Direct testimony to show that the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District, has always till recently been universally conceded, is perhaps quite superfluous.  We subjoin, however, the following: 

The Vice-President of the United States in his speech on the Missouri question, quoted above, after contending that the restriction of slavery in Missouri would be unconstitutional, declares, that the power of Congress over slavery in the District “COULD NOT BE QUESTIONED.”  In the speech of Mr. Smyth, of Va., also quoted above, he declares the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District to be “UNDOUBTED.”