Mr. Madison, as you will see when you come to read his speech on the subject, declared that the Union could not have been formed if it had been believed that the seat of Government was to be located upon the Susquehanna river, which was one of this places proposed, or on the Del aware river, which was another. The place could not be agreed upon. Congress ha separated, and th prospect of agreement on these subjects seeme to be entirely hopeless. Finall some of the leading statesmen at the time with great difficulty got some of the members together and agreed that a.compromise should be made by fixing the seat of Government here and funding the debt. The North yielded its side of the contrOVersy by bringing the seat of Government down to the Potomac, and the South have u its opposition to the funding of the det. the two things were brought together and the controversy was settled in that way; and although we have receded a great. while from that period, it seems to me to be a want of good faith now to tear up that agreement. I think itought to remain as they fixed it in settling the great and dangerous controversy which existed at that time. I feel that this is the right. of the Union men in Alexan dria and all that part of the District which has been turned over into the State of Virginia, who have been persecuted in person and property b a kind of vindictive process beyond what trey would have been if they had never belonged to this District. This is their wish. They ook toms as the ark of their safety, as the jurisdiction to which they have always properly belonged; their hearts are with us, and always have been with us. They were turned away by this unauthorized act, that was get up undoubtedly in aid of this great rebellion that it so much favored, bringing the walls of your Capitol under the guns of a hostile State. Mr. President, 1 do not wish to rolong the argument on this subject. Indee, I do not know that I could throw any additional light. on it ifI went into more detail, because all the facts pertaining to the histor of the Government in this respect are understood by every Senator present. We are allaware of the l icy that dictated this mutilation and division. It was done at a time when the State of old Virginia was most potential in Congress. You cannot find an instance in the history of the Government for 20 years prior to that time where the will of that State had ever failed in either branch of conress. Whatever she demanded was a law. S edemanded this, and the subservient. statesmen of that day yielded to her imperious demand without the authority of the Constitution. They ought not to have done it. The people being wronged and out raged and their rights trampled on by means of it, appeal to us now, in better times, to rec tify the mistake that was made at that period. I hope we shall do it.