Evening Capital

TWENTY-THREE years ago yesterday President Lincoln signed a bill providing for the liberation of the slaves in the District of Columbia. The bill appropriated money to pay for the slaves, and $100,000 to send them to Liberia. There was a defect in the law and it was declared inoperative. At the same session of Congress a bill was reported appropriating money to purchase the slaves of Maryland, limiting the allowance in the aggregate to an amount equal to $300 per slave. This bill would have passed but for the opposition of Hon. John W. Crisfield of the first congressional district of Maryland, who looked upon the valuation of the slaves as totally inadequate, and Congress refused to increase the amount. Maryland therefore lost several millions of dollars, as shortly afterwards slavery was abolished in all the Southern States.