" Finally, January 22, by a vote of 90 to
25, a tax bill was ordered to be brought in.[85] One was reported on the
27th.[86] Every sort of opposition was resorted to. On the one hand,
attempts were made to amend it so as to prohibit importation after 1807,
and to prevent importation into the Territories; on the other hand,
attempts were made to recommit and postpone the measure. It finally got
a third reading, but was recommitted to a select committee, and
disappeared until February 14.[87] Being then amended so as to provide
for the forfeiture of smuggled cargoes, but saying nothing as to the
disposition of the slaves, it was again relegated to a committee, after
a vote of 69 to 42 against postponement.[88] On March 4 it appeared
again, and a motion to reject it was lost. Finally, in the midst of the
war scare and the question of non-importation of British goods, the bill
was apparently forgotten, and the last attempt to tax imported slaves
ended, like the others, in failure.
54. ~Key-Note of the Period.~ One of the last acts of this period
strikes again the key-note which sounded throughout the whole of it. On
February 20, 1806, after considerable opposition, a bill to prohibit
trade with San Domingo passed the Senate.[89] In the House it was
charged by one side that the measure was dictated by France, and by the
other, that it originated in the fear of countenancing Negro
insurrection.
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