The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-07-06
INQUIRIES CONCERNING MEMBERS OF CON
GRESS

|
Letters have reached us from various States,
inquiring concerning the action of members on
the Nebraska Bill We must be excused from
answering these letters privately. What we
have to say, we prefer to say openly.
One of those letters concerned Mr.. Trout
Wefn the following card from this gentleman,
in the Pittsburg Gazette:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Washington, May % 1854.
SIR: In your paper of the 18th inst. find
the following, viz: "The Representatives from
the Free States named below voted, on Monday
week, to take up the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
with view to urge its immediate PASSAGE
and among the number find my name record
ed.
Believing that you would not willingly mis-
represent me, and that you have consigned me
to "infdmy" more through inadvertence than
knowledge OF the facts have thought prop
er to put you right on that subject.
It is true that voted to 60 into Committee
of the Whole on the day referred to, but ii is
not true that voted to take up the bill" On
the contrary, voted to lay Mr. Richardson's
motion |" to take up" on the table, voted uni
formly against "lsying aside % the several bills
on the calendar to reach the Nebraska bill :;
and when the Nebraska bill was reached, /
voted to lag 1t aside, and against taking it
| up" and voted to restore the calendar to its
original order. In short, during the thirty six
hour session | voted and acted with the oppo-
nents of the bill on all important issues.
The mere vote of going into Committee Of
the Whole cannot, by any fair rule of construc-
ton, be said to favor the passage of the bill,
for the House goes into Committee of the Whole
oil do z,n,,lH bo ho,x -,
order at any time, when 80 in Committee, for
the friends of the bill to move to take it up and
consider it.
have always been and still am opposed to
the bill, and neither the promises Of friends or
the mensces Of enemies can ever induce me
to vote for it in its present shape and none
know this fact better than your own Repre-
sentatives.
These things being so, it is difficult to i'm
agine why you labor so hard to put me in the
wrong.
Ali l claim is to be fairly quoted and placed
right on the record, and my constituents can
then Judge for themselves. This have right
to; l ask nothing more, and since you have
give mine also. NJ c. TROUT.
To the Editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette.
Well-the Nebraska Bill is passed. Mr..
Trout according to his own showing, opposed
it and we have no reason to question his rec
ord, as quoted by himself
The question now, is not, what he did, but
what he intends to do? Is he one of the Anti
Nebraska members who, the Star asserts, disap-
prove Of the true, calm, cogent address by the
real opponents of the billa Will he vote two
hundred and fifty millions of dollars for the
purchase of Cuba, with its half million
slaves Is he, like some others who voted
against the Nebraska Bill, determined now
to become acquiescents Does he, like the
Anti-Nebraska editor of the Maine Age, stand
| by the legislation of 1850, and the Baltimore
platform, which announced it as fnality
VIII he work and vote against any Slave Ter
ritory, and any more slave States9
Let Mr.. Trout's constituents, let the con-
stituents of every other member who voted
against the repeal of the Missouri Compro-
mise, not only understand how he voted on
that question: question now passed-but
how he will vote on other questions involving
still more deeply the rights and interests of
the free States