Washington

24 feb. 1851

Lysander Spooner Esq.

Sir,

I have had the honor to examine(?) the pamphlet you were so obliging as to send me, in reference to the ____ House laws of ’93 & of lest session, and which I shall had ___ come.

In reply to your inquiring, you will find the remarks I alluded to, in the extract you quote from my speech of 19 August last, made in the debate on the ___ ___ on the 6^th July 1948.

The substance only is ___ of ____, & rather well ___ in this forum. But the ___, and the ground on which it is taken, is ________. I have referred to it in the _____ of this note, in the “Congressional Globe of the 1^st Session 38 Congress” pages 982-3.

The positions assumed you will find to be, ___ slavery in with the creation of statute, or of my Spanish(?) laws. That it is a form of property (in the case of ____ slaves) ____ in Africa. And when brought into the colonies of N.A. simply ____ as property by the common law purtaining in the colony, and ____ at once to on the law _____ that dop(?) of property(?).

Very Respectfully

I have the honor

to be

L M Mason