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  1. Overview: The Road to Civil War
  2. Full Record: The Road to Civil War
  3. Committee:The House of Representatives
  4. Session: 1861-01-14 12:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE_FROM

The Road to Civil War

The House of Representatives

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Document introduced in:

Session 11968: 1861-01-14 12:00:00

Mr. English and Mr. Florence present resolutions on the Crittenden Compromise. The Committee of Thirty-Three reports.

Document View:

Majority Report of the Committee of Thirty-Three

There are 7 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

The Select Committee of One Member from Each State, met at 11 o'clock a.m of Tuesday the 11th day of Dec 1866, and was called to order by the chairman [...] Corwin of Ohio. On motion Mr. Windom of Minnesota was appointed [...]. The Following members of Comm. were present [...], announced [...] their names, by:

Thomas Corwin — of Ohio

John S. Milson — of Virginia

Charles F. Adams — of Massachusetts

Warren Winslow — of North Carolina

James Humphrey — of New York

James H. Campbell — of Pennsylvania

Peter E. Love — of Georgia

Orris S. Ferry — of Connecticut

H. Winter Davis — of Maryland

Christopher Robinson — of Rhode Island

William G. Whitely — of Delaware

Mason W. Tappan — of New Hampshire

John L. N. Stratton — of New Jersey

Francis M. Bristow — of Kentucky

Justin S. Morrill — of Vermont

Thomas A. R. Nelson — of Tennessee

William McKee Dunn — of Indiana

Miles Taylor — of Louisiana

Reuben Davis — of Mississippi

William Kellogg — of Illinois

George S. Houston — of Alabama

Freeman H. Morse — of [...] Maine

John S. Phelps — of [...] Missouri

William A. Howard — of [...] Michigan

Andrew G. Hamilton — of [...] Texas

Cadwallader C. Washburn — of [...] Wisconsin

Samuel R. Curtis — of [...] Iowa

John C. Burch — of [...] California

William Windom — of [...] Minnesota

Lansing Stout — of [...] Oregon

The following members of this Committee [...]

Albert Rust — of [...] Alabama

George S. Hawkins — of [...] Florida

William W. Boyce — of [...] South Carolina

On motion the Comm. ordered that the [...] of the House [...].

On motion of Hon Reuben Davis’ [...] that [...] ordered at 11 o’clock a.m After ordered that [...] chairman [...] of the [...] of the House.

H. Res. 64

Joint Resolutions declaratory of the opinion of Congress in regard to certain questions now agitating the Country, and of measures calculated to reconcile existing differences.

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this committee, the existing discontents among the southern people, and the grow-ing hostility among them to the federal government, are greatly to be regretted; and that whether such discontents and hostility are without just cause or not, any reasonable, proper, and constitutional remedies, and additional and more specific and effectual guarantees of their peculiar rights and interests and recognized by the Constitution, necessary to pre-serve the peace of the country and the perpetuity of the Union, should be promptly and cheerfully granted. [Struck out]

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That all attempts of [on] the part[s] of the legislatures of any of the States to obstruct or hinder the recovery and surrender of fugitive from service or labor are in derogation of the Con-stitution of the United States, inconsistent with the comity and good neighborhood that should prevail among the several States, and dangerous to the peace of the Union.

Resolved, That the several States be respectfully requested to cause their statutes to be revised, with a view to ascertain if any of them are in conflict with or tend to embarrass or hinder the execution of the laws of the United States, made in pursuance of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States for the delivery up of per-sons held to labor of the laws of any State and escaping therefrom; and the Senate and House of Representatives earnestly request that all enactments having such tendency be forthwith repealed, as required by a just sense of constitutional obligations, and by a due regard to the peace of the republic; and the President of the United States is requested to com-municate these resolutions to the governors of the several States, with a request that they will lay the same before the legislatures thereof respectively.

Resolved, That we recognize slavery as now existing in fifteen of the United States by the usages and laws of those States; and we recognize no authority, legally or otherwise, outside of a State where it so exists, to interfere with slaves or slavery in such States, in disregard of the rights of their owners or the peace of society.

Resolved, That we recognize the justice and propriety of a faithful execution of the Constitution, and laws made in pur-suance thereof, on the subject of fugitive slaves, or fugitives from service or labor, and discountenance all mobs or hin-drances to the execution of such laws, and that citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

Resolved, That we recognize no such conflicting elements in its composition, or sufficient cause from any source, for a dissolution of this government; that we were not sent here to destroy, but to sustain and harmonize the institutions of the country, and to see that equal justice is done to all parts of the same; and finally, to perpetuate its existence on terms of equality and justice to all the States.

Resolved, That the faithful observance, on the part of all the States, of all their constitutional obligations to each other and to the federal government is essential to the peace of the country.

Resolved, That each State be requested to revise its statutes, and, if necessary, so to amend the same as to secure, without legislation by congress, to citizens of other States traveling therein the same protection as citizens of such State enjoy; and also to protect the citizens of other States travel-ing or sojourning therein against the popular violence or ille-gal summary punishment, without trial in due form of law for imputed crimes.

Resolved, That each State be also respectfully requested to enact such laws as will prevent and punish any attempt whatever in such State to recognize [arrange] or set on foot the lawless invasion of any other State or Territory.

Resolved, That the President be requested to transmit copies of the foregoing resolutions to the governors of the several States, with a request that they be communicated to their respective legislatures.

Resolved, That as there are no propositions from any quarter to interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia, or in places under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves, or to interfere with the inter-State slave trade, this committee does not deem it necessary to take any action on those subjects.

H. Res. 80

Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa-tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both houses concurring. That the following arti-cle be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution,

viz:

ARTICLE XIII No amendment of this Constitution having

[Struck out in record.]

for its object any interference within the States with the rela-tion between their citizens and those described in section sec-ond of the first article of the Constitution as “all other per-sons,” shall originate with any State that does not recognize that relation within its own limits, or shall be valid without the assent of every one of the States composing the Union.

HR 1008

An Act for the admission of New Mexico into the United States of America.

Whereas by the act of Congress approved on the ninth of Septem-ber, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty, it was provided that the people of New Mexico, when admitted as a State, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may provide at the time of their admission; and whereas the population of said Territory is now suffi-cient to constitute a State government: Therefore—

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of the Territory of New Mexico, in-cluding therein the region called Arizona, be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution of State government by the name of the State of New Mexico; and the said State, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union upon the same footing with the original States in all respects whatever. And said constitution shall be formed by a convention of the people of New Mexico, which shall consist of twice the number of members now by law con-stituting the house of representatives of the Territory; each representative district shall elect two members to said convention for every member now by law elected in such district to the territorial house of representatives; and in such election only those persons shall vote for such delegates as are, by the laws of said Territory now in force, entitled to vote for members of the territorial house of representatives. The election for the convention shall be held on the fifth day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, by the same officers who would hold an election for members of the said house of representatives; and those officers shall conform to the law now in force in said Territory for election for members of said house of representatives in all respects, in holding the election, receiving and rejecting votes, and making the returns of the election for the convention. The convention shall assemble at the city of Santa Fe, on the second day of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and continue its sessions at that place until its deliberations shall be closed. The constitution agreed on by the convention shall be submitted to the people of the Territory for their approval or rejection as a whole; at such election on the constitution, all those and others shall be entitled to vote who are now entitled to vote for members of the house of representatives of said Territory; and such election shall be held by the same officers who conduct, by the present laws, the election for members of the house of representatives of the Territory, at the same place for voting, and in the same manner in all respects; and such election shall be held on the fourth day of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and the re-turns thereof made to the governor of the Territory, who shall forthwith sum up and declare the result, and shall send a cer-tificate thereof, together with a copy of the constitution, to the President of the United States.

The said State shall be entitled to one member of the House of Representatives of the

United States of America, held until the apportionment under the next census.

HR 1009

An Act Amendatory of the act for the rendition of fugitives from labor.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person arrested under the laws of Congress for the delivery up of fugitives from labor shall be produced be-fore a court, judge, or commissioner, mentioned in the law approved the eighteenth of September, eighteen hundred and fifty, for the State or Territory wherein the arrest may be made; and upon such production of the person, together with the proofs mentioned in the sixth or the tenth section of said act, such court, judge, or commissioner, shall proceed to hear and consider the same publicly; and if such court, judge, or commissioner is of opinion that the person arrested owes labor or service to the claimant according to the laws of any other State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, and escaped therefrom, the court, judge, or commissioner, shall make out and deliver to the claimant, or his agent, a certificate stating those facts; and if the said fugitive shall, upon the decision of the court, judge, or commissioner, being made known to him, aver that he is free, and does not owe service or labor according to the law of the State or Territory to which he is to be returned, such averment shall be entered upon the certifi-cate, and the fugitive shall be delivered by the court, judge, or commissioner, to the marshal, to be by him taken and deliv-ered to the marshal of the United States for the State or dis-trict from which the fugitive is ascertained to have fled, who shall produce said fugitive before one of the judges of the circuit court of the United States for the last-mentioned State or district, whose duty it shall be, if said alleged fugitive shall persist in his averment, forthwith, or at the next term of the circuit court, to cause a jury to be impanelled and sworn to try the issue whether such fugitive owes labor or service to the person by or on behalf of whom he is claimed, and a true verdict to give according to the evidence, on which trial the fugitive shall be entitled to the aid of counsel and to process for procuring evidence at the cost of the United States; and upon such finding the judge shall render judgment and cause said fugitive to be delivered to the claimant, or retired to the place where he was arrested at the expense of the United States, according to the find-ing of the jury; and if the judge or court be not satis-fied with the verdict, he may cause another jury to be impanelled forthwith, whose verdict shall be final. And it shall be the duty of said marshal so delivering said alleged fugitive to take from the marshal of the State from which said fugitive is alleged to have escaped a certificate ac-knowledging that said alleged fugitive had been delivered to him, giving a minute description of said alleged fugitive, which certificate shall be authenticated by the United States district judge, or a commissioner of a United States court for said State from which said fugitive is alleged to have escaped a certificate ac-knowledging that said alleged fugitive had been delivered to him, giving a minute description of said alleged fugitive, which certificate shall be authenticated by the United States district judge, or a commissioner of a United States court for said State from which said fugitive was alleged to have escaped, which certificate shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the United States district court for the State or district in which said alleged fugitive was seized, within sixty days from the date of the arrest of said fugitive; and should said marshal fail to comply with the provisions of this act, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of one thousand dollars and imprisoned for six months, and until his said fine is paid.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no citizen of any State shall be compelled to aid the marshal or owner of any fugitive in the capture or detention of such fugitive, un-less when force is employed or reasonably apprehended to prevent such capture or detention, too powerful to be resisted by the marshal or owner; and the fees of the commissioners appointed under the act of eighteenth September, eighteen hundred and fifty, shall be ten dollars for every case heard and determined by such commissioner.

HR 1110 An Act Amendatory of the act for the rendition of fugitives from justice.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person charged, by indictment or other satisfactory evidence, in any State, with treason, felony, or other crime, committed within the jurisdiction of such State, who shall flee or shall have fled from justice and be found in another State, shall, on the demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled upon the district judge of the United States of the district in which he may be found, be arrested and brought before such judge, who, on being satisfied that he is the person charged, and that he was within the jurisdiction of such State at the time such crime was committed, of which such charge shall be prima facie evidence, shall deliver him up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime; and if any question of law shall arise during such examination, it may be taken on exceptions by writ of error to the circuit court.

Decisions yet to be taken

  • Majority Report of the Committee of Thirty-Three (introduced on 1861-01-14 12:00:00 - CREATE_FROM - e827950) [This document]
  • Motion to Amend Motion to Amend Motion to Postpone Majority Report (introduced on 1861-02-26 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e837450)
    • Point of Order: Motion to Postpone in Order (introduced on 1861-02-26 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e837704)
  • Motion for the Yeas and Nays on Motion to Postpone Other Resolutions from the Committee of Thirty-Three (introduced on 1861-02-26 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e845041)
  • Motion for the Yeas and Nays on Motion to Postpone Other Resolutions from the Committee of Thirty-Three (introduced on 1861-02-26 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e845403)

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