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Mr. English and Mr. Florence present resolutions on the Crittenden Compromise. The Committee of Thirty-Three reports.
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.
provisught to be madeResolved by lawwiout delay, for takiense of submitting to ir vothe Senate the follresolutions as basis forinal and pan settlement of those disputesnow disturb the peacHouse of the urytatene existence of the Union:
JOINT RESOLUTIONSosing ctainmementRepresentatives to the C of the United States.
Whereas seriouslarming dissensions have arisen between the nthrn andouthern Sta of America in Congress assembled, That all attempts concerning the parightssecurity of the right Legislaveholding Statures, and especially theiin the common territor of any of the United States; and whereas it is eminently desirable and propat thosdissensions, which now threatenvery existenceisermanenquieted settled by constitutional provisions w to obstruct or hich shall do equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore to the people that peace and good will which ought to prevail betweenrecovery all the citizens of the united States: Therefosurre-- by the Senate and Houser of Representafugitives of the United States of Amfrom servica in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both houses concurring, That the or labor, are following articles be, and are hereby, proposed and submitted as amendments toogation of the ConstitutionL of the United States, which shall be valid, to all intentsinconsistent with the comity and purposes, as part of said Constitution, when ratified by conventions of three-fourths ofgood neighborhood that should prevail among thes several States.
Article 1. In all, the territory of the United States now held or hereafter acquired, situate north ofand dangerous to the southern boundarypeace of Kansas and the northern boundary of Now Mexico, slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited, while such territory shaUnion.
Resolved, That the several States be respectfully remain under territorial government. In all territory south of said line, now held or hereafter acquired, slavery of-quested to cause the African race is hereby recogniz ed air statutes existing, and shall not be interferrevised, with by Congress, but shall be protec-ted as property by all the departmentsa view to ascertain if any of them territorial government during its continuance; and when any Territory, north or south of said line,flict within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the populationd requisite for a member of Congrearrass, according to the then federal ratio of representa hinder the execution of the peoplelaws of the United States, it shall, ifmade its form of government be republican, be admitted intorsuance of the Union on an equal footing withsecond section of the fouriginal States, with or without slavery, asarticle of the cConstitution of such newthe United State may provide.
Article 2. Congress shall have no powefor to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limitsry up of States that permit the holding of slaves.
Article 3. Congress shall have no powerheld to labolish slavery withinby the District of Columbia, so long as it exists in the adjoininglaws of any States of Virginia and Maryland, or eiescaping ther, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit officer; and the Senate and House of Representatives of the federal government or members of Congress, whose dutiesestly requirest them to be in said District, from bringing with them their slat all enactments haves, and holding them as such, during the time their duties may require them to remain endency be forthere, and afterwards taking them from the District.
Article 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of repealed, as required by a just slavense ofrom cone State to another, or to a Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be held, whether that transportation bestitutional obligations, and by land; navigable rivers, or bya due regard for the spea.
Article 5. That, in addition toof the provisions of the third paragraph of the secoR Republic and section of the fourth article of the ConstitutionPresident of the United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, an is requested it shall be its duty so to provide, thcommunicate the United States shall pay-tse reso-luttions to the owner who shall apply for itGGovernors of the full value of his fugitive slave, in all casral States, when the marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive, was prevented from so doing b-y violence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was rescued by ith a re-quest that they will lay the same beforce, and the ownerLLegislatures thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for th of respectively.
Resolved, That we recovery of his fugitivgnize slave, under the said clause of the Constitution and the laws made iry as now existing in fifteen pursuance thereof. And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the powerby the usages and laws of tho reimburse themselves by imposingStates; and collecting a tax on the county we recognize no author city in which said violence, intimidation,, legally or rescue was committedother-wise, equal in amount to the sum paid by them,- with the of a State where addition of intere so exists, and the costs of collection; and the said county or city, aftere wit has paid said amount to the Unitedh slaves or slavery in such States, may, for its indemnity, sue anin disregard recover from the wrong-doers, or rescuers, by whomrights of their owner was prevented fromor the recoverypeace of his fugitive slaS Society.
Resolved, in like manner as the owner himself might have suedThat we recognize the justice and recovered.
Article 6. No future amendmentpropriety of a faithful execution of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles, nor, and laws made in pursuance the third paragraph reof, on the second subjection of the fugirst article of the Constitutionve slaves, nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth art-fu-gitives from servicle of said Constitutionr labor, and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorizediscountenance all mobs or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery ihindrances to the execution any of the States by whosesuch laws it is or may be allowed or permitted.
Article 7. Sec. 1. The elective franchise and the right to hold office, whether federal,-, and that citi-zens of each State, territorial, or municipal, shall not be exercised by persons who are, in whole or in part, of the African race.
Sec. 2. The Unitled States shto all thave power to acquire from time to time districts of country in Africarivileges and South America, for the coloimmunization, at expense of the federal treasury, of such free negroes and mulattoes ascitizens in the several States may wish to have remo ved from their limits, and from the District of Columbia, and.
Resolved, That we recognize no such other places as may be under the jurisdicconflicting elements in its composition of Congress.
And whereas, also, besides thoseor sufficient causes of dissension embraced in the from any source, foregoing amendments proposed to the Constit dissolution of the United States, there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be remedied by its legislative power; and wGis Government; that we were not sent hereas it is the to desire of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to removtroy, but to sustain and harmonize all just cause for the popular disconstent and agitau-tion which now disturb the peace of the country, and threateno see that equal justability ofice its institutidons: Therefore--
1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representativeo all parts of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves are in strict pursua-same; and finally, to perpetuate its ex-istence of the plain and mandatory provisionterns of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as validequality and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court ofjustice to all the United States; that the slaveholding St .
Resolved, Thates are entitled to a faithful observance and execution, on the part of all those laws, and thatStates, of all they ought not to be repeir constitutionaled or so modified or changed abligations to impair each otheir efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the punishmFG,he Federal Government, is essential tof those who attempt, by rescupeace of the country.
Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to enforce the Federal laws, protect the Federal property, and preserve the Union of these States.
Resolave or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of said laws.
2. That all State laws which conflict with the fugitive slave acts, or any other constd, That each State be requested to revise its statutes, and, if necessary, so to amend the same as to secure, withoutional acts of C legislation by Congress, or which in to citizens of otheir operation impede, hinder, or delayStates traveling therein, the free course and due exsame protecution of anys citizens of said acts, are nulluch State enjoy; and void by the plainalso to provisions of the Constitution oftect the United States. Yet citizens of othoser State laws, void as they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences which have obstructed due admling or sojourning therein againistration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress popular violence or illegal summary punishment, without trial in due form of law, there,fore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem it improper, mputed crimes.
Resolved, That each State be also respectfully and earnrequestly, to recommend the repeal of those laws to the several States which have enacted them, or such legislative correctionsor explanations of them a-s mayws as will prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.
3. That the act of the eighteenth of September, eighand punish any attempt whateven hundred and fifty, commonly called the fugitive slave law, ought to be so amended as to make the feeG of the commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount, inuch State to recognize or set on foot the cases decided by him, whether hilaw-less decinvasion be in favor of or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the lasLclue of fifth section of said act, which authorizesany other State or Territory.
Resolved, That the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive to summon to his aidPresident be requested to transmit copies of the posse comitatus, and which declares it to beduty of all good citizeforegoing resolutions to assist him in its execu,ught to be someed as to expressly limitauthority and dutythe Governors of to casin which ere shall be resistance, or daerresistancerescue.
4. That the laws forsuppression of the African,and especially ose prohibitingeveral States, with a request the importation of slaves into the United States ought toy be made effectual, and oughtcommunicated to behroughlyexecud,dll furtheir enaments necessary toends ought to be promptly maderespective Legislatures.