A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention: For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861Chittenden, L. E. (Lucius Eugene)
History
A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention: For Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Held at Washington, D.C., in February, A.D. 1861
Chittenden, L. E. (Lucius Eugene)
Conference Convention (1861 : Washington, D.C.); United States -- Politics and government -- 1857-1861
The PRESIDENT:--The question recurs upon the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Maryland, to insert the word "present" before the word
territories, in the first line and the fifth line of the propositions
of the amendment to the Constitution submitted by the majority of the
committee.
The amendment was adopted without a count of the yeas and nays, and
the first section of the majority report, after the adoption of the
amendment, is as follows:
ARTICLE 1. In all the present territory of the United
States, not embraced within the limits of the Cherokee
treaty grant, north of a line from east to west on the
parallel of 36 deg. 30' north latitude, involuntary servitude,
except in punishment of crime, is prohibited whilst it shall
be under a Territorial Government; and in all the present
territory south of said line, the status of persons owing
service or labor as it now exists, shall not be changed by
law while such territory shall be under a Territorial
Government; and neither Congress nor the Territorial
Government shall have power to hinder or prevent the taking
to said territory of persons held to labor or involuntary
service, within the United States, according to the laws or
usages of the State from which such persons may be taken,
nor to impair the rights arising out of said relations,
which shall be subject to judicial cognizance in the Federal
Courts, according to the common law; and when any territory
north or south of said line, within such boundary as
Congress may prescribe, shall contain a population required
for a member of Congress, according to the then Federal
ratio of representation, it shall, if its form of government
be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal
footing with the original States, with or without
involuntary service or labor, as the Constitution of such
new State may provide.
Mr. ROMAN:--I move that when this Conference adjourn, it adjourn to
meet at seven o'clock this evening.
Mr. CHITTENDEN:--I move an adjournment of the Conference.
Mr. ROMAN:--Is not my motion first in order?
The PRESIDENT:--The question is on the motion of the gentleman from
Vermont.
The motion to adjourn was put and carried.
TWELFTH DAY.
WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, _February 19th, 1861._
The Conference was called to order by the PRESIDENT at eleven o'clock.
The proceedings were opened with prayer.
The Journal was read by Assistant Secretary PULESTON, and, after
sundry amendments, was approved.
Mr. SUMMERS:--The Committee on Credentials have received and
considered the credentials of Mr. FRANCIS GRANGER, of New York,
appointed to fill a vacancy in the delegation from that State,
occasioned by the resignation of Mr. ADDISON GARDINER. They are
satisfactory, and if no objection is made, the list of delegates from
New York will be altered accordingly.
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