Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [90] the Territorial government, during its continuance as such. That such Territory should, when legally qualified, be admitted into the Union as a State, with or without Slavery, as its constitution should determine.”

II. That the Congress should not abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction when such places should be within the limits of Slave-labor States, or wherein Slavery might thereafter be established.

III. That the Congress should have no power to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, so long as it should exist in the adjoining States of

John Jay Crittenden.

Maryland and Virginia, nor without the consent of the inhabitants thereof, nor without just compensation made to the owners of slaves who should not consent to the abolishment. That the Congress should not prevent Government officers, sojourning in the District on business, bringing their slaves with them, and taking them with them when they should depart.

IV. That Congress should have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or into Territories where Slavery should be allowed.

V. That the National Government should pay to the owner of a fugitive slave, who might be rescued from the officers of the law when attempting to take him back to bondage, the full value of such “property” so detained and lost; and that the amount should be refunded by the county in which the rescue might occur, that municipality having the power to sue for and recover the amount from the individual actors in the offense.

VI. That no future amendments of the Constitution should be made that might have an effect on the five preceding amendments, or on sections of the Constitution on the subject, already existing; nor should any amendment be made that should give to the Congress the right to abolish or interfere with Slavery in any of the States where it existed by law, or might hereafter be allowed.

In addition to these amendments of the Constitution, Mr. Crittenden offered four resolutions, declaring substantially as follows:--1. That the Fugitive Slave Act was constitutional, and must be enforced, and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who should interfere with its due execution. 2. That all State laws [Personal Liberty Acts] which impeded the execution of the Fugitive Slave Act were null and void; that such laws had been mischievous in producing discord and commotion, and therefore the Congress should respectfully and earnestly recommend the repeal of them, or, by legislation, make them harmless. 3. This resolution referred to the fees of commissioners acting under the Fugitive Slave Law, and the modification of the section which required all citizens, when called upon, to aid the owner in catching his runaway property. 4. This resolution declared that strong measures ought to be adopted by the Congress for the suppression of the African Slave-trade.