[
308]
by reason of sickness.
The negative vote on this grave proposition was made up of the twenty Republicans aforesaid, and
Mr. Pugh.
Neither
Mr. Crittenden, nor either of the
Maryland Senators, had the courage to oppose a proposition whereby
Mr. Jefferson Davis and his confederates were permitted to brand, by an imposing vote of the Senate, not only the Republicans, but the Douglas or anti-Lecompton Democrats also — composing an immense majority of the people of the
Free States--in effect, as unfaithful to their Constitutional obligations, and making war on the guaranteed rights of the
South.
Mr. Clingman, of
North Carolina, proposed the following:
Resolved, That the existing, condition of the Territories of the United States does not require the intervention of Congress for the protection of property in slaves.
To this,
Mr. Collamer, of
Vermont, moved to alter the amendment, so as to make it read:
Resolved, That the existing condition of the Territories of the United States does not, and, in our opinion, never will, require, etc.
This was rejected — Yeas 16; Nays 33.
Then
Mr. Clingman's amendment was adopted: Yeas 26; Nays 23.
1
5. Resolved, That, if experience should at any time prove that the Judicial and Executive authority do not possess means to insure adequate protection to constitutional rights in a Territory, and if the territorial government should fail or refuse to provide the necessary remedies for that purpose, it will be the duty of Congress to supply such deficiency.
Mr. Clingman proposed to amend this, as follows:
Provided, That it is not hereby intended to assert the duty of Congress to provide a system of laws for the maintenance of Slavery.
This was rejected — Yeas 12; Nays 31--only
Messrs. Clark,
Clingman,
Dixon,
Foot,
Foster,
Hale,
Hamlin,
Latham,
Pugh, Ten
Eyck,
Trumbull, and
Wilson, voting in the affirmative.
The original resolution was then adopted ; as follows: Yeas 35; Nays 2--
Messrs. Hamlin and
Trumbull: the Yeas being as upon the adoption of the first resolve, with the subtraction of
Messrs. Brown and
Thomson, and the addition of
Mr. Ten
Eyck.
6. Resolved, That the inhabitants of a Territory of the United States, when they rightfully form a Constitution to be admitted as a State into the Union, may then, for the first time, like the people of a State when forming a new Constitution, decide for themselves whether Slavery, as a domestic institution, shall be maintained or prohibited within their jurisdiction; and “they shall be admitted into the Union, with or without Slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.”
This was also adopted, as follows: Yeas 33--same as on the first resolve, less
Brown,
Mallory, and
Pugh; Nays 12--
Bingham,
Chandler,
Dixon, Foot,
Foster,
Hale,
Pugh,
Simmons, Ten
Eyck,
Trumbull,
Wade, and
Wilson.
0
7. Resolved, That the provision of the Constitution for the rendition of fugitives from service or labor, without the adoption of which the Union could not have been formed, and the laws of 1793 and 1850, which were enacted to secure its execution, and the main features of which, being similar, bear the impress of nearly seventy years of sanction by the highest judicial authority, should be honestly and faithfully observed and maintained by all who enjoy the benefit