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

Fifth, That the foreign Slave-trade should be forever prohibited.

Sixth, That the first, second, third, and fifth of the foregoing propositions, when in the form of ratified amendments to the Constitution, and the clause relating to the rendition of fugitive slaves, should not be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.

Seventh, That Congress should provide by law that the United States should pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor, in all cases where the law-officer, whose duty it was to arrest such fugitive, should be prevented from doing so by violence or intimidation, or when such fugitive should be rescued after arrest, and the claimant thereby should lose his property.

Two members of the Committee (Baldwin, of Connecticut. and Seddon, of Virginia) each presented a minority report. Baldwin proposed a general Convention of all the States,¹ to consider amendments to the Constitution; and Seddon, afterward the so-called “Secretary of War” of the confederated traitors, affirming that the majority report would not be acceptable to Virginia, because it conceded less than the Crittenden Compromise, whereas Virginia wanted all that and more, proposed, in addition to an absolute guaranty of Slavery south of 36° 30‘, an amendment that should not only give the slaveholder a right to take his slaves through Free-labor States, but allow him protection for his slaves, as property, while on the sea on such journey. He also proposed an amendment that should forever exclude from the ballot-box and public office, “persons who are in whole or in part of the African race.” He also proposed another that should recognize the right of peaceable secession. He offered his propositions as a substitute for the majority report, well knowing that they would not be adopted by the Convention.

In the open Convention, Charles. A. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, proposed that that body should request the several States which had passed obnoxious Personal Liberty Acts to repeal them, and to allow slaves to cross their territory when being taken from one Slave-labor State to another. On the 18th, Amos Tuck, of New Hampshire, submitted an address and resolutions. In the former, the distractions of the country were deplored and the right of secession denied; in the latter, it was proposed that the Convention should recognize the fact that the National Constitution gives no power to Congress, nor any other branch of the General Government, to interfere with Slavery in any of the States, and that neither of the great political organizations of the country contemplated a violation of the spirit of the Constitution; that the Constitution was established for the good of the whole people, and that when. the rights of any portion of them are disregarded, redress can and ought to be provided; and that a convention of all the States to propose amendments to the Constitution be recommended. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, proposed that the Convention should adjourn to the 4th of April, to enable all of the States to be represented in it.

These various propositions and others were earnestly discussed for several