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the president, from each State, consisting of Lot M. Morrill, of Maine; Asa Fowler, New Hampshire; Hiland Hall, Vermont; Francis B. Crowinshield, Massachusetts; Samuel Ames, Rhode Island; Roger S. Baldwin, Connecticut; David W. Field, New York; Peter D. Brown, New Jersey; Thomas Ewing, Ohio; Charles B. Smith, Indiana; Stephen F. Logan, Illinois; James Harlan, Iowa; Daniel M. Bates, Delaware; Thomas Ruffin, North Carolina; James A. Seddon, Virginia; James Guthrie, Kentucky; Reverdy Johnson, Maryland; F. K. Zollicoffer, Tennessee; and A. W. Doniphan, Missouri.

The gentlemen of this committee were convention men and influential in their several States; and there was much difference in opinion as to measures to be adopted to pacify the country; but by a majority vote the following was agreed upon:

"Section 1. In all the present territory of the United States, north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude, involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, is prohibited. In all the present territory south of that line, the status of persons held to involuntary service or labor, as it now exists, shall not be changed; nor shall any law be passed by Congress or the Territorial Legislature, to hinder or prevent the taking of such persons from any of the States of this Union to said territory, nor to impair the rights arising from said relations;

but the same shall be subject to judicial cognizance in the federal courts, according to the course of the common law. When any territory north or south of said lines, within such boundary as Congress may prescribe, shall contain a population equal to that required for a member of Congress, 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 servitude, as the constitution of such States may provide.

"Section 2. That no territory shall be acquired by the United States, except by discovery and for naval and commercial stations, deposits and transit routes, without the concurrence of a majority of all the Senators from the States which allow involuntary servitude and a majority of all the Senators from States which prohibit that relation; nor shall territory be acquired by treaty, unless the votes of a majority of Senators from each class of States, hereinbefore mentioned be cast as a part of the two-thirds majority necessary to the ratification of such treaty.

"Section 3. Neither the constitution, nor any amendment thereof, shall be construed to give Congress power to regulate, abolish, or control, within any State, the relation established or recognized by the laws. thereof, touching persons held to labor orlabor or involuntary service therein,

nor to interfere with or abolish invol

untary service, in the District of Columbia, without the consent of Maryland, and without the consent of the owners, or making the owners who do not consent just compensation; nor the power to interfere with or prohibit representatives and others from bringing with them to the District of Columbia, retaining and taking away, persons held to labor or service; nor the power to interfere with or abolish involuntary service in places under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, within those States and territories when the same is established or recognized; nor the power to prohibit the removal or transportation of persons held to labor or involuntary service, in any State or territory of the United States, to any other State or territory thereof when it is established or recognized by law or usage; and the right, during transportation, by sea or river, of touching at ports, shores and landings, and of landing in case of distress, shall exist; but not the right of transit in or through any State or territory, or of sale or traffic, against the laws thereof. Nor shall Congress have power to authorize any higher rate of taxation on persons held to labor or service than on land. The bringing into the District of Columbia of persons held to labor or service for sale, or placing them in depots to be hereafter transferred to other places for sale as merchandise, is prohibited.

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of the second section of the fourth article of the constitution shall not be construed to prevent any of the States, by appropriate legislation, and through the action of their judicial and ministerial officers, from enforcing the delivery of fugitives from labor to the persons to whom such service or labor is due.

"Section 5. The foreign trade is hereby forever prohibited; and it shall be the duty of Congress to pass laws to prevent the importation of slaves, coolies, or persons held to service or labor, into the United States and the territories from places beyond the limits thereof.

"Section 6. The first, third and fifth sections, together with this section of these amendments, and the third paragraph of the second section of the first article of the constitution, and the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article thereof, shall not be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.

"Section 7. Congress shall provide by law that the United States shall pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor in all cases where the marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest such fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation from mobs or riotous assemblages, or when, after arrest, such fugitive was rescued by like violence or intimidation, and the owner thereby deprived of the same; and the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner from fur

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shall provide by law for securing to
the citizens of each State the privi-
leges and immunities of citizens in
the several States."

cannot fulfill the stipulation without
consciousness of participation in the
wrong. Here is the real difficulty;
but it seems to me not insuperable.
It will not do for us to say to you, in
justification of non-performance, the
stipulation is immoral, and therefore
we cannot execute it, for you deny
the immorality, and we cannot as-
sume to judge for you. On the other
hand, you ought not to exact from us
the literal performance of the stipu-
lation, when you know that we can-
not perform it without conscious cul-
pability. A true solution of the
difficulty seems to be attainable by
regarding it as a simple case where
a contract, from changed circum-
stances, cannot be fulfilled exactly as
made. A court of equity in such a
case decrees execution as near as may
be. It requires a party who cannot
perform to make a compensation for
non-performance. Why cannot the
same principle be applied to the ren-
dition of fugitives from service? We
cannot surrender, but we can com-
pensate. Why not, then, avoid all
difficulties on all sides, and show re-
spectively good faith and good will
by providing and accepting compen-
sation, when masters reclaim escap-
ing servants and prove their rights of
reclamation under the constitution?
Instead of a judgment for rendition,
let there be a judgment for compen-
sation, determined by the true value
of the services; and let the same
judgment assure freedom to the fugi-
tive. The costs to the National

These resolutions did not pass the
"Peace Congress" unanimously, but
by a decided majority. The vote was
by States, and where a State was
equally divided it did not count. To
show the general anxiety to agree to
some arrangement that would be sat-
isfactory to the South, quotation will
be made from the remarks in the con-
ference of Gov. S. P. Chase, after-
wards Secretary of the Treasury
under President Lincoln:
"Aside
from the territorial question-the
question of slavery outside of slave
States I know of but one serious
difficulty. I refer to the question
concerning fugitives from service.
The clause in the constitution con-
cerning this class of persons is re-
garded by almost all men, North and
South, as a stipulation for the surren-
der to their masters of slaves escap-
ing into free States. The people of
the free States, however, who believe
that slaveholding is wrong, cannot
and will not aid in the reclamation,
and the stipulation becomes, there-
fore, a dead letter. You complain of
bad faith; and the complaint is re-
torted by denunciations of the cruelty
which would drag back to bondage
the poor slave who has escaped from
it. You think slavery right, and
claim the fulfillment of the stipula-
tion; we, thinking slavery wrong,

1

Treasury would be as nothing in
comparison with the evils of discord
and strife. All parties would be
gainers."

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The proceedings of the "Peace Congress are given more fully in Mr. Greeley's "American Conflict."

At the time the "Peace Congress" voted upon the resolutions above presented, there were present one hundred and thirty-three members, representing the following States: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas,

A vote was taken on the "Peace Conference" in the Senate, March 2d, 1861, and defeated. Yeas-Bayard, Bigler, Bright, Crittenden, Douglas, Groen, Hunter, Johnson, of Tennessee; Kennedy, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Polk, Pugh, Rice, Sebastian, Thompson and Wigfall; 19. Nays-Anthony, Bingham, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harlan, King, Morrill, Sumner, Ten Eyk, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson and NelAt the time this vote was son; 20. taken, the Senators from the States which had attempted to secede, with the exception of Senator Wigfall, had left to follow the fortunes of their States.

Just before the vote was taken, Senator Crittenden expressed his willing

ness to substitute the resolution of the "Peace Congress" for his own, in the following words: "I look upon the result of the deliberations of the Peace Congress, as they call it here, as affording the best opportunity for a general concurrence among the States and among the people. I determined to take it in preference to my own proposition, and so stated to many of the members of that committee."

This ended the efforts in the Senate to pass any compromise measures. If the Senators from the South had remained in their places and voted the Senate would have adopted the Peace Conference proposition; but whether it would have passed the House is left to conjecture; but it probably would in the then great desire of the country for peacę.

Mr. Corwin, as chairman of the committee of thirty-three, on the 14th of January, 1861, presented a majority report to the House, as follows:

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that all attempts on the part of legislatures of any State to obstruct or hinder the recovery and surrender of fugitives from labor are in derogation of the Constitution of the United States, inconsistent with the comity and good neighborhood which should prevail among the several States, and dangerous to the peace of the Union.

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their statutes to be revised, with a
view to ascertain if any of them are
in conflict with, or tend to embarrass,
or hinder the execution of the laws
of the United States, made in pur-
suance of the second section of the
fourth article of the Constitution of
the United States, for the delivering
up of
held to labor by the
persons
laws of any State and escaping there-
from; the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives earnestly request that all
enactments having such tendency be
forthwith repealed, as required by a
just sense of constitutional obliga-
tions, and by a due regard for the
peace of the Republic.

"Resolved, That we recognize slavery as now existing in fifteen of the United States, by usages or the laws of those States; and we recognize no authority, legally or otherwise, outside of a State when it so exists, to interfere with slaves or slavery in such States, in disregard of the rights of their owners or the peace of society.

"Resolved, That we recognize the justness and propriety of a faithful execution of the constitution and laws made in pursuance thereof, on the subject of fugitive slaves or fugitives from service or labor, and discountenance all mobs or hindrances to the execution of such laws; and that citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

"Resolved, That we recognize no such conflicting element in its composition, or sufficient cause from any source for a dissolution of this government; that we are not sent here to destroy, but to sustain and harmonize the institutions, and to see that equal justice is done to all parts of the same; and finally, to perpetuate its existence on terms of equality and justice to all the States.

"Resolved, That the faithful observance, on the part of all the States, of all their constitutional obligations to each other, and to the Federal government, is essential to the peace 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.

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Resolved, That each State is requested to revise its statutes, and, if necessary, so to amend the same as to secure, without legislation by Congress, to citizens of other States traveling therein, the same protection as the citizens of such States enjoy; and that they also protect the citizens of other States traveling or sojourning therein, against popular violence. or illegal summary punishment, without trial, in due form of law, for imputed crimes.

"Resolved, That each State be also respectfully requested to enact such laws as will prevent and punish any attempt whatever, in such State, to recognize or set on foot the lawless

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