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. 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 Durth not the and cial Orc om ch it S f ther claim to such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for securing to cannot fulfill the stipulation without These resolutions did not pass the 1 Treasury would be as nothing in 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. their statutes to be revised, with a "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. 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 |