Part 63 (1/2)

The resolutions of Virginia originated the call for the Conference.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Oregon were not represented. South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas had pa.s.sed ordinances of secession previous to the meeting of the Conference. Messrs. BENJAMIN and SLIDELL, the Senators from Louisiana, withdrew from the Senate of the United States before the proposed amendments to the Const.i.tution were reported to the Conference.

The following resolutions of their respective States were presented by the delegates to the Committee on Credentials, and were ordered by the Conference to be printed, on the motion of Mr. CHASE.[9]

[Footnote 9: See page 64, Proceedings of the Conference.]

TENNESSEE.

RESOLUTIONS _proposing amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States._

_Resolved by the General a.s.sembly of the State of Tennessee_, That a Convention of delegates from all the slaveholding States should a.s.semble at Nashville, Tennessee, or such other place as a majority of the States cooperating may designate, on the fourth day of February, 1861, to digest and define a basis upon which, if possible, the Federal Union and the const.i.tutional rights of the slave States may be perpetuated and preserved.

_Resolved_, That the General a.s.sembly of the State of Tennessee appoint a number of delegates to said Convention, of our ablest and wisest men, equal to our whole delegation in Congress; and that the Governor of Tennessee immediately furnish copies of these resolutions to the Governors of the slaveholding States, and urge the partic.i.p.ation of such States in said Convention.

_Resolved_, That in the opinion of this General a.s.sembly, such plan of adjustment should embrace the following propositions as amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States:

1. A declaratory amendment that African slaves, as held under the inst.i.tutions of the slaveholding States, shall be recognized as property, and ent.i.tled to the _status_ of other property, in the States where slavery exists, in all places within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress in the slave States, in all the Territories south of 36 30'; in the District of Columbia; in transit; and whilst temporarily sojourning with the owner in the non-slaveholding States and Territories north of 36 30', and when fugitives from the owner, in the several places above named, as well as in all places in the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress in the non-slaveholding States.

2. That all the territory now owned, or which may be hereafter acquired by the United States south of the parallel of 36 30'; African slavery shall be recognized as existing, and be protected by all the departments of the Federal and Territorial Governments, and in all north of that line, now owned, or to be acquired, it shall not be recognized as existing; and whenever States formed out of any of said territory south of said line, having a population equal to that of a congressional district, shall apply for admission into the Union, the same shall be admitted as slave States, whilst States north of the line, formed out of said territory, and having a population equal to a Congressional district, shall be admitted without slavery; but the States formed out of said territory north and south having been admitted as members of the Union, shall have all the powers over the inst.i.tution of slavery possessed by the other States of the Union.

3. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves.

4. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia, as long as it exists in the adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit the officers of the Federal Government or members of Congress whose duties require them to be in said District, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding them as such, during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards take them from the District.

5. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or the Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by seas.

6. In addition to the fugitive slave clause, provide that when a slave has been demanded of the Executive authority of the State to which he has fled, if he is not delivered, and the owner permitted to carry him out of the State in peace, the State so failing to deliver, shall pay to the owner the value of such slave, and such damages as he may have sustained in attempting to reclaim his slave, and secure his right of action in the Supreme Court of the United States, with execution against the property of such State and the individuals thereof.

7. No future amendment of the Const.i.tution shall affect the six preceding articles, nor the third paragraph of the second section of the first article of the Const.i.tution, nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Const.i.tution; and no amendments shall be made to the Const.i.tution which will authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the States by whose laws it is, or may be allowed or permitted.

8. That slave property shall be rendered secure in transit through, or whilst temporarily sojourning in, non-slaveholding States or Territories, or in the District of Columbia.

9. An amendment to the effect that all fugitives are to be deemed those offending the laws within the jurisdiction of the State, and who escape therefrom to other States; and that it is the duty of each State to suppress armed invasion of another State.

_Resolved_, That said Convention of the slaveholding States having agreed upon a basis of adjustment satisfactory to themselves, should, in the opinion of this General a.s.sembly, refer it to a Convention of all the States, slaveholding and non-slaveholding, in the manner following:

It should invite all States friendly to such plan of adjustment, to elect delegates in such manner as to reflect the popular will, to a.s.semble in a Const.i.tutional Convention of all the States North and South, to be held at Richmond, Virginia, on the ---- day of February, 1861, to revise and perfect such plan of adjustment, for its reference for final ratification and adoption by a Convention of the States respectively.

_Resolved_, That should a plan of adjustment, satisfactory to the South, not be acceded to by a requisite number of States to perfect amendments to the Const.i.tution of the United States, it is the opinion of this General a.s.sembly that the slaveholding States should adopt for themselves the Const.i.tution of the United States, with such amendments as may be satisfactory to the slaveholding States, and that they should invite into the Union with them all States of the North which are willing to abide such amended Const.i.tution and frame of Government, severing at once all connections with States refusing such reasonable guarantees to our future safety; such renewed conditions of Federal Union being first submitted for ratification to Convention of all the States respectively.

_Resolved_, That the Governor of the State of Tennessee furnish copies of these resolutions immediately to the Governors of the non-slaveholding States.

OHIO.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS _of the General a.s.sembly of the State of Ohio, relative to the appointment of Commissioners to the Convention to meet in Was.h.i.+ngton on the 4th of February, proximo. Pa.s.sed, January 30, 1861._

WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Virginia has appointed five Commissioners to meet in the City of Was.h.i.+ngton on the fourth day of February next, with similar Commissioners from other States, and after full and free conference to agree, if practicable, upon some adjustment of the unhappy difficulties now dividing our country, which may be alike satisfactory and honorable to the States concerned; therefore be it

_Resolved, by the General a.s.sembly of the State of Ohio_, That the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, be and he is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint five Commissioners to represent the State of Ohio in said Conference.