2. That all State laws which conflict with the fugitive slave acts of Congress, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or which, in their operation, impede, hinder, or delay the free course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; yet those State laws, void as they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences, which have obstructed the due administration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem it improper, respectfully and earnestly to recommend the repeal of those laws to the several States which have enacted them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.

3. That the act of the 18th of September, 1850, commonly called the fugitive slave law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which authorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave, to summon to his aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall be resistance or danger of resistance or rescue.

4. That the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of slaves in the United States, ought to be made effectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed; and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made.

No. 94. South Carolina Ordinance of
Secession

December 20, 1860

It was clear that the success of the Republicans in the election of 1860 would mean the exclusion of slavery from the Territories. The legislature of

South Carolina met Nov. 4 to choose presidential electors, and remained in session until it was known that Lincoln had been elected. On the 7th an act was passed calling a State convention, to meet at Columbia Dec. 17, to consider the question of withdrawing from the Union. The convention met at the time and place appointed, but adjourned to Charleston because of an epidemic of small-pox in Columbia. On the 20th an ordinance of secession was unanimously adopted by the one hundred and sixty-nine delegates present, and the president of the convention proclaimed South Carolina to be "an independent Commonwealth." On the 21st the Representatives of the State in Congress announced their withdrawal from the House. A "Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union" was adopted on the 24th.

REFERENCES.

Text in War of the Rebellion, Official Records, Series I., vol. I., p. 110. For the proceedings of the convention, see Amer. Annual Cyclopædia, 1861, pp. 646-657; Moore's Rebellion Record, I., Doc. 2. The declaration of causes, and ordinances of secession passed by the other Southern States, are collected in Amer. Hist. Leaflets, No. 12. On the general progress of events, see especially Von Holst's United States, VII., chap. 11; Rhodes's United States, III., chaps. 13, 14. On the steps preliminary to secession, see Pike's First Blows of the Civil War. Buchanan defended his official conduct during 1860-61 in The Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (London, 1865); a later defence is in Curtis's Buchanan, II., chap. 15. See also Davis's Confederate Government, I., part III; Wilson's Slave Power, III., chaps. 10, 11; Greeley's Amer. Conflict, I., chap. 22; Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, III., chap. 1; Pierce's Sumner, III., chap. 40; IV., chap. 44.

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and the other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America":

We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved.

No. 95. Peace Congress: Proposed Constitu

tional Amendment

February 27, 1861

In response to a resolution of the Virginia legislature a peace congress met at Washington Feb. 4, 1861, remaining in session until Feb. 27. Twenty-one States were represented by one hundred and thirty-three commissioners. The delegates were variously instructed, but a majority were opposed to the adoption of a modified form of the Crittenden compromise, as favored by Virginia. The convention adopted a proposed amendment to the Constitution, which was transmitted to Congress Feb. 27 by John Tyler of Virginia, president of the convention, with a request that it be submitted to the States for approval. The amendment was discussed at intervals until the end of the session, but no favorable action was taken.

REFERENCES. - Text in Senate Misc. Doc. 20, 36th Cong., 2d Sess. The work of the congress is set forth at length in Chittenden's Report of the Debates and Proceedings, etc. (1864); for the discussions in Congress, see the Cong. Globe. See also Wilson's Slave Power, III., chap. 7; Greeley's Amer. Conflict, I., chap. 25; Curtis's Buchanan, II., 439-444; Johnston, in Lalor's Cyclopædia, I., 578-580; Davis's Confederate Government, I., part III., chap. 8.

ARTICLE 13.

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 relation; 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 line, 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 State may provide.

SECTION 2. No territory shall be acquired by the United States, except by discovery and for naval and commercial stations, depots,

and transit routes, without the concurrence of a majority of all the Senators from 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 the 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 or involuntary service therein, nor to interfere with or abolish involuntary 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 so 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 where 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 where 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 afterwards transferred to other places for sale as merchandise, is prohibited.

SECTION 4. The third paragraph 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 person to whom such service or labor is due.

SECTION 5. The foreign slave 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 further claim to such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for securing to the citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

No. 96. Proposed Constitutional Amendment

March 2, 1861

THE House Committee of thirty-three (see note to No. 93) reported Jan. 14, 1861. February 27 Corwin of Ohio, chairman of the committee, offered, as an amendment to the second proposition reported by the committee, the proposed constitutional amendment, the text of which follows. The resolution passed the House the next day, by a vote of 133 to 65, and the Senate March 4 (session of March 2), by a vote of 24 to 12. The amendment was spoken of with approval by Lincoln in his inaugural address, and was agreed to by Ohio and Maryland, but failed to be ratified by the required number of States.

REFERENCES.— Text in U. S. Stat. at Large, XII., 251. For the proceedings and discussions in Congress, see the House and Senate Journals, 36th Cong., 2d Sess., and Cong. Globe. See also Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, III., chap. 15; Wilson's Slave Power, III., chap. 8; and references under Nos. 86 and 88.