commonly known as the Kansas-Nebraska act, as reads as follows, to wit: " Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing Slavery"-be and the same is hereby repealed, and the said eighth section of said act of the 6th of March, 1820, is hereby revived and declared to be in full force and effect within the said Territories of Kansas and Nebraska: Provided, however, That any person lawfully held to ser vice in either of said Territories shall not be discharged from such service by reason of such repeal and revival of said eighth section, if such person shall be permanently removed from such Territory or Territories prior to the 1st day of January, 1858; and any child or children born in either of said Territories, of any female lawfully held to service, if in like manner moved without said Territories before the expiration of that date, shall not be, by reason of any. thing in this act, emancipated from any service it might have owed had this act never been passed: And provided further, That any person lawfully held to service in any other State or Territory of the United States, and escaping into either the Territory of Kansas or Nebraska, may be reclaimed and removed to the person or place where such service is due, under any law of the United States which shall be in force upon the subject. Sec. 25. And be it further enacted, That all other parts of the aforesaid Kansas-Nebraska act which relate to the said Territory of Kansas, and every other law or usage having, or which is pretended to have, any force or effect in said Territory in conflict with the provisions or the spirit of this act, except such laws of Congress and treaty stipulations as relate to the Indians, are hereby repealed, and declared void. Knapp, Knight, Knowlton, Knox, Kunkel, Matteson, M'Carty, Miller, Moore, Morgan, Morrill, Nichols, Norton, Oliver, Parker, Pelton, Perry, Pettit, Pringle, Purviance, Ritchie, Sabin, Sage, Sapp, Sherman, Simmons, Spinner, Stanton, Stranahan, Tappan, Thurston, Todd, Trafton, Wade, Wakeman, Walbridge, Waldron, Washburne of Ill., Washburn of Me., Watson, Welch, Wells, Wood, Woodruff, Woodworth88. NAYS-Messrs. Aiken, Barksdale, Bell, Bowie, Branch, Broom, Burnett, Campbell of Kentucky, Carlile, Caruthers, Caskie, Cobb of Ga., Cobb of Ala., Cox, Craige, Crawford, Cullen, Davidson, Davis of Md., Denver, Dowdell, Edmundson, English, Faulkner, Foster, Goode, Greenwood, Harris of Md., Harris of Ala., Harris of Illinois, Houston, Jewett, Jones of Tenn., Jones of Penn., Kennett, Kidwell, Lake, Leiter, Lumpkin, H. Marshall of Kentucky, Marshall of Illinois, Maxwell, Miller of Indiana, Millson, Packer, Peck, Phelps, Powell, Puryear, Quitman, Reade, Ready, Ricaud, Rivers, Ruffin, Savage, Shorter, Smith of Tenn., Smith of Va., Sneed, Stephens, Stewart, Swope, Taylor, Trippe, Underwood, Valk, Walker, Warner, Watkins, Winslow, Wright of Miss., Wright of Tenn., and Zollicoffer-74. This bill was not acted on by the Senate. The House in the course of its action on the several Annual Appropriation bills, affixed to re-several of them, respectively, provisos, abolishing, repealing, or suspending the various obnoxious acts of the Territorial Legislature; but all these were resisted by the Senate, and were ultimately given up by the House, save one appropriating $20,000 for the pay and expenses of the next Territorial Legislature, which the Senate gave up, on finding itself in serious disagreement with the House, and thus secured the passage of the Civil Appropriation bill. Finally the two Houses were at odds, on a proviso forbidding the employment of the Army to enforce the acts of the Shawnee Mission assemblage, claiming to be a Territorial Legislature of Kansas, when, at noon on the 18th of August, the Speaker's hammer fell, announcing the termination of the session, leaving the Army Mr. Dunn having carried a reference to the bill unpassed. But President Pierce immeCommittee of the Whole, of a bill introduced diately issued a proclamation convening an by Mr. Grow, repealing all the acts of the al- extra session on the 21st (Thursday), when leged Territorial Legislature of Kansas, now the two Houses reconvened accordingly, and moved and carried a reconsideration of that a full quorum of each was found to be prevote, and proceeded to the striking out of sent. The House promptly repassed the Mr. Grow's bill and the insertion of his own Army bill, again affixing a proviso forbidas a substitute. This motion prevailed. ding the use of the army to enforce the disWhereupon Mr. Dunn moved the previous puted Territorial laws, which proviso the question on ordering this bill to be engrossed Senate as promptly struck out, and the and read a third time, which prevailed-House as promptly reinserted. The Senate Yeas 92; Nays 86-and then the bill passed -Yeas 88; Nays 74--as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Albright, Allison, Ball, Barbour, Benson, Bishop, Bliss, Bradshaw, Brenton, Buffinton, Campbell of Pa., Campbell of Ohio, Chaffee, Clawson, Colfax, Comins, Covode, Cumback, Damrell, Dean, Dick, Dodd, Dunn, Durfee, Edie, Edwards, Emrie, Flagler, Giddings, Gilbert, Granger, Grow, Hall of Mass., Harlan, Harrison, Haven, Holloway, Horton of N. Y., Horton of Ohio, Hughston, Kelsey, King, insisted on its disagreement, but asked no conference, and the House (Aug. 22d) by a close vote decided to adhere to its proviso: Yeas 97; Nays 93; but one of the yeas (Bocock of Va.) was so given in order to be able to move a reconsideration; so that the true division was 96 to 94, which was the actual division on a motion by Mr. Cobb of Ga. that the House recede from its position. Finally, a motion to reconsider was made and laid on the table: Yeas 97; Nays 96; and the House thereupon adjourned. Aug. 23d.-The Senate also voted to adhere: Yeas 35; Nays 9. Mr. Clayton proposed a Committee of Conference, to which Mr. Seward objected. No action. In the House, Mr. Campbell of Ohio proposed a similar Committee of Conference. Objected to. Mr. Matteson of New-York submitted the following: Whereas, By an act passed by the two Houses of Congress, and approved by the President, entitled "Joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, approved March 1, 1845," articles of compact were offered to Texas for her admission into the Union ". upon certain conditions and guarantees," the third article of which tendered compact was in these words: "New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the Territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the Federal Constitution; and such States as may be formed out of that portion of said Territory lying south of 36° 30' north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said Territory north of said Compromise line, Slavery or invol untary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibit ed;" And whereas, Texas, by a solemn public act, done in a convention of the people, according to the requirements of the said act of Congress, did accept the said articles of compact, and was admitted into the Union as one of the United States upon the "conditions and guarantees" mentioned in said joint resolution, and is now a State of this Union in virtue thereof; And whereas, The said third article of compact as aforesaid, containing a limitation of Slavery in restricting the number of Slave States to be formed in Texas south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, to four States in addition to Texas itself, and also a prohibition of Slavery, except for crime, north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, is an independent and substantive motion, irrepealable by either of the contracting parties without the consent of the other, and is not repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska act, and could not be repealed by that act: Therefore, be it resolved, That Slavery, except for crime, in all that part of the former province of Louisiana north of latitude thirty-six degrees thirty minutes is and remains prohibited, and that the President of the United States is under a double obligation to see that provision faithfully executed, both as a law of Congress and as a compact with a then foreign power, for a great and valuable consideration. And whereas, Besides being a compact with Texas, the said third article was a compromise between the Free and Slave States of this Union with limitation of Slavery, both as to the number of Slave States which might be formed in Texas, and the prohibition of Slavery north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, by virtue of which Texas was admitted into the Union, and without which she could not have been admitted: Therefore, Be it resolved, That any attempt to violate said third article of compromise, either by admitting a greater number of Slave States south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes than allowed therein, or by extending Slavery north of that latitude, is a violation of said compromise and a direct attack upon the harmony and stability of the Union. Mr. Dunn of Ind. moved that this do lie on the table: Carried: Yeas 101; Nays 83. recede from its Kansas proviso: Defeated: Mr. Cobb of Ga. moved that the House Yeas 97; Nays 100. Adjourned. with or without the proviso continued until The struggle for the passage of the bill Saturday, August 30th, when, several members, hostile to the proviso, and hitherto absent, unpaired, having returned, the House again passed the Army bill with the proviso modified as follows: Provided, however, that no part of the military force of the United States, for the support of which appropriations are made by this act, shall be employed in aid of the enforcement of any enactments heretofore made by the body claiming to be the Territorial Legislature of Kansas. The bill passed as reported (under the Previous Question :) Yeas 99; Nays 79; and was sent to the Senate, where the above Proviso was stricken out: Yeas 26; Nays 7; and the bill thus returned to the House, when the Senate's amendment was concurred in by the following vote: YEAS-Messrs. Aiken, Akers, Barksdale, Bell, Bennett of Miss., Bocock, Bowie, Boyce, Branch, Burnett, Cadwalader, Campbell of Ky., Carlile, Caskie, Clingman, Cobb of Ga., Cobb of Ala., Cox, Craige, Crawford, Cullen, Davidson, Davis of Md., Denver, Dowdell, Edmundson, Elliott, Etheredge, Eustis, Evans, Faulkner, Florence, Fuller of Me., Goode, Greenwood, Hall of Iowa, Harris of Md., Harris of Ala., Harris of Ill., Har rison, Haven, HICKMAN, Hoffman, Houston, Jewett, Jones of Tenn., Jones of Penn., Keitt, Kelly, Kennett, Kidwell, Lake, Letcher, Lumpkin, A. K. Marshall of Ky., Humphrey Marshall of Ky., Marshall of Ill., Maxwell, McMullen, McQueen, Miller of Ind., Millson, Oliver of Mo., Orr, Packer, Peck, Phelps, Porter, Powell, Puryear, Quitman, Ricaud, Rivers, Ruffin, Rust, Sandidge, Savage, Seward, Shorter, Smith of Tenn., Smith of Va., Smith of Ala., Sneed, Stephens, Stewart, Swope, Talbott, Taylor, Tyson, Underwood, Vail, Walker, Warner, Wells, Wheeler, Whitney, Williams, Winslow, Wright of Miss., Wright of Tenn., and Zollicoffer-101. NAYS-Messrs. Albright, Allison, Barbour, BARCLAY, Bennett of N. Y., Benson, Billinghurst, Bingham, Bliss, Bradshaw, Brenton, Buffinton, Campbell of Penn., Campbell of Ohio Chaffee, E. Clark, Clawson, Colfax, Comins, Covode, Cragin, Cumback, Damrell, Davis of Mass., Dean, Dewitt, Dick, Dickson, Dodd, Dunn, Durfee, Edie, Edwards, Emrie, Flagler, Galloway, Giddings, Gilbert, Granger, Grow, Harlan, Holloway, Horton of N. Y., Howard, Hughston, Kelsey, King. Knapp, Knight, Knowl ton, Knox, Kunkel, Leiter, Mace, Matteson, McCarty, Morgan, Mott, Murray, Norton, Oliver of N. Y., Parker, Pelton, Pennington, Pettit, Pike, Pringle, Purviance, Ritchie, Roberts, Robbins, Robison, Sabin, Sage, Sapp, Scott, Sherman, Simmons, Spinner, Stanton, Stranahan, Tappan, Thorington, Thurston, Todd, Trafton, Wade, Wakeman, Walbridge, Waldron, Washburne of Ill., Washburne of Wisc., Washburn of Me., Welch, Woodruff, and Woodworth-97. Fillmore with nearly or quite all those sup- So the Proviso was beaten at last, and the 102 |