1ST SESS.] Compromise Report from the Committee of Thirteen. benefits of a State government. If, hereafter, upon an increase of her population, a more thorough exploration of her territory, and an ascertainment of the relations which may arise between the people occupying its various parts, it should be found conducive to their convenience and happiness to form a new State out of California, we have every reason to believe, from past experience, that the question of its admission will be fairly considered and justly decided. [MAY, 1850. tect and govern both. Common in their origin, common in their alienation from one foreign Government to another, common in their wants of good government, and conterminous in some of their boundaries, and alike in many particulars of physical condition, they have nearly every thing in common in the relations in which they stand to the rest of this Union. There is, then, a general fitness and propriety in extending the parental care of Government to both in common. If Cali "A majority of the committee, therefore, rec-fornia, by a sudden and extraordinary augmentaommend to the Senate the passage of the bill reported by the Committee on Territories for the admission of California as a State into the Union. To prevent misconception, the committee also recommend that the amendment reported by the same committee to the bill be adopted, so as to leave incontestable the right of the United States to the public domain and other public property in California. "Whilst a majority of the committee believe it to be necessary and proper, under actual circumstances, to admit California, they think it quite as necessary and proper to establish governments for the residue of the territory derived from Mexico, and to bring it within the pale of the Federal authority. The remoteness of that territory from the seat of the General Government; the dispersed state of its population, the variety of races-pure and mixed of which it consists; the ignorance of some of the races of our laws, language, and habits; their exposure to inroads and wars of savage tribes; and the solemn stipulations of the treaty by which we acquired dominion over them-imposes upon the United States the imperative obligation of extending to them protection, and of providing for them government and laws suited to their condition. Congress will fail in the performance of a high duty if it does not give, or attempt to give, to them the benefit of such protection, government, and laws. They are not now, and for a long time to come may not be, prepared for State government. The territorial form, for the present, is best suited for their condition. A bill has been reported by the Committee on Territories dividing all the territory acquired from Mexico, not comprehended within the limits of California, into two Territories, under the names of New Mexico and Utah, and proposing for each a territorial gov ernment. "The committee recommend to the Senate the establishment of those territorial governments; and, in order more certainly to secure that desirable object, they also recommend that the bill for their establishment be incorporated in the bill for the admission of California, and that, united together, they both be passed. "The combination of the two measures in the same bill is objected to on various grounds. It is said that they are incongruous, and have no necessary connection with each other. A majority of the committee think otherwise. The object of both measures is the establishment of government suited to the conditions, respectively, of the proposed new State and of the new territories. Prior to their transfer to the United States, they both formed a part of Mexico, where they stood in equal relations to the Government of that Republic. They were both ceded to the United States by the same treaty. And in the same article of that treaty the United States solemnly engaged to pro | tion of population, has advanced so rapidly as to mature her for State government, that furnishes no reason why the less fortunate Territories of New Mexico and Utah should be abandoned and left ungoverned by the United States, or should be disconnected with California, which, although she has organized for herself a State government, must be legally and constitutionally regarded as a territory until she is actually admitted as a State in the Union. "It is further objected, that, by combining the two measures in the same bill, members who may be willing to vote for one and unwilling to vote for the other, would be placed in an embarrassing condition. They would be constrained, it is urged, to take or to reject both. On the other hand, there are other members who would be willing to vote for both united, but would feel themselves constrained to vote against the California bill if it stood alone. Each party finds in the bill which it favors something which commends it to acceptance, and in the other something which it disapproves. The true ground, therefore, of the objection to the union of the measures, is not any want of affinity between them, but because of the favor or disfavor with which they are respectively regarded. In this conflict of opinion, it seems to a majority of the committee that a spirit of mutual concession enjoins that the two measures should be connected together; the effect of which will be, that neither opinion will exclusively triumph, and that both may find in such an amicable arrangement enough of good to reconcile them to the acceptance of the combined measure. And such a course of legislation is not at all unusual. Few laws have ever passed in which there were no parts to which exception was taken. It is inexpedient, if not impracticable, to separate these parts, and embody them in distinct bills, so as to accommodate the diversity of opinion which may exist. The Constitution of the United States contained in it a great variety of provisions, to some of which serious objection was made in the Convention which formed it by different members of that body; and when it was submitted to the ratification of the States, some of them objected to some parts, and others to other parts of the same instrument. Had these various parts and provisions been separately acted on in the Convention, or separately submitted to the people of the United States, it is by no means certain that the constitution itself would ever have been adopted or ratified. Those who did not like particular provisions found compensation in other parts of it. And in all cases of constitutions and laws, when either is presented as a whole, the question to be decided is, whether the good it contains is not of greater amount, and does not neutralize any thing exceptionable in it. And, as nothing human is perfect, for the sake of that harmony so desirable in such a Confederacy as this, we must be reconciled MAY, 1850.] Compromise Report from the Committee of Thirteen. to secure as much as we can of what we wish, and be consoled by the reflection that what we do not exactly like is a friendly concession, and agreeable to those who, being united with us in a common destiny, it is desirable should always live with us in peace and concord. [31ST CONG opinion has prevailed. According to one view of it, the western limit of Texas was the Nueces; according to another, it extended to the Rio Grande, and stretched from its mouth to its source. A majority of the committee, having come to the conclusion of recommending an amicable adjustment of the boundary with Texas, abstain from expressing any opinion as to the true and legiti mate western and northern boundary of that State. The terms proposed for such an adjustment are contained in the bill herewith reported, and they are, with inconsiderable variation, the same as that reported by the Committee on Territories. "According to these terms, it is proposed to Texas that her boundary be recognized to the Rio Grande, and up that river to the point commonly called El Paso, and running thence up that river twenty miles, measured thereon by a straight line, dredth degree of west longitude crosses Red River; being the south-west angle in the line designated between the United States and Mexico, and the same angle in the line of the territory set apart for the Indians by the United States. "If this boundary be assented to by Texas, she will be quieted to that extent in her title. And some may suppose that, in consideration of this concession by the United States, she might, without any other equivalent, relinquish any claim she has beyond the proposed boundary: that is, any claim to any part of New Mexico. But, under the influence of a sentiment of justice and great liberality, the bill proposes to Texas, for her relinquish "A majority of the committee have, therefore, been led to the recommendation to the Senate that the two measures be united. The bill for establishing the two territories, it will be observed, omits the Wilmot proviso, on the one hand, and on the other, makes no provision for the introduction of slavery into any part of the new territories. That proviso has been the fruitful source of distraction and agitation. If it were adopted and applied to any territory, it would cease to have any obligatory force as soon as such territory were admitted as a State into the Union. There was never any occasion for it, to accomplish the pro-and thence eastwardly to a point where the hun fessed object with which it was originally offered. This has been clearly demonstrated by the current of events. California, of all the recent territorial acquisitions from Mexico, was that in which, if anywhere within them, the introduction of slavery was most likely to take place; and the constitution of California, by the unanimous vote of her convention, has expressly interdicted it. There is the highest degree of probability that Utah and New Mexico will, when they come to be admitted as States, follow the example. The proviso is, as to all these regions in common, a mere abstraction. Why should it be any longer insisted on? Totally destitute, as it is, of any practical import, it has, nevertheless, had the pernicious effect to excitement of any such claim, a large pecuniary equivaserious, if not alarming consequences. It is high time that the wounds which it has inflicted should be healed up, and closed; and that, to avoid, in all future time, the agitations which must be produced by the conflict of opinion on the slavery question-existing, as this institution does, in some of the States, and prohibited, as it is, in othersthe true principle which ought to regulate the action of Congress, in forming territorial governments for each newly-acquired domain, is to refrain from all legislation on the subject in the territory acquired, so long as it retains the territorial form of government-leaving it to the people of such territory, when they have attained to a condition which entitles them to admission as a State, to decide for themselves the question of the allowance or prohibition of domestic slavery. The committee believe that they express the anxious desire of an immense majority of the people of the United States, when they declare that it is high time that good feelings, harmony, and fraternal sentiments should be again revived; and that the Government should be able once more to proceed in its great operations to promote the happiness and prosperity of the country, undisturbed by this distracting cause. "As for California-far from feeling her sensibility affected by her being associated with other kindred measures-she ought to rejoice and be highly gratified that, in entering into the Union, she may have contributed to the tranquillity and happiness of the great family of States, of which, it is to be hoped, she may one day be a distinguished member. "The committee beg leave next to report on the subject of the northern and western boundary of Texas. On that question a great diversity of lent. As a consideration for it, and considering that a portion of the debt of Texas was created on a pledge to her creditors of the duties on foreign imports, transferred by the resolution of annexation to the United States, and now received and receivable in their treasury, a majority of the committee recommend the payment of the sum of millions of dollars to Texas, to be applied in the first instance to the extinction of that portion of her debt for the reimbursement of which the duties on foreign imports were pledged as aforesaid; and the residue in such manner as she may direct. The said sum is to be paid by the United States in a stock, to be created, bearing five per cent. interest annually, payable half-yearly at the Treasury of the United States, and the principal reimbursable at the end of fourteen years. "According to an estimate which has been made, there are included in the territory to which it is proposed that Texas shall relinquish her claim, embracing that part of New Mexico lying east of the Rio Grande, a little less than 124,933 square miles, and about 79,957,120 acres of land. From the proceeds of the sale of this land, the United States may ultimately be reimbursed a portion, if not the whole of the amount of what is thus proposed to be advanced to Texas. "It cannot be anticipated that Texas will decline to accede to these liberal propositions; but if she should, it is to be distinctly understood that the title of the United States to any territory acquired from Mexico east of the Rio Grande, will remain unimpaired and in the same condition as if the proposals of adjustment now offered had never been made. "A majority of the committee recommend to the Senate that the section containing these proposals 1ST SESS.] DEBATES OF CONGRESS. Compromise Report from the Committee of Thirteen. to Texas shall be incorporated into the bill embracing the admission of California as a State, and the establishment of territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico. The definition and establishment of the boundary between New Mexico and Texas has an intimate and necessary connection with the establishment of a territorial government for New Mexico. To form a territorial government for New Mexico, without prescribing the limits of the territory, would leave the work imperfect and incomplete, and might expose New Mexico to serious controversy, if not dangerous collisions, with the State of Texas. And most, if not all, the considerations which unite in favor of combining the bill for the admission of California as a State and the territorial bills, apply to the boundary question of Texas. By the union of the three measures, every question of difficulty and division which has arisen out of the territorial acquisitions from Mexico will, it is hoped, be adjusted, or placed in a train of satisfactory adjustment. The committee, availing themselves of the arduous and valuable labors of the Committee on Territories, report a bill, herewith annexed, (marked A,) embracing those three measures, the passage of which, uniting them together, they recommend to the Senate. [MAY, 1850. tention of the Supreme Court has been misunderstood. They cannot but think that that court merely meant that laws of the several States which created obstacles in the way of the recovery of fugitives were not authorized by the constitution, and not that State laws affording facilities in the recovery of fugitives were forbidden by that instrument. "The non-slaveholding States, whatever sympathies any of their citizens may feel for persons who escape from other States, cannot discharge themselves from an obligation to enforce the Constitution of the United States. All parts of the instrument being dependent upon, and connected with each other, ought to be fairly and justly enforced. If some States may seek to exonerate themselves from one portion of the constitution, other States may endeavor to evade the perform ance of other portions of it; and thus the instrument, in some of its most important provisions, might become inoperative and invalid. "But, whatever may be the conduct of individual States, the duty of the General Government is perfectly clear. That duty is, to amend the existing law, and to provide an effectual remedy for the recovery of fugitives from service or labor. In devising such a remedy, Congress ought, while on the one hand securing to the owner the fair restoration of his property, effectually to guard on the other against any abuses in the application of that remedy. "The committee will now proceed to the consideration of, and to report upon, the subject of persons owing service or labor in one State escaping into another. The text of the constitution is quite "In all cases of the arrest, within a State, of clear: No person held to labor or service in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, persons charged with offences; in all cases of the shall, in consequence of any law or regulation pursuit of fugitives from justice from one State therein, be discharged from such service or labor, to another State; in all cases of extradition probut shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to vided for by treaties between foreign powers--the whom such service or labor may be due.' Nothing proceeding uniformly is summary. It has never can be more explicit than this language-nothing been thought necessary to apply, in cases of that more manifest than the right to demand, and the kind, the forms and ceremonies of a final trial, obligation to deliver up to the claimant, any such And when that trial does take place, it is in the fugitive. And the constitution addresses itself alike State or country from which the party has fled, to the States composing the Union and to the Gene- and not in that in which he has found refuge. By ral Government. If, indeed, there were any differ- the express language of the constitution, whether ence in the duty to enforce this portion of the con- the fugitive is held to service or labor or not, is to stitution between the States and the Federal Gov-be determined by the laws of the State from which he ernment, it is more clear that it is that of the fled; and, consequently, it is most proper that the former than of the latter. But it is the duty of tribunals of that State should expound and adminboth. It is now well known and incontestable that ister its own laws. If there have been any incitizens in slaveholding States encounter the great-stances of abuse in the erroneous arrest of fugiest difficulty in obtaining the benefit of this provision of the constitution. The attempt to recapture a fugitive is almost always a subject of great irritation and excitement, and often leads to most unpleasant, if not perilous, collisions. An owner of a slave, it is quite notorious, cannot pursue his property, for the purpose of its recovery, in some of the States, without imminent personal hazard. This is a deplorable state of things, which ought to be remedied. The law of 1793 has been found wholly ineffectual, and requires more stringent enactments. There is, especially, a deficiency in the number of public functionaries authorized to afford aid in the seizure and arrest of fugitives. Various States have declined to afford aid and co-operation in the surrender of fugitives from labor, as the committee believe, from a misconception of their duty arising under the Constitution of the United States. It is true that a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has given countenance to them in withholding their assistance. But the committee cannot but believe that the in tives from service or labor, the committee have not "Numerous petitions have been presented, pray. ing for a trial by jury, in the case of arrest of fugi MAY, 1850.] Compromise Report from the Committee of Thirteen. tives from service or labor, in the non-slaveholding States. It has been already shown that this would be entirely contrary to practice and uniform usage in all similar cases. Under the name of a popular and cherished institution-an institution, however, never applied in cases of preliminary proceeding, and only in cases of final trial-there would be a complete mockery of justice, so far as the owner of the fugitive is concerned. If the trial by jury be admitted, it would draw after it its usual consequences, of continuance from time to time, to bring evidence from distant places; of second or new trials, in cases where the jury is hung, or the verdict is set aside; and of revisals of the verdict and conduct of the jurors by competent tribunals. During the progress of all these dilatory and expensive proceedings, what security is there as to the custody and forthcoming of the fugitive upon their determination? And if, finally, the claimant should be successful, contrary to what happens in ordinary litigation between free persons, he would have to bear all the burdens and expense of the litigation, without indemnity, and would learn, by sad experience, that he had by far better have abandoned his right in the first instance, than to establish it at such unremunerated cost and heavy sacrifice. [31ST CONG. to their owners of fugitive slaves, those owners will have a just title to indemnity out of the Treasury of the United States. "It remains to report upon the resolutions in relation to slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Without discussing the power of Congress to abolish slavery within the District, in regard to which a diversity of opinion exists, the committee are of opinion that it ought not to be abolished. It could not be done without indispensable conditions, which are not likely to be agreed to. It could not be done without exciting great apprehension and alarm in the slave States. If the power were exercised within this District, they would apprehend that, under some pretext or another, it might be hereafter attempted to be exercised within the slaveholding States. It is true, that at present all such power is almost unanimously disavowed and disclaimed in the free States. But experience in public affairs has too often shown that where there is a desire to do a particular thing, the power to accomplish it, sooner or later, will be found or assumed. "Nor does the number of slaves within the District make the abolition of slavery an object of any such consequence as appears to be attached to it in some parts of the Union. Since the retrocession of Alexandria county to Virginia, on the south side of the Potomac, the District now consists only of Washington county, on the north side of this river; and the returns of the decennary enumeration of the people of the United States show a rapidly progressive decrease in the number of slaves in Washington county. According to the census of 1830, the number was 4,505; and in 1840 it was reduced to 3,320: showing a reduction in ten years of nearly one-third. If it should continue in the same ratio, the number, according to the census now about to be taken, will be only a little upwards of two thousand. "But, whilst the committee conceive that a trial by jury in a State where a fugitive from service or labor is recaptured, would be a virtual denial of justice to the claimant of such fugitive, and would be tantamount to a positive refusal to execute the provision of the constitution, the same objectious do not apply to such a trial in the State from which 'he fled. In the slaveholding States full justice is administered, with entire fairness and impartiality, in cases of all actions for freedom. The person claiming his freedom is allowed to sue in forma pauperis; counsel is assigned him; time is allowed him to collect his witnesses and to attend the sessions of the court; and his claimant is placed under "But a majority of the committee think differbond and security, or is divested of the possession ently in regard to the slave trade within the Disduring the progress of the trial, to insure the en-trict. By that trade is meant the introduction joyment of these privileges; and if there be any leaning on the part of courts and juries, it is always on the side of the claimant for freedom. of slaves from adjacent States into the District, for sale, or to be placed in depôt for the purpose of subsequent sale or transportation to other and distant markets. That trade, a majority of the committee are of opinion, ought to be abolished. Complaints have always existed against it, no less on the part of members of Congress from the South, than on the part of members from the North. It is a trade sometimes exhibiting revolt "In deference to the feelings and prejudices which prevail in the non-slaveholding States, the committee propose such a trial in the State from which the fugitive fled, in all cases where he declares to the officer giving the certificate for his return that he has a right to his freedom. Accordingly the committee have prepared, and reporting spectacles, and one in which the people of the herewith, (marked C,) two sections, which they recommend should be incorporated in the fugitive bill pending in the Senate. According to these sections, the claimant is placed under bond, and required to return the fugitive to that county in the State from which he fled, and there to take him before a competent tribunal, and allow him to assert and establish his freedom, if he can, affording to him for that purpose all needful facilities. "The committee indulge the hope that if the fugitive bill with the proposed amendments shall be passed by Congress, it will be effectual to secure the recovery of all fugitives from service or labor, and that it will remove all causes of complaint which have hitherto been experienced on that irritating subject. But if in its practical operation it shall be found insufficient, and if no adequate remedy can be devised for the restoration Con District have no interest, but, on the contrary, are "The views and recommendations contained in this report may be recapitulated in a few words: "1. The admission of any new State or States formed out of Texas, to be postponed until they shall hereafter present themselves to be received into the Union, when it will be the duty of Congress fairly and faithfully to execute the compact with Texas by admitting such new State or States. "2. The admission forthwith of California into the Union, with the boundaries which she has proposed. "3. The establishment of territorial governments without the Wilmot proviso for New Mexico and Utah, embracing all the territory recently acquired by the United States from Mexico not contained in the boundaries of California. "4. The combination of these two last-mentioned measures in the same bill. "5. The establishment of the western and northern boundary of Texas, and the exclusion from her jurisdiction of all New Mexico, with the grant to Texas of a pecuniary equivalent; and the section for that purpose to be incorporated in the bill admitting California and establishing territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico. "6. More effectual enactments of law to secure the prompt delivery of persons bound to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, who escape into another State. "And, 7. Abstaining from abolishing slavery; but, under a heavy penalty, prohibiting the slave trade in the District of Columbia. "If such of these several measures as require legislation should be carried out by suitable acts of Congress, all controversies to which our late territorial acquisitions have given rise, and all existing questions connected with the institution of slavery, whether resulting from those acquisitions or from its existence in the States and the District of Columbia, will be amicably settled and adjusted, in a manner, it is confidently believed, to give general satisfaction to an overwhelming majority of the people of the United States. Congress will have fulfilled its whole duty in regard to the vast country which, having been ceded by Mexico to the United States, has fallen under their dominion. It will have extended to it protection, provided for its several parts the inestimable blessing of free and regular government adapted to their various wants, and placed the whole under the banner and flag of the United States. Meeting courageously its clear and entire duty, Congress will escape the unmerited reproach of having, from considerations of doubtful policy, abandoned to an undeserved fate territories of boundless extent, with a sparse, incongruous, and alien, if not unfriendly, population, speaking different languages, and accustomed to different laws, whilst that population is making irresistible appeals to the new sovereignty to which they have been transferred for protection, for government, for law, and for order. "The committee have endeavored to present to the Senate a comprehensive plan of adjustment, which, removing all causes of existing excitement and agitation, leaves none open to divide the country and disturb the general harmony. The nation has been greatly convulsed, not by measures of general policy, but by questions of a sectional character, and, therefore, more dangerous and more to be deprecated. It wants repose. It loves and cherishes the Union. And it is most cheering and gratifying to witness the outbursts of deep and abiding attachment to it which have been ex [MAY, 1850. hibited in all parts of it, amidst all the trials through which we have passed and are passing. A people so patriotic as those of the United States, will rejoice in an accommodation of all troubles and difficulties by which the safety of that Union might have been brought into the least danger. And, under the blessings of that Providence who, amidst all vicissitudes, has never ceased to extend to them His protecting care, His smiles, and His blessings, they will continue to advance in popula tion, power, and prosperity, and work out triumphantly the glorious problem of man's capacity for self-government.” will be the pleasure of the Senate that the bills I do not know (said Mr. CLAY) whether it should be read otherwise than by their titles, or that the several amendments proposed to the fugitive bill should be read. I hardly think it can be required. They are stated and referred to in the report in such a clear manner, that they can be printed without being read. I think it would be trespassing too much upon the time of the Senate to read them; unless the reading is called for, I do not think it desirable. I therefore send to the Clerk's table the bills which have been prepared. [The bills were laid on the table.] The Secretary having read the first bill by its title, as follows: "A bill to admit California as a State into the Union; to establish territorial Governments for Utah and New Mexico; and making proposals to Texas for the establishment of her western and northern boundaries "— The VICE PRESIDENT. This bill has had its first reading. Shall it be read a second time? Mr. CLAY. Mr. President, still cherishing the desire which has always actuated me, and which is, I am sure, shared by the committee in common with me, I am anxious that the Senate should get on with as much promptness as possible. I think that by to-morrow the bills may be printed. Although there are slight amendments to the Utah and New Mexico bills, they are very slight-some accidental clerical omissions. It is hardly necessary that they should be printed again. But the order to print them need not interrupt action on the bill to-morrow, if it be desired. I move, then, that the report, with the bills accompanying it, be printed, and that they be made the order of the day for to-morrow. [On this motion to print, a general discussion of the whole subject broke out, which was checked by the presiding officer, as a question of order; and the printing was ordered as moved.] WEDNESDAY, May 15. The hour of one o'clock having arrived, The VICE PRESIDENT announced the special order of the day, being the bill reported from the Select Committee of thirteen to admit Cali |