Mr. Boyd of Ky. moved to amend it so Mr. Boyd's amendment prevailed: Yeas as to create and define thereby the territo-107; Nays 99.

ries of New-Mexico and Utah, to be slave- The question was now taken on the enholding or not as their people shall deter- grossment of the bill, and it was defeated: mine when they shall come to form State Yeas 99; Nays 107. governments. [In other words, to append the bill organizing the territory of New-sideration. Mexico to the Texas bill.]

Aug. 29th.-The Texas bill was taken up. Mr. Clingman of N. C. moved to amend so as to limit California by the line of 36 deg. 30 min., and establish the Terri-Question, which was seconded, and the Main tory of Colorado.

These acts are substantially as follows:

ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA.

An Act for the admission of the State of California into the Union.

Whereas, the people of California have presented a Constitution and asked admission into the Union, which constitution was submitted to Congress by the President of the United States, by message, dated February 13th, 1850, which, on due examination, is found to be republican in its form of government

of thirty-two degrees of north latitude to the Rio Bravo del Norte; and thence with the channel of said river to the Gulf of Mexico.

Second.-The State of Texas cedes to the United States all her claims to territories exte

rior to the limits and boundaries, which she agrees to establish by the first article of this agreement.

Third.-The State of Texas relinquishes all claim upon the United States for liability for the debts of Texas, and for compensation or indemnity for the surrender to the United States of her Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep-ships, forts, arsenals, custom-houses, customresentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of California shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects whatever.

house revenue, arms and munitions of war, and public buildings, with their sites, which became the property of the United States at the time of the Annexation.

Fourth.-The United States, in consideration of said establishment of boundaries, cession of SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That until claims to territory, and relinquishment of claims, the Representatives in Congress shall be appor-will pay to the State of Texas the sum of ten tioned according to an actual enumeration of the millions of dollars, in a stock bearing five per inhabitants of the United States, the State of cent. interest, and redeemable at the end of fourCalifornia shall be entitled to two representatives teen years, the interest payable half-yearly at the in Congress. Treasury of the United States.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said State of California is admitted into the Union upon the express condition that the people of said State, through their legislature or other wise, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within its limits, and shall pass no law, and do no act, whereby the title of the United States to, and right to dispose of, the same, shall be impaired or questioned; and they shall never lay any tax or assessment of any description whatsoever on the public domain of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors, who are citizens of the United States, be taxed higher than residents; and that all the navigable waters within the said State shall be common highways, and for ever free, as well to the inhabitants of said State as to the citizens of the United States, without any tax, duty, or impost therefor: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as recognizing or rejecting the propositions tendered by the people of California as articles of compact in the ordinance adopted by the Convention which formed the

constitution of that State. Approved, Sept. 9, 1850.

Fifth.-Immediately after the President of the United States shall have been furnished with an authentic copy of the act of the general assembly of Texas, accepting these propositions, he shall cause the stock to be issued in favor of the State of Texas, as provided for in the fourth article of this agreement.

Provided also, That no more than five millions of said stock shall be issued until the creditors of the State, holding bonds and other certificates of stock of Texas, for which duties on imports were specially pledged, shall first file, at the treasury of the United States, releases of all claims against the United States for or on account of said bonds or certificates, in such form as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and approved by the President of the United States.

ORGANIZATION OF NEW-MEXICO.

The second section of this act enacts, that all

that portion of the territory of the United States, bounded as follows, to wit: beginning at a point on the Colorado river where the boundary line of the republic of Mexico crosses the same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said river to the parallel of the thirtyAn Act proposing to the State of Texas the establish-second degree of north latitude; thence eastwardly ment of her Northern and Western Boundaries, the relinquishment by the said State of all territory claimed by her exterior to said boundaries, and of all her claims upon the United States, and to estab

THE TEXAS BOUNDARY.

lish a Territorial Government for New-Mexico.

with said degree to its intersection with the one hundred and third degree of longitude west from Greenwich; thence north with said degree of longitude to the parallel of the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; thence west with said Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep- parallel to the summit of the Sierra Madre; resentatives of the United States of America thence south with the crest of said mountains to in Congress assembled, that the following propo- the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; sitions shall be, and the same hereby are, offered thence west with the said parallel to its intersecto the State of Texas; which, when agreed to by tion with the boundary line of the State of Calithe said State, in an act passed by the Generalfornia; thence with the said boundary line to the Assembly, shall be binding and obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said State of Texas: Provided, That said agreement by the said General Assembly shall be given on or be. fore the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty.

First. The State of Texas will agree that her boundary on the North shall commence at the point at which the meridian of one hundred degrees west from Greenwich is intersected by the parallel of thirty-six degrees, and thirty minutes north latitude, and shall run from said point due west to the meridian of one hundred and three degrees west from Greenwich; hence her boundary shall run due south to the thirty-second degree of north latitude; thence on the said parallel

place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, erected into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of New-Mexico; Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion thereof to any other Territory or State; Provided further, That when admitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without Slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.

portraded further,

The eighteenth section enacts, that the pro

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all that part of the Territory of the United States included within the following limits, to wit: bounded on the west by the State of California, on the north by the Territory of Oregon, on the east by the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary government, by the name of the Territory of Utah; and, when admitted as a State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without Slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission: Provided, That nothing | in this act contained shall be construed to prohibit the government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more territories, in such manner and at such time as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory to any other State or Territory of the United States.

[The act proceeds to provide for the appointment of a territorial governor, secretary, marshal, judges, etc., etc., and for the election of a council of thirteen, and a house of representatives of twenty-six members; also for a delegate in Congress. All recognized citizens to be voters.] The governor shall receive an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars as governor, and one thousand dollars as superintendent of Indian affairs. The chief justice and associate justices shall each receive an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars. The secretary shall receive an annual salary of eighteen hundred dollars. The said salaries shall be paid quarter-yearly, at the Treasury of the United States. The members of the legislative assembly shall be entitled to receive each three dollars per day during their attendance at the sessions thereof, and three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going to and returning from said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually traveled route. Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power of said Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act; but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States; nor shall the lands or other property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. All the laws passed by the legislative assembly and Governor shall be submitted to the Congress of the United States, and, if disapproved, shall be null and of no effect.

Sec. 17. And be it further enacted, That the hereby extended over, and declared to be in force in, said Territory of Utah, so far as the same, or any provision thereof, may be applica

Constitution and laws of the United States are

ble.

XIV.

THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA STRUGGLE.

Our of the Louisiana Territory, since the admission first of Louisiana and then of Missouri as Slave States, there had been formed the Territories of Arkansas, Iowa, and Minnesota; the first without, and the two others with, Congressional inhibition of Slavery. Arkansas, in due course, became a Slave, and Iowa a Free, State; Minnesota was and destiny of one tier of States, fronting upon, is following surely in the track of Iowa. The and westward of, the Mississippi, was thus settled. What should be the fate of the next tier?

The region lying immediately westward of Missouri, with much territory north, as well as a more clearly defined district south of it, was long since dedicated to the uses of the Aborigines--not merely those who had originally inhabited it, but the tribes from time to time removed from the States eastward of the Mississippi. Very little, if any, of it was legally open to settlement by Whites; and, with the exception of the few and small military and trading posts thinly scattered over its surface, it is probable that scarcely two hundred white families were located in the spacious wilderness bounded by Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota on the east, the British possessions on the north, the crest of the Rocky Mountains on the west, and the settled portion of New-Mexico and the line of 36° 30' on the south, at the time when Mr. Douglas first, at the session of 1852-3, submitted a bill organizing the Territory of NEBRASKA, by which title the region above bounded had come to be vaguely indicated.

This region was indisputably included within the scope of the exclusion of Slavery from all Federal territory north of 36° 30′, to which the South had assented by the terms of the Missouri compact, in order thereby to secure the admission of Missouri as a Šlave State. Nor was it once intimated, during the long, earnest, and searching debate in the Senate on the Compromise measures of 1850, that the adoption of those measures, whether together or separately, would involve or imply a repeal of the Missouri Restriction. We have seen in our last chapter how Mr. Clay's original suggestion of a compromise, which was substantially that ultimately adopted, was received by the Southern Senators who spoke on its introduction, with hardly a qualification, as a virtual surrender of all that the South had ever claimed with respect to the new territories. And, from the beginning to the close of the long and able discussion which followed, neither friend nor foe of the Compromises, nor of any of them, hinted that one effect of their adoption would be the lifting of the Missouri restriction from the territory now

covered by it. When the Compromises of 1850 were accepted in 1852 by the National Conventions of the two great parties, as a settlement of the distracting controversy therein contemplated, no hint was added that the Nebraska region was opened thereby to Slavery.

Several petitions for the organization of a Territory westward of Missouri and Iowa were presented at the session of 1851-2, but no decisive action taken thereon until the next session, when,

Dec. 13th.-Mr. W. P. Hall of Mo., pursuant to notice, submitted to the House a bill to organize the Territory of PLATTE, which was read twice, and sent to the Committee on Territories. From that Committee,

Feb. 2d, 1853.—Mr. W. A. Richardson of Ill. reported a bill to organize the Territory of NEBRASKA, which was read twice and committed.

Feb. 9th. The bill was ordered to be taken out of Committee, on motion of W. P. Hall.

Feb. 10th. The bill was reported from the Committee of the Whole to the House, with a recommendation that it do not pass. Mr. Richardson moved the previous question, which prevailed.

Mr. Letcher of Va. moved that the bill do lie on the table: Lost; Yeas 49 (mainly Southern); Nays 107.

The bill was then engrossed, read a third time, and passed; Yeas 98; Nays 43, (as before).

Feb. 11th.-The bill reached the Senate and was referred to the Committee on Territories.

Feb. 17th.-Mr. Douglas reported it without amendment.

March 2nd. (Last day but one of the session), Mr. Douglas moved that the bill be taken up: Lost: Yeas 20; (all Northern but Atchison and Geyer of Mo.); Nays 25; (21 Southern, 4 Northern).

session; and, for my own part, I acknowledge
now that, as the Senator from Illinois well knows,
last session, I was perhaps as much opposed to
when I came to this city, at the beginning of the
the proposition, as the Senator from Texas now
is. The Senator from Iowa knows it; and it was
for reasons which I will not now mention or sug-
gest. But, sir, I have from reflection and inves-
tigation in my own mind, and from the opinions
of others--my constituents, whose opinions I am
bound to respect-come to the conclusion that
now is the time for the organization of this Ter-
ritory. It is the most propitious time. The trea-
ties with the various Indian tribes, the titles to
better be made now than at any future time; for,
whose possessions must be extinguished, can
as the question is agitated, and as it is under-
stood, white men, speculators, will interpose, and
interfere, and the longer it is postponed the more
cult it will be to extinguish the Indian title in that
we will have to fear from them, and the more diffi-
country, and the harder the terms to be imposed.
Therefore, Mr. President, for this reason, without
going into detail, I am willing now that the ques-
the consideration of the bill or not.
tion shall be taken, whether we will proceed to

The meaning is here diplomatically veiled, yet is perfectly plain. Gen. Atchison had been averse to organizing this Territory until he could procure a relaxation of the Missouri Restriction as to Slavery; but, seeing no present hope of this, he was willing to waive the point, and assent to an organization under a bill silent with respect to Slavery, and of course leaving the Missouri Restriction unimpaired.

Gen. Pierce was inaugurated President on the 4th March, 1853; and, in his Inaugural Address, referred to the discussions concerning Slavery and the Compromises of 1850 in the following terms :

"I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the tional, and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. Compromise Measures," are strictly constituI believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect, as they would view any other legal and constitutional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abMr. Borland of Ark. moved that it do lie stract opinions as to their propriety in a different on the table: Carried: Yeas 23; (all South-state of society, but cheerfully, and according ern but 4;) Nays 17; (all Northern but Atchison and Geyer). So the bill was put to sleep for the session.

March 3rd.-Mr. Douglas again moved that the bill be taken up.

On the motion to take up-Mr. Rusk of Texas objecting-Mr. Atchison said:

"I must ask the indulgence of the Senate to say one word in relation to this matter. Perhaps there is not a State in the Union more deeply interested in this question than the State of Missouri. If not the largest, I will say the best, portion of that Territory, perhaps the only por tion of it that in half a century will become a State, lies immediately west of the State of Missouri. It is only a question of time, whether we will organize the territory at this session of Congress, or whether we will do it at the next

to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exconvictions, and upon them shall I act. I ferposition belongs. Such have been, and are, my vently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional, or ambitious, or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity."

The XXXIIId Congress assembled at Washington, Dec. 5th, 1853, with a large Administration majority in either House. Linn Boyd of Ky. was chosen Speaker of the House. The President's Annual Message contained the following allusion to the subject of Slavery :

"It is no part of my purpose to give promi

nence to any subject which may properly be regarded as set at rest by the deliberate judgment of the people. But, while the present is bright with promise, and the future full of demand and inducements for the exercise of active intelligence, the past can never be without useful lessons of admonition and instruction. If its dangers serve not as beacons, they will evidently fail to fulfill the object of a wise design. When the grave shall have a csed over all, who are now endeavoring to meet the obligations of duty, the year 1850 will be recurred to as a period filled with anxious apprehension. A successful war had just terminated. Peace brought with it a vast augmentation of territory. Disturbing questions arose, bearing upon the domestic institutions of one portion of the confederacy, and involving the constitutional rights of the States. But, notwithstanding differences of opinion and sentiment which then existed in relation to details and specific provisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whose devotion to the Union can never be doubted, has given renewed vigor to our institutions, and restored a sense of repose and security to the public mind throughout the confederacy. That this repose is to suffer no shock during my official term, if I have power to avert it, those who placed me here may be assured.

tioned by the approving voice of the American People, your Committee have deemed it their duty to incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill, the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other consideration were necessary to render the propriety of this course imperative upon the Committee, they may be found in the fact that the. Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the Slavery question, as did NewMexico and Utah, when those Territories were organized.

It was a disputed point, whether Slavery was. prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico. On the one hand, it was. contended, as a legal proposition, that Slavery, having been prohibited by the enactments of Mexico, according to the laws of nations, we received the country with all its local laws and domestic institutions attached to the soil, so far as they did not conflict with the Constitution of the United States; and that a law either protecting or prohibiting Slavery, was not repugnant to that instrument, as was evidenced by the fact that one-half of the States of the Union tolerated, while the other half pro: hibited, the institution of Slavery. On the other hand, it was insisted that, by virtue of the Constitution of the United States, every citizen had a right to remove to any Territory of the Union, and carry his property with him under the proDec. 15th.-Mr. A. C. Dodge of Iowa sub-tection of law, whether that property consisted mitted to the Senate a bill (No. 22) of persons or things. The difficulties arising from this diversity of opinion, were greatly agorganize the Territory of Nebraska," which gravated by the fact that there were many perwas read twice, and referred to the Com-sons on both sides of the legal controversy, who mittee on Territories.

“To

Jan. 4th.-Mr. Douglas, from said Committee, reported said bill with amendments, which were printed. The following is the accompanying Report:

The Committee on Territories, to whom was referred a bill for an act to establish the Territory of Nebraska, have given the same that serious and deliberate consideration which its great importance demands, and beg leave to report it back to the Senate with various amend ments, in the form of a substitute for the bill: The principal amendments which your committee deem it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the Senate, in a special report, are those in which the principles established by the Compromise Measures of 1850, so far as they are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be affirmed and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new Territory.

were unwilling to abide the decision of the courts those who claimed that the Mexican laws were on the legal matters in dispute; thus, among still in force, and, consequently, that Slavery was already prohibited in those Territories by valid enactment, there were many who insisted upon Congress making the matter certain, by enacting another prohibition. In like manner, some of those who argued that Mexican law had ceased to have any binding force, and that the Constitu tion tolerated and protected Slave property in those territories, were unwilling to trust the decision of the courts upon the point, and insisted that Congress should, by direct enactment, remove all legal obstacles to the introduction of Slaves into those Territories.

Such being the character of the controversy in respect to the territory acquired from Mexico, a similar question has arisen in regard to the right to hold slaves in the Territory of Nebraska, when the Indian laws shall be withdrawn, and the country thrown open to emigration and settlement. By the 8th section of "an act to authorize the people of Missouri Territory to form a Constitution and State Government, and for the ad mission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to prohibit Slavery in certain Territories," approved March 6th, 1820, it was provided; "That in all that ter ritory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, Slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and are hereby, prohibited: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the persons claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid."

The wisdom of those measures is attested, not less by their salutary and beneficial effects, in allaying sectional agitation and restoring peace and harmony to an irritated and distracted people, than by the cordial and almost universal approbation with which they have been received and sanctioned by the whole country. In the judgment of your Committee, those measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere adjustment of difficulties arising out of the recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to establish certain great principles, which would not only furnish adequate remedies for existing evils, but, in all time to come, avoid the perils of similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of Slavery from the Halls of Congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitration of those who were immediately interested in, and Under this section, as in the case of the Mexican alone responsible for, its consequences. With a law in New-Mexico and Utah, it is a disputed view of conforming their action to what they re- point whether Slavery is prohibited in the Ne gard as the settled policy of the Government, sanc-braska country by valid enactment. The deci