On coming out of committee, the yeas and nays were called on the question, first of agreeing to so much of the amendment as precedes and includes the word "convicted," and the same was sustained by eighty-six yeas from the free states, and one from Delaware, there being sixty-six nays from the slave states, and ten from the free states. The remainder of the amendment, following the word "convicted," was sustained by yeas, eighty-two, nays seventyeight-only four majority. This was the first renewal of the contest between the north and the south on the slavery question, since the organization of the government under the constitution of the United States. The contest and the debates in the convention which formed the constitution of the United States upon subjects connected with slavery, were long and violent, and at several periods threatened a dissolution of the convention without forming any constitution. Such a result would have sounded the death-knell of the Union, and destroyed the peace, harmony, and prosperity which have been enjoyed under the constitution during a period of seventy years. But a more conciliatory spirit finally prevailedseveral compromises were effected and agreed upon as fundamental articles and corner-stones of the constitution, and that wisest, and on the whole, the best of all the constitutions ever formed by man, was agreed upon with great harmony, signed by all the members present, and reported to the congress of the confederation. [See ante. pages 42 to 59.]

From the adoption of the constitution, in 1788, to the time of the debate on the Missouri bill, in 1819, there had been no debates, and no controversies on sectional grounds, and no sectional parties had arisen in the United States. The contest on the Missouri bill was the renewal of the old sectional controversy which had arisen in the constitutional convention in 1787.

The Missouri bill as amended, was ordered by the house to be read a third time, by yeas, 98, nays, 56. It passed the house the next day, February 16, and was sent to the senate.

On the 23d of Febuary, a committee of the senate reported the bill with an amendment striking out the restrictions in relation to slavery. The senate voted to strike out the last part of the restriction after the word "convicted," by twenty-seven yeas, for striking it out, to seven nays. The vote to strike out the first part of the restriction was yeas, 22, nays, 16.

The bill as amended by striking out the restriction against slavery, was passed by the senate and returned to the house of representatives. The house, by a vote of seventy-six yeas to seventy-eight nays, refused to concur in the amendments of the senate; the senate voted to adhere to their amendments, and thus the bill was lost by the disagreement of the two houses.

The subject was again introduced into congress, at the opening of the next session, in December, 1819, and into the legislatures of several of the states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Kentucky; and the question more or less agitated the whole Union. After a long and violent contest in both houses of congress, which threatened the dissolution of the Union, a compromise was finally effected through the influence of the more conservative and conciliatory members. An act was passed and approved, March 6th, 1820, to authorize the people of Missouri to form a constitution and state government, and to prohibit slavery in all that part of the Louisiana purchase, lying north and west from that state. The following is the 8th section of that

act, viz:

And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees thirty 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 crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever 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 person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.

The compromise section to exclude slavery from all the territories of the United States, lying north of 36 degrees of north latitude, was introduced into the senate by Mr. Thomas, of Iilinois, and was adopted by thirty-four yeas to ten nays, twenty members from the free states, and fourteen from the slave states voting for it, and two from Indiana, and eight from the slave states voting against it.

The act as finally passed contained no restriction to the admission of Missouri as a slave state; the senate having amended the house bill, by striking out the provision relating to slavery in the state of Missouri, the house, after a long struggle, accepted the 8th section of the act as above stated, as a substitute for it, as a

matter of compromise, and by a vote of ninety yeas, (fourteen from the free states and seventy-six from the slave states), to eighty-seven nays, all from the free states, agreed to the amendment of the senate; and thus the bill became a law. By that compromise, the southern states secured the admission of Missouri as a slave state; and the northern states secured to the cause of freedom, and for the use of freemen only, all the territory of the United States, lying north and west of that state. That compromise effectually quieted the agitation of the slavery question for about fifteen years, and until after the formation of a political party of abolitionists in Massachusetts and other northern states; and it tended to give peace to the country until its repeal in 1854.

SEC. 25. FREE COLORED PERSONS BORN IN THE UNITED STATES,

RECOGNIZED BY CONGRESS AS CITIZENS.

In pursuance of the act of congress, granting leave to do so, members were elected to a convention to form a constitution for the state of Missouri, and the convention met and formed a constitution, which was presented to congress in November, 1820. It contained the following provision, viz:

"It shall be the duty, (referring to the legislature of the state), as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary, first, to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, and settling in this state, under any pretext whatever."

That provision of the constitution was immediately objected to by northern members, as conflicting with section 2, of Article IV, of the constitution of the United States, which provides that "The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states."

At that time, the constitution and laws of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the New England states, made no distinction between white persons and free colored persons; and if the latter were born within the United States, even if they were emancipated slaves of African descent, they were recognized by the laws as citizens, and allowed the elective franchise on the same conditions as white citizens. A resolution to admit Missouri into the Union as a state, with that constitution, was voted down in the house of representatives by ninety-three nays to seventy-nine yeas. After a long contest, of more than three months, and violent de

bates in both houses, which agitated the whole country, on the report of a joint committee of the house and senate, of which Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, was chairman, a compromise resolution was passed, which finally settled the controversy. It was as follows, viz:

Resolution providing for the admission of the state of Missouri into the Union, on a certain condition.

Resolved by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America, in congress assembled, That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part of said state to congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen, of either of the states of this Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such sitizen is entitled under the constitution of the United States Provided, That the legislature of the said state, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the president of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt whereof, the president, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of congress, the admission of the said state into this Union shall be considered as complete.

By that resolution, the congress of the United States that passed it, in very clear and explicit language, recognized that free colored persons of African descent, born in the United States, were and are, citizens, whose rights in the several states were and are guaranteed by the constitution of the United States; and for that reason, and that only, the foregoing provision of the state constitation was objectionable. The resolution of congress could refer to no other class of citizens, and admits of no other explanation, consistent with the circumstances, and with the legal rights and conditions of the several classes of persons in the United States.

SEC. 26. REVIEW OF THE ACTION OF CONGRESS UPON THE SUB

JECT OF SLAVERY.

The first difficulty in relation to the subject of slavery, arose in congress, in 1784, in acting upon the ordinance for the government of the territories, drawn up by Mr. Jefferson. The opposition of the south to the provision prohibiting slavery in the territories after the year 1800, defeated it for the time. If that ordinance had been adopted and adhered to, with the prohibitory provision in it,

the result would have been, that North Carolina and Georgia would never have ceded their western lands and territories to congress, and that would have remained a subject of bitter feeling and con troversy between the states, and very likely it would have prevented the adoption of the present constitution.

The ordinance of 1787, was adopted to satisfy the north -Virginia retaining Kentucky, to be formed into a slave state, and North Carolina and Georgia afterwards made cessions, on condition that congress should not interfere with slavery in the territories ceded by them. By that arrangement, amounting to a compromise, all the territories north of the Ohio river, were dedicated to freedom and freemen; and all south of that river were retained by the friends of slavery, to be settled by themselves and their posterity, with their slaves.

The great mistake of the congress of the United States, was in not extending that compromise line from the mouth of the Ohio, west of the Mississippi river, at the time of subjecting the district of Louisiana to the governor and judges of the territory of Indiana, in March, 1804. That mistake was repeated in establishing a separate territorial government for that country, and calling it the territory of Louisiana, in March, 1805. Congress fell into the same great error, the third time, on reorganizing the territorial government, in June, 1812, and recognizing and confirming slavery, and authorizing its introduction into all the new settlements that might be thereafter made in the territory, north to the British possessions, and west to the Pacific ocean. Congress corrected that great error by the Missouri compromise, in 1820, so far as it was practicable to do so, without endangering, and perhaps destroying the Union.

The proper way to restrict slavery and prevent its extension, is to prohibit its introduction into new settlements, and into new districts of country; and the proper mode to secure the admission of a territory as a free state, is to make it a free territory, when it has but few inhabitants, that it may be settled exclusively by freemen, who are in favor of free institutions. To make Missouri a free state, in 1820, after it had been settled by slaveholders with their slaves, was practically impossible; and it was at all times impossible for