Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/593

 

 Message of President Taylor. — Sam Houston's propositions. — Taylor's Special Message — Mr. Clay's propositions for arrangement of slavery controversy. — His resolutions. — Resolutions of Mr. Bell; — The debate on Clay's resolutions, by Rusk, Foote, of Mississippi, Mason, Jefferson Davis, King, Clay, and Butler. — Remarks of Benton, Calhoun, Webster, Seward, and Cass. — Resolutions referred. — Report of Committee. — The omnibus bill. — California admitted. — New Mexico organized. — Texas boundary established. — Utah organized. — Slave-trade in the District of Columbia abolished. — Fugitive Slave law passed.

slave population of the United States amounted, in 1850, to 3,204,313; exhibiting an increase, for the last decade, of 716,858. Of the slaves in 1850, 2,957,657 were black, or of unmixed African descent, and 246,656 were mulatto. The free colored population in 1850 amounted to 434,495; of whom 275,400 were black, and 159,095 mulattoes. The total number of families, holding slaves, was, by the same census, 347,525.

The first session of the thirty-first congress commenced on the third day of December, 1849. Much time was spent in unsuccessful efforts to organize, until the 23d, when Mr. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, was elected speaker, by a plurality vote.

On the 24th, President Zachary Taylor transmitted to both houses his first annual message. In reference to the new territories, he says:

"No civil government having been provided by congress for California, the people of that territory, impelled by the necessities of their political condition, recently met in convention, for the purpose of forming a constitution and state government; which, the latest advices give me reason to suppose, has been accomplished; and it is believed they will shortly apply for the admission of California into the Union, as a sovereign state. Should such be the case, and should their constitution be conformable to the requisitions of the constitution of the United States, I recommend their application to the favorable consideration of congress.