Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/613

 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 those 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 excite serious, if not alarming consequences. It is high time that the wounds which it has Inflicted should be healed up and closed. And, 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 others, the 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 the 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 feeling, harmony, and fraternal sentiment 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 seeing 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 tranquility and happiness of the great family of states, of which, it is to be hoped, 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 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 legitimate 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 thence running up that river twenty miles, measured thereon by a straight line, and thence eastwardly to a point where the hundredth degree of west longitude crosses Red River; being the southwest 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