Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/643

 upon any writ of habeas corpus involving the question of personal freedom; and each of the said district courts shall have and exercise the same jurisdiction, in all cases arising under the constitution and laws of the United States, as is vested in the circuit and district courts of the United Stales; and the said supreme and district courts of the said territory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of habeas corpus, in all eases in which the same are granted by the judges of the United States in the District of Columbia.

"To which may be added the following proposition affirmed by the act of 1850, known as the fugitive slave law:

"That the provisions of the 'act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters,' approved February 12, 1793, and the provisions of the act to amend and supplementary to the aforesaid act, approved September 18, 1850, shall extend to, and be in force in, all the organized territories, as well as in the various states of the Union.

"From these provisions, it is apparent that the compromise measures of 1850 affirm, and rest upon, the following propositions:

"First. — That all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and the new states to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate representatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose.

"Second. — That 'all cases involving title to slaves,' and 'questions of personal freedom,' are to be referred to the adjudication of the local tribunals, with the right of appeal to the supreme court of the United States.

"Third. — That the provision of the constitution of the United States, in respect to fugitives from service, is to be carried into faithful execution in all 'the original territories,' the same as in the states.

"The substitute for the bill which your committee have prepared, and which is commended to the favorable action of the senate, proposes to carry these propositions and principles into practical operation, in the precise language of the compromise measures of 1850."

Some doubts having been expressed whether the amendments repealed the Missouri compromise, a special report was made, January 4th, 1854, so amending the bill as to leave no doubt upon that subject. The report which proposed to open to slavery all the vast territory secured to freedom by the Missouri compromise, startled the nation from its "repose," and produced an agitation that had never been equaled.

On the 16th January, Mr. Dixon, of Kentucky, gave notice of an amendment directly and plainly repealing the Missouri compromise.

The debate on the bill was opened by Mr. Douglas, on the 30th of January. In justification of his proposition to leave the whole territory open to slavery, he insisted that the Missouri compromise had been repealed. One of the grounds upon which this declaration was founded, was the action of congress in 1848, after the acquisition of territory from Mexico, when the senate voted into a bill a provision to extend the Missouri compromise line westward to the