Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/744

 elected by the legal voters aforesaid; said delegates to be chosen on the day of the presidential election (Tuesday, November 4th, 1856,) and to assemble in convention on the first Monday in December, 1856, to form a state constitution. The bill proposed, also, penalties for illegal voting at said election.

To this substitute bill, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, proposed the following amendment, to come in at the end as an additional section:

Sec. 18. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth section and of the thirty-second section of the act passed at the first session of the thirty-third congress, commonly called the Kansas and Nebraska act, as reads as follows: "Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into any state or territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the same is hereby repealed; provided, that any person or persons lawfully held to service within either of the territories named in said act shall be discharged from such service, if they shall not be removed and kept out of said territories within twelve months from the passage of this act.

This amendment to the Stephens substitute was carried by a vote of 109 to 102, and the bill, thus amended by its adversaries, was abandoned by its friends and received but two votes, Dunn, of Indiana, and Harrison, of Ohio.

Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, now moved that the bill reported by the committee do lie on the table, which was defeated by a vote of yeas, 106; nays, 107. The house now refused to adjourn by a vote of 106 to 102; and after a long struggle, the final question was reached and the bill rejected, by a vote of 10*7 to 106. On the 1st of July, Mr. Barclay, of Pennsylvania, moved a reconsideration of the preceding vote by which the free Kansas bill had been rejected. The reconsideration was carried on the 3d of July, by a vote of 101 to 99. The previous question on the passage of the bill was then ordered, and the bill was finally passed, yeas, 99; nays, 97.

On the 30th of June, Mr. Douglas reported to the senate on several bills submitted by Messrs. Clayton, Toombs and others for the pacification of the Kansas troubles, as also against Governor Seward's proposition to admit Kansas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Mr. Collamer, being the minority of the territorial committee, made a counter report. Mr. Douglas gave notice that he would ask for a final vote on the 3d of July. The bill was debated on the 1st and 2d of July, and the following night, the majority re sisting all motions to adjourn. An amendment, moved by Mr. Adams, of