Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/745

 Mississippi, striking out so much of the bill as secured the right of suffrage in the proposed reörganization of Kansas to alien residents who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, and renounced all allegiance to foreign governments, was adopted by a vote of 22 to 16. Sometime in the morning of July 3d, the following amendment, reduced to shape by Mr. Geyer, of Missouri, was added to the 18th section of the bill, by a vote of 40 to 3:

"No law shall be made or have force or effect in said territory [of Kansas] which shall require any attestation or oath to support any act of congress other legislative act, as a qualification for any civil office, public trust, or for any employment or profession, or to serve as juror, or vote at any election, or which shall impose any tax upon, or condition to, the exercise of the right of suffrage, by any qualified voter, or which shall restrain or prohibit the free discussion of any law or subject of legislation in the said territory, or the free expression of opinion thereon by the people of said territory."

Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved the following:

"And be it further enacted, That it was the true intent and meaning of the 'act to organize the territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' not to legislate slavery into Kansas, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free through their territorial legislature to regulate the institution of slavery in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; and that, until the territorial legislature acts upon the subject, the owner of a slave in one of the states has no right or authority to take such slave into the territory of Kansas, and there hold him as a slave; but every slave taken to the territory of Kansas by his owner for the purposes of settlement is hereby declared to be free, unless there is some valid act of a duly constituted legislative assembly of said territory, under which he may be held as a slave."

The yeas and nays being ordered, the proposition was voted down; yeas, 9 nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then proposed the following:

"And be it further enacted, That the provision in the 'act to organize the territory of Nebraska and Kansas,' which declares it to be' the true intent and meaning 'of said act' not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor 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,' was intended to, and does, confer upon, or leave to, the people of the territory of Kansas full power, at anytime, through its territorial legislature, to exclude slavery from said territory or to recognize and regulate it therein."

This was also voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 34. Mr. Trumbull then submitted the following:

"And be it further enacted, That all the acts and proceedings of all and every body of men heretofore assembled in said territory of Kansas, and claiming to be a legislative assembly thereof, with authority to pass laws for the government of said territory, are hereby declared to be utterly null and void. And no person shall hold any office, or exercise any authority or jurisdiction