Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/746

 in said territory, under or by virtue of any power or Authority derived from such legislative assembly; nor shall the members thereof exercise any power or authority as such."

This, too, was voted down; yeas, 11; nays, 36. Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, moved the following amendment:

And be it further enacted, That, until the inhabitants of said territory shall proceed to hold a convention to form a state constitution according to the provisions of this act, and so long as said territory remains a territory, the following sections contained in chapter one hundred and fifty-one, in the volume transmitted to the senate by the President of the United States, as containing the laws of Kansas, be, and the same are hereby, declared to be utterly null and void, viz.:

" 12. If any free person, by speaking or by writing, assert or maintain that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory, or shall introduce into this territory any book, paper, magazine, pamphlet, or circular, containing any denial of the right of persons to hold slaves in this territory, such person shall be deemed guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term of not less than two years.

". 13. No person who is conscientiously opposed to holding slaves, or who does not admit the right to hold slaves in this territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of any prosecution for the violation of any one of the sections of this act."

This was rejected, as superfluous, or covered by the amendment of Mr. Geyer; yeas, 13; nays, 32. Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, proposed the following:

And be it further enacted, That until the people of said territory shall form a constitution and state government, and be admitted into the Union under the provisions of this act, there shall be neither slavery or involuntary servitude in said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any state, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her service or labor as aforesaid.

This was voted down; yeas, 10; nays, 35. Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, moved that the whole bill be stricken out, and another inserted instead, repealing all the territorial laws of Kansas. This was rejected; yeas, 8; nays, 35. Mr. Seward moved to strike out the whole bill, and insert instead one admitting Kansas as a free state under the Topeka constitution. Lost, yeas, 11; nays, 36. The bill was now reported as amended, and the amendment made in committee of the whole concurred in. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and on the question of its final passage the vote stood, yeas, 33; nays, 12. The bill was then sent to the house. The title is as follows: "An act to authorize the people of the territory of Kansas to form a constitution and state government preparatory to their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original states."

This bill was never acted on in the house, but lay on the speaker's table when the session terminated on the 18th of August.