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and discussed until Feb. 16, when, by a vote of 23 to 21, the report of the committee was concurred in. February 3, in the course of the discussion, Senator Thomas of Illinois submitted an amendment prohibiting slavery in the territory acquired from France north of the line of 36° 30′, except Missouri; the amendment was withdrawn on the 7th, however, and offered again on the 16th; on the 17th, by a vote of 34 to 10, it was adopted. On the 18th the Maine bill, as thus amended, passed the Senate.

In the meantime, the House also had been considering the Missouri question. December 8 the Missouri memorials presented in the previous session had been referred to a select committee, which reported an enabling act on the following day. The bill was taken up Jan. 25, and debated until Feb. 18. On the 23d, so much of the Senate amendments as comprised the Missouri enabling act was disagreed to, by a vote of 93 to 72, and the Thomas amendment was rejected by a vote of 159 to 18. On the 28th the House again insisted on its disagreement to the Senate amendments, the votes being 97 to 76 on the Missouri portions, and 160 to 14 on the Thomas clause. The consideration of the Missouri bill was meanwhile continued. On the 26th an amendment to the same effect as the Thomas amendment in the Senate was rejected, and on the 29th an amendment offered by Taylor, of New York, prohibiting slavery in Missouri, was concurred in by a vote of 94 to 86; March 1, by a vote of 91 to 82, the bill passed the House. In the Senate the clause prohibiting slavery was stricken out, and the Thomas amendment inserted. A compromise was effected by a conference committee; the Maine and Missouri bills were passed separately, and slavery was permitted in Missouri, but prohibited in the remainder of the Louisiana purchase north of 36° 30′. The act for the admission of Maine was approved March 3, and the act authorizing Missouri to form a state government was approved March 6.

The constitution under which Missouri applied for admission contained a clause forbidding free negroes to enter the State. The constitution was transmitted to Congress at the beginning of the session, November, 1820. A resolution to admit Missouri as a State was reported in the Senate Nov. 20, taken up Dec. 4, and debated until the 12th, when it was passed. In the House the resolution was laid on the table until Jan. 15, 1821, when it was taken up and debated until Feb. 2, without any agreement being reached; it was then, on motion of Clay, referred to a select committee of thirteen. The report of the committee, on the 10th, recommended amendments similar to those afterwards agreed upon. On the 12th, after agreeing to the report, the third reading was refused by a vote of 80 to 83; the next day a motion to reconsider was carried, 101 to 66, but, by a vote of 82 to 88, the third reading was again refused. On the 22d Clay proposed the election of a joint committee to consider and report on the advisability of admitting Missouri; this was agreed to by a vote of 101 to 55, and on the following day the committee was chosen. The Senate, in the meantime, had rejected several propositions for admission, but agreed to the plan of a joint committee by a vote of 29 to 7. The report of the committee, in the terms of the resolution as later passed, was agreed to by the House Feb. 26, by a vote of 87 to 81; the Senate agreed to the report on the 28th, by a vote of 28 to 14; March 2 the resolution was approved. The condition imposed by the resolution was accepted by the legislature of

Missouri June 26, 1821, and a proclamation of Aug. 10 announced the admission of Missouri as a State.

The extracts following relate chiefly to the question of slavery as involved in the compromises. REFERENCES. Accompanying each of the following extracts is an indication of the source from which it is drawn. The act for the admission of Maine is in U. S. Stat. at Large, III., 544; the act authorizing Missouri to form a State constitution, ib., III., 545-548. The constitution of 1820 is in Poore's Federal and State Constitutions, II., 1104-1117, and Niles's Register, XIX., 50-57. The proceedings of Congress may be followed in the House and Senate Journals, 16th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess.; full reports of the debates are in the Annals; Benton's Abridgment, VI., VII.; Niles's Register, XVII., XVIII., XIX. The nature and effect of the compromise were much discussed in the debates on the compromise measures of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854.

No. 73. Tallmadge's Amendment

February 13, 1819

And provided, That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully [duly] convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five

years.

[Annals, 15th Cong., 2d Sess., 1170.]

No. 74. Taylor's Amendment

January 26, 1820

The reading of the bill proceeded as far as the fourth section; when

Mr. Taylor, of New York, proposed to amend the bill by incorporating in that section the following provision:

Section 4, line 25, insert the following after the word “States": "And shall ordain and establish, that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said State, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con

victed: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any other State, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid: And provided, also, That the said provision shall not be construed to alter the condition or civil rights of any person now held to service or labor in the said Territory."

[Annals, 16th Cong., 1st Sess., 947.]

No. 75. Thomas's Amendment (final form)

February 17, 1820

And be it further enacted, That, in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid.

[Annals, 16th Cong., 1st Sess., 427, 428.]

No. 76. Report of the Conference Committee

March 1, 1820

[House of Representatives]

Mr. Holmes . . . made the following report:

1. That they recommend to the Senate to recede from their amendments to the said bill.

2. That they recommend to the two Houses to agree to strike out [of] the fourth section of the bill from the House of Repre

sentatives, now pending in the Senate, entitled "An act to authorize the people of Missouri to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States," the following proviso in the following words: [here follows the Taylor amendment.] And that the following provision be added to the bill: [here follows the Thomas amendment.]

[Annals, 16th Cong., 1st Sess., 1576, 1577.]

No. 77.

Missouri Enabling Act

March 6, 1820

An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories.

Be it enacted . . , That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri territory included within the boundaries hereinafter designated, be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, and to assume such name as they shall deem proper; and the said state, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said state shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi river, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude; thence west, along that parallel of latitude, to the St. Francois river; thence up, and following the course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; thence west, along the same, to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, where the same empties into the Missouri river, thence, from the point aforesaid north, along the said meridian line, to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines,

making the said line to correspond with the Indian boundary line; thence east, from the point of intersection last aforesaid, along the said parallel of latitude, to the middle of the channel of the main fork of the said river Des Moines; thence down and along the middle of the main channel of the said river Des Moines, to the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi river; thence, due east, to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence down, and following the course of the Mississippi river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning: ...

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SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the state, contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and is hereby, forever prohibited: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labour or service is lawfully claimed, in any state or territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or service as aforesaid.

[U. S. Stat. at Large, III., 545, 546, 548.]

No. 78.

Constitution of Missouri

July 19, 1820

[ART. III.] SEC. 26. The general assembly shall not have power to pass laws

1. For the emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners; or without paying them, before such emancipation, a full equivalent for such slaves so emancipated; and,

2. To prevent bona-fide immigrants to this State, or actual settlers therein, from bringing from any of the United States, or from any of their Territories, such persons as may there be deemed to

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