head, Charles Brown, Charles J. Ingersoll, Lewis C. Nays are all Southern, but Charles J. Ingersoll,

19, (all Whigs but Calhoun, of S. C., and Yulee | Mr. Houston, of Delaware, voting in the majority of Florida); Nays, 26, (24 Dem., with Corwin as before: otherwise, members from the Free of Ohio, and Johnson of Louisiana.) States in the affirmative; those from the Slave States in the negative.]

Aug. 3.-This bill reached the Senate, when Mr. Badger, of N. C., moved its indefinite postponement: negatived, 47 to 1, (Yulee). It was then sent to the Committee on Territories.

Mr.Westcott, of Fla., immediately moved that the bill do lie on the table, which prevailed: Yeas, 26; Nays, 18 (a mixed vote, evidently governed by various motives); but the negatives were all Democrats, but Corwin and Johnson aforesaid. This being the last day of the The Senate had had under consideration, session, it was evident that the bill, if opposed, from time to time through the Session, a bill as it was certain to be, could not get through, of its own, reported by Mr. Douglas, which was and it was, doubtless, in behalf of other press- finally referred to a select Committee-Mr. Claying business that many Senators voted to lay ton, of Delaware, Chairman-and by said com this aside. It was, of course, dead for the ses-mittee reported some days before the reception sion. of the House bill. It was then dropped. Aug. 5.-Mr. Douglas reported the House bill, with amendments, which were printed. Aug. 10. -After some days' debate, the Senate proceeded to vote. Mr. Foote, of Miss., moved that the bill do lie on the table. De. feated: Yeas, 15 (Southern); Nays, 36.

Dec. 6, 1847.-The XXXth Congress assembled; Robert C. Winthrop (Whig) of Mass. was chosen Speaker of the House. President Polk, in his Annual Message, regretted that Oregon had not already been organized, and urged the necessity of action on the subject.

Feb. 9.-Mr. Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, reported to the House a bill to establish the territorial government of Oregon; which, by a vote of two-thirds, was made a special order for March 14th. It was postponed, however, to the 28th; when it was taken up and discussed, as on one or two subsequent days. May 29th, it was again made a special order next after the Appropriation bills. The President that day sent a special message, urging action on this subject. July 25th, it was taken up in earnest; Mr. Wentworth, of Illinois, moving that debate on it in Committee cease at two o'clock this day.

Mr. Geo. S. Houston, of Ala., endeavored to put this motion on the table. Defeated: Yeas 85; Nays 89, (nearly, but not fully, a sectional division). Mr. Geo. W. Jones, of Tenn., moved a reconsideration, which was carried: Yeas, 100; Nays, 88; and the resolution laid on the table: Yeas, 96; Nays, 90.

The bill continued to be discussed, and finally (Aug. 1) was got out of Committee; when Mr. C. B. Smith moved the Previous Question thereon, which was ordered.

Aug. 2.--The House came to a vote on an amendment made in Committee, whereby the following provision of the original bill was stricken out:

That the inhabitants of said Territory shall be entitled to enjoy all and singular, the rights, privileges, and advantages granted and secured to the people of the Territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, by the articles of compact contained in the ordinance for the government of said Territory, passed the 13th day of July, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven; and shall be subject to all the conditions, and restrictions, and probibitions in said articles of compact imposed upon the people of said territory, and

The House refused to agree to this amendment: Yeas, 88; Nays, 114.

On the question of agreeing to this amend ment:

Inasmuch as the said Territory is north of thirty-six deg. thirty min., usually known as the [line of the] Mis souri Compromise.

It was rejected: Yeas, 2 (Bright and Dou glas); Nays, 52.

Mr. Douglas moved to amend the bill, by inserting after the word "enacted:"

That the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude, known as the Missouri Com. promise line, as defined in the eighth section of an act entitled, "An Act to authoriz✩ the people of the Missouri Territory to form a Constitutional and State Govern ment, 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, approved March 6th, 1820," be, and the same is hereby, declared to extend to the Pacific Ocean; and the said eighth section, together with the compromise therein effected, is hereby revived, and declared to be in full force and binding, for the future organization of the Territories of the United States in the same sense, and with the same understanding with which it was originally adopted; and

Which was carried: Yeas, 38; Nays, 21; as fol

lows:

The Members from the Free States who voted Messrs. Allen,

with the South to strike qut, were

Dodge,

Atherton,

Felch,

Baldwin,

Greene,

The bill was then engrossed for a third reading: Yeas, 33; Nays, 22; (nearly the same as

Otherwise, from Slave States, all Yeas: from Free States, all Nays.

Aug. 12.-The Senate, after voting down various propositions to lay on the table, etc., finally decided to recede from its amendments to the Oregon bill, and pass it as it came from the House Yeas, 29; Nays, 25 (all from Slave States).

Resolved, That, as the people in Territories have the same inherent rights of self-government as the people in the States, if in the exercise of such inherent rights the people in the newly-acquired Territories, by the Annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California and New-Mexico, south of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes of

north latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, shall estab lish Negro Slavery in the formation of their state governments, it shall be deemed no objection to their admission as a State or States into the Union, in accordance with the Constitution of the United States.

Jan. 21.-Gen. Taylor, in answer to a resolu-tion of inquiry, sent a message to the House, stating that he had urged the formation of State Governments in California and NewMexico.

Feb. 13, 1850.-Gen. Taylor communicated to Congress the Constitution (free) of the State of California.

Jan. 29, 1850.-Mr. Henry Clay, of Kentucky,

So the bill became a law, and Oregon a Terri-submitted to the Senate the following protory, under the original Jefferson or Dane Pro- positions, with others, which were made a special viso against Slavery. order and printed:

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.

1. Resolved, That California, with suitable boun daries, ought, upon her application, to be admitted as one of the States of this Union, without the imposition by Congress of any restriction in respect to the exclusion or introduction of Slavery within those boundaries.

2. Resolved, That as Slavery does not exist by law, and is not likely to be introduced into any of the terri Mexico, it is inexpedient for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction into, or exclusion from, any part of the said Territory; and that appropriate terri in all the said Territory, not assigned as within the bountorial governments ought to be established by Congress, daries of the proposed State of California, without the adoption of any restriction or condition on the subject of Slavery.

The XXXIst Congress commenced its first Session at Washington, Dec. 3, 1849; but the House was unable to organize-no person receiving a majority of all the votes for Speaker -until the 22nd, when, the Plurality rule hav-tory acquired by the United States from the Republic of ing been adopted by a vote of 113 to 106, Mr. Howell Cobb, of Ga., was elected, having 102 votes to 100 for Robert C. Winthrop of Mass., and 20 scattering. It was thereupon resolved -Yeas, 149; Nays, 35-"That Howell Cobb be declared duly elected Speaker;" and on the 24th President Zachary Taylor transmitted toboth Houses his first Annual Message, in the course of which he says:

No civil government having been provided by Congress for California, the people of that Territory, impelled by the necessities of their political condition, recently met in Convention, for the purpose of forming a Constitution and State Government; which, the latest advices give me reason to suppose, has been accomplished; and it is believed they will shortly apply for the admission of California into the Union, as a Sovereign State. Should such be the case, and should their constitution be conformable to the requisitions of the Constitution of the United States, I recommend their application to the favorable consideration of Congress.

The people of New Mexico will also, it is believed, at no very distant period, present themselves for admission into the Union. Preparatory to the admission of California and New-Mexico, the people of each will have instituted for themselves a republican form of government, laying its foundation in such principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem, most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

By awaiting their action, all uneasiness may be avoided and confidence and kind feeling preserved. With a view of maintaining the harmony and tranquillity so dear to all, we should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions in the public mind; and I repeat the solemn warning of the first and most illustrious of my predecessors, against furnishing any ground for characterizing parties by geographical

discriminations.

Jan. 4.-Gen. Sam. Houston, of Texas, submitted to the Senate the following proposition

Whereas, The Congress of the United States, possessing only a delegated authority, have no power over the subject of Negro Slavery within the limits of the United States, either to prohibit or interfere with it, in the States, Territories, or District, where, by municipal law, it now exists, or to establish it in any State or Territory where it does not exist; but, as an assurance and guaranty to promote harmony, quiet apprehension and remove sectional prejudice, which by possibility might impair or weaken love and devotion to the Union in any part of the country, it is hereby

in the District of Columbia, whilst that institution con
5. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish Slavery
tinues to exist in the State of Maryland, without the con-
sent of that State, without the consent of the people of
owners of slaves within the District.
the District, and without just compensation to the

6. But Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit, within the District, the slave-trade in slaves brought into it from States or places beyond the limits of the District, either to be sold therein as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets without the District of Columbia.

7. Resolved, That more effectual provision ought to be made by law, according to the requirement of the Constitution, for the restitution and delivery of persons bound to service or labor in any State, who may escape into any other State or Territory in the Union. And,

8. Resolved, That Congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between the slaveholding States, but that the admission or exclusion of slaves brought from one into another of them, depends exclusively upon their own particular laws.

Feb. 28.-Mr. John Bell, of Tennessee, submitted to the Senate the following propositions:

Whereas, Considerations of the highest interest to the whole country demand that the existing and increasing dissensions between the North and the South, on the subject of Slavery, should be speedily arrested, and that which shall tend to give present quiet, repress sectional the questions in controversy be adjusted upon some basis animosities, remove, as far as possible, the causes of

future discord, and secure the uninterrupted enjoyment of those benefits and advantages which the Union was intended to confer in equal measure upon all its mem

bers;

And, whereas, It is manifest, under present circum stances, that no adjustment can be effected of the points of difference unhappily existing between the Northern and Southern sections of the Union, connected with the subject of Slavery, which shall secure to either section all that is contended for, and that mutual concessions upon questions of mere policy, not involving the violation of any constitutional right or principle, must be the basis of every project affording any assurance of a favorable acceptance;

And, whereas, The joint resolution for annexing

1. Resolved, That the obligation to comply with the condition and guaranty above recited in good faith be distinctly recognized, and that, in part compliance with the same, as soon as the people of Texas shall, by an act of their legislature, signify their assent by restricting the limits thereof, within the Territory lying east of the Trinity and south of the Red River, and when the people of the residue of the territory claimed by Texas adopt a 1. Because they only assert that it is not expedient constitution, republican in form, they be admitted into that Congress should abolish Slavery in the District of Union upon an equal footing in all respects with the ori-Columbia; thus allowing the implication to arise that ginal States.

dmestic institutions. But there is another which I deeply regret to see introduced into this Senate, by a Senator from a slaveholding State; it is that which assumes that Slavery does not now exist by law in those countries. I understand one of these propositions to declare that, by law, Slavery is now abolished in NewMexico and California. That was the very proposition advanced by the non-slaveholding States at the last session; combated and disproved, as I thought, by gentlemen from the slaveholding States. and which the Compromise bill was framed to test. So far, I regarded the question of law as disposed of, and it was very clearly and satisfactorily shown to be against the spirit of the resolution of the Senator from Kentucky. If the contrary is true, I presume the Senator from Kentucky would declare that if a law is now valid in the Territories abolishing Slavery, that it could not be introduced there, even if a law was passed creating the institution, or repealing the statutes already existing; a doctrine never assented to, so far as I know, until now, by any Senator representing one of the slaveholding States. Sir, I hold the very opposite, and with such confidence, that at the last session I was willing and did vote for a bill to test this question in the Supreme Court. Yet this resolution assumes the other doctrine to be true, and our assent is challenged to it as a proposition of law.

Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, objected specially to so much of Mr. Clay's propositions as relates to the boundary of Texas, to the slave-trade in the Federal district, and to Mr. Clay's avowal in his speech that he did not believe Slavery ever would or could be established in any part of the Territories acquired from Mexico. He continued:

But, sir, we are called upon to receive this as a measure of compromise! As a measure in which we of the minority are to receive nothing. A measure of compromise! I look upon it as but a modest mode of taking that, the claim to which has been more boldly asserted by others; and, that I may be understood upon this question, and that my position may go forth to the country in the same columns that convey the sentiments of the Senator from Kentucky, I here assert, that never will I take less than the Missouri Compromise line extended to the Pacific Ocean, with the specific recognition of the right to hold slaves in the Territory below that line; and that, before such Territories are admitted into the Union as States, slaves may be taken there from any of the United States at the option of the owners. I can never consent to give additional power to a majority to commit further aggressions upon the minority in this Union; and will never consent to any proposition which will have such a tendency, without a full guaranty or ❤ounteracting measure is connected with it.

Mr. Clay, in reply, said:

of the Territory acquired by us from Mexico. He holds a directly contrary opinion to mine, as he has a perfect right to do; and we will not quarrel about that difference of opinion.

He

Mr. William R. King, of Alabama, was inclined to look with favor on Mr. Clay's propositions, and assented to some of them; but he objected to the mode in which California had formed what is called a State Constitution. preferred the good old way of first organizing Territories, and so training up their people "for the exercise and enjoyment of our institutions." Besides, he thought "there was not that kind of population there that justified the formation of a State Government." On the question of

Slavery in the new Territories, he said:

We ask no act of Congress-as has been properly intimated by the Senator from Mississippi-to carry Slavery anywhere. Sir, I believe we have as much Constitutional power to prohibit Slavery from going into the Territories of the United States, as we have to pass an act carrying Slavery there. We have no right to do either the one or the other. I would as soon vote for the Wilmot Proviso as I would vote for any law which required that Slavery should go into any of the Territories.

Mr. Downs, of Louisiana, said:

I must confess that, in the whole course of my life, my astonishment has never been greater than it was when I compromise; and I rise now, sir, not for the purpose of saw this (Mr. Clay's) proposition brought forward as a discussing it at all, but to protest most solemnly against it. I consider this compromise as no compromise at all. What, sir, does it grant to the South? I can see nothing at all. Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, said:

proposition of compromise is nothing more than this: That
As I understand it, the Senator from Kentucky's whole
California is already disposed of, having formed a State
Constitution, and that Territorial Governments shall be
organized for Deseret and New-Mexico, under which, by
population could not carry with them, or own slaves there.
the operation of laws already existing, a slaveholding
What is there in the nature of a compromise here, coupled,
as it is, with the proposition that, by the existing laws in
the Territories, it is almost certain that slaveholders can-
not, and have no right to, go there with their property?
willing, however, to run the risks, and am ready to give to
What is there in the nature of a compromise here? I am
the Territories the governments they require. I shall
always think that, under a Constitution giving equal rights
to all parties, the slaveholding people, as such, can go to
these Territories, and retain their property there. But, if
we adopt this proposition of the Senator from Kentucky,
it is clearly on the basis that Slavery shall not go there.
of the Senate for nearly two months-
The debate having engrossed the attention
March 25.-Mr. Douglas, from the Com-

bills:

Senate, 169.-A bill for the admission of California into the Union.

I am extremely sorry to hear the Senator from Mississippi say that he requires, first, the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific; and also that he is not satisfied with that, but requires, if I understood him correctly, a positive provision for the admission of Slavery south of that line. And now, sir, coming from amittee on Territories, reported the following Slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to state that no earthly power could induce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of Slavery where it had not before existed, either south or north of that line. Coming as I do from a Slave State, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-matured determination that no power-no earthly power-poses. shall compel me to vote for the positive introduction of Slavery either south or north of that line. Sir, while you reproach, and justly, too, our British ancestors for the introduction of this institution upon the Continent of America, I am, for one, unwilling that the posterity of the present in.iabitants of California and New-Mexico

Senate, 170.-A bill to establish the Territorial Governments of Utah and New-Mexico, and for other pur

These bills were read, and passed to a second reading.

April 11.-Mr. Douglas moved that Mr. Bell's resolves do lie on the table. Lost: Yeas, 26; Nays, 28.

April 15.-The discussion of Mr. Clay's resolutions still proceeding, Colonel Benton moved that the previous orders be postponed, and that the Senate now proceed to consider the bill (S. 169) for the admission of the State of Cali

shall reproach us for doing just what we reproach Great
Britain for doing to us. If the citizens of those Terri-
tories choose to establish Slavery, I am for admitting
them with such provisions in their Constitutions; but
then, it will be their own work, and not ours, and their
posterity will have to reproach them, and not us, for
forming Constituti ns allowing the institution of Slavery
to exist among them. These are my views, sir, and Ifornia.
choose to express them; and I care not how extensively
and universally they are known. The honorable Sena-
tor from Virginia has expressed his opinion that Slavery
exists in these Territories, and I have no doubt that
opinion is sincerely and honestly entertained by him;
and I would say with equal sincerity and honesty, that I
believe that Slavery nowhere exists within any portion

Mr. Clay moved that this proposition do lie on the table. Carried Yeas, 27 (for a Compromise); Nays, 24 (for a settlement without compromise).

The Senate now took up Mr. Bell's resolves,