or involuntary service therein, nor to interfere with or abolish involuntary service in the District of Columbia without the consent of Maryland and without the consent of the owners, or making the owners who do not consent just compensation; nor the power to interfere with or prohibit Representatives and others from bringing with them to the District of Columbia, retaining and taking away, persons so held to labor or service; nor the power to interfere with or abolish involuntary service in places under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States within those States and Territories where the same is established or recognized; nor the power to prohibit the removal or transportation of persons held to labor or involuntary service in any State or Territory of the United States to any other State or Territory thereof where it is established or recognized by law or usage, and the right during transportation, by sea or river, of touching at ports, shores, and of landing in case of distress, shall exist; but not the right of transit in or through any State or Territory, or of sale or traffic, against the law thereof. Nor shall Congress have power to authorize any higher rate of taxation on persons held to labor or service than on land.

SECTION 4. The third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution shall not be construed to prevent any of the States, by appropriate legislation, and through the action of their judicial and ministerial officers, from enforcing the delivery of fugitives from labor to the person to whom such service or labor is due.

SECTION 5. The foreign slave trade is hereby forever prohibited, and it shall be the duty of Congress to pass laws to prevent the importation of slaves, coolies, or persons held to service or labor, into the United States and the Territories, from places beyond the limits thereof.

SECTION 6. The first, third, and fifth sections, together with this section of these amendments, and the third paragraph of the second section of the Constitution, and the third paragraph

of the section of the fourth article thereof, shall not be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.

SECTION 7. Congress shall provide by law that the United States shall pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor, in all cases where the marshal or other officer whose duty it was to arrest such fugitive, was prevented from doing so by violence or intimidation, from mobs or other riotous assemblages; or when, after arrest, such fugitive was rescued by like violence or intimidation, and the owner thereby deprived of the same; and the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner from further claim to such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for securing to the citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

The following resolution was also moved and adopted:

Resolved, As the sense of this Convention, that the highest political duty of every citizen of the United States is his allegiance to the Federal Government created by the Constitution of the United States, and that no State of this Union has any Constitutional right to secede therefrom, or to absolve the citizens of such State from their allegiance to the government of the United States.

On the second day of March these resolutions were communicated to the Senate, and referred to a committee, who, the next day, reported them back for adoption--Messrs. Seward and Trumbull offering a minority report, proposing the adoption of a 'resolution calling on the Legislatures of the States to express their will in regard to calling a Convention for amending the Constitution.

Then followed a series of amendments, resolutions, and counter-resolutions, all of which were defeated, and the peace resolutions were finally lost, in consequence

of the withdrawal of Senators from the disaffected States. The question being then taken on the House resolution to amend the Constitution so as to prohibit forever any amendment of the Constitution interfering with slavery in any State, the resolution was adopted by a two-thirds vote-ayes twenty-four, nays twelve.

This closed the action of Congress upon this important subject. "Strongly Republican in both branches, yet it had done every thing consistent with justice and fidelity to the Constitution to disarm the apprehensions of the southern States, and to remove all provocation for their resistance to the incoming administration. It had given the strongest possible pledge that it had no intention of interfering with slavery in any State by amending the Constitution, so as to make such interference forever impossible. It had created governments for three new Territories-Nevada, Dakotah, and Colorado and passed no law excluding slavery from any one of them. It had severely censured the legislation of some of the northern States intended to hinder the recovery of fugitives from labor; and in response to its expressed wishes, Rhode Island repealed its laws of that character and Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, had the subject under consideration, and were ready to take similar action. Yet all this had no effect whatever in changing or checking the secession movement in the southern States."

CHAPTER VIII.

MR. LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL TOUR TO WASHINGTON.

His farewell at Springfield, Ill.-Addresses at Toledo, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Steubenville, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Syracuse, Utica, Albany. Poughkeepsie. His grand reception at New York City.-Arrives at Newark, N. J.-Trenton.-Is received at Philadelphia.-Visits, and helps to raise a Flag on "Independence Hall."-Stops at Harrisburg.Makes a sudden appearance in Washington.-Escapes a plot for his Assassination.-Is welcomed by the city authorities of Washington, and addresses them.

MR. LINCOLN, during the period intervening between his election and his assumption of office, maintained a wise silence on the national affairs. He probably felt that it was neither politic to commit himself by any public utterances, or becoming to take any step which might be construed as interference with the duties and responsibilities of those who still held the reins of gov

ernment.

He could not, however, conceal from himself the formidable nature of the task before him. To him, the Presidential office presented no daily round of quiet routine; for in a few days the southern States, who had taken part in the recent election, would have chosen another President, whose authority they were prepared to maintain by force of arms, against the authority which had been vested in himself as the legitimate head of the people.

But the time soon drew near when he was to enter upon the high office to which he had been called by the voice of the people. Accordingly, on the 11th of February, 1861, he left his home in Springfield, Illinois, accompanied to the railroad depot by a large concourse of his friends and neighbors, to whom he bade farewell in the following touching words, which, read at the present time, have a mournful interest:

"MY FRIENDS: No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and in the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."

At Toledo, he appeared upon the platform of the cars, and in response to the applause which hailed his appearance, said:

"I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, attended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it, 'Behind the cloud the sun is still shining.' I bid you an affectionate farewell."

At Indianapolis he was welcomed by a salute of