- Event type: CREATE
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Session 11907: 1860-12-12 12:00:00
More members join the House. Various members present Resolutions to instruct the Committee of Thirty-Three on the slavery question.
Document View:
Resolution on Improving the Fugitive Slave Laws
Resolved, That the committee of one from each State, recently appointed by this House, be instructed to inquire into the expediency of so amending the fugitive slave law as best to promote the rendition of fugitives under the operation of the same, the more adequate punishment of its infraction, and the affording of proper compensation to the owners of those who are not returned; also, to inquire into the propriety of providing, either by constitutional amendment or legislative enactment, for the better security of the rights of slaveholders in the common Territories of the United States; also, to inquire what further constitutional checks are demanded by a sense of self-preservation on the part of slaveholding States against the operation of the Federal Government, when about to be administered by those who have avowedly come into power on the ground of hostility to their institutions, and to consider whether this fact does not of itself so isolate and antagonize the slaveholding interest as to make it necessary to its own security that its concurrent voice, separately and distinctly given, should be required to sanction each and ever operation of the Federal Government; and to consider whether a dual Executive, or the division of the Senate into two bodies, or the making of majority of Senators from both the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States necessary to all action on the part of that body, or the creation of another advisory body or council, or what other amendments to the Federal Constitution would best promote that result, and to report thereon.
Decisions yet to be taken
Document Timeline
- Resolution on Improving the Fugitive Slave Laws (introduced on 1860-12-12 12:00:00 - CREATE - e811909) [This document]
[view current proposal at this moment]
- None (introduced on 1860-12-12 12:00:00 - REPORT_PROPOSAL - e811910) [view current proposal at this moment]