A Bill

To provide for taking the sense of the people of the several States on certain proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas the Union is in imminent danger of final dissolution, the consequence of a protracted strife and agitation about the institution of African slavery; and whereas it is believed that legislative remedies are insufficient to meet and remove the cause of this impending disaster; and as amendments to the Constitution can only be submitted by a vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress, and owing to the unhappy divisions existing in those houses at present it is not believed that the assent of two-thirds of the members of either can be had to such amendments to the Constitution as would reconcile the differences between the north and the south; and whereas it is a cardinal principle of our representative system that the representative shall obey the will of the people, it is deemed proper and necessary to ask the opinion and judgment of the people of the several States on proposed amendments to the Constitution, with the view to their submission by a vote of two-thirds of each branch of Congress for the ratification of the State, as provided in the Constitution, thereby restoring our distracted country to its accustomed peace and prosperity: Therefore—

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

That the citizens of the several States qualified to vote for members of Congress are hereby requested to hold an election on Tuesday, the twelfth day of February next, for the purpose of deciding for or against the annexed proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That those who are for the proposed amendments to the Constitution shall vote a ballot bearing the words "for the amendments," and those opposed to the amendments shall vote a ballot bearing the words "against the amendments."

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, Said election shall be held at the same places, in the same manner, and under the same laws as the last election for President and Vice-President of the United States, and be conducted by the same judges, inspectors, and other officers.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, The return judges of the several election districts for each county shall meet at the county seat on the Thursday following the day of the said election, and count up the returns for said county, setting forth the whole number of votes cast for the amendments, and the whole number of votes against the amendments; one copy of which shall be forwarded by mail to the Secretary of the Senate of the United States, and another to the Governor of the State, and that sent to the governor shall contain a statement of the actual and necessary expenses of holding said election.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the compensation of the officers holding said election, and the other expenses thereof, shall be the same as the compensation and expenses of holding the last election for President and Vice-President of the United States, and shall be paid out of the United States treasury in the manner hereinafter provided.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the governors of the several States are hereby respectfully requested to cause to be made out, and forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior, a tabular statement of the amount of the expenses of holding said election in their respective States, exhibiting the amount due each county, attested under the seal of the State by the proper officers ; and the Secretary of the Interior shall draw drafts on the United States treasury in favor of the governors of the respective States for the amounts due to the several counties, to be paid to the parties in each county entitled to receive the same; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and required to pay the amount of said drafts out of any money in the treasury.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Senate to cause said election returns to be opened, counted, and filed as fast as received, and cause tabular statements to be made exhibiting the result in each State, one copy of which shall be delivered to the President of the Senate for the use of that body, another to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the use of that body; and it is hereby made the duty of each and all the clerks now in the employment of the Senate, in addition to their other duties, to assist the Secretary in the performance of the duties hereby imposed upon him.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to issue a proclamation to the governors, and all others in civil authority, and to the people of the several States, announcing to them the day fixed for said election, presenting its general objects, and requesting their cordial co-operation in the prompt and faithful execution of the provisions of this act.

SEC 9. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, immediately after the passage of this act, to cause accurate copies of the same to be printed and forwarded by mail to the sheriff of the several counties of each State, and the said sheriffs are hereby requested to make proclamation, not more than two newspapers in each county, of the day of said election, and setting forth the proposed amendments to be voted on, and the expenses incurred under the provisions of this section shall be paid as hereinafter provided for other expenses of said election.

That the following articles be, and they are hereby, proposed and submitted as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of said Constitution, when ratified by the conventions of three-fourths of the States held for that purpose:

ARTICLE l. That the territory now held, or that may hereafter be acquired by the United States, shall be divided by a line from east to west on the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude; Provided, That no territory shall be hereafter acquired, unless by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

ARTICLE 2. That in all the territory north of said line of latitude involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited, and in all the territory south of said line involuntary servitude, as it now exists in the States south of Mason and Dixon's line, is hereby recognized, and shall be sustained and protected by all the departments of the territorial governments; and when any Territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the population requisite for a member of Congress,

according to the then federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it shall then be the duty of Congress to admit such Territory into the Union on terms of equality with the original States.

ARTICLE 3. Congress shall not have power to abolish slavery in the places under its exclusive jurisdiction and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves, nor shall Congress have the power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia so long as it exists in the States of Maryland and Virginia, or either of them, nor without just compensation being first made to the owners of such slaves.

ARTICLE 4. That, in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, and it shall be its duty so to provide, that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave, in all cases, when the marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of his fugitive slave, under the said clause of the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof; and in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, and to recover from it, with interest and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave; and the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrongdoers, or rescuers, by whom the owner was prevented from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner as the owner himself might have sued and recovered.

ARTICLE 5. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to a Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be held, whether transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by sea; but the African slave trade shall never be revived, except by the unanimous consent of both branches of Congress.

ARTICLE 6. Hereafter the President of the United States shall hold his once during the term of six years, and shall not be eligible to re-election.

ARTICLE 7. The Constitution shall not be hereafter amended so as to destroy the effect of the third paragraph of the second section of the first article of the Constitution, nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution, nor so as to authorize Congress to interfere with or destroy any of the domestic institutions of the States, without the consent of all the States.

• H.R.957 (introduced on 1861-01-28 12:00:00 - CREATE - e871029) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Refer H.R.957 (introduced on 1861-01-28 12:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e871030) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1861-01-28 12:00:00 - ADOPT_PROPOSAL - e508622) [view current proposal at this moment]