Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa-tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both houses concurring. That the following arti-cle be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution,

viz:

Article I.

In all the territory of the United States now held or hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude 36° 30', slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited, while such territory shall remain under territorial government. In all the territory now held or hereafter acquired, south of said line of latitude, slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Congress; but shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance; 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, if its form of government be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, with or without slavery, as the constitution of such new State may provide.

Article II.

Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves.

Article III.

Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia so long as it exists in the adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or members of Congress, whose duties require them to be in said District, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding them as such, dining the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards taking them from the District.

Article IV.

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 that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea. But the African slave trade shall be forever suppressed, and it shall be the duty of Congress to make such laws as shall be necessary and effectual, to prevent the migration or importation of slaves, or persons owing service or labor, into the United States from any foreign country, place, or jurisdiction whatever.

SEC. 2. That persons committing crimes against the rights of those who hold persons to service or labor in one State, and fleeing to another, shall be delivered up in the same manner as persons committing other crimes; and that the laws of the States from which such persons flee shall be the test of criminality.

SEC. 3. Congress shall pass efficient laws for the punishment of all persons in any of the States, who shall in any manner aid and abet invasion or insurrection in any other State, or commit any other act tending to disturb the tranquillity of its people, or government of any other State.

ARTICLE V.

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 owners 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 power to reimburse themselves by imposing and collecting a tax on the county or city in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, equal in amount to the sum paid by them, with the addition of interest and the costs of collection; and the said county or city, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrong-doers 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 VI.

No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles, nor 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 said Constitution; and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the States by whose laws it is or may be allowed or permitted.

ARTICLE VII.

SEC. 1. The elective franchise and the right to hold office, whether Federal, State, territorial, or municipal, shall not be exercised by persons who are, in whole or in part, of the African race.