A committee formed through a resolution submitted by Mr. Powell on December 6, 1860 and adopted on December 18, 1860. The role of the committee was to examine the conflict between slaveholding and non-slaveholding States and provide solutions and concessions to avoid secession.
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Mr. Seward formally enters the Committee and asks that his vote be recorded for previous sessions. Mr. Douglas and Mr. Seward submit Joint Resolutions to amend the Constitution and they are considered. The committee considers separate resolutions presented in the previous session by Mr. Toombs' and Mr. Davis.
Resolved, That the following article be, and the same is hereby proposed and submitted as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, to be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of said Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourth of the several States:
1st. No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.
2d. The fugitive slave act of 1850 shall be so amended as to give to the alleged fugitive a jury trial in the State from which he fled.