Year: 1861

Plan of Adjustment Adopted by the Peace
Congress.


Sec. l. In all the present territory of the
United States North of the parallel Of thirty
SIX degrees thirty minutes of North latitude,
involuntary seryitude, except in punishment
of crime, is prohibited. In all the present
territory South of that line the status of per-
sons held to service or labor, as it now exists,
shall notbe changed. Nor shall any law be
passed by Congress, or the Territorial Legis
lature to hinder or prevent the taking of such
persons from any of the States of this Union
to said Territory, nor to impair the rights
arising from said relation. But the same
shall be subject to judicial cognizance in the
federal courts according to the course of the
common law. When any Territory. North
or South of said line, with such boundary as
Congress may prescribe, shall contain a pop
ulation equal TO that required for member
of Congress, it shall, if its form of govern
ment be republican, be admitted into the
Union on an equal footing with the original
States, with or without involving servitude.
as the Constitution of such State NAV pro-
vide.


Sec q No territory shall be acquired by
the United States, except by discovery and
for naval and commercial stations, depots,
and transit routes, without the concurrence
of a majority of the Senators from the States
which allow involuntary servitude, and
majority of all Senators from States which
prohibit that relation; nor shall territory be
acquired by treaty, unless the votes of a ma
iority of the Senators from each class of
States hereinbefore mentioned be cast as a
part of the two third majority necessary to
the ratification of such treaty.


Sec. 3. Neither the Constitution, nor any
amendment thereto, shall be construed to
give Congress power to regulate, abolish or
control, within any State or Territory of the
Uuited States, the relation established or re-
cognized by the laws thereof touching persons
bound to labor or 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 city of
Washington, retaining and taking away, per-
sons so bound to labor or service; nor the
power to interfere with or abolish involunta-
ry service in places under the exclusive ju-
risdiction of the United States within those
States and Territories where the same is es-
tablished or recognized nor the power to
prohibit the removal or transportation of per-
sons 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
| landings, and of landing in case of distress,
but not for sale or traffic, shall exist nor
shall Congress have power to authorize any
higher rate of taxation on persons held to la
! Dor or service than on land. The bringing


into the District of Columbia of persons held
to labor or service for sale, or placing them
in depots to be afterwards transferred to
other places for sale as merchandise, is pro-
hibited, and the right of transit through any
State or Territory against its dissent is pro-
hibited.


See. 4. The third paragraph of the second
section of the fourth article of the Constitu-
ton shall not be construed to prevent any of
the States, by appropriate legislation and
through the acts of their judicial and minis
terial officers, from enforcing the delivery of
fugitives from labor to the person to whom
such labor or service is due


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


Sec. 6. The first, third and fifth sections,
together with this section (six) of these
amendments, and the third para graph of the
second section of the first article of the Con-
stitution, and the third paragraph of the Sec
ond section of the fourth article thereof shall
not be amended or abolished without the con
sent of all the States


Sec. I. 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 in
timidation from mobs or riotous assemble ges.
or when, after arrest, such fugitive was res
cued by like violence or intimidation. and the
owner thereby prevented and obstructed in
the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of
such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law
for securing to the citizens of each State the
privileges and immunities of the several
| States