were tendered to the clergymen of the city for their services during the Conference.

The thanks of the Conference were also presented to the Secretary and his assistants.

Mr. EWING:-I move the adoption of the following:

Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be tendered to the President, for the dignified and impartial manner in which he has presided over the deliberations of this body.

The resolution being seconded by Mr. HACKLEMAN, it was unanimously adopted; whereupon President TYLER addressed the Conference as follows:

"GENTLEMEN OF THE CONFERENCE:

"The labors of this Convention are drawing to a close. Before we separate never in this world to meet again, I am much pleased that the resolution you have just adopted gives me an opportunity of uttering a few words of congratulation and farewell.

"We came together at a most important and critical time. One of the oldest members of the American Union, a commonwealth which had contributed its full share to the honor and glory of the nation-having as great interests at stake as any other member of the sisterhood of States-summoned you here to consider new additions to our Constitution, which the experience of near three-quarters of a century had taught us were required. I expected from the first that you would approach the consideration of the new and important questions which must arise here, with that patriotism and intelligence which belongs to the descendants of the patriots of the Revolution and the statesmen of the Convention of 1787. I have not been disappointed. In the whole course of a public life, much longer than usually falls to the lot of man, I have been associated with many bodies of my fellow-citizens, convened for legislative or other purposes, but I here declare that it has never been my good fortune to meet with an association of more intelligent, thoughtful, or patriotic men, than that over which I have been here called to preside. I cannot but hope and believe that the blessing of GOD will follow and rest upon the result of your labors, and that such result will bring to our country that quiet and peace which every patriotic heart so earnestly desires. I

L

thank you most sincerely for that kindness and partiality on your part which induced you to call me to the honorable position of your presiding officer, and for the courtesy so uniformly extended in the discharge of the responsible duties of that position.

"Gentlemen, farewell! I go to finish the work you have assigned me, of presenting your recommendations to the two Houses of Congress, and to ask those bodies to lay your proposals of amendment before the people of the American Union. Although these proposals are not in all respects what I could have desired—although I should have preferred the adoption of those recommended by the Legislature of Virginia, because I know they would have been acceptable to my own constituents, still it is my duty to give them my official approval and support. It is not to be expected that entire unanimity of opinion should exist among the representatives of so large a population, and so many diversified interests, as now comprise the Republic of the United States. It is probable that the result to which you have arrived is the best that under all the circumstances could be expected. So far as in me lies, therefore, I shall recommend its adoption.

"May you have a happy and safe return to your constituents and your families! May you all inculcate among your people a spirit of mutual forbearance and concession; and may GOD protect our country and the Union of these States, which was committed to us as the blood-bought legacy of our heroic ancestors!"

Mr. WICKLIFFE:-I move that the Convention do now adjourn, its labors having come to an end; and I would suggest that the delegates meet informally and take leave of each other at three o'clock this afternoon.

Mr. BROWNE moved that the Conference adjourn without day, and his motion was adopted by the following vote:

AYES.-Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont-9.

NOES.-Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsyl

vania-5.

And the Conference adjourned without day.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

BEFORE the final vote was taken upon the proposals of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, reported by the General Committee of which Mr. GUTHRIE was Chairman, and the votes upon the various substitutes offered for such proposals, there were twenty-one States represented in the Conference.

Maine and Iowa were represented by their respective Congressional delegations; Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Missouri, by delegates appointed by their respective Legislatures, under joint resolutions which are here inserted; New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Indiana, and Kansas, by delegates appointed by their respective Governors.

The resolutions of Virginia originated the call for the Conference. Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Oregon were not represented. South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas had passed ordinances of secession previous to the meeting of the Conference. Messrs. BENJAMIN and SLIDELL, the Senators from Louisiana, withdrew from the Senate of the United States before the proposed amendments to the Constitution were reported to the Conference.

The following resolutions of their respective States were presented by the delegates to the Committee on Credentials, and were ordered by the Conference to be printed, on the motion of Mr. CHASE.*

*See page 54, Proceedings of the Conference.

TENNESSEE.

RESOLUTIONS proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That a Convention of delegates from all the slaveholding States should assemble at Nashville, Tennessee, or such other place as a majority of the States cooperating may designate, on the fourth day of February, 1861, to digest and define a basis upon which, if possible, the Federal Union and the constitutional rights of the slave States may be perpetuated and preserved.

Resolved, That the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee appoint a number of delegates to said Convention, of our ablest and wisest men, equal to our whole delegation in Congress; and that the Governor of Tennessee immediately furnish copies of these resolutions to the Governors of the slaveholding States, and urge the participation of such States in said Convention.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this General Assembly, such plan of adjustment should embrace the following propositions as amendments to the Constitution of the United States:

1. A declaratory amendment that African slaves, as held under the institutions of the slaveholding States, shall be recognized as property, and entitled to the status of other property, in the States where slavery exists, in all places within the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress in the slave States, in all the Territories south of 36° 30'; in the District of Columbia; in transit; and whilst temporarily sojourning with the owner in the non-slaveholding States and Territories north of 36° 30′, and when fugitives from the owner, in the several places above named, as well as in all places in the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress in the non-slaveholding States.

2. That all the territory now owned, or which may be hereafter acquired by the United States south of the parallel of 36° 30'; African slavery shall be recognized as existing, and be protected by all the departments of the Federal and Territorial Governments, and in all north of that line, now owned, or to be acquired, it shall not be recognized as existing; and whenever States formed out of any of said territory south of said line, having a population equal to that of a congressional district, shall apply for admission into the Union, the same shall be admitted as slave States, whilst States north of the line, formed out of said territory, and having a population equal to a Congressional district, shall be admitted without slavery; but the States formed out of said territory north and south having been admitted as members of the Union, shall have all the powers over the institution of slavery possessed by the other States of the Union.

3. 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.

4. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia, as 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 made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit the 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, during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards take them from the District.

5. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or the Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by seas.

6. In addition to the fugitive slave clause, provide that when a slave has been demanded of the Executive authority of the State to which he has fled, if he is not delivered, and the owner permitted to carry him out of the State in peace, the State so failing to deliver, shall pay to the owner the value of such slave, and such damages as he may have sustained in attempting to reclaim his slave, and secure his right of action in the Supreme Court of the United States, with execution against the property of such State and the individuals thereof.

7. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the six 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 the Constitution; and no amendments 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.

8. That slave property shall be rendered secure in transit through, or whilst temporarily sojourning in, non-slaveholding States or Territories, or in the District of Columbia.

9. An amendment to the effect that all fugitives are to be deemed those offending the laws within the jurisdiction of the State, and who escape therefrom to other States; and that it is the duty of each State to suppress armed invasion of another State.

Resolved, That said Convention of the slaveholding States having agreed upon a basis of adjustment satisfactory to themselves, should, in the opinion of this General Assembly, refer it to a Convention of all the States, slaveholding and non-slaveholding, in the manner following:

It should invite all States friendly to such plan of adjustment, to elect delegates in such manner as to reflect the popular will, to assemble in a Constitutional Convention of all the States North and South, to be held at Richmond, Virginia, on the day of February, 1861, to revise and perfect such plan of adjustment, for its reference for final ratification and adoption by a Convention of the States respectively.

Resolved, That should a plan of adjustment, satisfactory to the South, not be acceded to by a requisite number of States to perfect amendments to the Constitution of the United States, it is the opinion of this General Assembly that the slaveholding States should adopt for themselves the Constitution of