ge of the so called
"personal liberty" acts. They are regarded as deliberate infractions
and breaches of the Constitution, and as attempts to nullify the
operation of a constitutional enactment of Congress. But I do not wish
to invite discussion upon the subject now; I hope my motion will not
meet with objection.

The motion of Mr. WICKLIFFE was adopted, and the preamble and
resolution were presented as follows:

MR. WICKLIFFE'S PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTION.

_Whereas_, the second section of the fourth article of the
Constitution of the United States declares, "that no person
held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any
law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due."

This clause is one of the compromises without which no
Constitution would have been adopted. It was a guarantee to
the States in which such labor and service existed by law,
that their rights should be respected and regarded by all
the States; and it is not within the competency of any State
to disregard the obligation it imposes, or to render it
valueless by legislative enactments. And _whereas_, the
House of Representatives of the United States did, on the
---- day of February, by unanimous vote, declare that
neither the Congress of the United States nor the people or
government of any non-slaveholding State, has the
constitutional right to legislate upon, or to interfere with
slavery in any slaveholding State in the Union.

This declaration is regarded by this Convention as an
admission that the statutes of those States, passed for the
purpose of defeating the provision of the Constitution
aforesaid, and the laws of Congress made to enforce the just
and proper execution of this constitutional guarantee, are
in violation of the supreme law of the land.

The provisions of the statutes in many of the
non-slaveholding States, commonly known and called "personal
liberty bills," amount in their consequences to a practical
nullification of the acts of Congress of February 12th,
1793, and September 18th, 1850, and are in violation of the
second section of the fourth article of the Constitution, as
before stated.