them did so, and the States themselves generally voted
against all propositions to the contrary. The article proposed by your
Commissioners denying the right of nullification and secession was
defeated in accordance with these views; so that in effect slave
States, and such of the free States as voted with them, would not
consent so to amend the Constitution as to deny the right of
nullification and secession, even if all the guarantees demanded by
the slave interest were accorded to it. In addition, many of the
delegates from the slave States declared that it was the fixed
determination of those States to stand by the States that had seceded
from the Union, and to aid them in resisting it, even if such
guarantees were given; and that they would resist any attempts to
coerce them, or to enforce the revenue, or any other laws within their
limits, without their consent. In other words, they claimed a right to
remain in the Union under the Constitution, with its new guarantees of
slavery, and yet to obstruct the operations of the Government, to
prevent the execution of the laws, and to aid those who were in open
rebellion against, and had made war upon it. Under these circumstances
your Commissioners did not deem it consistent with justice, or the
respect due to their own State, to give their assent to any of the
proposed amendments, except that prohibiting the slave-trade--and even
that, in their opinion, was unnecessary, as no enlightened legislative
body would dare to propose to reestablish that infamous traffic.

_Third._--By the first section of the proposed amendments, slavery is
_constitutionally_ established in all of the territory south of the
line of 36 deg. 30', and all control over it by Congress or the
territorial legislatures is absolutely taken away during its
territorial condition. In effect, there is to be no law for slavery,
its permanency and existence being provided for, except the will of
the master and the present odious slave code of New Mexico. These are
fastened upon every inch of the soil of that immense region, beyond
even the power of the people to remove them, however much they may
desire to do so, prior to the formation of a State government. Slavery
must therefore be the normal condition of the territory, while the
State is in the process of formation and organization; and the
inevitable result must be, that free labor and free institutions will
be excluded, and no free State formed within it