admission of Missouri, approved March 6, 1820, which was superceded by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measure, and is declared inoperative.
The bill thus reported by Mr. Douglas was debated at length in the Senate. The arguments employed by the disputants were the same as those employed in the similar discussion of 1820 with two additional ones. The Restrictionists now had besides all their other arguments, the Missouri Compromise, forever prohibiting slavery from the territory in question, which had been regarded as sacred for more than a score and a half of years. The Anti-Restrictionists had the famous doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, which, claiming for itself absolute orthodoxy, utterly repudiated all quondam legislation not in harmony with it, disdained precedents and overswept every logical barricade.
On the 15th of February Mr. Douglas moved that the clause, declaring that the Restriction of 1820 superceded by the legislation of 1850, be stricken out, and in lieu thereof, had inserted the clause of similar nature now found in the Ordinance. Mr. Chase then moved to have the following added:
“Under which the people of the Territories through their appropriate representatives, may if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein.”
But this motion was lost by 36 nays to 10 yeas. Thus the people of these territories which had been shielded from slavery by the compromise of 1820, were not allowed by this act to exclude slavery if they wished. On motion of Mr. Badger, of North Carolina, the following amendment was added.
“Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th of March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, abolishing or prohibiting slavery.”
