FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON "That
in all the Territories
owned by
283
the United States,
including Oregon, New Mexico and Upper California, which 30' north latitude, slavery and involuntary lie north of 36 servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited; Provided always, That any person escaping into the same whose labor or service is lawfully claimled in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or services as aforesaid.""
Thus the question of slavery and all the territories of the United States came before the Senate in the debate which engaged the talents of the most gifted men on both sides. "It 33 (the debate) has been," wrote Calhoun, "very able and high toned on the part of the South, with a great concurrence of views between Whigs and the democratic members of the South. I do hope our present danger will bring about union
among
ourselves on the most vital of
In questions ought to be dropped. To put the matter even more plainly
all
questions.
Union
lies
All other
our safety."
Underwood of Kentucky B added to amendment the further proviso: 34 (Whig) right's "That citizens of the United States emigrating, with their slaves, into any of the Territories of the United States south of said parallel of latitude, shall be protected in their property in their slaves so long as the Territory to which they emigrate continues under a territorial government."
The
struggle to eliminate all reference to slavery, or to embody in the bill some clause specifically opening all the new
was thus tacitly abandoned, and the conturned to the next best course, according to the South, of marking in definite terms a region for the expansion of territories to slavery,
test
Nevertheless the debate continued to thresh over the question of constitutionality of Congressional action, as well as to bring out what the South called the northern
their institutions.
desire to crush their future political power. 32 Globe. XVIII, 868. 33 To T. ^,?,^"J10U 1?' 9 July> Correspondence, 759. 34 Glo be, X'"
