Page:State Documents on Federal Relations.djvu/275

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RESOLVES OF CONNECTICUT
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8th. Resolved, That in the event of the passage of the Wilmot Proviso by Congress, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the admission of California as a State in its present pretended organization, or the continued refusal of the non-slave- holding States to deliver up fugitive slaves as provided in the Constitution, it will become the immediate and imperative duty of the people of this State to meet in convention to take into consideration the mode and measure of redress.

9th. Resolved, That the people of Georgia entertain an ardent feeling of devotion to the union of these States, and that nothing short of a persistence in the present system of encroachment upon our rights by the non-slaveholding States can induce us to contemplate the possibility of a dissolution.

10th. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to forward copies of these resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, to the Legislatures of the several States, except Vermont and Connecticut, and to the President of the United States.

[Acts of Georgia, 1849-50, 409, 410.]

130. Resolves of Connecticut.

May Session, 1850.

Resolved, That Congress has full constitutional power to prohibit slavery in the territories of the United States, by legislative enactment, and that it is the duty of Congress to pass, without unnecessary delay, such strict and positive laws as will effectually shut out slavery from every portion of their territories.

Resolved, That Congress has like full constitutional power to remove slavery, and the slave trade, from the District of Columbia, and that this power should be at once exercised for the immediate prohibition of the slave trade therein, and for the abolition of slavery, upon such terms of compensation to the slave-holders as may be just and reasonable.

Resolved, That in the name of the people of Connecticut, we do hereby solemnly reaffirm an unalterable attachment to the