Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/747

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THE DUNN BILL.
717

In the senate, on the 8th of July, Mr. Douglas reported hack from the committee on territories the house bill to admit Kansas as a state, with an amendment, striking out all after the enacting clause, and inserting instead '.he senate bill above referred to. Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, moved to amend this substitute by providing that all who migrate to the territory prior to July 4th, 1857, shall be entitled to vote in determining the character of the institutions of Kansas. Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, moved that all the territorial laws of Kansas be repealed and the territorial officers dismissed. Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, proposed an amendment prohibiting slavery in all that portion of the Louisiana purchase north of 36° 30', not included in the territory of Kansas. These propositions were severally rejected, and the substitute reported by Mr. Douglas agreed to. This amendment was, however, never acted upon by the house.

In the house, on the 29th of July, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, called up a bill "to reörganize the territory of Kansas and for other purposes," which he had originally proposed as a substitute for the before-mentioned senate bill. The two last sections of Mr. Dunn's bill are as follows:

Sec. 24. And be it further enacted, That so much of the fourteenth section, and also so much of the thirty-second section, of the act passed at the first session of the thirty-third congress, commonly known as the Kansas-Nebraska act, as reads as follows, to wit: "Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing slavery," be, and the same is hereby repealed, and the said eighth section of said act of the 6th of March, 1820, is hereby revived and declared to be in full force and effect within the said territories of Kansas and Nebraska; provided, however, that any person lawfully held to service in either of said territories shall not be discharged from such service by reason of such repeal and revival of said eighth section, if such person shall be permanently removed from such territory or territories prior to the 1st day of January, 1858; and any child or children born in either of said territories, of any female lawfully held to service, if in like manner removed without said territories before the expiration of that date, shall not be, by reason of anything in this act, emancipated from any service it might have owed had this act never been passed; and provided further, that any person lawfully held to service in any other state or territory of the United States, and escaping into either the territory of Kansas or Nebraska,