from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully taken and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.”
On the authority thus obtained the people of Missouri proceeded the following summer to frame a constitution and organize a State government, and at the meeting of the next Congress this State presented herself in her constitutional robe for admission into the Union. The Senate after some debate passed a resolution admitting her; but the House on account of the following clause refused her admission:
“It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, or settling in, this State, under any pretext whatever.”
There was also a clause forbidding the General Assembly from emancipating slaves without the consent of their owners. All of these, together with the general spirit of the Constitution, were regarded as a menace and a strike at those who favored restriction. The clause given above was plainly unconstitutional. The Constitution of the United States ordains that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several States;” and negroes and mulattoes in some States are citizens. The excitement ran very high in Congress and seemed to threaten more danger than at any previous time; but the difficulty was finally adjusted by passing a bill to admit Missouri whenever she should legitimately expunge the above odious clause.
This condition Missouri soon complied with and her admission into the Union was declared by a proclamation of the President.
