but with a rider authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state constitution, etc., without restriction on the subject of slavery.
The house, very early in the session, passed a bill providing for the admission of Maine as a state. This bill came to the senate, and was sent to its judiciary committee aforesaid, which amended it by adding a provision for Missouri as above. After several days' debate in senate, Mr. Roberts, of Penn., moved to recommit, so as to strike out all but the admission of Maine, which was defeated, (Jan. 14th, 1820;) yeas, 18; nays, 25. Hereupon, Mr. Thomas, of Ill., (who voted with the majority, as uniformly against any restriction on Missouri,) gave notice that he should "ask leave to bring in a bill to prohibit the introduction of slavery into the territories of the United States north and west of the contemplated state of Missouri," which he accordingly did on the 19th, when it was read and ordered to a third reading.[1]
The Maine admission bill, with the proposed amendments, was discussed through several days, until, Feb. 16th, the question was taken on the judiciary committee's amendments, (authorizing Missouri to form a state constitution, and saying nothing of slavery,) which were adopted by the following vote: Yeas, 23 against restriction — 20 from slave states, 3 from free states. Nays, 21 in favor of restriction — 19 from free states, 2 from Delaware.
Mr. Thomas, of 111., then proposed his amendment, as follows:
"And be it further enacted, that the sixth article of compact of the ordinance of congress, passed July 13th, 1187, for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, shall, to all intents and purposes, be, and hereby is, deemed and held applicable to, and shall have full force and effect in and over, all that tract of country ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is included within the limits contemplated by this act."
On the following day, Mr. Thomas withdrew the foregoing and substituted the following:
"And be it further enacted, that in all the territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana which lies north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is included within the limits of the state contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited. Provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from where labor or
- ↑ Great confusion and misconception exists in the public mind with regard to "the Missouri restriction," two totally different propositions being called by that name. The original restriction, which Mr. Clay vehemently opposed, and Mr. Jefferson in a letter characterized as a "fire-bell in the night," contemplated the limitation of slavery in its exclusion from the state of Missouri. This was ultimately defeated, as we shall see. The second proposed restriction was that of Mr. Thomas, just cited, which proposed the exclusion of slavery, not from the state of Missouri, but from the territories of the United States north and west of that state. This proposition did not emanate from the original Missouri restrictionists, but from their adversaries, and was but reluctantly and partially accepted by the former. — Greeley's Slavery Extension.
