Mr. TooмBS'* propositions were then neg-relations as any other species of property atived.

2d. No more territory to be acquired except on a vote of two-thirds of both branches of Congress, and the status thereof as to servitude to remain as at the time of its | Mr. SEWARD moved to amend by adding: acquisition, until altered by the people in "except so much of the Territory of Kansas framing a Constitution as aforesaid. as is contained in the proposed_boundary of the Wyandot Constitution." Lost-yeas 6, nays 6, Douglas voting aye with the Republican members.

sent of Maryland, and making compensation to the owners; and also from interfering with the three-fifths representation of slaves or the inter-State trade; and declaring that these amendments should never be amended.

THE BORDER STATES PROPOSITION.

offered a preamble and resolutions reciting
the irreconcilable differences which had
arisen between the North and South on the
question of slavery in the Territories, and the
measures that had been from time to time
adopted to settle the difficulties; that the
Southern States had resolved to dissolve the
Union rather than submit to the principles
embodied in the Chicago platform, and that
the mode of amendment to the Constitution
prescribed by that instrument itself was in-
adequate to the emergency. And he pro-
posed to the several States to send delegates
to a general convention to devise a new form
of government and requesting the delegates
of the Southern States to first meet in con-
vention, being the aggrieved party, to confer
and submit their conclusions to the dele-slavery question.
gates from the Northern States, and declar-
ing it contrary and abhorrent to the religion
and civilization of the age to prevent by force
any State from taking such course as her
safety and prosperity might require.

Mr. ANDREW JOHNSON, Senator from Tennessee, submitted a joint resolution proposing amendments to the Constitution in substance as follows:

1st. To apportion each State into as many districts as should be equal in number to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which such State should be entitled, and that in every such district the persons receiving the highest number of votes for President and Vice President should be holden to have received one vote; that the persons receiving the vote of a majority of the districts, provided it should be a majority of the whole number of votes given, should be President and Vice President, but that if no person had received a majority of the whole number of votes as aforesaid, then a second election should be held between the two persons having the highest number of votes at the first election, and providing further for the election of a President from the free States and Vice President from a slave State, and vice versa, every four years. 2d. Providing for an election of United States Senators by the people instead of by the State Legislatures.

3d. Limiting the tenure of office of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States to twelve years, and providing for an election of one-third of said Judges every fourth year.

Mr. JOHNSON also offered a resolution instructing the Committee of Thirteen to inquire into the expediency of amending the Constitution, so as to establish a division line in the Territories; to repeal the legislation of Congress relative to the return of fugitive slaves, and require each State to return them or pay their cash value to the owner; allowing the question of slavery in dock-yards, arsenals, etc., to be regulated by the States in which such places were located; restricting Congress from abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia without the con

At a meeting of Senators and Representatives from the fourteen border free and slave States, at which about seventy-five gentlemen were present, Mr. CRITTENDEN acting as President, and Messrs. COLFAX and BARRETT as Secretaries, the following propositions were submitted: By Mr. BARRETT of Missouri. Eleven amendments to the Constitution on the

By Mr. PRYOR of Virginia. That an attempt to preserve the Union between the States of this Confederacy by force would be equally unconstitutional, impolitic, and destructive of Republican liberty.

By Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. The Crittenden resolutions.

By Mr. COLFAX. That the laws of the Union should be enforced and the Union of the States maintained; and that it is the duty of the Executive to protect the property of the United States with all the power placed in his hands by the Constitution.

By Mr. MORRIS of Illinois. That in the maturing any plan for adjusting the existing difficulties of the country we will keep steadily in view the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as a paramount consideration.

All of the above propositions after some discussion were referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. CRITTENDEN of Kentucky, HARRIS of Maryland, SHERMAN of Ohio, NIXON of New Jersey, SAULSBURY of Delaware, GILMER of North Carolina, IIATTON of Tennessee, PETTIT of Indiana, HARRIS of Virginia, McCLERNAND of Illinois, BARRETT of Missouri, SEBASTIAN of Arkansas, VANDEVER of Iowa, and HALE of Pennsylvania.

The committee after consultation adopted the following propositions:

Recommending a repeal of all personal liberty bills.

An efficient amending of the fugitive slave law, preventing kidnapping, equalizing commissioners' fees, etc.

Amending the Constitution so as to prohibit interference by Congress with slavery in the States, or abolishing it in any places within its jurisdiction without the consent of the State in which such places are located. Or with the inter-State slave trade. Perpetual prohibition of the African slave trade.

Division of territory into free and slave on the line of 36° 30', prohibiting Congress or the Territorial Legislature from abolishing or interfering with slavery south of that line, and providing for admission of new States with population sufficient for one

member of Congress and 60,000 square miles of area.

OTHER PROPOSITIONS.

Proposition to the Hon. JAMES HUMPHREY, member of the Committee of Thirty-three from the State of New York, signed by JOHN COCHRANE, WILLIAM B. MACLAY, DANIEL E. Sickles, George Briggs, THOMAS J. BARR, and HORACE F. CLARK, members of Congress from said State :

1st. Recommending the territorial line of 36° 30'.

2d. Non-interference of Congress with slavery in any places within the jurisdiction of Congress without the consent of the States in which such places are located.

3d. Change in the mode of electing President, by the adoption of the single electoral district system for the election of Presidential electors, with two electors at large for each State; with provision for a second election between the two highest candidates in case no one had received a majority on the

first vote.

4th. Limiting the eligibility to the Presidency to one term, and recommending a change in the fugitive slave law so as to provide for the delivery of the fugitive, not to his master, but to the marshal of the district in which the claimant resided, there to be tried as to the right of ownership; and in case of unlawful rescue, etc., his value to be paid by the State or county in which such rescue occurred.

To prohibit Congress from interfering with slavery in the States, in places under Federal jurisdiction within the limits of a slave State, or in the District of Columbia, or with the inter-State slave trade, or to reopen the slave trade; from acquiring any additional territory except by a concurrent vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, or by treaty ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and to adopt the single electoral district system, with two electors at large for each State.

Also, to so amend the fugitive slave law as to give the same compensation to the Commissioner whether the slave was given up or not, and making the State liable for all extraordinary expenses attending the capture of fugitive slaves, and for compensation to the owner in case of violent rescue, etc. To admit all the territory north of 360 30' at once into the Union as a State to be called "Washington," and all south of that line as a State to be called "Jefferson," with provision for the sub-division of said States into two or more States.

Governor LETCHER, of Virginia, in his message to the Legislature, proposed in substance the following plan: To appoint Commissioners to visit each Northern State that had passed personal liberty bills and urge their repeal, guarantee slavery in the District of Columbia, equal rights in the Territories, free transit for slave property, and the inter-State slave trade, punishment of persons aiding in any way in inciting slave A "distinguished gentleman of Kentucky" insurrections, and deprive the General Govproposed to so amend the Constitution as to ernment of the power to appoint to office in restrain Congress from passing any law to slave States persons hostile to the instituinterfere with slavery in territory south tion of slavery. He also declared strongly of 36° 30', or to interfere with the inter- against the right of coercion, and that the State slave trade, or to abolish slavery in passage of Federal troops across Virginia places belonging to the General Government for such purpose would be repelled, and exwithin the limits of a slave State, or to per-pressed his willingness that New England mit the reopening of the slave trade, or to and Western New York should be sloughed interfere with slavery in the States by un-off and permitted to ally themselves with equal taxation or otherwise, but authorizing Congress to regulate the transit of slaves through free States, and to authorize the recapture of slaves escaping in such transit, and to give compensation to the owner of the slave in case of violent rescue, etc., making it compulsory to admit new States with slave constitutions, and to prevent and punish unlawful invasions of any State with a design to excite slave insurrections.

Mr. A. H. H. STUART offered a series of resolutions in the Senate of Virginia to the effect that the slaveholding States should be created trustees of the territory south of 36° 30', and the free States trustees of the territory north of that line, with the right to regulate the question of slavery in either case respectively.

The National Intelligencer of January 12th, 1861, proposed a plan of compromise by amendments to the Constitution and Congressional legislation substantially as follows:

Canada.

The Albany Evening Journal proposed the following as a basis of settlement: 1. The passage of an efficient but not revolting fugitive slave law.

2. The repeal of personal liberty laws. 3. Non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the Territories.

4. The admission of Territories as States with or without slavery, as they may decide, whenever they have a population entitling them to a Representative in Congress.

5. Or if the two last propositions are inadmissible, then the restoration of the Missouri compromise line.

Hon. JOSEPH W. TAYLOR of Alabama proposed the following:

1st. That every Southern State should meet in Convention and adopt a platform expressive of their views and wishes in the present crisis, and then that they should all meet in a Southern Convention and adopt a platform setting forth all that they had to

demand, with a request that the people of the Northern States should meet in a similar Convention to consider said demands. The New York Sun published as its plan of settlement:

1st. The prompt excision by amendment of the Constitution, of any State which shall within the next ten years, elect by vote of two-thirds of her inhabitants to secede from the Union.

2d. The adoption of State and Federal laws for the indemnification of owners of slaves who should be rescued by force or otherwise unlawfully.

Resolved. That we deprecate the spirit of disobedience to the Constitution, wherever manifested, and we earnestly recommend the repeal of all statutes, including personal liberty bills, so called, enacted by State Legislatures, which are in conflict with and in violation of that sacred instrument, and of the laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof."

Which was agreed to-yeas 153, nays 14, as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Adams of Ky., Adrain, Aldrich, Allen, In an article in the Baltimore Exchange Babbitt, Barr, Barrett, Beale, Bingham, Blair, Blake, Anderson of Missouri, Anderson of Ky., Ashley, Avery, of January 7th, 1861, it was proposed as a Bocock, Boteler, Bouligny, Branch, Brayton, Briggs, Brown, settlement of the territorial question, to Campbell, Carter, Case, Horace F. Clark, Clark of Missouri, Buffinton, Burlingame, Burnett, Burnham, Butterfield, admit New Mexico and Arizona as a State, Cobb, John Cochrane, Colfax, Conkling, Covode, Cor, Craig and then amend the Constitution so as to of Missouri, Craige of North Carolina, Crawford, Davis of absolutely prohibit the acquisition in the Indiana, Dawes, De Jarnette, Delano, Duell, Dunn, Edmundson, Ely, English, Etheridge, Farnsworth, Fenton, Florence, future of any additional territory whatever, Pouke, Frank, Garnett, Gilmer, Gooch, Graham, Grow, the author strongly alleging that Republican Hatton, Helmick, Hill, Hindman, Holman, Houston, HowHale, Hall, Hardeman, Harris of Md., Harris of Va., Governments had more to fear from the ex-ard of Ohio, Hughes, Humphrey, Irvine, Jenkins, Jones, pansion of territory than from any other cause whatever.

BY A DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN OF NORTH CARO- McKnight, McPherson, Millward, Montgomery, Moore of

LINA.

Junkin, Kellogg of Michigan, Kenyon, Kilgore, Killinger, Landrum, Larrabee, Leach of N. Carolina, Leake, Lee, Logan, Longnecker, Loomis, Lovejoy, Maclay, Mallory, Martin of Ohio, Martin of Va., McClernand, McKean, Mc Kenty, Ky., Moorhead, Morris of Penn'a, Morris of Ill., Niblack, Nixon, Noell, Olin, Palmer, Pendleton, Pettit, Peyton, Porter, Pottle, Pryor, Quarles, Reagan, J. H. Reynolds, Rice, Riggs, Robinson, Royce, Ruffin, Scott, Scranton, Sherman, Sickles, Simms, Smith of N. C., Spaulding, Stanton, Stevenson, Stewart of Pa., Stokes, Thayer, Thomas, Tompkins, Train, Trimble, Vance, Verree, Wade, Waldron, Walton, Washburne of Ill., Webster, Wilson, Wood, Woodson, Wright

NAYS-Messrs. Alley, Carey, Edwards, Eliot, Hutchins,

An amendment of the Constitution in regard to the election of a President and Vice President, providing for a vote of the people throughout each State directly for President and Vice President; then ascer--153. tain the number to which the popular vote ought to be increased by reason of the slave population, and let that be divided pro rata between the several sets of electors according to their respective strength, then let the majority of each set of electors cast the popular vote for President and Vice Presi-ing: dent of their choice.

A writer in the National Intelligencer proposed the following: That Congress, by joint resolution, should declare that the personal liberty bills are unconstitutional, and the States should repeal them; that Congress should not interfere with slavery in the States; that no more territory should be acquired except by consent of three-fourths of the States, and that the Dred Scott decision should govern all our present territory. In a letter published in the New York Herald, purporting to have been written at Lexington, Kentucky, it was asserted that JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE was in favor of the Crittenden Compromise, and that the Crittenden amendment had actually been drawn up by Mr. Breckinridge and a Mr. M. C. Johnson of Lexington, prior to Mr. Breckinridge's departure for Washington.

Miscellaneous Resolutions.

ON UNCONSTITUTIONAL STATE LAWS.

December 17, 1860. Mr. ADRAIN, of New Jersey, offered the following:

"Whereas the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and

Potter, E. R. Reynolds, Sedgwick, Spinner, Tappan, Vande ver, Washburn of Wisconsin, Washburn of Maine, Wells-14. The preamble was agreed to-yeas 156, nays none.

ON THE UNION.

Mr. MORRIS, of Illinois, offered the follow

"Resolved, &c., That we properly estimate the immense value of our National Union to our collective and individual happiness; that we cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; that we will speak of it as of the palladium of our political safety and prosperity; that we will watch its preservation with jealous anxiety; that we will discountenance whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frown down the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts; that we regard it as à main pillar of the edifice of our real independence, the support of our tranquillity at home, our peace abroad, our safety, our prosperity, and that very liberty which we so highly prize; that we have seen nothing in the past, nor do we see any thing in the present, either in the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, or from any other existing cause, to justify its dissolution; that we regard its perpetuity as of more value than the temporary triumph of any party or any man; that whatever evils or abuses exist under it ought to be