SENATE.
FRIDAY, January 11, 1881.M. W. Shields, the Senator elect from Jackson and Jennings counties, appeared, took his seat, and was qualified by taking the oath at the hands of John Paul Jones, Esq., the clerk of the Supreme Court.
GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
Mr. CONLEY, from the committee appointed to wait upon the Governor, reported that His Excellency would be ready to deliver his biennial message to the Legislature in the Hall of the House, at 2 o'clock to-day.
STATIONERY.
Mr. ANTHONY offered a resolution, which was adopted by consent, authorizing the appointment of a committee of three to procure stationery for the use of the Senate, and adopt a plan for its distribution.
PRAYERS.
Mr. MURRAY offered a resolution, which was adopted by consent, authorizing the appointment of a committee of three on the part of the Senate to act with a similar House committee in the matter of procuring a clergyman to open the proceedings of the Legislature with prayer at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
The committee was subsequently made to consist of Senators Murray, Turner and Hamilton.
THE NORTHERN PENITENTIARY.
Mr. WAGNER offered a resolution, which was adopted, enquiring of the committee on the State Prison whether the interests of the State have been consulted in the location of the Northern Penitentiary at Michigan City; what part of the $50,000 appropriated has been expended; concerning contracts; work done; what the probable cost of completion;and authorizing the committtee to send for persons and papers.
THE PUBLIC PRINTING.
Mr. MARCH offered a resolution, which was adopted, directing the committee on Public Printing to enquire into the expediency of abolishing the office of State Printer, and the expediency of letting the public printing to the lowest bidder.
PERSONAL LIBERTY BILLS.
Mr. LOMAX offered the following resolution, which was referred to the committee on Federal Relations under the rule:
WHEREAS, in our opinion, the institution of slavery in the United States affords no just grounds for the dissentions now existing between the Northern and Southern States of this Confederacy, which now so seriously threaten the safety of the American Government.
Resolved, That to avert the calamities of civil war, we earnestly recommend the repeal of all such laws as conflict with the laws of Congress known and recognized as the Fugitive Slave Laws.
NEWSPAPERS FOR MEMBERS.
Mr. COBB offered a resolution directing the Doorkeeper to contract for three copies each of the Daily Sentinel, Daily Journal, Weekly American and Volksblatt; two copies to be enveloped, stamped and ready for mailing.
Mr. JOHNSON moved to strike out all except the Sentinel and the Journal.
Mr. ANTHONY moved to amend the amendment by striking out all after the word "resolved," and inserting the words "that a committee of three be appointed to inquire into and report upon the expediency of procuring newspapers."
This amendment was agreed to, and the PRESIDENT makes the committee to consist of Senators Anthony, Johnson and Murray.
POSTAGE STAMPS.
Mr. SLACK offered a resolution, which was adopted by consent, directing the Doorkeeper to furnish three dollars worth of postage stamps to each member of the Senate.
PRAYERS-AGAIN.
Mr. TURNER offered a resolution inviting the clergy of Indianapolis to meet alternately in the Senate Chamber every morning, and open the session with prayer.
Mr. SLACK made an ineffectual motion to lay the resolution on the table.
The resolution was rejected.
A MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE
Was received, inviting the Senate to meet in the Representatives' Hall, at 2 o'clock this day, when the session will be opened with prayer.
The invitation was duly accepted.
FEDERAL RELATIONS
Mr. TARKINGTON offered the following Joint Resolution, [S. 1,] which was referred under the rule to the Committee on Federal Relations:
page: 12[View Page 12]Joint Resolutions of Instructions upon the political questions that are now agitating the Country.
WHEREAS, serious and alarming dissentions have arisen between the Northern States, concerning the rights and security of the rights of the slaveholding States, and especially their rights in the common Territory of the United States; and whereas it is eminently desirable and proper that these dissensions, which now threaten the very existence of this Union, should be permanently quieted and settled by constitutional provisions which shall do equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore to the people that peace and good will which ought to prevail between all the citizens of the United States. Therefore,
Resolved, That our Senators in Congress are hereby instructed and our Eepresentatives requested to procure the following amendments to the laws of Congress and to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution when ratified by conventions of three-fourths of the several States.
That the following articles be and are hereby proposed and submitted as amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
ART. 1. In all the Territory of the United States now held, or hereafter acquired, situate north 36 deg. 30 min., slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited while such Territory shall remain under the Territorial Government. In all the Territory south of said line of latitude, slavery of the African race & hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Congress, but shall be protected as property by all the departments of Territorial Government during its continuance. And when any Territory, north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain population requisite for a member of Congress according to the then Federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it shall, if its form of government be Republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, with or without slavery, as the constitution of such new State may provide.
ART. 2. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in any places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves.
ART. 3. Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, so long as it exists in the adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress, at any time, prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or members of Congress, whose duties require them to be in said district, from bringing with them their slaves and holding them as such during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterward taking them from the District.
ART. 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to a Territory in which slaves are by law permitted to be held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea.
ART. 5. That in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have the power to provide by law, and it shall be its duty so to provide that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall apply for it, the full value of his fugitive slave in all cases when the Marshall or other officer whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, or When after arrest said fugitive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of his fugitive slave under the said clause of the Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance, thereof. And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, and to recover from it with interest and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave. And the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrong doers or rescuers by whom the owner was prevented from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner as the owner himself might have sued and recovered.
ART. 6. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles; nor the third paragraph of the second section of the first article of the Constitution; nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of said Constitution; and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the States by those laws it is or may be, allowed or permitted.
And whereas, also, besides these causes of dissension embraced in the foregoing amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States, there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be remedied by its legislative power; and whereas, it is the desire of this Legislature to have perpetuated the Union of all the States and to aid in removing all just cause for the popular discontent and agitation which now disturbs the peace of the country, and threatens the stability of its institution: Therefore-
Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, that the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and mandatory provisions of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States; that the slaveholding States are entitled to the faithful observance and execution of those laws, and that they ought not to be repealed, or so modified or changed as to impair their efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the slave, or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of said laws.
2. That all State laws which conflict with the Fugitive Slave acts of Congress, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or which, in their operation, impede, hinder, or delay the free course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; yet those State laws, void as they are, have given color to practices and led to consequences which have obstructed the due administration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing.
The people of Indiana, through their Representatives, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, do not deem it improper to respectfully and earnestly recommend the repeal of those laws to the several States which have enacted them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.
3. That the act of the 18th of September, 1850, commonly called the Fugitive Slave Law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the Commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which authorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave, to summon to his aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall be no resistance, or danger of resistance or rescue.
4. That the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of slaves in the United States, ought to be made effectual and ought to be thoroughly executed; and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made.
Resolved, further, That in the event that the above or equivalent propositions shall fail to command the requisite vote in the Congress of the United States, then that our Senators in that body be, and they are hereby instructed, and our Representatives requested, to vote for the calling of a National Convention of all the States for the purpose of amending the Federal Constitution.
Resolved, That the Governor be requested to forward a copy of these resolutions to our Senators and Representatives in Congress.
NEW PROPOSITIONS.
The following bills were introduced, read, and severally passed to the second reading without objection :
By Mr. SLACK: A bill [S. 2.] for the immediate repeal of an act entitled "An act to page: 13[View Page 13] establish courts of conciliation, to prescribe rules, practice, and proceedings therein and the compensation of Judges," approved June 11, 1852.
By Mr. COBB: A bill [S. 3.] to amend section 18 of an act to prescribe the powers and duties of justices of the peace, in State prosecutions, so as to enable justices to commit defendants in case of conviction, upon failure to pay costs.
By Mr. MARCH: A bill [S. 4.] regulating the public printing of the State of Indiana, fixing the compensation therefor, and to abolish the office of State Printer.
By Mr. NEWCOMB: A bill [S. 5.] to amend section 238 of an act to revise, simplify and abridge the rules, practice and pleadings in court trials ; so that whenever the assignor is used as a witness by the assignee, the opposite party may offer himself as a witness in his own behalf.
THE EMBEZZLEMENT BILL.
Mr. March's embezzlement bill introduced yesterday, was read the second time.
On motion by Mr. NEWCOMB, the bill was laid on the table, and 200 copies ordered printed.
And then-
On motion the Senate took a recess until 2 o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. LINE presented a petition from certain citizens of Franklin county, praying for the passage of a law requiring that Justices' Docket fees may be paid out of the county treasury; which was referred to a committee consisting of Senators Line, Steele and Hamilton.
PRAYERS.
Mr. MURRAY from the Joint Committee appointed to procure the services of a clergyman to open the joint session, at 2 o'clock, with prayer, reported that the Rev. Gilbert Small had consented to perform the service required.
A MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE
Inviting the Senate to repair instanter to the Hall of the House to receive the Governor's Message, was accepted, and accordingly the Senators left the Chamber for that purpose.
AFTER THE RETURN FROM THE HOUSE,
On motion-
The Senate adjourned till to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock.
