The Virginia State Library in 1965 published the four volume
set, Proceedings of the Virginia State
Convention of 1861, and in 1866 the supplementary three volume set Virginia Journals and Papers: Virginia State
Convention of 1861. The subject of slavery rages through it. The Virginia
Convention had a committee on Federal Relations which proposed 14 resolutions
which were adopted by the Convention and a proposed13th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution to protect slavery which had eight sections. The
Convention was interrupted in its endorsement of the entire proposed 13th
Amendment by the start of the Civil War during the debate over section 5, and
sections 6 through 8 never came up for
discussion.
Jubal A. Early, who would later be the president of the
reorganized Southern Historical Society, was a member of this convention voting
on the resolutions and amendments to the resolutions and participating in the
debates.
Also at the Convention, former President Tyler spoke to the
convention at great length, critical of the Washington Peace Convention’s
proposals as being insufficient to protect the interests of slavery. One of his
criticisms is that the proposed amendments to the United States Constitution
would prevent carving up the Caribbean into
slave states and I have the extract of the speech following the resolutions and
the sections of the proposed 13th Amendment.
Of the 14 resolutions, only the resolutions pertaining to
slavery are included here. The others concern matters such as the 5th
resolution to take possession of the forts of the United States .
The following are three sections, first the Resolutions,
second the proposed 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the
third section, former President Tyler’s speech.
The resolutions are as adopted. The Proceedings includes the
original Resolution as introduced, but subsequent pages may and usually only
mention proposed changes and whether they are adopted. The pages listed are the
pages which cover the introduction, discussion and final adoption of the resolution.
RESOLUTIONS
Proceedings of the Virginia State
Resolution 1: Be it resolved and declared by the people
of the State of Virginia in Convention assembled, That the States which
composed the United States of America, when the Federal Constitution was formed
were independent sovereignties, and in adopting that instrument the people of
each State agreed to associate with the people of the other States, upon a
footing of exact equality. It is the duty therefore, of the common Government
to respect the rights of the States and the equality of the people thereof,
and, within the just limits of the Constitution, to protect, with equal care,
the great interests that spring from the institutions of each.
Proceedings of the Virginia State
Resolution 2: African slavery is a vital part of the
social system of the States wherein it exists, and as that form of servitude
existed when the Union was formed, and the jurisdiction of the several States
over it within their respective limits, was recognized by the Constitution, any
interference to its prejudice by the federal authority, or by the authorities
of other States, or by the people thereof, is in derogation from plain right,
contrary to the Constitution, offensive and dangerous.
Vol. 2 pp. 568 March 28, 1861 The adoption is on this page with no
amendments.
The following refers to the Republican Party.
Third Resolution. Proceedings
of the Virginia State April 4, 1861 .
Adoption on page 127 without amendment.
The choice of functionaries of a common Government
established for the common good, for the reason that they entertain opinions
and avow purposes hostile to the institutions of some of the States,
necessarily excludes the people of one section from participation in the
administration of Government, subjects the weaker to the domination of the
stronger section, leads to abuse, and is incompatible with the safety of those
whose interests are imperiled; the formation therefore, of geographical or
sectional parties in respect to Federal politics is contrary to the principles
on which our systems rests, and tends to its overthrow.
Fourth Resolution. Proceedings
of the Virginia State Convention of 1861, Vol. 3 pp. 127, amended
Resolution 4 passes on page 144, April
4, 1861 .
The Territories of the United States constitute a trust
to be administered by the General Government, for the common benefit of the
people of the several States, and any policy in respect to such Territories
calculated to confer greater benefits on the people of one part of the United
States, than on the people of another part, is contrary to equality and
prejudicial to the rights of some for whose equal benefits the trust was
created. If the equal admission of slave labor and free labor into any
Territory, excites unfriendly conflict between the systems, a fair partition of
the Territories ought to be made between them, and each system ought to be
protected within the limits assigned to it, by the laws necessary for its
proper development.
Seventh Resolution. Proceedings
of the Virginia April 5, 1861 , amended.
7. To remove the existing causes of complaint much may be
accomplished by the Federal and State Governments; the laws for the rendition
of fugitives from labor and of fugitives from justice shall be made more
effectual, the expenditures of the Government may be reduced within more
moderate limits and the abuses that have entered into the Administrative
departments reformed. The State authorities may repeal their unfriendly and
unconstitutional legislation, and substitute in its stead such as becomes the
comity and is due to the rights of the States of the same Union .
But to restore the Union and preserve
confidence, the Federal Constitution should be amended in those particulars
wherein experience has exhibited defects and discovered approaches dangers to
the institutions of some of the States.
Vol. 3 pp. 203 April 5, 1861 , adopted as amended.
After the resolutions were considered, a 13th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was proposed and each of its sections
discussed and voted on. In this listing I review the final sections adopted for
proposed Sections 1 through 4, the additional section adopted to be
intercalculated between the proposed Section 3 & 4, and Section 5 as
amended in debate but not adopted. For the remaining sections 6 through 8, I
include them as proposed by the Committee on Federal Relations. They weren’t
adopted because with the outbreak of the Civil War, a 13th amendment
became irrelevant.
Proceedings of the
Virginia State Convention of 1861, Vol. 3 pp. 659-660, adopted page 692
April 13, 1861 as amended.
Section 1: In all the present territory of the United States ,
north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north
latitude, involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, is prohibited.
In all the present territory south of that line, involuntary servitude, as it
existed on the first day of March, 1861, shall remain, and shall not be
changed; nor shall any law be passed by Congress or the Territorial Legislature
to hinder or prevent the taking of persons held to service or labor, from any
of the States of this Union to said Territory; nor to impair the rights arising
from said relation; nor shall said rights be in any manner affected by any
pre-existing law of Mexico; but the same shall be subject to judicial
cognizance in the Federal courts, according to the remedies and practice of the
common law. When any Territory north or south of said line, within such
boundary as Congress may prescribe, shall contain a population equal to that
required for a member of Congress, 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 involuntary servitude, as such Constitution of the State
may provide. In all territory which may hereafter be acquired by the United
States, involuntary servitude is prohibited, except for crime, north of the
latitude of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; but shall not be prohibited
by Congress, or any Territorial Legislature, south of said line.
Proceedings of the Virginia State April 13, 1861 .
Section 2: No territory shall be acquired by the United
States, except by discovery and for navel and commercial stations, depots and
transit routes, without the concurrence of a majority of all the Senators from
States which allow involuntary servitude, and a majority of all the Senators
from States which prohibit the relation; nor shall territory be acquired by
treaty, unless the votes of a majority of the Senators from each class of
States hereinbefore mentioned be cast as part of the two-thirds majority
necessary to the ratification of such treaty.
Vol. 3 pp. 710 April 13, 1861 , adopted as amended. However, no amendments
that passed are found between pages 692 and 710. The debates revolved about the
wording, but not the substance of this section.
Proceedings of the Virginia State April 13, 1861
Neither the Constitution, nor any amendment thereof,
shall be construed to give Congress power to legislate concerning involuntary
servitude in any State or Territory wherein the same is acknowledged or may
exist by the laws thereof, nor to interfere with or abolish the same in the
District of Columbia, without the consent of Maryland and Virginia, and without
the consent of the owners, or making the owners, who do not consent, just
compensation; nor the power to interfere with or prohibit representatives and
others from bringing with them to the District of Columbia, retaining and
taking away, persons so held to labor or service, nor the power to interfere
with or abolish involuntary servitude in any State or Territory of the United
States or any other State or Territory thereof, where it is established or
recognized by law or usage; and the right during transportation by sea or
river, of touching at ports, shores and landings, and landing in case of need
shall exist, but not the right of sojourn or sale in any State or territory
against the laws thereof. Nor shall Congress have power to authorize any higher
rate of taxation on persons held to labor or service than on land.
The bringing into the District of Columbia persons held to labor
or service for sale, or placing them in depots to be afterwards transferred to
other places for slave as merchandise is prohibited.
Vol. 3 pp. 711 April 13, 1861 Adopted.
Proceedings of the Virginia State April 13, 1861
Section 4: The third paragraph of the second section of
the fourth article of the Constitution shall not be construed to prevent any of
the States, by appropriate legislation, and through the action of their
judicial and ministerial officers, from enforcing the delivery of fugitives
from labor to the person to whom such service or labor is due.
Vol. 3 pp. 713-14 April 13, 1861 adopted.
Proceedings of the Virginia State April 13, 1861
Additional Section between Section 3 and 4: In all cases
where property in persons held to service or labor in any State or Territory of
the States or in the District of Columbia has been or hereafter may be taken
for public use as in the case of impressments in war or otherwise, the owner
thereof shall be justly compensated as in the case of other property taken; and
in all cases involving the question of property in said persons, the rights of
property in them shall be recognized and protected by the United States and
other authorities, as rights to any other property are recognized and
protected.
Vol. 3 pp. 713 April 13, 1861 adopted
Proceedings of the Virginia State April 13, 1861
Section 5: The importation of slaves, coolies or persons
held to service or labor, into the United States , and the territories,
from places beyond the limits thereof, is hereby forever prohibited.
Vol. 3 pp. 714 April 13, 1861 amended to add the following:
But this section shall not be so construed as to prohibit
the introduction of persons so held to service or labor into the United States ,
from the Confederate
States
The amend text would then be as follows:
Section 5: The importation of slaves, coolies or persons
held to service or labor, into the United States , and the territories,
from places beyond the limits thereof, is hereby forever prohibited. But this
section shall not be so construed as to prohibit the introduction of persons so
held to service or labor into the United States , from the Confederate States
Not adopted, the Civil War breaks out. Motion to suspend
in Vol. 3, pp. 740, April
15, 1861 .
The remaining Sections proposed but not adopted are as
follows.
Proceedings of the Virginia State
Section 6: Congress shall provide by law that the United
States shall pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor, in all
cases where the marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest such
fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation from mobs, or
riotous assemblages, or by violence, or when, after arrest, such fugitive was
rescued by like intimidation or violence, and the owner thereby deprived of the
same.
Section 7: The elective franchise and the right to hold
office, whether Federal or Territorial, shall not be exercised by persons who
are of the African race.
Section 8: No one of these amendments 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 thereof, shall
be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.
PRESIDENT TYLER
This is an extract from President Tyler’s speech to the
convention as previously explained. Critical of a proposal to amend the
constitution to have concurrent majorities of slave and non-slave states be
necessary to acquire additional territory. This is the “check” Tyler refers to.
Proceedings of the Virginia State March 13, 1861
But my friend supposed that our Northern friends would
come down in hordes and take possession of Central America ,
unless we had this check upon them. Dear me! Sir, the law of climate as
applicable to races, forbids this. A man of the Caucasian race pledged to go
and work under a burning sun? Why, these dreamers of the North seemingly know
nothing of the influence of climate. They talk of your cotton fields, of your
burning sun, it is true. They estimate well the wealth that comes up from these
sources. They talk of it, and they talk of free labor. Now I beg to know, while
the burning sun is upon the West-India Island, the lands, the richest in the
world, and although a so called free soil (under emancipation acts) exists
there, and although labor commands the highest prices and a greater demand for
it exists than anywhere else, why is it that the vast tide of emigration which
rolls in from Europe makes no halt there, but passes on until it reaches a high
Northern latitude, where the Caucasian is found enacting the part of herdsman
or engaged in the cultivation of the cereals? Where he flourishes, the African perishes. Child of the sun, the last
luxuriates under tropical heat; creature of a Northern latitude, the Caucasian
man perishes where the African flourishes; and so he of Africa ’s
sultry land drags out a brief and wretched existence where the white man
becomes vigorous and strong. And attains the full perfection of mental and
physical development. Such is the law of climate, and that law negatives the
supposition indulged in by the gentleman from Kanawha.
You rarely ever find the Caucasian day laborer in South America , and if an exception presents itself, he is
a stranger in a strange land. And to guard against this imaginary acquisition of
territory, on the part of the North, you require concurrent majorities which
effectually precludes all hope of acquisition on your part. You must have a
majority of nineteen States now, soon to be thirty-six; and a majority of your
own Senators which would readily obtain, and from those majorities make up the
two-thirds before you can get Cuba ,
or the West India Islands
{Discusses Henry Clay.}
… Well, sir, I am a disciple of his, to some extent, on
the subject of the African race. He did not limit his view to the then confines
of the United States .
He looked from Maryland ,
Virginia and
the other border States
in the direction of the West
India Islands Central America , with the idea that the
slave populations might ultimately find their outlet in that direction. And
yet, in my firm belief, you cannot acquire a foot of land under the provision
of the Peace Conference, for it effectually closes the door to further
expansion on the part of the South. The only way in which you have heretofore
acquired territory has been by a great party in the free States coming to the aid of the South.
You could have acquired it in no other way. Louisiana and Florida were obtained in that way. New England opposed them, as she opposes now everything
that pertains to the interest of the South, or tends to give it political
strength. In like manner, she opposed the acquisition of Texas ; and yet it was through the medium of
a controlling majority, made up of Northern and Southern votes we obtained the acquisition of that
country.
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