1821.

a second compromise necessary.

937

sonri Compromise" of the preceding session, and the reception of the new State without the restriction of slavery.

In the House of Representatives, the resolution previously introduced to admit that State, was rejected.

On the 10th of February, 1821, the select committee to whom the constitution was referred, made an elaborate report, and recommended the reception of the State. This was also disagreed to. On a subsequent occasion the question came up somewhat modified, and was lost in the House. This vote was afterward reconsidered.

During the session the whole subject was discussed ; the rights of the South; the balance of power; the rights of the people of Missouri, and the mooted question, whether "free negroes" were, constitutionally, citizens in all the States, were agitated questions at various periods of the session. A resolution with various restrictions, to admit Missouri, finally passed the House, but in such a form as it would not be likely to receive the support of the Senate.

At this crisis, (February 22d,) Clay proposed a joint committee of the House and Senate, which was carried, ne then reported from the joint committee on the subject, the formula that became incorporated in the public act, to be found in the Laws of Congress for that session, and in the "Territorial Laws of Missouri."

The substance is as follows: On condition that the Legislature of Missouri, by a solemn act, shall declare that the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law by which any citizen of either of the States of the Union, shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges to wdiich such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States; and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November, 1821, an authentic copy of said act;   upon the receipt thereof, the president, by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of that State into the Union shall be considered as complete.

To carry this proviso out, it became necessary for the governor to convene the legislature in a special session, which was held in the town of St. Charles, in the month of Juno, and the Solemn Public Act was passed; guarded by explanations, so as not to appear to affect constitutional rights. The mooted question whether "free negroes and mulattoes" are "citizens," in the 60