"Your committee do not feel themselves called upon to enter into the
discussion of these controverted questions. They involve the same grave
issues which produced the agitation, the sectional strife, and the
fearful struggle of 1850."

And they go on to say:

"Congress deemed it wise and prudent to refrain from deciding the
matters in controversy then, either by affirming or repealing the
Mexican laws, or by an act declaratory of the true intent of the
Constitution and the extent of the protection afforded by it to slave
property in the Territories; so your committee are not prepared now
to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that memorable
occasion, either by affirming or repealing the eighth section of
the Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the
Constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute."

Mr. President, here are very remarkable facts. The Committee on
Territories declared that it was not wise, that it was not prudent, that
it was not right, to renew the old controversy, and to arouse agitation.
They declared that they would abstain from any recommendation of a
repeal of the prohibition, or of any provision declaratory of the
construction of the Constitution in respect to the legal points in
dispute.

Mr. President, I am not one of those who suppose that the question
between Mexican law and the slave-holding claims was avoided in the
Utah and New Mexico Act; nor do I think that the introduction into the
Nebraska bill of the provisions of those acts in respect to slavery