With South Carolina’s secession convention about to meet and several other Southern States organizing conventions, Senator John J. Crittenden introduced legislation he hoped would pacify the South and preserve the Union.
What did Vice President Stephens say about the “Old Constitution”?
Yes. States, where the institution of Slavery was legal to practice, had a legal right to defend the institution if it had a slave code to govern the practice.
Yes. Slavery was tied to State representation in the US House of Representatives through Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States”. Remove slavery and States lose representation and therefore the power to affect legislation.