Chapter 119: The two Congressional Committees make their recommendations.

Ironically on the same day South Carolina secedes Congress makes its proposals.

In the Senate it is the “Crittenden Compromise,” a series of six Constitutional Amendments with the centerpiece being a familiar plea to extend the 36’30” Missouri Compromise line across all the remaining western territories, with slavery prohibited to the north and allowed to the south until the settlers apply for statehood and declare their preference.

The House version authored by Maryland’s Henry Winter Davis is a variation on Crittenden’s plan and calls for immediately creating one new state out of all the remaining western territory south of the 36’30” line, admitting it forthwith into the Union, and then allowing the settlers there to vote on a Free or Slave status.