A WARNING FROM THE WEST. 673 Constitution was not in need of amendment. "I am well aware that the influence which surrounds this metropolis, which pervades this Chamber, and which clusters round the Representatives of the people in the other end of this Capitol, is strongly in favor of any surrender, no matter how humiliating, how degrading, how violative of the principles of liberty and justice such surrender may be, provided the moneyed interests of the commercial and trading districts of the country can be upheld." "The people of the Northwest will never consent to the idea of a Southern Confederacy, to take possession of the mouth of the Mississippi river. This act, of itself, will lead to war." Doolittle, of Wisconsin, then offered an additional section, that no State had the power to withdraw from the Union. This was rejected by twenty-eight to eighteen. Douglas again reminded the Senate of the shortness of the time, urged the passage of the Corwin amendment and, then, to take up the propositions of the Peace Conference. Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, at this point asked Powell, of Kentucky, who, it will be remembered had called for the Committee of Thirteen, at the opening of the session, whether, after the House resolution or any other compromise was adopted, he was prepared to go with the Union-loving men of the Nation, for enforcing the laws of the United States in all the States. "I am for enforcing the laws in all the States that are within the Union," replied Powell, "but I am opposed to making war on States that are without the Union. I am opposed to coercing seceding States." Chandler had said, in a private letter, to which Powell referred, that it was necessary to have a little blood-letting, or the Union would not be worth preserving, and he now quoted Jefferson's well-known let 1 Globe, March 2, 1861, p. 1369. 674 WIGFALL, OF TEXAS. ter on Shays' rebellion. "This is not a question of compromise," he continued, "this is a question whether we have a government or not." "What has all this to do with the question before the country?" inquired Wigfall, of Texas. "The Union is dissolved. Seven States have dissolved their connection with the balance. Texas went out to-day. What do you propose doing? "It is better then, to look this matter steadily and honestly in the face, and see what is the grievance. The grievance is not about the territories. It is the denial that slaves are property and the declaration that the Federal Government has a right to settle that question. Nothing short, I believe, of an amendment to the Constitution declaring that each State has the right to secedewhich is admitting the right of self-government to the people of each one of these sovereign States-will give satisfaction. I am sure, if you are talking about reconstruction, and expecting any one of these Gulf States to come back, that nothing short of that would induce them even to entertain your propositions. You must admit that the masters are free; that they have a right to live under such a government as they see fit; that they can peaceably, quietly, constitutionally change their government if they see fit. When you do that, then they will entertain the proposition as to whether the form of government you offer them is satisfactory or not. But while you deny the right of secession, while you deny the right of self-government, those men will not consider whether they are to be well governed or badly governed, and they should not. Admit the right to govern themselves, and then offer amendments to the Constitution securing the right to their property in this Government, then they will entertain the proposition. Nothing short of that, I am satisfied, would induce any one of the Confederate CRITTENDEN'S APPEAL. 675 States again to secede from the Confederation and come back into this. "Now, whether what are called the Crittenden resolutions will produce satisfaction in some of these border States or not, I am unaware; but I feel perfectly sure they would not be entertained upon the Gulf. As to the resolutions which the Peace Congress has offered us, we might as well make a clean breast of it. If those resolutions were adopted and ratified by three-fourths of the States of this Union, and no other cause ever existed, I make the assertion that the seven States now out of the Union would go out upon that. The first proposition is to do what? The Wilmot proviso latitude, and a lawsuit south of it. Federal Government the right to citizen. Those two propositions would be enough of itself to dissolve the Union, if nothing else offered." 1 north of 36° 30′ north The next is to give the declare a free negro a The Senate now took a recess until seven o'oclock, Sunday evening, long before which time the galleries and all available space on the floor of the Chamber were filled with spectators. There was great confusion. The crowd in the halls kept pressing toward the galleries and Crittenden, who had arisen to address the Senate, was prevented, by the noise, from continuing. Douglas accused the Republican members of having invited the crowd for the purpose of obstructing public business. Finally the galleries, to the right of the Vice President, were cleared, the Senate having voted this unusual procedure. Henry Wilson succeeded in getting the vote reconsidered, and Crittenden began his pacific appeal. He appeared, he said, as the advocate of Union, not of slavery. The difficulty was territorial, like that which threatened the country in 1820. A similar remedy was there 1 Globe, 1373-1374. 676 TRUMBULL OF ILLINOIS. fore needed. Indeed the controversy was narrowed down to one Territory, New Mexico, the most sterile region within the Union, the least happy, already open to slavery ten years, and yet not having thirty slaves. It was not a country that could be made a profitable slave State. Therefore, the pending question was one of mere abstract right, over which North and South were battling. Not that the South was wholly right, but it had some plausible reasons for dissatisfaction with the North. Let New Mexico remain slave soil; it would be a small concession for so great a good. Draw the line of partition between free soil and slave. Let there be a compromise. The Senate had a high mission; the pacification of the country. Hold fast to the Union. Quiet antislavery agitation: it was not too great a price to pay for peace. Do it as a common benefit, not as a bargain. Why let the Union be destroyed, when a simple compromise would save it? Though the House resolution did not, in his opinion, cover the case, yet it might have some good effect "like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds." Trumbull, of Illinois, a leading Republican Senator, followed. Secession had long been planned and threatened. The Government must protect its own. Who would talk compromises when the authority of the national Government was defied by seceding States? Every effort at compromise had been repudiated. "I will never agree to put into the Constitution a clause establishing, or making perpetual, slavery anywhere.' "The seven free States of the Northwest, at the late presidential election, cast three hundred thousand more votes than all the fifteen Southern States together." Kentucky, New Jersey and Illinois had called on Congress to summon a constitutional convention. But the THE FIRST BLOW AT SECESSION. 677 Constitution needed no amendments. And he replied to Wigfall's question, as to what the Government intended to do about it, saying: "I am for executing the laws; I am for coercion. I am for settling, in the first place, the question whether we have a government, before making compromises which leave us as powerless as before." The resolutions of the New York legislature, "tending to the Federal Government all the resources of the State in money and men to maintain the Government, had a most salutary effect; it was the first blow at secession." Baker continued the discussion in the same spirit, but with a less vigorous presentation of national ideas. Again Douglas warned the Senator of the brevity of time, urged the adoption of the House resolution and then, of the propositions which the Peace Conference had submitted. Bingham, of Michigan, now offered a substitute for the pending amendment, that the Constitution did not need amendment, but the laws should be enforced, and all the energies of the departments, and the efforts of good citizens should be directed to maintain the existing Union and to prevent all attempts at its dissolution. This was rejected by a vote of twenty-four to thirteen.' Grimes, of Iowa, moved for Congress to call a Constitutional Convention, but the proposition was rejected by almost the same vote.2 Johnson, of Arkansas, then proposed that the resolutions of the Peace Conference be submitted for the House resolution, but the vote was more decisivethirty-four to three.3 This vote brought the Senate to the joint resolution. It was read a third time; the roll was called; twenty-four votes were recorded in its favor, and twelve against it, and the presiding officer, Trusten 1 Journal, 380; Globe, 1387. 2 Journal, 380; Globe, 1401. & Journal, 382; Globe, 1402. |