CHANDLER VS. BRECKENRIDGE. 45 the pilgrims from despotism the world over, from their miseries, to a more perfect and enlightened government, has been an ignis fatuus-leading those who would strive for liberty to the most miserable failure that history ever has recorded. How old is this Government? Sir, there are men living to-day who can remember when your Declaration of Inde pendence was first pronounced; there are ears into which first fell the sublime truths that were then enunciated to the world by the great apostle of liberty; and if we go on as gentlemen have threatened, if they dictate terms to the popular will and to the popular party, and stipulate that they are a sine qua non upon which their allegiance is to be rendered, it is all a failure; and though I would do as much as the Senator from Kentucky-as much as any living man would do; and if, for the preservation of the liberties of this country, the sacrifice of my poor life should be called for, I trust God would give me grace to lay myself down a victim on the altar of patriotism as readily as any man:-I say if this is to be the manner in which we are to be met, if this is the argument addressed to us, much as I love this country-much as I reverence the Constitution of the United States, I say to all such States as have seceded for the causes named, go! and, instead of asking one to return which has gone out, I would rather all others should go that are not willing to stay in the Union as our fathers made it, and to submit to the restraints of the Constitution as they intended it should be sub mitted to. "Sir, we are a Union only in name if we are not willing to abide by this test. If we are not willing to submit to the requirements of the Constitution, perform all its duties, and when the popular voice Clingman Again. says to those in power," Come down and let others take your place;" if, instead of quietly surrendering the ensigns of power at the behest of the popular will, they choose to "let slip the dogs of war," and appeal to force as the arbiter to decide our questions -then, sir, instead of having a Government of which to boast, we should hide our faces in shame." Tuesday, the Douglas resolution still being before the Senate, Clingman again adverted to the Inaugural. If the policy of the Administration be peace, why should it not be announced? Everybody knows that the country is suffering. Commerce is paralyzed, manufactures are depressed, stocks are down, and general distress prevails throughout the land. If, as the Senato from Illinois said, the President would announce that his policy was peace, it would help us out of our difficulties; but if, on the other hand, a different policy be intended, he could well understand why the Administration would not proclaim it. He repeated, "It is the settled policy of those in power to involve us very soon in civil war." Their silence was proof of this to his mind. No doubt orders have gone to the Mediterranean and other distant stations to bring home our ships. Why was this so if the policy of the Administration is peace? Why is there an immense armament at New York, larger than for the last twenty years, if they were to believe the newspapers and private correspondence? There could be no doubt that troops are being thrown into distant stations, and that a number of ships were taking in supplies. If the policy of the Administration is war, it would, of course, be concealed until there was readiness to strike. From information he had received within the last two or three days, there are reenforcements and heavy guns going South to take possession of the forts in North Carolina, Virginia, and elsewhere. If so, he should regard it as a purpose to make war. This word "war" was repeated over and over again, showing the North Carolina Senator to be thoroughly excited in his anxieties. This speech called out Hale, Clark, and Grimes. The first said, in regard to any knowledge he had concerning the President's policy, that he was utterly ignorant of what the Administration intended to do. He had not passed a word with members of the Cabinet. He had not put his eyes "on that great leading mind,” (Seward,) as the Senator called him. He presumed that the President had the courage to stem the storms assailing the ship of State. This was the reason why Mr. Lincoln had not gone outside the circle of his constitutional advisers. He sought no Virginia, Jefferson, who, in writing from Paris, said that" the people cannot always be well informed, and that the tree of liberty must be refreshed by the blood of patriots and tyrants." It was the natural manure. There was where he (Chandler) obtained the idea. The doctrine of the "higher law" and the "irrepressible conflict" was assigned to Mr. Seward, and the Senator from Illinois had said that Mr. Lincoln inaugurated the doctrine. If the Senator had read the Bible, he would have found the doctrine was not only held before Mr. Seward was born, but before the Mayflower crossed the Atlantic, and before the Saviour was born. It was illustrated in the history of Pharaoh and Moses, as he proceeded to show. The Senator from Kentucky had spoken for that and other States, and had argued to prove the propriety of abandoning the forts and of giving up attempts to enforce the laws, and had said that unless this was done Kentucky would go out of the Union. The people, on the 6th of November, had sat on this great issue and rendered a verdict. There were four Presidential candidates. The aggregate votes for Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell, were 3,814,217 votes, and in the platforms respectively of these parties there was a clear and emphatic declaration for the maintenance of the Union and the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws. The fourth Presidential candidate was the Senator from Kentucky, with what the Senator from Illinois called "a disunion platform of a disunion party." He received 848,000 votes. This showed him that the platform was repudiated by three millions of voters. The Senator now proposed to reopen a question which has thus been settled, and to insert his platform, naked and simple, in the Constitution of the United States, notwithstanding the immense vote against him. It was too late. The thing cannot be done. The people have renderded their verdict. The question cannot be reopened. He believed that if the rattlesnake banner was raised in Kentucky, it would be hailed by but few supporters in that gallant State. Kentucky held too many loyal souls to be marshaled under a disloyal banner. He felt it to be impossible for her to be unfaithful to the Union. 44 And that said Committee report the result of their inquiries to the Senate." This was understood to be aimed at Clingman, who, it was said, had been elected by a Legislature which had refused to take the usual oath of allegiance to the United States Constitution. This he supported in a short speech. He assumed that the Senate could act; that it should ascertain what States were competent to fill vacancies, either by the Legislative of Executive appointment, and whether any Senators have been elected by those who were not competent to vote for them. The Senator from Illinois had said he would give the Republicans some trouble, because he knew what their schemes were. Now, he (Simmons) did not know that his brother Senators had any schemes. The Senator did not think it possible that the majority could perform their duty without some scheme. He then replied to some remarks which Mr. Clingman had incidentally made on the tariff question, and in response to a question by that gentleman, said he never dreamed that the non-payment of duties by the Confederate States would make any sensible dif ference. Mr. Clingman--Will you let them go ! MR. HOWE'S SPEECH. 47 Mr. Simmons-They have gone without | Republic. The Senator's speech was not asking. I am not disposed to force them concluded when the Senate went into Exback. I presume they will be sick of their ecutive session. experiment within a year. Mr. Clingman--That remains to be tested. Mr. Simmons, resuming, said the country in six months would settle matters in spite of the restless politicians. He had no more idea that the Administration contemplated the invasion of State rights any more than he (Simmons) did. He believed this was getting to be well understood at the South, and hence new issues and threats were made, and new positions taken. Certain gentlemen are in a wonderful hurry to settle everything before it happens. We shall continue to collect the revenue as heretofore, or the States setting up for themselves will cease to have any business. He believed the President has as kind and pacific intentions towards those States as any President ever had. He believed, but for the agitation here and elsewhere, they would go about their every-day | associations. Politicians, however, must be agitating. They never produce a dollar, and never will. Bayard's Speech. The speech was resumed Thursday, and occupied all the open session of that day, and a portion of Friday. Its latter portion was devoted to an arraignment of the principles of the dominant party, and in favor of a recognition of the independence of the Southern Confederacy. Howe's Speech. Friday, Howe, of Wisconsin, addressed the Senate on the Douglas Resolution, opposing it, and dealing the Senators from Kentucky and Illinois some sturdy blows. The information asked, he thought a proper degree of self-respect should prevent the Democratic Senators from calling for, since it was under their rule and domination that the country was placed on the verge of destruction. We have now, he said, an Administration which has proclaimed a fixed purpose to maintain the authority of the United States, and not the authority of this or that section merely, by peaceful means, if peaceful means will suffice. This is the setWednesday, Bayard, of tled purpose, as he understood it, of the AdDelaware, consumed the en- ministration. Was it not a purpose which tire open session in a speech demanded the best energies of every one? of an elaborate character, covering the whole It seemed to him the Senator from Illinois ground of the rights of States and the pow- was not furnishing the great aid he could ers of the Federal Executive. His position have furnished with this view. Instead of was a "Southern" one, in most respects helping to hold up the hands of the Governgoing to prove the right of secession and the ment, that Senator was confronting the Govwant of power for coercion. He quoted, at ernment, not by arms and the application of some length, from the Madison and Hamilton force, but with objections that the Adminis"Federalist" papers, and also from the writ-tration must stop here, then there, and must ings of William Rawle, one of the ablest and most unbiased jurists Pennsylvania produced during the Revolutionary era. [Rawle, in 1825, published a volume of "Notes on the Constitution," wherein he assumed, in the broadest sense, the independence of the States and their right to withdraw, at any time, by a vote of their people, from the Federal Union, which he considered but a mere compact.] Mr. Bayard presumed that the President and Congress had the power, also, to treat in the matter of the cession and secession of the States, and therefore called upon the President to secure peace by settling upon terms for a reorganization of the not undertake to collect the revenue, &c., and it seemed to him (Howe) this furnished aid to the enemies, and not to the friends of the country. He would admonish representatives that if another revolution is to be thrust upon us, we should take especial care that the future historian shall not be compelled to record that, with the friends of the United States, were found the semblance of the Cowboys of the Revolution. His (Howe's) party had done nothing to create the feverish apprehension alluded to by the Senator from Illinois. They were in no way responsible for it; they have no purpose to trample on a single right of any individual "Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to the Senate, if not incompatible with the public interest, the dispatches from Major Anderson to the War Department during the time he has been in command of Fort Sumter." Mr. Howe then resumed Howe's Speech Concluded. his speech of the previous in any portion of the country. The Senator from Illinois argued that the information asked was to allay excitement, but did not every such suggestion from so respectable a source tend more than all things else to increase and continue the excitement? To allay excitement, all should unite to tell the country they have no purpose to trample on any one's rights or constitutional privileges. As to Mr. Douglas' proposition to amend the Constitution, he objected to it for the admission it contained; namely, that fraternity can be maintained only by adopting certain amendments to the fundamental law. This is not the proper method of bringing about fraternity, for if approved only by a portion of the people of the Union, it would be disap-zens, who were also citizens of the United proved by the remainder of them. A Constitution, to be satisfactory, must receive the assent of the whole country. We have got such a Constitution now. Why should not the people continue to be satisfied with it? Mr. Howe's speech was concluded on Monday, Saturday being devoted to miscellaneous business and an Executive session. A very sharp controversy sprung up over the election of new officers of the floor-the Southern members resisting a change. The last week of the extra session was rendered notable from the tilt between Messrs. Breckenridge and Douglas. These two men were mutually disinclined to fellowship. Entertaining ideas of polity quite at variance, they still had suffered the session to pass without any expressions to indicate the hostility existing between them. Douglas was, evidently, anxious to force his opponent to a confession of his real principles. That Breckenridge was disloyal to the Constitution all Senators well understood, and Douglas finally became so anxious to force the Kentuckian to the confessional-to unmask his treason, and thus to dispose of him forever as a Democratic leader-that, on Monday, (March 25th,) in the course of the debate with Howe, (of Wisconsin,) he referred to the Senator from Kentucky in such a manner as to compel that gentleman to take the floor, which he did on Tuesday. Mr. Powell, on Monday, March 25th, introduced, by unanimous consent, the following resolution, which was agreed to: den down by a reckless tyranny, from which they had a right to be relieved. The leaders were in insurrection against their own peace and order-were persecuting their own citi States, and entitled to its protection. He adverted, at some length, to the exclusion of Slaves from the Territories, and demanded to know if such exclusion-the deliberate voice of the majority-could afford any reasonable ground for rebellion? The means did not justify the ends. The cause was too immaterial for the monstrous wrongs perpotrated against the Union, by the Seceded States, in the seizure of forts, arsenals, mints, &c.-the firing on the United States flagthe defiance of United States authority. Mr. Howe called upon Mr. Douglas, if that Senator really wished to preserve the Union and to avert the calamities of civil war, to unite with the Republicans in the declaration, that while they did not propose to make war, they did not intend that war shall be made on the North. The country may be saved, not by dissolving the Union, but by supporting it-not by abjuring the Constitution, but by taking a fast hold upon it. Did any State or section complain that injustice had been done them, or their rights denied? If so, let them go bravely before the people of the United States for redress, and not to those of any one State or section. To the victims of private wrong the Courts are open for relief, and to those of public wrong the Legislatures are available. In further reply to the Senator from Illinois, he showed the difficulties of procuring amendments to the Constitution, which the former had advocated as a remedy for existing troubles. He was alike opposed to the DOUGLAS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 49 second proposition of Mr. Douglas, viz.: the recognition of the Seceded States; this, he argued, would not produce peace. As to the third proposition or alternative of that Senator-war, with a view to the subjection and military occupation of such States as have or may secede the issue is made up between the loyal citizens and those who defy the authority of the United States. They had seen a new Government and a strange flag set up, and this had been brought about in a great measure by the aid of the Government of the United States. Our ministers, agents, or officers had put into the hands of those who were plotting against the Federal authority, treasure, arms, and means by which the triumph of the Disunionists had been achieved. Douglas on the Defensive. Douglas, thus personally appealed to, was constrained to reply. He defended his proposition for information. If the War Department possessed no information no harm could result from giving an open answer. Or, if the information which exists, already has been imparted to the Confederate States, and our enemies are in possession of it, there would be no harm in letting others have it. He apprehended the furnishing of this information would tend to allay public excitement. He supposed there was no danger as to Fort Sumter, as he understood the order had been given for its evacuation; the question he desired to get at was, whether Fort Pickens was to be held merely as a cause for irritation as a thorn festering in the finger -producing disease. If it was not national but local in its character, it ought to be surrendered to those who hold the harbor; it ought not to be retained by the Federal Government, unless designed as a basis of operation against the Seceded States. He wanted to find out whether we are to have peace or war. He, however, believed the policy to be peace. The Senator from Wisconsin said his remarks were calculated to belittle the Administration; but he (Douglas) had only said that there is no power to collect the revenue, and blockade the ports of the Seceded States, and that the President cannot use the military force, excepting as aid of a civil authority; hence, the threat to do either of | Douglas on the Defensive. these things without legal authority, was a threat to violate the Constitution and laws of the United States. Was it wise to delude the people into the belief that the Administration is going to do what the Constitution and laws do not permit ? Howe (interrupting) said the Senator, instead of summoning the representatives of the people to provide the necessary means for securing the revenues, summoned the Government to abandon the revenue. Douglas replied, that he endeavored, during the last session, when the Republicans were rushing through a bill to destroy the revenue, to prevent it; but they would not listen to the warning, and he apprehended that there would be an extra session to undo a part of what was recklessly and unwisely done. The Senator from Wisconsin would not say that he (Douglas) was a Tory, but that his speech reminded him of it. Now, a man might be reminded of Tories by his antagonism to them, or by his own identity with them. He did not choose to say in what category the Senator from Wisconsin was. He had not the slightest apprehension the people of the country would regard him as an enemy of the country. This was an insinuation by the Senator from Wisconsin, rather than a direct assertion, for it seemed impossible for the Republicans to make speeches without impugning his motives or assailing his character. If he should die, he supposed that he should have a long train of mourners, because they would, by his decease, be deprived of material out of which they manufacture their speeches. The Senator from Wisconsin had opposed the amendments to the Constitution which he (Douglas) had proposed, with the view of insuring the safety and equality, and restoring peace, unity, and fraternity to the whole country. In his opinion, all who were opposed to amending the Constitution, were looking to a dissolution of the Union, either as a necessity which could not be avoided, or as a thing desirable in itself. |