CHAPTER VI.

THE REJECTED AMENDMENT OF 1861.

Meanwhile, a remedy for the Nation's ills was sought in a different quarter. Virginia was trying the part of the peacemaker. On the nineteenth of January its General Assembly appointed commissioners and invited the other States to join her, to meet in Washington, on the fourth of February, "in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversies, in the spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed, and consistently with its principles, so as to afford to the people of the slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the security of their rights." While this invitation to join in a peace conference was on its way to the several States, Senators and Representatives from seceding States were delivering their farewells in Congress. Davis of Mississippi, Mallory and Yulee, of Florida, and Clay and Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, on the twenty-first, formally announced the secession of their States and their consequent retirement from the Senate.1 Three days later, Ex-President Tyler, one of the Virginia commissioners, delivered a copy of the Assembly resolutions to the President, who, hailing the movement with lively satisfaction, sent the resolutions to Congress on the twenty-eighth, with a special message. Virginia had appointed Tyler a commissioner to the President, and Judge John Robertson one to South Carolina. The President and the State were requested to agree to abstain, pending the action of the peace conference, "from all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the States and the government of the United States." 1 Globe, December 21, 1861, pp. 484-487.

THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

633

"However strong may be my desire to enter into such an agreement," said the President in his message, "I am convinced that I do not possess the power." That rested with Congress alone under the warmaking power. But Buchanan urged Congress to accede to the request of Virginia.1

Judge Robertson found South Carolina in no mood for a peace conference. The eyes of the State were set towards Montgomery, and, with adjoining States, already in session, it had chosen delegates to form a Southern Confederacy. The Americans are fond of conventions. They have long been a favorite agency in politics, trade and religion. No other people have held so many. It may be said that in America no day is without its convention. We do not take them all seriously though we often go to great labor and expense to attend them.

Twenty-one States responded to the Virginia call. The absent ones were the seven that had seceded, and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and Oregon. Maine and Iowa were represented by their members in Congress; from twelve States the delegates came by legislative appointments; from seven, by executive. No more respectable body of citizens has gathered to discuss public questions in America, and propose a remedy for "unhappy controversies" than the one hundred and thirty-three men who assembled in Willard's Hall, Washington, on the first Monday of February, 1861. Among them were William Pitt Fessenden and Lot M. Morrill, of

1 For the Message, see Richardson, V, 661.

2 See pp. 561-611 and Journal of S. C. Convention of 1860, pp. 150-158. (January 1-3, 1861.)

3 Tenn., Indiana, Ohio, Ky., Del., Ill., N. J., N. Y., Pa., Mass., R. I., Mo.,-Crittenden's Debates and Proceedings of the Peace Convention of 1861, p. 453.

4 N. H., Vt., Conn., Md., N. C., Kansas, Id., 453.

634

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE.

Maine; George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts; David Dudley Field, Erastus Corning and William E. Dodge, of New York; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey; David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland; John Tyler and George W. Summers, of Virginia; Thomas Ruffin, of North Carolina; James Guthrie, of Kentucky; Salmon P. Chase and Thomas Ewing, of Ohio; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana; Stephen T. Logan and John M. Palmer, of Illinois; James Harlan, of Iowa, and other distinguished civilians.

The resolutions, under which most of these held their appointments, are highly instructive as showing the attitude of the State legislatures toward the issues of the time.1 Tennessee proposed a constitutional amendment, almost identical with that submitted by Douglas to the committee of thirteen, but with no reference to free persons of color. The slaveholding States having agreed among themselves on a basis of adjustment, should invite the other States to meet in a Constitutional Convention, at Richmond, some time in February, 1861.

The Ohio legislature, which had recently elected Chase to the Senate, was "fully satisfied with the Constitution as it is, if fairly interpreted and obeyed by all sections of the country." Kentucky proposed the Crittenden resolutions. Indiana instructed its commissioners to take no action until nineteen States were represented, and, like Ohio, affirmed that the Constitution "contains ample provisions within itself for the correction of the evils complained of." Delaware declared that preservation of the Union to be paramount to any political consideration. Its appointment of commissioners, Illinois wished to be understood not as an expression on the part of the State that any amendment of the Federal Constitu1 For the resolutions, see Id., pp. 454-464.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE.

635

tion was requisite "to secure to the people of the slaveholding States adequate guarantees for the security of their rights," nor as an approval of the basis proposed by Virginia.

The resolutions of New Jersey were a departure in the history of that State, and the announcement of a doctrine of which much was to be said and heard during the next twenty-five years. "The Government of the United States is a National government, and the Union it was designed to perfect is not a mere compact or league." It recommended the Crittenden resolutions, and if these were not adopted, that Congress call a Constitutional Convention. The States should repeal all acts interfering with the fugitive slave laws. New York sent commissioners to the conference as a possible means "of an honorable settlement of our national difficulties,' but wished not to be understood as approving of the propositions submitted by Virginia.

The Pennsylvania legislature denied that there was reasonable cause for extraordinary excitement. It believed no constitutional amendment necessary, but the State would support one making the fugitive slave clause more effective. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Missouri made no comments, but sent delegates in the hope of peace.

The conference was in session nineteen days and ExPresident Tyler presided. It was the plan of Virginia that the Conference should work out a constitutional amendment and send it to Congress, which body should submit it to the States for ratification. The Conference voted by States. Guthrie, of Kentucky, was made chairman of the General Committee on Propositions, and on the fifteenth it reported an amendment, the basis of which was the Missouri Compromise line. New ter

ritory could be acquired only with consent of four-fifths of all members of the Senate, which would amount practically to a prohibitory clause. Virginia had proposed the Crittenden resolutions1, which put no obstacles in the way of acquiring territory. It seemed that its wishes would be those of the Conference, for on the last day the Missouri Compromise line, as described in the Crittenden resolutions, was adopted by the votes of nine States to eight, Virginia voting in the negative. Virginia insisted on the admission of States south of the line, with slavery, and north of it, with or without slavery as the population might decide in its constitution. Free persons of color were to be excluded from all political rights throughout the Union. The vote on the line of 36° 30', on the twenty-seventh, was directly contrary to the vote on the same issue the day before, when the line was rejected by eleven States to eight. Just why the Conference changed its mind so suddenly has never been explained. Perhaps the best explanation is suggested by the debates themselves, and the numerous resolutions, giving voice to irreconcilable opinion. But the Conference passed a thirteenth amendment which Tyler sent to the Senate on the twenty-seventh of February. It was referred to a committee of five, of which Crittenden was chairman, and he espoused it with what energy and hope he could, after his own resolutions had been rejected by the Conference. But to so generous a mind as Crittenden, no price, with honor, was too great for Union, and he labored to have the Conference resolutions substituted for his own. At times till the second of March he spoke, but the Senate, on that day, by a vote of twenty

3

2

1 Peace Convention Debates, 418-420.

2 Debates, 438.

8 Senate Journal, 333; Globe, 1254.