THE LABORS OF THE COMMITTEE. 657 tion, by which the public mind is to be misled and misguided; yet intending honestly and patriotically to entertain any fair proposition for adjustment of pending evils which the Republican members may submit." Cobb, of Alabama, gave notice of the approaching convention at Montgomery and said, "If anything is to be done to save my State, it must be done quickly."2 By a vote of one hundred and one to ninety-five, the House refused to excuse Hawkins, and by a vote of one hundred to one hundred, refused to excuse Boyce, of Virginia; but neither of these attended its sessions. As the Southern States seceded one after another, their delegations in the House announced the fact and most of the members withdrew. Thus before the committee was ready to report, all the Southern members, except Andrew J. Hamilton, of Texas,3 had withdrawn, and the committee had become a forlorn hope. But the committee earnestly and faithfully entered upon its heavy labors. It had two services to render: to report necessary legislation and a constitutional amendment. This double duty it sought to perform in its almost daily sessions from the twelfth of December to the fourteenth of January. The leading members of all parties in the House, abounded in resolutions and amendments and these were duly read and referred to the committee. They did not differ in substance from propositions, to the same end, submitted in the Senate, of which an account has been given. But they greatly exceeded the Senate propositions in number and in the variety and combination of 1 Globe, December 11, 1860, p. 59. 2 Id. 3 Appointed military governor of Texas, by President Lincoln, in 1862. 4 See twenty-three of these resolutions in the Globe for December 12 and 17, 1860, pp. 76, 77, 78, 79, 96. 658 VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS. their remedial elements. The legislation demanded by most members was thought by them of sufficient importance to be given permanent form in a constitutional amendment. It would be futile therefore to attempt to classify the propositions as legislative and constitutional, or even to group the propositions as a whole. The committee was large and its own members submitted many resolutions. The Constitution should be amended by the addition of the Crittenden resolution; the Federal Government should protect slaves like other property; it should admit new States with or without slavery, as their people might decide; it should reimburse slaveowners for escaping slaves; it should exclude from the right to vote, in every State, all persons not of pure, unmixed blood, of the Caucasian race, and should not legislate on slavery in any territory.2 The States should revise their statutes and repeal all conflicting with federal laws.3 Morrill, of Vermont, on the thirteenth, in committee, offered the pacific resolution that "any reasonable, proper and constitutional remedy necessary to preserve the peace of the country and the perpetuation of the Union should be promptly and cheerfully granted," but this was promptly voted down by twenty-two to nine. By twentytwo to eight the committee adopted the resolution of Dunn, of Indiana, slightly modifying that by Rust, of Arkansas, that "additional and more specific guarantees" of the peculiar rights of the South "should be promptly and cheerfully granted."5 New Mexico should be admitted, 1 Report No. 31, H. R., 36th Congress, 2d Session. Journal of the Committee. The Crittenden Resolutions proposed by Nelson of Tenn. 2 Id., p. 4, proposed by Whitely of Delaware. * Id., p. 5, proposed by Henry Winter Davis of Maryland. 4 Id., p. 7. 5 Id., p. 8. VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS. 659 with whatever constitution its people might adopt, and Arizona should be included within its boundaries; Kansas should be admitted with the Leavenworth constitution, but no additional territory should be acquired by the United States without the consent of two-thirds of the States in the Senate, and of two-thirds of all the members of the House.1 But Rust's proposition to restore the Missouri Compromise line, prohibiting slavery north of it and leaving slavery south of it to be decided by new States, was rejected by sixteen to thirteen.2 By a vote of twenty-one to three Charles Francis Adams's resolution was adopted, that a constitutional amendment should be added that should forbid interference with slavery unless an amendment to that end should originate with a slaveholding State and receive the assent of every State in the Union.3 On the twenty-ninth of December, Taylor, of Louisiana, announced his intention to deliberate with the committee no longer, as it offered, to his mind, no hope of agreement; and from this time the absence of the Southern members made its work merely perfunctory. But it continued to entertain resolutions. On the second, without a division, Corwin's amendment was agreed to, that it was highly inexpedient and improper for Congress to abolish slavery, or to make the attempt, in places within slaveholding States over which the Government held jurisdiction. That party politics ruled in the committee was shown, on the eleventh, when Adams moved to adopt the resolution, that peaceful acquiescence in the election of a Chief-Magistrate, accomplished in accordance with every 1 Id., p. 14, proposed by Davis of Maryland. 2 Id., pp. 15-16. 3 Id., p. 17. 660 A THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT REPORTED. legal and constitutional requirement, is the paramount duty of every good citizen of the United States. Millson, of Virginia objected, and moved to strike out the words, "the paramount" and insert "a high and imperative," which was agreed to, by eleven to ten. Seven of the Southern members had it entered on the journal that they refused to vote on the amendment, or on Adams's resolution, because it did not contemplate any legal enactment by Congress, or an amendment to the Constitution. Millson, Nelson and Bristow entered another minute, explaining their vote for Millson's amendment, because they did not want it to appear that "the grievances assigned by the seceding States to justify their ordinances of secession, were only pretexts to cover a resistance to the late election of Chief-Magistrate." A Thirteenth Amendment was then agreed to by twenty to five; a proposition to admit New Mexico (including Arizona) by fourteen to nine, and a more effective fugitive slave law, by twelve to eleven.2 The constitutional amendment was as follows: "No amendment of this Constitution having for its object any interference within the States with the relation between their citizens and those described in section second of the first article of the Constitution as 'all other persons,' shall originate with any State that does not recognize that relation within its own limits, or shall be valid without the assent of every one of the States composing the Union."3 This was agreed to by the committee on the eleventh of January. While the committee had been thus engaged, the House had referred many resolutions and amendments to it. 1 Id., p. 35. 2 Id., pp. 35, 36. 3 Id., p. 35. ANDREW JOHNSON'S PLAN OF PACIFICATION. 661 These were not acted on by the committee. They show, however, the state of public feeling, as they came up from all parts of the Union. They began on the twelfth of December, when twenty-two members submitted resolutions, under a call of the States for the purpose, and Anderson, of Missouri, submitted another set, on the following day. They proved, at the outset, how hopeless it was to expect unanimity. The most that could be looked for was the adoption of a party measure, and this could not be accepted by the States as a constitutional amendment. Congress, like the world, has its characters and its list of curious propositions which, if their originators are to be believed, would benefit the country if enacted into laws. Andrew Johnson's plan of pacification, offered in the Senate, by which Presidents and Vice-Presidents should be taken alternately from slave States and free States, but never both from either, has been mentioned. The House now gave illustration of three even stranger schemes for healing all discords. Albert G. Jenkins, of Virginia, proposed a dual executive; the division of the Senate into two bodies; the consent of a majority of Senators from both the free and the slaveholding States necessary to all action by the Senate; and the creation of another advisory body, to be called a council. All these, he thought, would simplify legislation and give better expression to the public will. John W. Noell, of Missouri, doubtful of the wisdom of the fathers, wanted the committee of thirtythree to recommend the abolition of the offices of President and Vice-President, and to establish, instead, an executive council, consisting of three members, elected by districts of contiguous States, as near as practicable, each armed with the veto power. The equilibrium between free and slaveholding States should be restored and maintained |