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Garnett's Speech.

peared as one of the strang- | must ultimately control the whole of the popular est phenomena of these un- feeling in the North. It was impossible to adopt an settled times. State after opinion of this kind without making up the mind to State had seceded, and yet nothing was done. carry what it professes. In other words, it was im Minute-guns continued to proclaim the separa- possible for the Southern people to join the Republican party without a great revolution in the policy tion of fresh States. The old ship of State was of that organization; and, therefore, the Republican being broken up into fragments, and yet the must be a sectional party. In proof of this it was representatives of the people stand idly by only necessary to show that no portion of the people as spectators, with folded arms and helpless in the Southern States could join them without comin the emergency. It was, therefore, time mitting themselves to a radical change in their whole that they should seriously address them- social, moral and political system. Therefore, being selves to the dangers which surround the sectional and the stronger party, they will control country, and, rising above the horizon of the Government, to the detriment of the weaker party prejudices, grapple with the responsi- Southern section. While the stronger would engross bilities which, through Providence, had de- to themselves all the emoluments of office, and enjoy volved upon them, and which must affect the patronage of Government, the South would have to pay the taxes, help to fight the battles and extend generations yet unborn. It was in such a the boundaries of the Confederacy. Thus the South spirit he addressed them. He proceeded :— would be isolated and left to gradual decay, without "Those who would trace their difficulties and the cause of their dangers to the 6th of November last, would be shallow thinkers and very superficial observers. That cause was not merely the election of Lincoln and Hamlin. Through the machinations of the Republican party, the interests and rights of one section of the country had been imminently endangered, and that section had been denounced by the other. Between those two sections there were wide differences of feeling and sentiment. They were different in institutions, and in some degree in race, and they were further separated by a geographical line. In times past the Anti-Slavery party had, after many vicissitudes, broken down; but upon its ruins a new party had arisen, which had burst beyond the last line of defence raised against the approaches of the former party. The new organization, under the name of Republicans, had gained a powerful majority of the Electoral votes in every non-Slaveholding State, with the exception of gallant little New Jersey. Since the organization of the AntiSlavery party, every Presidential election had shown on their part a steady growth, until now they have

gained possession of all the Northern States, in every department of the States' Government, and the control of the House of Representatives, besides a probable majority in the Senate. The life and sustaining principle of this organization was to be found embodied in one idea-hatred to Slavery. Their great party leader, Mr. Seward, said that the secret of their success lay in one idea-the equality of all men. Again, Lincoln declared that the limitation of Slavery was their avowed object, and confining it, so that all men might hope for its ultimate extinction. The emphatically declared sentiment of the party was, that Slavery was a social, moral and political evil. This was the doctrine of the men who

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hope of redemption. Thus, the Federal patronage
and power, and all the moral and political influence
of the Government would be brought to bear against
Southern institutions, to the final overthrow of Sla-
very.
* The South could no longer
afford to hold their slaves at the mercy of the North,
and therefore they were compelled to seek safety
and honor out of the Union. If they were to remain
in the Union the South must be invested with the
power of an absolute veto in every department of
the Government. They no longer expected justice
from the North. The crisis was now upon them, ard
each must meet it as best they might."

He then adverted to the position of Virginia-that all her sympathies and interests were with the South.* That she, too, would follow the Seceded States was not a matter of doubt. Coercion, he said, would be the death blow to all hopes of a reconstruction. If a blockade of rebellious ports was attempted, England and France would both resist, as they must have cotton. So must New Eng

* Virginia's almost only product of sale has, for years, been slaves. She raised much tobacco and a little grain for the market; but, the raising of negroes for the Southern market was her surest source of revenue. The Richmond Inquirer, in arguing the question of Virginia's interest, said her revenue was four millions per year from the sale of negroeswhat commerce with the North could be a substitute for that traffic in "chattels?" The oldest families in the State-the true F.F.V.'s-derived their chief revenue from their annual sales of "black stock," which they bred for the market just as a Kentuckian bred his horses and hogs.

HOLMAN AND MORRIS' SPEECHES.

land. As for an invasion of the South, it would be at the cost of rivers of blood. Peaceful separation was asked for, and expected. If it was denied let the responsibility rest where it belonged-upon a persecuting, wicked, and revengeful North.

Gurley's Reply.

235

strongest. Did Southern gentlemen expect that the people of the North-west would fold their hands with indifference and see their steamboats fired into and their merchants driven home? How long was the Northwest to continue peaceful under this state of things? If a bill should be passed giving the President authority to sustain the National Government, you could have a hundred ́ thousand men from the West. Then let the worst come ! The people of Ohio have, through their Legislature, recently, unanimously passed resolutions in favor of maintaining the Government. [See page 233.]

There was no mistaking the tone and spirit of this speech. It was threatening, but not defiant-it breathed the spirit of the great North-west. Southern members felt more really disconcerted at its delivery, than at any speech yet pronounced on the Republican side. The South had courted force-this was the reply that ten millions in the Free States, west of the Alleghanies, had to make

Holman's and Morris'
Speeches.

Mr. Gurley, (Rep.,) of Ohio, replied, showing that the South had, for years, persecuted Northern citizens, and already had inaugurated the Civil War-she was at once the aggressor and the enemy of all peace. He adverted to the seizure of forts, arsenals, and public property in the South-the menacing attitude of the Seceding States, and, last in the record of outrages, to the firing upon a United States vessel-an act which, if committed by any power on the earth, would have been considered, in itself, a declaration of war. What a record to come before the world with and plead immunity from "persecution!" What a stultification of moral sensibilities did it argue, when the assassins could come forward and prate of peacecould charge the North with having inaugurated the war! For years the South had insulted the North, and had treated its citizens as a conquered and inferior people. Merchants of Cincinnati have been ordered home from Louisiana for no other reason than up-revolution for intolerable oppressions, but holding a Presidential candidate of their own choice. We should stop this work of traitors, and vindicate the laws, which must prevail, and the Government must put down traitors by its strong arm. Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. He characterized the Southern movement as cold-blooded rebellion. There was no cause for rebellion in a Government where people make and control it. Rebellion is a leap in the dark; a high crime; wild anarchy; and, if successful, must end in civil war, and consequent desolation. He suggested to the Secessionists, would it be an act of prudence for them to stand against the ten millions of freemen of the West, who would be united as a man if attempts were made to interrupt the navigation of the Mississippi. The now peaceful foundations of New Orleans would become the bed of a lake where fishes would live instead of men. Should the Union be broken up there would be war, and the test will be as to who is the

Mr. Gurley was followed by two Democrats, Messrs. | Holman, of Ind., and Morris, of Ill., both of whom were firm in their stand against the revolution. Mr. Holman said no person would question the right of

those did not exist. Therefore, if the Government was overturned, it would be without justification or excuse. The people whom he represented would not consent that the Union should be destroyed. They would rally around it. He could not, however, despair of the Republic, and trusted that it would continue to endure.

Mr. Morris pronounced the Secession movement to be treason against the Constitution, and declared, in strong language, that the sooner resistance was offered to disunion, the better for the country. Every true patriot demands it. He then, in very severe terms, arraigned the President, charging upon him the authorship of the calamities which threatened to overwhelm the country. The last base scene in the Lecompton drama has been played out, producing on one hand the overthrow of the Democratic party, and on the other the destruction of the Government. Who would have supposed that Mr. Buchanan,

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Thomas' Speech.

on his return from abroad, would have be- | Book of Fate, to pronounce against the wrong, come the instrument of the nation's ruin! the treason, the fatal madness of the disuniNero fiddled while Rome was burning, and onists and their vast conspiracy. Mr. Buchanan, while the whole Republic is In the House, Thursday, falling into ruin, complacently comes forward | Mr. Thomas, of Tenn., spoke and says he is not responsible for it! But he for himself and his consti(Mr. Morris) said with the whole country, as tuents. He assumed that Lincoln was elected Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man." because of his hostility to Slavery-that he The blackness of darkness will overshadow was elected not to govern the North but the Mr. Buchanan's memory. If there were needed South, which had no more to do with his any other inscription on his tomb it should election than it had with that of the Emperor be, "God have mercy on him." [A voice of France. He argued the rights of the South from the Republican side-"Amen!"] He in the Territories which their cash and blood referred to his former remarks, to show that helped to secure. Why parcel out these lands, his predictions have been realized respecting by Homestead bills, to foreigners, many of the breaking down of the Democratic party whom cannot speak the English language, by an odious Administration. The President and yet deny the South entrance to that comhad descended from his high position to ma- mon domain? Having been denied its rights liciously operate against Mr. Douglas. It had under the Constitution, the South had exerbeen said by outsiders that Buchanan is the cised only its "inalienable rights" of procelast of the constitutional Presidents; but it dure in leaving the Union and its tyranny. might, with more truth, be asserted that he Would coercion be attempted? It would reis the first of constitutional tyrants and usurp-sult in the solid unity of every Slave State The President had virtually surrendered the Government to the Secessionists, who gained his ear. He traveled with them to the verge of dissolution; but, refusing to take the leap, they turn their keen blades against him, and he now cries for help. While he preaches like a patriot, his acts are like those of a traitor. He would say to him, "Deceitful man, be sure that your sins will find you out." In the course of his remarks, he said that the Administration lent itself to the Disunionists, who, emboldened by his course, destroyed the Democratic party. The Union would have been in safety if Douglas had been elected President. The Southern people are alone to blame for the defeat of Democracy, and the election of Lincoln. The object to be attained in this was the dismemberment of the Union.

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against the mad act. The South would never be conquered nor turned from her course.

Sickles' Speech.

Mr. Sickles, (Dem.,) of N. Y., followed. He took a strong stand against coercion. They could not, under any provision of the Contitution, enforce the laws against a seceding State. The law was applicable to individuals, and, to enforce the law against the individual you must have judges and juries, and you must proceed against him according to the Constitution in the State where the crime was committed. It was clear, therefore, that they could not enforce the law against an individual, for no jury in South Carolina would bring in a verdict of guilty upon any indictment found at this juncture and under present circumstances. It was true, there was a general de mand for the enforcement of the laws; but however true as an abstraction, however ne

These words were uttered in a spirit of fervor which marked a deep and rankling feeling, and, coming from the lips of a lead-cessary at all times and imperative it might ing Douglas man, produced a sensation in Democratic circles. They confirmed the evident tendency of a consolidation of all parties in the North in that of one whose only rallying cry should be the Union and the Constitution. Speech after speech came from the Democrats, like the turning of leaves in the

be on the Government to enforce them, it was now impracticable and impossible, as well as wholly unsuited to the occasion. The question then was, What was the duty of the Administration and of Congress? It was one of pacification and reconstruction; a duty which must undoubtedly be committed

MR. ASHLEY'S SPEECH.

237

to the next Administration, and the country of that imperial city are a unit for the Union. must therefore await an appeal to the peo--Mr. S. fully conceded the property right ple. But what, in the meantime, is to be of a slaveholder to his slave, and granted done? As yet no practical remedy had been the South the right to bear slaves to the Terdevised, and State after State was going out ritories. He, in fact, took no position against of the Union. All the votes taken in the dif- the South, except upon the sole issue of the ferent Crisis' Committees tended to strengthen property of the Federal Government and its the indication that a remedy from these just claims to its national possessions. These, sources is out of the question. The domi- he assumed, must be retained-if the South nant party have shown an indisposition to seized them they must be defended or remake those concessions indispensable to a re- taken at all hazards. Upon the South alone union. Their bounden duty, then, was to rested the responsibility, if the property preserve the status quo, and to preserve the taken was not restored. existing state of things as nearly as possible -to avoid the employment of coercion. But, to do this, it was essentially necessary to their policy that a like purpose and spirit should animate their Southern friends. It would not do for the South to protest against coercion, while at the same time they seized the arms, arsenals, fortresses, navy-yards, and ships that come within their reach and power. To act thus was not and could never be peaceable secession-that would not be preserving the status quo. It was a declaration of war; and when sovereign States make war they could not cry peace, nor call for protection against coercion.

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Ashley's Speech.

Mr. Ashley, (Rep.) of Ohio, charged that the conspirators for the overthrow of the Government had found cooperation from those connected with the Administration. If the people knew what had been going on for the last four years in every department of the Government, there would have been such an expression at the ballot-box as would have effectually silenced the allies of the South living in the North. The party who had violated the Missouri and other compromises, now ask, as a condition of their remaining in the Union, such amendments to the Constitu*tion as will give a finality to the Slavery question. The Republican party ought to die if they engraft on that instrument the recognition of property in man! That Slavery shall be extended and made perpetual is the test demanded. To meet the secession movements, he would abolish all the ports of entry where the laws are now obstructed, proclaim a blockade in the ports of the rebellious States, and let thoughtless men take the consequences of their own illegal acts. Mr. Lincoln will be inaugurated in Washington, and this will remain the seat of Government so long as there can be found States loyal to the principles on which the Government was founded. If the conspirators succeed, Washington will not be the Capital. If the President had acted with firmness, these troubles would not exist. He will retire from his of fice utterly disgraced. The speaker claimed to represent all of North-western Ohio when he said that his people would demand the recovery of all the stolen property, and the restoration of the authority of the General Government in all its rightful and constitu

Whatever may be the issue of eventswhether, happily, by conciliation and justice to the South, we may find an honorable and fraternal solution of our difficulties; or whether, unhappily, we blindly drift into alienation, war, and irrevocable separation-the great commercial interests of this country require, the destiny of American civilization demands, that the political and territorial control of this continent, from the mouth of the Hudson to the mouth of the Mississippi, from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas, shall remain where it now stands in the hands of the Government of the United States. In all the partisan issues between the South and the Republican party, the people of the City of New York are with the South; but when the South makes an untenable issue with our country, when the flag of the Union is insulted, when the fortified places provided for the common defense are assaulted and seized, when the South abandons its Northern allies for English and French cooperation, then the loyal and patriotic population

tional avenues. No Executive, he main- | peaceable separation, be it here recommended that the several States take immediate steps by a Convention or otherwise, and make propositions to the several States, each to the other, or by a Convention of the States, as will best conduce to the restoration of peace and harmony on principles of justice and equity to all. Ordered to a second reading.

Perry's Speech.

As indicative of the cast of opinion in the Senate at this time, we may give the yeas and nays on Mr. Cameron's motion to reconsider the vote by which Mr. Clark's amend ment to the Crittenden joint resolutions was adopted.

"YEAS-Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingham, Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hemphill, Hunter, Johnson (Ark.), Johnson (Tenn.), Kennedy, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, Saulsbury, Sebastian and

Slidell-27.

tained, could satisfactorily administer the Government who would accept any other settlement with rebellion and treason. Mr. Perry, (Rep.) of Maine, proposed to speak as a New England man, representing New England's sentiment in the crisis. Now that tyranny and treason stalk, with unblushing front, even in the halls of legislation, schemes of compromise were talked of-men would appease the monster by submitting to his voracious demands. Of course, in such schemes New England was not to be consulted. The South, indignant at the Yankees' persistent maintenance of self-respect, and their undying spirit of opposition to the spread of Slavery, proposed to rule New England out-to cut her off from the Confederacy-to-be. When that experiment shall be "NAYS-Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Camtried, the South would find that New Eng-eron, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, land could live without the South as well as the South could live without her. He discussed the following points: First, the territory and population of New England; second, her social and moral condition; and third, her wealth and industry. In the course of his remarks, he spoke of her devotion to the Union. She was always prompt to repel foes from without and to meet traitors at home. She was willing to make any reasonable compromise which could not be construed into an abandonment of principle. So long as the men have arms in their hands, so long as they forcibly resist the common laws of the country, his voice was for war. The Government that negotiates with traitors deserves the contempt of the civilized world. "The Union must and shall be preserved."

In the Senate, Thursday, the Pacific Railway bill was under discussion. Friday's session was chiefly devoted to the consideration of the bill for the admission of Kansas. The Crittenden resolutions were taken up, but their consideration was postponed to Monday, January 21st. Mr. Green, of Mo., introduced a joint resolution declaring that, for the purpose of protecting the rights of all the people and all the States as far as devolves upon the Federal authority, and to maintain the Union in all its purity and excellence, or, failing in that, to provide for a

Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan,
King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade,
Wigfall, Wilkinson and Wilson—24.

In the House, Friday, Messrs. Sherman,
(Republican), and Pendleton, (Democrat), of
Ohio, made speeches. The latter begged for
compromise and peace. He would not debate
whether there was legal or sufficient cause
for secession. Certain Southern States have
committed the act with a unanimity without
parallel in the history of revolution. He
said if this bill be passed not a dollar would
be collected at Charleston. If an army could
maintain the Union, half a million of men
would spring up in a night. If money would
keep it together the soil would leap with joy
to produce its golden harvest. If blood, old
and young men would yield it like streams
which water their soil. But an army of
blood and money will not preserve the
Union. Justice, reason and peace may.
What force can compel a State to do what is
required to be done by legislation? The
whole scheme of coercion is impracticable,
and contrary to the genius and spirit of the
Constitution. The Southern States are pre-
pared to resist, and when armed men come
together there is war. The enforcement of
the laws against the Seceding States is coer-
cion, and coercion is war. If the South say
they have grievances, redress them, and caim

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