to enforce the laws whenever obstructed by State or people. He yet thought it a question whether it was proper for the Government to exercise all its powers. He was willing to sub-pension of the service was contemplated, mit to the will of the people in the matter except in cases where it was obstructed, and of compromise, but he was not willing that that, in that case, the mails must either be the Constitution should be touched. He was withdrawn or defended by force. The bill unwilling that its great principles should be was to avoid the latter alternative. The ehanged. amendment proposed he (Mr. Douglas) preferred to meet on a bill presenting that isolated question.

MR. BOCOCK'S OPPOSITION.

1

427

Bocock's Opposition.

the House as a declaration | a military force to suppress Mason's Opposition. that insurrection existed in insurrection against the authe Seceded States. He thority of the United States. wished the Senate to look at the ques- He briefly argued that the various features in tion as it was thus presented. He argued that the Constitution were designed and intended there was no insurrection, but a new govern- to prohibit the General Government from ment installed, and acting with full power as operating in the States, unless by their cona sovereign government. Therefore, the use sent, saying that this bill authorizes the Presof such terms as insurrection" assumed ident to carry on positive, direct, and immethat the whole power of the Federal Govern-diate coercion against the Seceding States. ment was still to be exercised in the Seceded States when the "insurrection" would allow. It was, for that reason, tantamount to a declaration of war. As such it should be cast out as a wicked and inhuman invention. The Tariff bill, being the special order, came up for consideration to shut off further debate on the Postal Service bill. In the course of the long debate which ensued, many incidental allusions were made germane to our subject, proving that the Southern men still in the Senate sought to serve their friends out of the Union, by offering every conceivable objection to the proposed measures for replenishing the finances of the exhausted National Treasury.

Bocock's Opposition.

Bocock, (Dem.,) of Virginia, addressed the House. The passage of the bill seemed a foregone conclusion; but he could not, for that reason, refuse his opposition to it. He opposed it on account of the features which appear on its face; he opposed it in consequence of the effect its passage will produce on the peace and prosperity of the country. He opposed it above all, and more than all, in consequence of the policy it indicates, if it does not in the strongest degree initiate. He yesterday characterized the bill as a declaration of war, and having since carefully read it, he reiterated the remark. It was more than a declaration of war. It invested the President in time of peace with dictatorial powers. The bill does something more than suppress invasion and insurrection. It authorizes the President to employ

It goes further than that: it clothes the President with the whole military power of the country. It was not known what Mr. Lincoln, when he succeeded to the Presidency, would consider an act of insurrection against the authority of the United States. We have had in this city a large part of the standing army, owing to an idle apprehension. The Select Committee have reported that no conspiracy in connection with the seizure of the Capitol exists, and yet the military forces here have accumulated since that time. In a few brief days this Administration will go out, and here is assembled. a large military force ready for Mr. Lincoln's use; and, in addition, this bill would enable him to call out the whole militia force, and accept the services of volunteers to suppress insurrection against the authority of the United States, Whither are we going? Where are we drifting? We have already divided the Union into two Governments, and if we enter upon war at this time, the consequences must be more disastrous than history has ever recorded. As to the Border Slave States, they ought to take such steps as will best preserve the peace of the country. If this can be done by joining the Gulf States, they ought to do it. But, if blood be shed, and the armies of the two Governments come in collision, and bad passions be engendered by strife, then farewell, a long farewell, to any hope of a reconstruction of the Union! While the Peace Conference is in session, and when it has not even made a report, we see foreign troops gathered here, and members pass to the Capitol by the point of the bayonet. The Convention of Virginia was now in session, and whatever hope may have been cherished of a peaceful solution of our difficulties, it would at least be diminished by the passage of the

The Seven Steam
Sloops-of-War.

pending bill. At this point the special order was called, being the Corwin Report; upon which Vallandigham, (Dem.,) of Ohio, proceeded to address the House. His speech was an elaborate plea for adjustment by compromise, and reconstruction upon his plan of reorganization of the Electoral system, [see At the conclusion of his pages 355-56.]

"I do not say it never will be done. If we enter upon a war in which armies are marching and coun termarching between one section and another, such a result would be probable. If all peaceful measures shall fail, and nothing else remains but open war, I do say that I do not know that anybody re

Thaddeus Stevens, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania, hoped what the gentleman from Ohio said was not said as the united voice of the Republicans. He (Mr. Stevens) held different views. He thought it was the intention to retake all the public property of which they had been robbed, and retake it in such a manner as to necessarily use the gentlest means first, and then such as may be necessary.

Stanton further explained, that he took it for granted the next Administration will not recognize the Constitutional right of secession, but that it will be treated as revolution. He took it for granted that Mr. Lincoln will see he has no Constitutional power to forego the execution of the laws, in the mode least calculated to create difficulty. If the Southern States do not return, and there is no Constitutional mode of recogniz ing a separate nationality, of course this business must end in war. There is no escape from it.

speech Mr. Sherman pressed the Naval Ap-gards an attempt to recapture those forts as impropriation bill, when it was taken up in practicable or an improbable thing.” Committee of the Whole; and the question being on the eighteenth amendment of the Senate, viz., for building seven steam sloopsof-war, Garnett, (Dem.,) of Virginia, offered as a substitute a proviso that said ships shall not be used to execute the Federal laws or aid either the land or naval force in any States claiming to be without the Federal jurisdiction. He said, in defence of his substitute, that if there were no other reason, the bankrupt condition of the Treasury should induce the House to refuse concurrence in the Senate's amendment. From what had been said in the Senate by prominent gentlemen, these vessels were intended for coercive purposes. Among other things, he alluded to Mr. Lincoln's speeches, and a private conversation between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Hutchison, of Kentucky, to show that Lincoln is in favor of coercing the Southern States. Lincoln is wary and frank, and does not attempt to hide the claws of a tiger under the velvet fur. He does not, like his Republican friends, seek to avoid the issue. Stanton, (Rep.,) of Ohio, thought it extra- | followed. Anderson, (Am.,) Exciting Colloquy. ordinary that Mr. Lincoln should be held committed to coercion from casual conversations. If the Seceding States shall return to their allegiance, they will bring back the forts, etc., with them. If, on the contrary, they shall ultimately maintain a separate nationality, he did not believe any man would wish to enter upon a course that could result in no practical good. Garnett interposed to inquire for whom he spoke. Stanton answered that he certainly spoke for himself, and spoke, too, from what he had gathered from the views of everybody in conversation, who would not be likely to talk nonsense in an unrestricted intercourse. Garnett inquired if he was to understand that He was not for coercing the South. He did

A very excited colloquy

of Kentucky, asked Garnett

if he was for the Union? The loud and excited reply was:

"I am for the State of Virginia seceding from this Northern Union at the earliest possible moment!"

A storm of applause and hisses followed this declaration both from the galleries and the floor. It was some moments ere the conAnderson was asked by fusion subsided. Brown, (Dem.,) of Kentucky, if he was for the Union?-if he would sustain the incoming Administration in event of its resorting to coercion? The reply was, that so long as he was in the Union, he (Anderson) was for the Constitution and enforcement of the laws.

A VIRGINIAN'S VIOLENCE.

Brown asked, if coercion or force should be used by the incoming Administration, would his colleague be for secession.

429

not believe the Government could be held | Kentucky would resist. Her Legislature, together by force. He deplored civil war as without distinction of party, had so resolved, much as any other gentleman could. almost unanimously. In the event of war, the cause of her Southern sisters would be her cause. As she may be the last to join, she will be the last to leave a Southern Confederacy. Kentucky was for the Union. She asked only equality, her rights, and if compromise fail, and coercion be begun, her star will glitter on the flag of the Southern Confederacy, and her brave blood flow in its ' cause. He hoped his colleague's question was answered.

Anderson replied, he was no friend of Mr. Lincoln, did not sustain him, and would not support him, unless he comes up to the Union, Constitution, and Laws. When a man, coming from the North, East, South, or West, does his duty as an American citizen, and stands under the old flag, he was willing to give him a hearty and cordial support. He knew his colleague's District was as loyal as any in Kentucky; although it has been Democratic, the Catholic and adopted citizens of that District are ready and willing to stand under the old flag.

Brown's Position
Defined

A Virginian's Violence.

Garnett followed, speaking at length in a manner characterized, at times, with offensive freedom-using such language as would have entitled him to a prosecution for treason had an Administration been in power that dared to sustain an arraignment. The Chairman had to call him to order, to which call he replied, stil! offensively:

"I was pointing out the forms of an Imperial Court which attended the progress of the Republican President-elect. I was pointing out that the deletores of Imperial Rome had reappeared, and that eavesdroppers are part of the military court of your Commander-in-Chief; and I am interrupted by the Chairman of this Committee, who considers that it is an act of lèse majesté to say anything against those

in authority."

Brown, in exposition of his position, declared that his highest and holiest ambition was to do all to contribute to the perpetuity and advance of his country. He was for the Union. His State was for the Union. Her voice had been and was for peace, compromise, and conciliation. Old Kentucky's loyalty was beyond challenge. She had suffered most and murmured least. Her soil was the grave of the canonized bones of Clay, a great and good pacificator. The Chairman (Mr. Colfax) very properly She boasts her Crittenden now, in Clay's place in the Senate. Her Peace Commission-rebuked this insolent assumption, by showing ers were now in council in this city, pleading abused his right of speech. Garnett, howwherein the "gentleman from Virginia” had for pacification. The bones of her brave ever, continued, in a strain of fresh virulence, sons were bleaching on North-western plains, characterizing Secretary Dix as a second where they fell in battle, defending their homes, wives and children of the men whose King Bombalino. The settlement of the representatives on this floor delighted in de-questions at issue, he said, was simply imposfaming her institutions. [Applause on the floor and galleries.] In his politics he did not believe in the right of secession, but the Declaration of Independence said when a Government became destructive of the ends for which it was created, it was the inherent right of the people to alter or abolish it. He believed in the divine right of revolution; we are in the midst of a revolution. If the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Stevens) foreshadowed the policy of Lincoln's Administration, and if a coercive policy against the States that had withdrawn was to be pursued,

sible, until the independence of the Seceded States was recognized, and the principle of State Rights vindicated. No compromiseno amendment of the Constitution would suf

fice, until that recognition was made. His anathema was brought to a close in these

terms:

"It was in your power to have saved the Union. It was proposed to you to suspend the execution of the Federal laws in the Seceding States to give time for negotiation, and to allow the people of the North to say whether they would longer submit to this Republican assault upon the Union, and the people of the South opportunity to decide whether they

were willing to return on fair terms. That propo- | that amount will be taken from other objects,
sition, too, you refused to hear. Now the chances and to that extent cripple the prosecution of
are gone. The Sibylline books are nearly destroy- war, if war was even proposed. He showed
ed. Only one-third remain, and they contain the is- the peaceful purposes for which the vessels
sues of peace or war. Choose ye between them!
are intended, and caused to be read the rec-
We of the South desire peace. We desire friendship ommendation of the Secretary of the Navy
with you; but, choose which you may, the people
on that subject. He concluded by saying if
of the South, and their brethren on the Southern
war comes, his colleague could not fail to
border-brethren in heart, if not in name; ay, and
many brave lovers of justice in the North-stand discern its approach, for he seemed to watch
ready to meet you in the name of the God of Battles for war more than those who watched for
the morning.

and of our fathers."

Millson vs. Garnett.

This reads like a leaf from "Junius." That it was borne, by the other side of the House, with comparative indifference, is an evidence of the pity with which such displays of venom were regarded. Had a speech of equal virulence been made by any man in the Confederate Congress, against the dominant party there, his neck would not have been worth the price of an insurance rate on his life. Millson, (Dem.,) of Virginia, could but protest against his colleague's speech. While he agreed with him in his general efforts to oppose everything which might involve a collision, he demurred to the effort to represent every subject, even the most ordinary, up for legislation, as a means for an attempted coercion of the Southern States. He suggested that the endeavor to create such an impression on matters comparatively immaterial would cease to gain credit when they should raise their voices against measures actually objectionable. Should we burn our navy and dismiss our officers for fear the existence of a navy threatens some of the States of the Union? He expected to vote to concur in the Senate's amendment. He did so because he was in favor of the measure in years past. His colleague, perhaps, had been as uniformly against it. The appropriation would not be available till the 1st of July, and it would be full two years before the vessels could be constructed. The engines, even, cannot be built before the present national difficulties end one way or the other. If his colleague supposed this was a war measure, he could relieve his apprehension. He knew of nothing better to arrest prosecution of war against the Seceded States than what is proposed by this amendment; for, by spending $1,200,000 in this manner,

Running Debate.

Curtis, (Rep.,) of Iowa,
moved to amend the amend-
ment by adding "Except
for the defence of the Federal Government,"
and remarked, at some length, upon the spirit
of distrust and hate which had been shown
by Garnett for the three weeks past. The
purpose was* evidently to convey the inten
tion

of coercion. There were about 900
troops in Washington-a number not equiva-
lent to a single regiment. Were they to
take no measures for defence when our ships
are fired on and our flag insulted? There
was war in the South against the Union and
peace of the country, and for the safety of
our homes and firesides, and for national
want
defence, we
the army, navy, and
militia.

Branch, of North Carolina, said it was true
there were but 900 now, but a year hence
there might be 90,000. He spoke five
minutes, chiefly on the question of order
raised by the Chairman against Garnett.

A spirited, and somewhat personal, “inter-
change of views," under the five minutes'
rule, succeeded, in which Florence, of Penn-
sylvania, Phelps, of Missouri, Quarles, of
Maryland, and Morse, of Maine, took part.
The Senate amendment was finally adopted,
by a vote of 112 to 38, authorizing the con-
struction of seven
sloops-of-war, (propellers,)
of the second class, as
rated in the Navy, which should combine
the heaviest armament and the greatest speed
compatible with their character and ton-

steam

The Sloops of War

*Ordered.

The real purpose was to "fire the Southern heart," and, by making the Virginia people believe in "coercion," to induce them to delay no longer in taking the precipitate step. He was playing the prescribed re of secession.