CLING MAN'S DISUNION SPEECH. tion, 145 to 38; not voting, 52. This latter number embraced all the South Carolina delegation, and most of the delegations from Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. The reason openly offered by these members was, that their States had, in their sovereign capacities, ordered conventions to consider this very question of Federal Relations, and that they alone had power to settle the matter. This very position was, in itself, a direct avowal of a purpose to thwart all legislation looking to settlement or compromise. The Florida member added to his excuse for not voting, that "he was against all compromises now, as he had been in times past." We may remark that, with one or two personal exceptions, up to the time of the withdrawal of these delegations from Congress, after the passage of secession ordinances in their respective States, they studiously and persistently struggled against compromise, and sought by all possible means to prevent legislation looking to that end. Union Resolution Rejected. Mr. Morris, of Illinois, ed leave to introduce it:- 63 Ruffin, of North Carolina, and other Southern members, streneously opposed its introduction. To stay the consideration of the resolution, an adjournment was moved and carried. This first day's proceedings indicated pretty clearly the predetermined disunion character of the Southern opposition. It became painfully apparent that no settlement or compromise was wanted. Clingman's Disunion In the Senate, the opposition assumed the shape of a violent attack upon the President's Message by Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina. He regarded submission as impossible on the part of the South, asserting that Mr. Lincoln was elected because he was a dangerous man—that he was taken up to make war on the South. The President said truly that, in the hands of the Senate and House, Mr. Lincoln would be powerless for harm; but the Speaker said the same majority which elected him would soon entirely control both houses. Against the rule of a majority he disclaimed the Constitution never contemplated such a state of affairs as a "sectional majority." The course of the South, he maintained, was one of defence. He thought South Carolina "had shown commendable patience." He said, in regard to the Border State conservatism : "Gentlemen say that these Border States have the most reason to complain. But what has been the past history of the country? We all know that in 1850, when there was a great struggle going on to get a fair settlement, which would have placed the South in a fair position, the Border States were the first to leave us in the struggle. They were the first to be satisfied with the Fugitive Slave law. I do not mean to say that all of them did, for the Senators from Virginia were not satisfied so well. And again, last winter, the State of South Carolina sent a Commissioner to Virginia. There was a great howl from the Press, North and South, of Unionism, and Virginia was called upon not to go into any of the South Carolina disunion schemes. I think it unfortunate that no action was taken then. Their position is like two persons who have received contempt, and one says that the other shall not go away, for then "Resolved, That so much of the President's annual message as relates to the matters of grievance between the States, and the proposal by Congress of amendments to the Constitution of the United States for the ratification of the several States, and to the question of State secession from the Federal Union, be referred to a select committee, to consist of one from each State, to be appointed by the Speaker; and that such committee be instructed to inquire and report by bill, or by proposing an amendment or emendments to the Constitution of the United States, or otherwise, upon such subject; and particularly whether any further legislation or amend-all the blows will fall upon him, and wants the other ment of the Constitution is necessary to give prompt, certain and full effect to the last clause of the second section of the fourth Article of the Constitution, concerning the return of fugitives from service or labor. to stand by him. If any foreign power had treated us so, we should have had war immediately. Gen. tlemen talk about the repeal of these laws, but I am free to say that such repeal would not be satisfactory to the State from which I came. I do not see how any turned loose to speculate on the foundations Southern man can make that proposition." He thought the wisest thing Congress could do would be to divide the public property fairly. He did not understand the President's purpose to collect the revenue when he confessed his want of power to coerce a seceded State. He thought it was not right to wait for any overt act of Mr. Lincoln, who, he thought, would try to provoke a fight between the people of the South. He added: "They want to get up a free debate, as the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) expressed it, in one of his speeches. But a Senator from Texas told me the other day that a great many of these free debaters were hanging from the trees of that country. I have no doubt they would run off a great many slaves from the Border States, so as to make them Free States, and then, Sir, when the overt act was struck, we should have a hard struggle. I say, therefore, that our policy is not to let this thing continue. That, I think, is the opinion of North Carolina. I think the party for immediate secession is gaining ground rapidly. It is idle for men to shut their eyes to consequences like this, if anything can be done to avert the evil while we have the power to do it." Crittenden's Union Speech. of a new government. He looked at it with fear and trembling, which pre-disposed him to the most solemn consideration that he was capable of feeling, and to search out, if possible, some means for the reconciliation of the different sections and members of this Union, to see if we cannot again restore that harmony and fraternity that belong to the Union, which has given us so much blessing and prosperity. He hoped they should not have anything irritating or angry, when their duties required solemn deliberation and thought. He trusted they would not allow themselves to be involved in angry discussion now; that we should have no expressions to be detailed over and over again. Let us look to the fu ture and the present only to see what can be done to avoid the evil and to lead to the adoption of good feeling in every portion of this House, and see if we cannot arrive at a satisfactory conclusion of the question. He would not now allude any further to any question of the Message; but as to the ques tion of Mr. Lincoln's election being cause for disunion, there is a great diversity of opinion. He did not believe there was a man in the State of Kentucky who was in favor of disunion: They were Union-loving men, and he believed such men were to be found in North Carolina, judging from the noble character of the State and her representatives here. She has always, with the noble firmness in her character, carried the olive branch in her hand, and he hoped the gentleman, on re-consideration, would unite with them, not doubting but that he had as true a respect for the country as any one. This speech, coming from a North Carolina man, somewhat surprised the Senate. It proved how deep-seated the disunion disease had struck. Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, replied, deeply regretting the utterance of such sentiments. He plead for Union, conciliation, compromise. He did not wish to make a speech, but could not refrain from expressing the hope that the example of the gentleman would not be followed, and that they would not allow themselves to be involved in any such discussion. They had better not have come at all, if they did not come with the intention to solemnly deliberate in the great questions thus thrust upon This Union was established by great sacrifices, and it is as worthy of great sacri- The second day's session fices and great concessions for its maintain- of the Senate was a stirring And he trusted there was no Senator one. Messrs. Iverson, of but was willing to yield and conciliate, and Georgia, Brown, of Mississippi, and Wigfall, to compromise, in order to preserve the Union of Texas, all made exciting declarations of to the nation and to the country. He looked resistance to resistance against the movement with dismay, and with something like de- for disunion. Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, spair, to the condition of this country when created the storm by a speech "for himself” the Union is stricken down, and we shall be-made, as it was understood, without the us. ance. These remarks seemed to reassure the conservatives in the Senate of the cooperation of Mr. Crittenden, and the country looked hopefully to him to pour oil upon the troubled waters. Exciting Debate. THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-THREE. 65 Delaware for the Union. endorsement of his fellow-Republicans, who | revolution. Every State, he said, went from "had determined to leave all the speaking to the Union at its peril, and must take the conthe Southern Fire-Eaters." Their policy was not to aggravate matters, nor to lay a word in the way of a settlement. In the course of Mr. Iverson's remarks several important points were elucidated. Alabama, he averred, would secede on the 7th of January, Georgia on the 16th, "and before the 4th of March-before your President is inaugurated, there will be five States, if not eight, that will be out of the Union, and will have formed a Constitution for a frame of Government." Nothing would prevent the dissolution of the Union. Concessions were not only not wanted but would not be accepted. He said: Iverson's Disunion "Gentlemen speak of concession of the repeal of the Personal Liberty bills. Repeal them all tomorrow, and you cannot stop this revolution. It is not the Liberty laws but the mob law which the South fears. They do not dread these overt acts, for, without the power of the Federal Government, by force, under the Republican rule, their institution would not last ten years, and they know it. They intend to go out of this Union, and he believed this. Before the fourth of March five States will have declared their independence, and he was satisfied that three other States would follow as soon as the action of the people can be had. Arkansas will call her Convention, and Louisiana would follow. And though there is a clog in the way in the lone star of Texas, in the person of the Governor, who will not consent to call the Legislature, yet the public sentiment is so strong that even her Governor may be over-ridden; and if he will not yield to that public sentiment, some Texan Brutus may arise to rid his country of this old, hoary-headed traitor. [Great sensation. There has been a good deal of vaporing and threatening, but they came from the last men who would carry out their threats. Men talk about their eighteen millions, but we hear a few days afterward of these same men being switched in the face, and they tremble like a sheep-stealing dog. There will The North, governed by such far-seeing be no war. etatesmen as the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), will see the futility of this. In less than twelve months a Southern Confedracy will be formed, and it will be the most successful Government on earth. The Southern States, thus banded together, will be able to resist any force in the world. We do not expect war, but we will be prepared for it, and we are not a feeble race of Mexicans either." sequences. He claimed no rights of secession be destroyed, by the madness and folly of The Committee of Dec. 6th, the Speaker of Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, Chairman. H. Winter Davis, Md. Mr. Iverson conceded that secession was Wm. A. Howard, Mich. Ch. Francis Adams, Mass. The political cast embraced sixteen Republicans and seventeen Opposition. Conservative men were named upon both sides, so far as such could be found. It introduced, of necessity, several "Fire-Eaters," or peremptory secessionists, one of whom, Mr. Hawkins, of Florida, begged to be excused from serving. He declared against any compromise, and could not serve on any Union-saving committee. This step had been anticipated; and, to prevent other Southerners from preferring requests for non-service, Mr. Millson, of Virginia, moved to adjourn. The House adjourned, by a vote of 104 to 92, to Monday, December 10th. Mr. Corwin requested the interval for the purpose of giving members of the committee time for conference and fraternization. The Senate also adjourned to Monday, without acting on Mr. Powell's proposition for a Special Committee of Thirteen on the Crisis. We may here subjoin--to place before the reader the entire argument on the question at issue the Attorney-General's official opinion as laid by the President before Congress. It formed the basis of his own argument against the power to coerce a State. It is an able and lucid paper, reflecting credit upon its author, Judge J. S. Black : The Attorney-Gene ral's Opinion. "ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Nov. 20, 1860. "SIR: I have had the honor to receive your note of the 17th, and I now reply to the grave questions therein propounded as fully as the time allowed me will permit. "Within their respective spheres of action,the Federal Government and the Government of a State are both of them independent and supreme, but each is utterly powerless beyond the limits assigned to it by the Constitution. If Congress would attempt to change the law of descents, to make a new rule of personal succession, or to dissolve the family relations existing in any State, the act would be simply void, but no more void than would be a State law to prevent the recapture of fugitives from labor, to forbid the carrying of the mails, or to stop the collection of duties on imports. The will of a State, whether expressed in its Constitution or laws, cannot, while it remains in the Confederacy, absolve her people from the The Attorney-General's Opinion. duty of obeying the just and constitutional requirements of the Central Government. Nor can any act of the Central Government displace the jurisdiction of a State, because the laws of the United States are supreme and binding only so far as they are passed in pursuance of the Constitution. I do not say what might be effected by mere revolutionary force. I am speaking of legal and constitutional right. "This is the view always taken by the judiciary, and so universally adopted that the statement of it may seem commonplace. The Supreme Court of the United States has declared it in many cases. I need only to refer you to the United States agt Booth, where the present Chief Justice, expressing the unanimous opinion of himself and all his brethren, enunciated the doctrine in terms so clear and full, that any further demonstration of it can scarcely be required. "The duty which these principles devolve not only upon every officer, but every citizen, is that which Mr. Jefferson expressed so compendiously in his first inaugural, namely: To support the State Govern ments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for their domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-Republican tendeneies,' combined with the 'preservation of the Geneal Government, in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.' "To the Chief Executive Magistrate of the Union is confided the solemn duty of seeing the laws faithfully executed. That he may be able to meet this duty with a power equal to its performance, he nominates his own subordinates and removes them at his pleasure. For the same reason the land and naval forces are under his orders as their Coramander-in-chief. But his power is to be used not in the manner prescribed by the legislative department. He cannot accomplish a legal purpose by illegal means, or break the laws himself to prevent them from being violated by others. "The acts of Congress sometimes give the Presi dent a broad discretion in the use of the means by which they are to be executed, and sometimes limit his power so that he can exercise it only in a certain Where the law directs a thing. prescribed manner. to be done, without saying how, that implies the power to use such means as may be necessary and proper to accomplish the end of the Legislature. But where the mode of performing a duty is pointed out by statute, that is the exclusive mode, and no other can be followed. The United States have no common law to fall back upon when the written law is defective. If, therefore, an act of Congress de The Attorney-General's Opinion. clares that a certain thing shall be done by a particular officer, it cannot be done by a different of ficer. The agency which the law furnishes for its own execution must be used, to the exclusion of all others. For instance, the revenues of the United States are to be collected in a certain way, at certain established ports, and by a certain class of officers; the President has no authority, under any circumstances, to collect the same revenues at other places, by a different sort of officers, or in ways not provided for. Even if the machinery furnished by Congress for the collection of the duties should by any cause become so deranged or broken up that it could not be used, that would not be a legal reason for substituting a different kind of machinery in its place. "The law requires that all goods imported into the United States within certain collection districts shall be entered at the proper port, and the duty thereon shall be received by the Collector appointed for and residing at that port. But the functions of the Collector may be exercised anywhere at or within the port. There is no law which confines him to the Custom-House, or to any other particular spot. If the Custom-House were burnt down, he might remove to another building; if he were driven from the shore, he might go on board a vessel in the harbor. If he keeps within the port, he is within the law. A port is a place to which merchandise is imported, and from whence it is exported. It is created by law. It is not merely a harbor or haven, for it may be established where there is nothing but an open roadstead, or on the shore of a navigable river, or at any other place where vessels may arrive and discharge, or take in their cargoes. It comprehends the city or town which is occupied by the mariners, merchants, and others who are engaged in the business of importing and exporting goods, navigating the ships, and furnishing them with provisions. It includes, also, so much of the water adjacent to the city as is usually occupied by vessels discharging or receiving their cargoes, or lying at anchor and waiting for that purpose. "The first section of the act of March 2, 1833, authorized the President in a certain contingency to direct that the Custom-House for any collection district be established and kept in any secure place within some port or harbor of such district, either upon land or on board any vessel. But this provision was temporary, and expired at the end of the session of Congress next afterward. It conferred upon the Executive a right to remove the site of the Custom-House, not merely to any secure place within the legally established port of entry for the district-that right he had before-but it widened his authority so as to allow the removal of it to any port or harbor within the The Attorney-General's Opinion. whole district. The enactment of that law and the limitation of it to a certain period of time now past is not, therefore, an argument against the | opinion above expressed, that you can now, if necessary, order the duties to be collected on board a vessel inside of any established port of entry. Whether the first and fifth sections of the act of 1833, both of which were made temporary by the eighth section, should be reenacted, is a question for the legislative department. "Your right to take such measures as may seem to be necessary for the protection of the public property is very clear. It results from the proprietary rights of the Government as owner of the forts, arsenals, magazines, dock-yards, navy-yards, customhouses, public ships, and other property, which the United States have bought, built, and paid for. Besides, the Government of the United States is authorized by the Constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 8) to 'exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever ** over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock. yards, and other needful buildings.' It is believed that no important public building has been bought or erected on ground where the Legislature of the State in which it is has not passed a law consenting to the purchase of it and ceding the exclusive jurisdiction. This Government, then, is not only the owner of those buildings and grounds, but, by virtue of the supreme and paramount law, it regulates the action and punishes the offenses of all who are within them. If any one of an owner's rights is plainer than another, it is that of keeping exclusive possession and repelling intrusion. The right of defending the public property includes also the right of recapture after it has been unlawfully taken by another. President Jefferson held the opinion, and acted upon it, that he could order a military force to take possession of any land to which the United States had title, though they had never occupied it before, though a private party claimed and held it, and though it was not then needed nor proposed to be used for any purpose connected with the operations of the Government. This may have been a stretch of Executive power; but the right of retaking public property in which the Government has been carrying on its lawful business, and from which its officers have been unlawfully thrust out, cannot well be doubted; and when it was exercised at Harper's Ferry, in October, 1859, every one acknowledged the legal justice of it. "I come now to the point in your letter which is probably of the greatest practical importance. By the act of 1807, you may employ such parts of |