"INEXORABLE LOGIC." 631 between slave States and free was forever broken with the admission of California in 1850. When, eight years later, in his Springfield speech, Lincoln declared his belief that "this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free," that he did not expect the Union to be dissolved, did not expect the house to fall, but did expect it would cease to be divided; that it would become all one thing or all the other; that "Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new; North as well as South;" he used homely language that everybody could understand and advanced a philosophy which everybody believed. He spoke for the South as truthfully as for the North. He, and the party which elected him President, opposed the existence of slavery in the territories. But the South Carolina declaration promptly expressed the deduction: "If it is right to preclude or abolish slavery in a territory, why should it be allowed to remain in the States?" 2 The "requisitions of an inexorable logic" led slavocracy to believe that there was but one conclusion of the whole matter, if the Union continued, and that conclusion was emancipation. Thus the fate of the slave would be the fate of the Union. While secession was strengthening and the dissolution of the Union seemed speedy and inevitable, a final effort was made to compromise all differences by amending the Constitution, and make slavery national and perpetual. 1 Political Debates between Lincoln and Douglas, p. 1. 2 See the address of the Georgia Convention of 1861, Journal, pp. 109-111. 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. No 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. 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. 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. No 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. 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. |