LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL.

679

where in the Union, it would have won support from some, but not from all, Senators and Representatives from the South who withdrew from Congress before it passed.

But no one should allow himself to believe that the amendment attracted as much attention outside of Congress as within it. The people were thinking of the new administration and its probable policy towards the South. While the compromise measures were pending, Congress had been flooded with petitions and resolutions from States, cities, counties, conventions and individuals to restore peace to the country, and most of the resolutions urged the adoption of the Crittenden resolutions. The number is scarcely suggested by the list which covers more than six pages of the index to the Journal of the Senate, and a greater number in the index to the Journal of the House.1 These, hundreds in number, were no more diverse in contents, than the amendments and resolutions offered in Congress and referred to the Committee of Thirteen, in the Senate, and the Committee of Thirtythree in the House. Meanwhile the hour had come for the induction of the new President into office and Mr. Lincoln had taken his place, in accordance with custom, on the great east porch of the Capitol to deliver his inaugural address. A vast assemblage had already gathered and was expectant to hear some declaration, from his lips, of the immediate policy of the national government toward the southern Confederacy. Mr. Lincoln's opinions on the great questions of the hour were well known. He had taken the Nation into his confidence and had repeatedly declared his opinions to a degree of frankness unprecedented among public men. It was expected that he would

1 One petition from the New York Chamber of Commerce presented by Senator Seward was said to have 38,000 signatures. See Congressional Globe, January 31, 1860, p. 657.

680

LINCOLN ON THE AMENDMENT.

speak of slavery, but it may be doubted whether many of his auditors were looking for any opinion of the amendment which had passed Congress a few hours before, and had been signed by Buchanan while Mr. Lincoln was moving to the place from which to deliver his address. The few who thought of the amendment were not disappointed.

Near the close of his inaugural, Mr. Lincoln referred to the amendment. "I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution-which amendment, however, I have not seen-has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say, that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable." In the original draft of his inaugural, Lincoln had written: "As I am not much impressed with the 1 Lincoln's Works, II, 6.

LATER HISTORY OF THE AMENDMENT.

681

belief that the present Constitution can be improved, I make no recommendations of amendments. I am rather for the old ship, and the chart of old pilots. If, however, the people desire a new or an altered vessel, the matter is exclusively their own, and they can move in the premises, as well without as with an Executive recommendation. I shall place no obstacle in the way of what may appear to be their wishes." Mr. Seward suggested a change of the first sentence to: "While so great a diversity of opinion exists on the question what amendments, if indeed any, would be effective in restoring peace and safety, it would only tend to aggravate the dispute if I were to attempt to give direction to the public mind in that respect." Mr. Lincoln, doubtless convinced that his original language might misrepresent his feelings and opinions, rewrote this portion of the address, changed the meaning and expressed good will towards the amendment just passed.1

The later history of this amendment was brief. On the last day of the year in which it passed, the legislature of Illinois authorized the election of a convention to amend the constitution of 1848. It assembled at Springfield on the seventh of January, 1862. Its loyalty was widely questioned, and many people of the State believed that it was a device to take Illinois out of the Union.2 This charge its members repelled. By the enabling act, the

1 Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, III, 322, 340, note. See also Lincoln's letter to E. B. Washburne counselling no compromises of any sort on "slavery extension," December 13, 1860; and to Lyman Trumbull, enclosing one to General Duff Green, on the amendment, December 28, 1860. Works, I, 658, 661, 662.

2 See preface to Judge John A. Jameson's treatise on Constitutional Conventions, also the report of the Thornton investigating committee, submitting to the convention, March 19, 1862. Also the Chicago Tribune for February and March, 1862.

Report of Thornton Committee.

680

LINCOLN ON THE AMENDMENT.

speak of slavery, but it may be doubted whether many of his auditors were looking for any opinion of the amendment which had passed Congress a few hours before, and had been signed by Buchanan while Mr. Lincoln was moving to the place from which to deliver his address. The few who thought of the amendment were not disappointed.

Near the close of his inaugural, Mr. Lincoln referred to the amendment. "I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution-which amendment, however, I have not seen-has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say, that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable." In the original draft of his inaugural, Lincoln had written: "As I am not much impressed with the 1 Lincoln's Works, II, 6.

THE ILLINOIS RATIFICATION.

683

States. And perhaps fewer are aware that President Lincoln, in his inaugural, declared that he had "no objection

1 In the Reconstruction Convention of Mississippi, of 1865, the proposed amendment of 1860 was characterized as "an amendment-which would have secured forever, the institution of slavery, until each State, of its own free will, saw fit to abolish it. But our people under the excitement which existed, and in the madness of the hour, disregarded and rejected the proposed amendment." Proceedings and Debates, 142.

This case, mentioned in note (4), The People of the State of Illinois, Ex rel., etc., involved the question of the powers of a Constitutional Convention. Mr. Beckwith, of counsel for the Respondents; Coventry, Tuttle and Wayman, Police Commissioners of Chicago, argued, "that the legislature had power to define the duties of the convention, and the purposes for which the delegates to that body should be elected." "I am unwilling to believe that the framers of the present constitution (Illinois, 1848), having these ends in view, intended that a convention which should be assembled thereafter for its revision, alteration and amendment, with the same ends in view, should have power to abrogate one provision after another until every vestige of a constitutional government was destroyed, and then usurp the supreme authority of the government itself." "As before remarked, the people when they voted for and elected delegates to the convention, never intended that it should have any powers, other than what the law conferred upon it. The people never intended to delegate to the convention the supreme authority of the State, with power to repeal and pass laws at its will and pleasure. The people elected the delegates to frame a constitution under the law, and submit it to them for their adoption or rejection, and for no other purpose. The powers of the convention were neither legislative, executive nor judicial, but related to an organic law, prescribing the form of the government, imposing duties upon its several departments and restraining them within certain limits. The office of such a law is to declare in whom the several powers of the government shall be vested, and to impose duties and restraints upon each of its departments. Beyond these provisions the convention had no power to go, and when it transcended these limits its acts were void, even with the adoption of them by the people. If it could pass laws, and put them in force by a vote of the people, it could have tried cases and had its judgments become binding in the same manner. Taking well-established principles as our guide, they lead