They also confidontly rely upon defections in the system of intrigue, of duplicity, of usurpation army and navy. and wrong through which the entire rebellion was controlled. When the secret history of the conspiracy is written, the Southern people will be amazed to find to what an extent they were instruments in the hands of the designing and restless spirits whose political ambition was only second to their sel The spectacle here presented is startling to contemplate. Senators intrusted with the representative sovereignty of the States, and sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, while yet acting as the privy counsellors of the President, and anxiously looked to by their constituents to effect some practical plan of adjustment, deliberately conceive a conspiracy for the overthrow of the Govern-fishness and slave-owners' pride. We have yet ment through the military organizations, the dangerous secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, "Committees of Safety," Southern leagues, and other agencies at their command; they have instituted as thorough a military and civil despotism as ever cursed a maddened country." to learn, from a careful examination of all evidence at this moment available-from a rigid scrutiny of individual acts and public movements-that there has been, on the part of the instigators of the revolution, anything of patriotism, of pure motive, of earnest desire for the good of the whole. If this, indeed be true, time surely will unmask the hypocracy of professions and acts. See Appendix, "The Secession Plot," page 512. The confirmation which these statements had in succeeding events gives assurance that the writer was well informed, and unveils the CHAPTER VIII, PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS CONTINUED. SIXTH WEEK. SPEECHES THE PRESIDENT. Mr. Crittenden's THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. THE proceedings of this ritory until it becomes a State? The Terriweek were of the most im- tory was acquired as the common property portant and interesting na- of all, and now a few attempt to exclude a porture. In the Senate, Monday, (January 7th,) tion from their just rights, because they have Mr. Crittenden called up his resolutions for conscientious scruples on the subject. Were a reference of his compromise to the people, Senators willing to sacrifice the country and supported the proposition with an earnest rather than yield their scruples? But, as a and eloquent appeal. It seemed to him the matter of right, have Senators any right to only course left-to appeal to the people, exclude any property? The Constitution was who would be just arbiters. There was no- formed by men who well knew we had differthing improper in such an appeal-nothing ent institutions in different parts of the counwhich forbade it. He then referred to the try, and no section of the country has a features of his propositions, approving of the right to set up a particular opinion as a rule suggested amendments to the Constitution as for all the rest. Suppose the different sec desirable, to take the Slavery question from tions had different religions, would one secCongress forever. The establishment of a tion try to establish a religion for the other line dividing the common Territory was less a But the pulpit has become the minister of compromise than a fair adjustment of rights. the politician, and the politician has become The alternative was civil war. Were mem- the minister of the Gospel. No man has the bers of Congress prepared for such an alter-right to insist that another man's conscience native rather than recognize Slavery in a Ter-hall be ruled by his. But he was to deal MR. TOOM BS' SPEECH. with the present, not the past. He was now to consider the safety of the country, and was here as advocate of the Union, contending for what he thought would save the country. Had a great party grown up which would Introduce the Anti-Slavery principle, and was that the principle on which it had triumphed? This triumph filled some portion of the Southern States with alarm. Will the party now in the proud triumph of victory plant itself on platforms and dogmas and not yield an inch, or will they, like generous men, be not only just but liberal? He appealed to them as patriots and countrymen to grant equal rights to all. He did not think he was asking them to make concessions, but only to grant equal rights. He did not believe in the doctrine of secession. It was a new doctrine, and an attempt to secede with the bold front of a revolution, is nothing but lawless violation of the law and the Constitution. But he only wanted to bear his testimony to the Constitution, and to let it be known that the Constitution cannot be broken. If a State wishes to secede, let them proclaim revolution boldly, and not attempt to hide themselves under little subtleties of law, and claim the right of secession. A constitutional right to break the Constitution was a new doctrine. He argued that Mr. Webster always went against any right of secession. On one side was an asked concession, and on the other side was civil war. Mr. Toombs, having the Mr. Toombs' Speech. floor, next followed. His speech having been set for Monday, had drawn a very crowded auditory to wait upon its delivery. It was well understood that it would define the extreme Southern programme. It was, as anticipated, extremely violent and defiant; in many portions it was rank with treasonable threat and declaration; in its entire spirit and matter it exemplified the irreconcileable nature of his views, and those even of the Conservatives in the two Houses. We shall reproduce so much of it as may be necessary to indicate its spirit and intent. "The success of the Abolitionists and their allies, under the name of the Republican party, has produced its logical result already. They have, for long years, been sowing dragon's teeth, and they have finally got a crop of armed men. The Union, Sir, is dissolved. That is a fixed fact lying in the way of this discussion, and men may as well heed it. 177 Toombs' Speech. One of your confederates has already wisely, bravely, boldly, met the public danger, and confronted it. She is only ahead and beyond any of her sisters, because of her greater facility of action. The great majority of these sister States, under like circumstances, consider her cause as their cause; and I charge you, in their name, here, to-day, touch not seguretum.' While my friend from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden,) while the House of Representatives are debating the constitutionality and the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of all this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large portion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are calmly and coolly effecting what you call revolution. Aye, Sir, better than that-an armed defense. They appealed to the Constitution and to justice they appealed to fraternity, until the constitutional justice and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of the country. And then, Sir, they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword. Now, Sir, you may see the glitter of the bayonet, and hear the tramp of armed men, from your Capital to the Rio Grande. * * "My own position, and my own demands, as I will now give them, are considered the demands of an extreme person, and what you, who talk of Conthe term. I believe for all the acts which the Re stitutional right, consider treason. I believe that is publican party call treason and rebellion, there stands before them as good a traitor and as good a rebel as ever descended from revolutionary loins. What does this rebel demand? That these States bave equal rights to go into the common Territories and remain there with their property, and be protected by the Government till such Territories shall become States. We have fought for this Territory when blood was its price. We have paid for it when money was the price. I demand only that I have leave to go into these Territories upon terms of equality with you, as equal in this great confederacy, and enjoy my own property, receiving the protec into the Union as a Sovereign State, and choose tion of a common Government until they shall come their own institutions. I demand, second, that property in slaves be entitled to the same protection from Government as all other property, and that the Government shall never interfere with the right of any State to control or protect Slavery in its own limits. We demand that a common Government shall use its power to protect our property as well as yours. We pay as much as you do. Our property is subject to taxation. We claim that that Government which recognizes our property for tax. Toomba Speec.. "It was carried in the Convention of Virginia by only five votos. The great mass of the people of treorgia, I know, would rather stay in.. finion, but I believe it is a Government that' never done anything for us, and had the oppo mity I should have voted with the men who vi against it. Yet I have been content to its mai Dance, because while I did not believe it was g compact, I was bound by my oath and by ho and by that coinmon prudence which leads mer. hold to what they have instead of flying to dan they know not of. And I have given it, nad I w have given it, my unqualified support and giance. All the obligations, all the chains that ter the limbs of my people, are nominated in bond. They acted upon that conclusion by claring that the powers not granted to the Gov. ment, or forbidden to the States, belonged to States respectively. cure the The wave alotes or so she goes were This was done long ago in Maine. We estrated and appealed for fraternity. Pat thie 3 of the Constitution has been a dead letter to Beat day to this. The Senator from New neward as when Governor, refused 24 He said it was not against the 248 Vests Negroes, and he would as these are our ConfedeThere is a bargain and a The skew it, but you cannot bind They have a higher law. I sup pumo ya 10 coniertake to whip freemen into loving seethreq as that. You will have a good time as doubt. We want that provison of the Con-nounced Madison for the Virginia report of! The next demand is Sektion der shall be sorrendered, according The Consution has provided Farroad that spijete of the ConBut Huels have tried al If, in common justice, equal rights belong to States, when did we get them? Every rese right is a Constitutional right. The Northern trine was the same many years ago. They They denounced many of the fathers because presumed to impugn the decisions of the Sup Court. That was the universal judgment and d ration of every Free State of this Union. VeryCone to the compact. It is not in the bond t de us from the common Territory. 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