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will utter its voice, and I tell you there is no power on God's earth that can stand before that."

The Vice-President, in announcing the Committee of Thirteen on Mr. Powell's resolution, remarked that the Chair had found a great deal of difficulty in framing the committee, but had tried to compose it in the spirit which he believed actuated the Senate in ordering its appointment. It will be observed that upon this committee were two Senators from one State. This was unavoidable. "Of course the author of the resolutions becomes the chairman of the committee; and I am sure the Senate will, for many reasons, recognize the fact that it was proper that the eminent senior Senator from Kentucky should also be a member of that committee. The Secretary will read it."

The Secretary read the committee, as follows: Mr. Powell, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Seward, Mr. Toombs, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Collamer, Mr. Davis, Mr. Wade, Mr. Bigler, Mr. Rice, Mr. Doolittle, and Mr. Grimes.

Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, was excused from serving on the committee, upon his own request. He said:

"The position which I am known to occupy, and the position in which the State I represent now stands, render it altogether impossible for me to serve upon that committee with any prospect of advantage."

Subsequently a motion to reconsider the vote excusing Mr. Davis was carried, upon which he rose and said:

"If, in the opinion of others, it be possible for me to do any thing for the public good, the last moment while I stand here is at the command of the Senate. If I could see any means by which I could avert the catastrophe of a struggle between the sections of the Union, my past life, I hope, gives evidence of the readiness with which I would make the effort. If there be any sacrifice which I could offer on the altar of my country to heal all the evils, present or prospective, no man has the right to doubt my readiness to do it. Therefore, when Senators, entertaining the same opinions with myself, came to me and expressed regret that I had refused to serve, I could but tell them that I had only obeyed what I believed to be propriety in the case, not desiring to shrink from the performance of a duty, still less to indulge in personal feeling. I therefore answer the request of the Senator from Florida, knowing also that it is made after consultation with others, that if the Senate choose that I should be placed upon the committee, and continue to serve there, I shall offer no further opposition."

The motion to excuse the Senator was then withdrawn.

On the 31st of December, the committee reported as follows:

The Committee of Thirteen, appointed by order of the Senate, of the 20th instant, have agreed upon the following resolution, and report the same to the

Senate:

Resolved, That the committee have not been able to agree upon any general plan of adjustment, and report that fact to the Senate, together with the journal of the committee.

On a subsequent day the report of the committee and the resolutions of the Senator from Kentucky were taken up; also a brief resolution of nearly similar import offered by Senator Johnson, of Tennessee; also resolutions of Senator Lane, of Oregon.

Mr. Douglas addressed the Senate. He commenced by saying that no act of his public life had ever caused him so much regret as the necessity of voting in the special committee of thirteen for the resolution reporting to the Senate their inability to agree upon any general plan of adjustment, which would restore peace to the country and insure the integrity of the Union. If we wish to understand the real causes which have produced such wide-spread and deep-seated discontent in the slaveholding States, we must go back, he said, beyond the recent Presidential election, and trace the origin and history of the slavery agitation from the period when it first became an active element in Federal politics.

Having traced the agitation down, he ascribed the present crisis to the fact that the Southern people have received the result of the recent election as furnishing conclusive evidence that the dominant party of the North, which is soon to take possession of the Federal Government under that election, are determined to invade and destroy their constitutional rights. What shall be done, he asked, in the case of South Carolina? Our right of jurisdiction over that State for Federal purposes, according to the Constitution, had not been destroyed or impaired by the ordinance of secession, or any act of the convention, or of the de facto government. The right remains; but the possession is lost, for the time being. "How shall we regain the possession?" is the pertinent inquiry. It may be done by arms, or by a peaceable adjustment of the matters in controversy.

After examining many incidental questions relating to the mode of adjustment, he said:

“I repeat, then, my solemn conviction, that war means disunion-final, irrevocable, eternal separation. I see no alternative, therefore, but a fair compromise, founded on the basis of mutual concessions, alike honorable, just, and beneficial to all parties, or civil war and disunion. Is there any thing humiliating in a fair compromise of conflicting interests, opinions, and theories, for the sake of peace, union, and safety? Read the debates of the Federal convention, which formed our glorious Constitution, and you will find noble examples, worthy of imitation; instances where sages and patriots were willing to surrender cherished theories essential to the best form of society, for the and principles of government, believed to be sake of peace and unity."

On another day Mr. Crittenden called up his

resolution, which was now so modified by himself as to make it a question of referring the matter to the people as an amendment to the Constitution. He had already perceived that there was no party in the Senate in favor of compromise sufficiently strong to pass his resolution in its original form. With a degree of melancholy natural to one who had spent so large a portion of his life in endeavors to promote the prosperity and glory of his country, and who now sees a gigantic catastrophe about to overwhelm her, he addresses the Sen

ate:

"Mr. President, if I could indulge myself with the hope that the resolution which I have proposed for amendments to the Constitution could obtain that majority in this Senate which would recommend it to the States for their adoption, by convention or by Legislature, I should never have made this motion for a reference of the question to the people. It is the extraordinary condition of the country, the extraordinary circumstances by which we are now surrounded, and the peculiar situation in which Congress itself is placed, that has induced me to attempt so extraordinary a resort. We believe that amendments to the Constitution are requisite to give that permanent security which is necessary to satisfy the public mind and restore quiet to the country. Those amendments cannot be recommended, nor can we proceed in the measure of amendment, unless it be by a two-thirds majority. I have feared that that majority could not be hoped for here; and it is in this last extremity that I have proposed that we should invoke the judgment of the people upon the great question on which their Government depends. It is not an ordinary question; it is no question of party; it is no question of policy; it is a question involving the existence of the Union, and the existence of the Government. Upon so momentous a question, where the public counsels themselves are so divided and so distracted as not to be able to adopt, for the want of the requisite majority, those means that are supposed to be necessary for the safety of the country and the people, it has seemed to me not improper that we should resort to the great source of all political authority-the people themselves. This is their Government; this is their Union; we are but their representatives. I speak in no feeling of flattery to the people, sir. No; I call upon them to pronounce their judgment, and do their duty to their country. If we cannot save the country, and they will not save the country, the country is gone. I wish to preserve it by all the means, ordinary and extraordinary, that are within our possible reach. That is the whole feeling, and that is the entire principle upon which I have acted in making this proposition. I see nothing improper in it."

After examining all the points bearing on the proposition for compromise in a most conciliatory spirit, and urging with all the elo

quence he could command, the importance to the future welfare of the country that this course should be adopted, he closed, and the Senator from Georgia followed. Nothing could be more complete than the contrast between their views.

Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, said: "The success of the Abolitionists and their allies, under the name of the Republican party, has produced its logical results already. They have for long years been sowing dragons' teeth, and have finally got a crop of armed men. The Union, sir, is dissolved. That is an accomplished fact in the path of this discussion that men may as well heed. One of your confederates has already, wisely, bravely, boldly, confronted public danger, and she is only ahead of many of her sisters because of her greater facility for speedy action. The greater majority of those sister States, under like circumstances, consider her cause as their cause; and I charge you in their name to-day, "Touch not Saguntum." It is not only their cause, but it is a cause which receives the sympathy, and will receive the support, of tens and hundreds of thousands of honest patriotic men in the non-slaveholding States, who have hitherto maintained constitutional rights, who respect their oaths, abide by compacts, and love justice. And while this Congress, this Senate, and this House of Representatives are debating the constitutionality and the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large portion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are coolly and calmly voting what you call revolution-ay, sir, doing better than that-arming to defend it. They appealed to the Constitution, they sppealed to justice, they appealed to fraternity, until the Constitution, justice, and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of their country, and then, sir, they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword; and now you see the glittering bayonet, and you hear the tramp of armed men from your capital to the Rio Grande. It is a sight that gladdens the eyes and cheers the hearts of other millions ready to second them. Inasmuch, sir, as I have labored earnestly, honestly, sincerely, with these men to avert this necessity so long as I deemed it possible, and inasmuch as I heartily approve their present conduct of resistance, I deem it my duty to state their case to the Senate, to the country, and to the civilized world."

The claims of the Southern States and their views of the Constitution have been already stated so often, that it will not be necessary to repeat the argument of the Senator from Georgia.

On a subsequent day Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, offered the following resolutions, designing to move them as an amendment to the resolutions of Mr. Crittenden :

Resolved, That the provisions of the Constitution

are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all the material interests of the country; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended; and that an extrication from the present dangers is to be looked for in strenuous efforts to preserve the peace, protect the public property, and enforce the laws, rather than in new guarantees for particular interests, compromises for particular difficulties, or concessions to unreasonable demands.

Resolved, That all attempts to dissolve the present Union, or overthrow or abandon the present Constitution, with the hope or expectation of constructing a new one, are dangerous, illusory, and destructive; that, in the opinion of the Senate of the United States, no such reconstruction is practicable, and therefore, to the maintenance of the existing Union and Constitution should be directed all the energies of all the departments of the Government, and the efforts of all good citizens.

A bill was afterwards introduced by Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, to provide for taking the sense of the people of the several States on the proposed amendments to the Constitution offered by Mr. Crittenden.

Subsequently Mr. Crittenden called up his resolutions, when a motion was made to postpone their consideration to a future day, by Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, because the Pacific Railroad bill, and the bill for the admission of Kansas were set down for previous days. To this the venerable Senator, Mr. Crittenden, replied:

"I do think that this may well be considered as trifling with the greatest subject that can possibly be before this Senate, if we consent to such a postponement, and make the reason for it the pendency of this or that bill. I cannot consent to it; and I hope, if the Senate are disposed to treat the subject at all with the solemnity that belongs to it, that we shall at least show respect enough to the subject to manifest a temper and disposition to act upon it decidedly and promptly. I want this question acted upon; and from this dilatory sort of proceedings, it seems to me it is evident gentlemen are trying to postpone this subject, and give it no consideration."

After further discussion the motion to postpone was lost, 19 Republicans to 25. Another debate arose on questions of order, and the session of the day closed, by the Senator from Kentucky withdrawing his call.

On the next day, when the Senator called for his resolutions again, they were set aside, as the Pacific Railroad bill had been set down as a special order.

Mr. Lane, of Oregon, thus expressed his disapprobation of the course which had been

taken :

"I was very sorry this morning to see the most important measure that has been introduced into this Senate, or can be introduced into it during this or any other session, set aside to take up this bill. I allude to the proposition introduced by the venerable Senator from Kentucky. It was a proposition presented with the hope of saving the final dissolution of this Union. The measures proposed by him,

if sanctioned by the people, if approved by the Northern States, would in all human probability-and I know there is no man in this Union more anxious for it than my self-delay the movements which are now going on, that are to result ultimately in the entire dissolution of the Union. At such a time, when every gentleman knows that the country cannot be held together unless something shall be promptly done, I thought it was not proper to take up a bill involving the country in obligations amounting to hundreds of millions, for the making of two railroads, in preference to adopting some measures by which this Union may be held together; some plan that may afford security and protection, and guarantee the rights of all the States of the Confederacy."

Later in the day Mr. Crittenden alluded to the same action on the part of the Senate, and expostulated with them, saying:

"I cannot think, Mr. President, of voting for the Pacific Railroad bill while this other measure is undetermined. It has been said of old that men build as if they never expected to die. We seem to be acting as a nation upon that hypothesis; we are proposing to build railroads, providing roads for future generations, when the very existence of our country is in danger. When the Union itself is reeling about like a drunken man, we are making provision for futurity and for posterity. I cannot vote for any such measure at any such time. Build up the Union first; then talk about building up a railroad. Then I will vote for this measure. I want my friends from California to understand that, although I voted to-day for the indefinite postponement of this bill, I am not its enemy. I am prepared to vote for it when you make the Union stable enough to afford the faintest promise that the work can be executed, and that we shall have a nation to enjoy the benefits of it. It seemed to me very solemn trifling before this people, that the Senate should sit here legislating upon the making of roads for future generations, and for a nation, when that nation is trembling upon a point between life and death. Yet the Senate preferred to act upon a railroad, rather than to act on these measures calculated to give permanence to the Union itself. I ask my friends to consider what sort of intelligence is this to go out of a country that is now trembling with anxiety upon the question of peace or war, existence or nonexistence as a nation, that they should sit here and with quiet indifference to the state of the country take up a railroad bill?"

On another day the resolutions were taken up and the amendments of Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, and Mr. Clark of New Hampshire, were adopted. This amendment of Mr. Clark looked so much like war, that on the motion to reconsider the vote on the next day, it was reconsidered and postponed.

On the 28th of January, Senator Iverson, of Georgia, withdrew from the Senate. His communication to that body was as follows:

WASHINGTON CITY, January 28, 1861.

To the Senate of the United States: The undersigned has received official information that, on the 19th instant, a convention of the people of Georgia, recently assembled, and now in session, passed the following ordinance:

"An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under a compact of government, entitled the 'Consti

tution of the United States of America.'

"We, the people of the State of Georgia, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in convention on the 2d day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1788, when the Constitution of the United States of America was assented to, ratified, and adopted; and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying and adopting amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated.

We do further declare and ordain, that the Union now subsisting between the States of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved; and that the State of Georgia is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State."

The undersigned, recognizing the validity of said ordinance, and the fact that the State which he, in part, represents in the Senate of the United States, has withdrawn from the Federal Union, and is now a separate, sovereign, and independent State, does not feel at liberty any longer to take part in the proceedings of the Senate, and shall this day withdraw from the body. Very respectfully, ALFRED IVERSON.

Upon its being read, the Senator made a brief address to the Senate, saying that peace or war could follow as the remaining States might choose. The first gun fired would cause the withdrawal of all the slaveholding States, and forever destroy all hope of reconstruction.

A question next arose in the Senate respecting the effect which the act of this Senator had upon his seat in that body. After a lengthy discussion, the subject was laid upon the table and passed over for the

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House, in which he thus expressed his gratifi cation upon the occasion, and his views of his own position:

of Virginia, with great satisfaction. From the "I confess I hail this movement on the part past history of this ancient and renowned Commonwealth, we have the fullest assurance that what she has undertaken she will accomplish, if it can be done by able, enlightened, and persevering efforts. It is highly gratifying to know

and the Constitution, in the spirit in which they were established by the fathers of the Republic: Therefore,

Resolved, That on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, an invitation is hereby extended to all such States, whether slaveholding or non-slaveholding, as are willing to unite with Virginia 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, quate guarantees for the security of their rights, to appoint so as to afford to the people of the slaveholding States adecommissioners to meet, on the 4th day of February next, in the city of Washington, similar commissioners appointed by Virginia, to consider, and, if practicable, agree upon some suitable adjustment.

Rives, Judge John W. Brockenbrough, George W. Sum

Resolred, That ex-President John Tyler, William C

mers, and James A. Seddon are hereby appointed commissioners, whose duty it shall be to repair to the city of Washington, on the day designated in the foregoing resolution, to meet such commissioners as may be appointed by any of the said States, in accordance with the foregoing resolution.

Resolved, That if said commissioners, after full and free conference, shall agree upon any plan of adjustment requir ing amendments of the Federal Constitution, for the further security of the rights of the people of the slaveholding States, they be requested to communicate the proposed amendments to Congress, for the purpose of having the same submitted by that body, according to the forms of the Constitution, to the several States for ratification.

Resolred, That if said commissioners cannot agree on such adjustment, or, if agreeing, Congress shall refuse to submit for ratification such amendments as may be proposed, then the commissioners of this State shall immediately communicate the result to the Executive of this Commonwealth, to be by him laid before the convention of the people of Virginia and the General Assembly: Provided, that the said commissioners be subject at all times to the

control of the General Assembly, or, if in session, to that of the State Convention.

Resolved, That in the opinion of the General Assembly of Virginia, the propositions embraced in the resolutions presented to the Senate of the United States by Hon. John J. Crittenden-so modified as that the first article proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, shall apply to all the territory of the United States now held or hereafter acquired south of latitude 36° 30', and provide that slavery of the African race shall be effectually protected as

property therein during the continuance of the territorial government, and the fourth article shall secure to the owners through the non-slaveholding States and Territories-con

of slaves the right of transit with their slaves between and stitute the basis of such an adjustment of the unhappy controversy which now divides the States of this Cor

federacy, as would be accepted by the people of this Com monwealth.

pointed, by the concurrent vote of each branch of the

Resolved, That ex-President John Tyler is hereby sp

General Assembly, a commissioner to the President of the United States; and Judge John Robertson is hereby sp pointed, by a like vote, a commissioner to the State of South Carolina, and the other States that have seceded, or shall secede, with instructions respectfully to request the Pres dent of the United States and the authorities of such States to agree to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of this General Assembly, from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the States and the Government of the United States.

Resolved, That copies of the foregoing resolutions be forthwith telegraphed to the Executives of the several States, and also to the President of the United States; and that the Governor be requested to inform, without delay, the commissioners of their appointment by the foregoing reso lutions.

A copy from the rolls.

WILLIAM F. GORDON, JR.,

C. H. D. and K. R. of Virginia.

E

i.

that other patriotic States have appointed, and are appointing, commissioners to meet those of Virginia in council. When assembled, they will constitute a body entitled, in an eminent degree, to the confidence of the country.

"The General Assembly of Virginia have also resolved 'that ex-President John Tyler is hereby appointed, by the concurrent vote of each branch of the General Assembly, a commissioner to the President of the United States; and Judge John Robertson is hereby appointed, by a like vote, a commissioner to the State of South Carolina and the other States that have seceded or shall secede, with instructions respectfully to request the President of the United States and the authorities of such States to agree to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of this General Assembly, from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the States and the Government of the United States.'

"However strong may be my desire to enter into such an agreement, I am convinced that I do not possess the power. Congress, and Congress alone, under the war-making power, can exercise the discretion of agreeing to abstain 'from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms' between this and any other Government. It would, therefore, be a usurpation for the Executive to attempt to restrain their hands by an agreement in regard to matters over which he has no constitutional control. If he were thus to act, they might pass laws which he should be bound to obey, though in conflict with his agreement.

"Under existing circumstances, my present actual power is confined within narrow limits. It is my duty at all times to defend and protect the public property within the seceding States so far as this may be practicable, and especially to employ all constitutional means to protect the property of the United States, and to preserve the public peace at this the seat of the Federal Government. If the seceding States abstain from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms,' then the danger so much to be deprecated will no longer exist. Defence, and not aggression, has been the policy of the Administration from the beginning.

"But whilst I can enter into no engagement such as that proposed, I cordially commend to Congress, with much confidence that it will meet their approbation, to abstain from passing any law calculated to produce a collision of arms pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of the General Assembly of Virginia. I am one of those who will never despair of the Republic. I yet cherish the belief that the American people will perpetuate the Union of the States on some terms just and honorable for all sections of the country. I trust that the mediation of Virginia may be the destined means, under Providence, of accomplishing this inestimable benefit. Glorious as are the

memories of her past history, such an achievement, both in relation to her own fame and the welfare of the whole country, would surpass them all."

After the message had been read in the Senate, Mr. Mason of Virginia said, it was a great and honorable office which his honored and venerated State had undertaken. Should it unfortunately occur, however, either from impatience in the States that have separated, or from any undue and over-zeal in any department of the Federal Government, that the two sections should be brought into collision, there is an end of all negotiation. Men never negotiate in war. There must be a peace first. If there was any honorable Senator on the floor, or any citizen of any one of the States, who, under existing events, yet indulged the belief that an attempt to enforce the Federal laws in the States that have declared themselves beyond the Federal jurisdiction was not an act which would lead to war, and to war alone, never was such a Senator or such a citizen more deluded. He had occasion to say so heretofore. "I speak it now, sir, certainly not in anger; but I should speak it in sorrow, if I could be brought to contemplate such an event."

He thought that there were evidences-daily evidences-from that section of the country which had separated itself from this Union, that, while the authorities there have thought it necessary, as measures of precaution, to possess themselves, in the several States, of the forts, arsenals, navy-yards, and military materials found within their limits, acknowledging them to be a portion of the public property all the time, they have done so with no intent on their part to make war; they have done so, as they conceived, only as measures of necessary, prudent precaution, in the event that any war should unhappily be waged on them. And he thought honorable Senators on the other side would respond to the declaration, when he said that there was not one of those States, when they shall be restored to the Union, if they shall be restored, or when the Government shall be reconstructed, if it shall be reconstructed, or when peace shall be concluded, if war shall now follow, who will not account for every dollar of the public property that they have taken.

A great number of petitions and memorials had been presented in both Houses of Congress relative to the crisis of the country, and for the most part praying Congress to adopt such measures as would result in peace and permanent union. Resolutions also were from time to time adopted by the Legislatures of many of the States and laid before Congress.

Among the memorials thus presented was one from the city of New York, which was forwarded through a committee of twenty-five citizens, and which prayed "for the exercise of the best wisdom of Congress in finding some plan for the adjustment of the troubles which disturb the peace and happiness and endanger

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