Mr. Guthrie next moved the adoption of the fourth section of the report, which had been so amended as to read thus:

"SECTION 4. The third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution shall not be construed to prevent any of the States, by appropriate legislation, and through the action of their judicial and ministerial officers, from enforcing the delivery of fugitives from labor to the person to whom such service or labor is due."

This also was carried, by the following vote-New York and Kansas still equally divided:

Ars-Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, NewJersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia-15.

NOES-Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, NewHampshire-4.

Mr. Guthrie next moved the adoption of the fifth section of the report, so amended as to read as follows:

"SECTION 5. The foreign slave trade is hereby forever prohibited; and it shall be the duty of Congress to pass laws to prevent the importation of slaves, coolies, or persons held to service or labor, into the United States and the Territories from places beyond the limits thereof.”

This section was adopted, as follows: AYS-Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, NewJersey, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Ver

mont, Kansas-16.

NOES-Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia-5.

Mr. Guthrie next moved the adoption of the sixth section of the report; amended thus:

"SECTION 6. The first, third, and fifth sections, together with this section of these amendments, and the third paragraph of the second section of the first article of the Constitution, and the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article thereof, shall not be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States."

This was adopted by the following vote-New York again divided, and not voting:

401

AYS-Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Kansas-11. NOES--Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia-9.

Mr. Guthrie next moved the adoption of the seventh section of the report; amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 7. Congress shall provide by law that the United States shall pay to the owner the full value of his fugitive from labor, in all cases where the marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest such fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation from mobs or riotous assemblages, or when, after arrest, such fugitive was rescued by like violence or intimidation, and the owner thereby deprived of the same; and the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner from further claim to such fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for securing to the citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."

This section was adopted by the following vote-New York still di

The report having been thus adopted by sections, Gov. Chase, of Ohio, demanded a vote upon the entire plan of conciliation together; which President Tyler decided unnecessary, as the whole plan had been adopted by sections.

Mr. T. E. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, moved the following independent proposition:

"Resolved, As the sense of this Convention, that the highest political duty of every citizen of the United States is, his allegiance to the Federal Government created by the Constitution of the United States, and that no State of this Union has any constitutional right to secede therefrom, or to absolve the citizens of such State from their allegiance to the Government of the United States."

Mr. Barringer, of North Carolina,

Mr. J. A. Seddon, of Virginia, moved once more his proposition, requiring an amendment of the Constitution, whereby the assent of a majority of the Senators from the slaveholding States and a like majority of the Senators from the non-slaveholding States is required to give validity to any act of the Senate, as also recognizing and legalizing State-secession from the Union; which was laid on the table. Mr. Guthrie then offered the following preämble to the propositions which had been agreed to:

"To the Congress of the United States:

"The Convention assembled upon the invitation of the State of Virginia, to adjust the unhappy differences which now disturb the peace of the Union and threaten its continuance, make known to the Congress of the United States that their body convened in the city of Washington on the 4th instant,

and continued in session until the 27th.

"There were in the body, when action was taken upon that which is here submitted, one hundred and thirty-three Commissioners, representing the following States: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas.

"They have approved what is herewith submitted, and respectfully request that your honorable body will submit it to con

ventions in the States as an article of amend

ment to the Constitution of the United

States."

This was adopted; and President Tyler requested to present the 'plan of adjustment' to Congress forthwith. And then the Convention adjourned without day.

The above plan of conciliation was immediately communicated by President Tyler to Vice-President Breckinridge, who laid it before the Senate without delay: and, on motion of Mr. Crittenden, it was referred to a Select Committee of five, to be reported to the Senate next day.

Mr. Crittenden reported it accordingly." Gov. Seward, from the Republican minority of said Committee, presented a substitute for that project, as follows:

“A joint resolution concerning a National Convention to propose amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

"Whereas, the Legislatures of the States of Kentucky, New Jersey, and Illinois, have applied to Congress to call a Convention for proposing amendinents to the Constitution of the United States: Therefore,

"Be it resolved, etc., That the Legislatures of the other States be invited to take the subject into consideration, and to express their will on that subject to Congress, in pursuance of the fifth article of the Constitution."

Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, and others, strenuously objected to a consideration of the majority report at this time; so that its second reading was postponed until next day: when, on motion of Mr. Douglas, it was made the special order for noon of the day following; when Gen. Joseph Lane, of Oregon, made a long speech against 'coërcion,' and in favor of the Southern view of State Rights. Mr. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, followed, speaking very strongly and earnestly in favor of maintaining the Union.

At length, the Senate, on motion of Mr. Douglas, voted-Yeas 25; Nays 11-to postpone the consideration of this, in favor of the House proposition of amendment, already referred to, and which had passed that body; providing

"that no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof," etc.

This proposed amendment was finally concurred in by the Senate: Yeas 24; Nays 12: as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bigler, Bright, Crittenden, Dixon, Douglas, Foster, Grimes, Gwin, Harlan, Hunter, Johnson, of Tennessee, Kennedy, Latham, Mason, Morrill, Nicholson, Polk, Pugh, Rice, Sebastian,

Ten Eyck, and Thomson-24.

NAYS-Messrs. Bingham, Chandler, Clark, Doolittle, Durkee, Foot, King, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson-12.

And then the Senate returned to the consideration of the Crittenden proposition, for which Mr. Clark's proposition, already given," was again offered as a substitute, and voted down: Yeas 14; Nays 22.

Finally, Mr. Crittenden moved that the Peace Conference proposition be substituted for his own original project of conciliation; which the Senate refused, by the following vote: YEAS-Messrs. Crittenden, Douglas, Harlan, Johnson, of Tennessee, Kennedy, Morrill, and Thomson-7.

NAYS-Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bingham, Bright, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Gwin, Hunter, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Polk, Pugh, Rice, Sebastian, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wigfall, Wilkinson, and Wilson-28.

So the Senate, by four to one, disposed of the scheme of the Peace Commissioners, and proceeded to vote, directly thereafter, on Mr. Crittenden's original proposition, which

14 See page 382.

403

Thus ended in failure the more or less earnest efforts to avert the gathering storm of war by some project of Compromise' or 'Conciliation,' to be enacted by Congress preliminary to its being ingrafted on the Constitution. And, as it has been very widely asserted and believed that the Republicans evinced an unbending disposition, stubbornly refusing to make any concession, any sacrifice, for the preservation of peace and National integrity, it may be well to consider what they actually did and proffered. The foregoing pages show that

I. They were at all times willing, and more than willing, to unite in the call of a Convention of the States, which would have inherent power to deal thoroughly with all the questions whereon the differences termed 'sectional' had arisen, and wherein their opponents were morally certain to have a large majority of votes. President Lincoln at an early day, Gov. Morgan, the Republicans in the Peace Conference, etc., etc., had indicated their concurrence in the call of a Convention. But this resort, though originally suggested by the Legislature of Kentucky, was voted down in the Peace Conference by the aid of all the Slave States represented-Kentucky among them. II. The Republicans likewise

15 March 1, 1861.

evinced a willingness to pay for slaves who should be lost to their owners through popular interposition to defeat their return to bondage from the Free States to which they had escaped. Mr. Tuck's proposition in the 'Peace Conference,' Gov. Baldwin's, and nearly every authentic or influential utterance from the same side, admitted the duty of the North, if it could no longer return such fugitives, to pay their value to those injured or aggrieved by this failure to make good the constitutional stipulation. Had

16 During the preceding discussion in the Conference, Gov. S. P. Chase, of Ohio (February 6th), after stating frankly to the Southern Commissioners that those from the Free States could not surrender the principle of Slavery Restriction as to the territories, and that, if they did, it would do no good, as their constituents would disavow and repudiate them, proceeded as follows:

"Aside from the Territorial question-the question of Slavery outside of Slave States-I know of but one serious difficulty. I refer to the question concerning fugitives from service. The clause in the Constitution concerning this class of persons is regarded by almost all men, North and South, as a stipulation for the surrender to their masters of slaves escaping into Free States. The people of the Free States, however, who believe that slaveholding is wrong, cannot and will not aid in the reclamation, and the stip

ulation becomes therefore a dead letter. You complain of bad faith; and the complaint is retorted by denunciations of the cruelty which would drag back to bondage the poor slave who has escaped from it. You, thinking Slavery right, claim the fulfillment of the stipulation; we, thinking Slavery wrong, cannot fulfill the stipulation without consciousness of participation in wrong. Here is a real difficulty; but it seems to me not insuperable. It will not do for us to say to you, in justification of non-performance, 'The stipulation is immoral, and therefore we cannot execute it;' for you deny the immorality, and we cannot assume to judge for you. On the other hand, you ought not to exact from us the literal performance of the stipulation when you know that we cannot perform it without conscious culpability. A true solution of the difficulty seems to be attainable by regarding it as a simple case where a contract, from changed circumstances, cannot be fulfilled exactly as made. A court of equity in such a case decrees execution as near as may be. It requires the party who cannot perform to make a compensation for non-performance. Why cannot the same prin

the South presented as her ultimatum-"Pay us cash" for every slave whom we shall hereafter lose through your repugnance to slave-hunting". the exaction would have been acceded to as reasonable and just.

III. The North could not, without shame and conscious guilt, consent to diffuse and uphold Slavery on territory that came to us free." But Gov. Anthony, of Rhode Island, formally offered, in the Senate, to unite in the immediate admission of New Mexico (which then included Arizona) as a State, under such Constitu

ciple be applied to the rendition of fugitives from service? We cannot surrender-but we can compensate. Why not, then, avoid all difficulties on all sides, and show respectively good faith and good will, by providing and accepting compensation where masters reclaim escaping servants and prove their right of reclamation under the Constitution? Instead of a judgment for rendition, let there be a judgment for compensation, determined by the true value of the services, and let the same judgment assure freedom to the fugitive. The cost to the National Treasury would be as nothing in comparison with the evils of discord and strife. All parties would be gainers." 17 Mr. Webster, in one of his latest speeches -at Buffalo, May 22, 1851-said:

I never

"If the South wish any concession from me, they won't get it—not a hair's breadth of it. If they come to my house for it, they will not find it. I concede nothing. *** No matter what may be said at the Syracuse Convention, or any other assemblage of insane persons. would consent that there should be one foot of Slave Territory beyond what the old Thirteen States had at the time of the formation of the Union. Never, never! The man can't show his face to me, and prove that I ever departed from that doctrine. He would sneak away, or slink away, or hire a mercenary Heep, that he might say what a mercenary apostate from liberty Daniel Webster has become. He knows himself to be a hypocrite and a falsifier. *** All that I now say is, that, with the blessing of God, I will not now nor hereafter, before the country or the world, consent to be numbered among those who introduced new Slave Power into the Union. I will do all in my power to prevent it."

Mr. Clay's deliberate and emphatic declaration that he would never consent nor be constrained "to vote for the positive introduction of Slavery either south or north of that line" (36° 30′), will be found on page 205.

18 See page 381.