The best speech made on the Republican side of the chamber during this momentous session of Congress was made by Trumbull on the night of March 2. It was a speech adverse to the Crittenden Compromise, and was a reply to Crittenden's final speech in support of it. This measure was a joint resolution proposing certain amendments to the Constitution, the first of which proposed to apply the old Missouri Compromise line, of 36° 30' north latitude, to all the remaining territory of the United States, so that in all territory north of it, then owned or thereafter acquired, slavery should be prohibited, and that in all south of it, then owned or thereafter acquired, slavery should be recognized as existing, and that the right of property in slaves there should be protected by Federal law. It was offered on the 18th of December, 1860, and debated till the 2d of March following, when it was defeated by yeas 19, nays 20, all the Republicans voting against it except Seward, who did not vote and was not paired.41
Just before the vote was taken, Crittenden tried to amend his measure by striking out the words "hereafter acquired" as to the territory south of 36° 30', which he said was giving great offense in some parts of the North. This was not in the measure as originally proposed by him, but he had accepted it as an amendment offered by his colleague, Senator Powell. It was then too late to amend except by unanimous consent, and Hunter, of Virginia, objected. In this last debate, Mason drew attention to the minimum demands of Virginia as expressed by her legislature. These were the Crittenden Compromise, including territory "hereafter acquired," and the right of slaveholders to pass with their slaves through the free states with protection to their slave property in transit. Mason intimated pretty plainly that even this would not satisfy him, for which he received some castigation at the hands of Douglas. The latter was a steady supporter of the Crittenden Compromise, but he maintained throughout the debate that no cause for disunion would exist, even if the measure were defeated, and that none would exist if the Federal Government should attempt to compel a state or any number of states to obey the Federal law.
Simultaneously with the rejection of the Crittenden Compromise, the Senate, by a two-thirds majority, passed a joint resolution to amend the Constitution by adding to it the following article:
Article XIII. No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state.
This was a resolution introduced by Corwin, of Ohio. It had already passed the House by a two-thirds majority, but it fell into the limbo of forgotten things before sunrise of the 4th of March.
During this crisis Trumbull was receiving hundreds of letters from his constituents, nearly all exhorting him to stand firm. The only ones counseling compromise were from the commercial classes in Chicago, and of these there were fewer than might have been expected in view of the threatened danger to trade and industry. The dwellers in the small towns and on the farms were almost unanimously opposed to the Crittenden Compromise. A few letters are here cited from representative men in their respective localities:
A. B. Barrett (Mount Vernon, January 5) has taken pains to gather the opinions of Republicans in his neighborhood in reference to the secession movement and finds them, without a single exception, in favor of enforcing the laws and opposed to any concession on the part of Congress which would recognize slavery as right in principle, or as a national institution.
J. H. Smith (Bushnell, January 7) contends that the Chicago platform was a contract between the Republican voters and the men elected to office by them, and the voters expect them to live up to it, to the very letter. "If the South wants to fight let them pitch in as soon as they please; we would rather fight than allow slavery to go into any more territory." Encloses resolutions to this purport passed by a public meeting of citizens of his town.
A. C. Harding (Monmouth, January 12) is pained to hear a rumor that some Republicans in Washington are considering a bill to make a slave state south of 36° 30', thus sanctioning a slave code by Congress. Any concessions that shall violate the pledges of the Republican party will instantly turn the guns of our truest friends upon those who thus give strength to the Southern rebels. Neither Adams nor Seward nor Lincoln can for a moment escape the fatal consequences if they yield their principles at the threat of disunion.
Wait Talcott (Rockford, January 17) has just finished reading Seward's speech. It leads him to fear that yielding to the South, and calling a national convention under their threat, will embolden them, whenever the result of an election does not suit them, to insist that the victors shall take the place of the vanquished.
G. Koerner (Belleville, January 21): The Democratic Convention at Springfield has done some mischief by inflaming the lower order of the Democracy and confirming them in their seditious views. On the other hand, it has disgusted the better class of Democrats. It was a sort of indignation meeting of all the disappointed candidates, office-seekers, and losers of bets. A few Republicans are giving way under the pressure, but upon the whole the party stands firm. "Has secession culminated or is worse to come? I am prepared for the application of force. In fact, a collision is inevitable. Why ought not we to test our Government instead of leaving it to our children?"
H. G. McPike (Alton, January 24): "Our people believe the Constitution to be good enough. Let it alone. A compromise of any principle dissolves the Republican party, takes the great moral heart out of it, and will in so far bring ruin on the Government."
J. M. Sturtevant, president of Illinois College (Jacksonville, January 30), protests against the tone of Mr. Seward's speech. Says that the solid phalanx of thoughtful, conscientious, earnest, religious men who form the backbone of the Republican party will never follow Mr. Seward, or any other man, in the direction in which he seems to be leading. "We want the Constitution as it is, the Union as the Fathers framed it, and the Chicago platform. And we will support no man and no party that surrenders these or any portion of them."
Grant Goodrich (Chicago, January 31) is convinced by his intercourse with the mass of Republicans, and with many Democrats, that any concessions by which additional rights are given to slavery will end the Republican party. There will be a division of the Republicans; a new party will arise, which will include the entire German element and which will be as hostile to the "Union-saving" Republicans as to the Democrats, and much more intolerant to their former allies.
E. Peck (Springfield, February 1) says that the proposition to send commissioners to Washington was passed by the legislature as a matter of necessity, because, if the Republicans had not taken the lead, the Democrats would have done so, and would have obtained the help of a sufficient number of weak-kneed Republicans to make a majority. Mr. Lincoln would have preferred that commissioners be not appointed.
W. H. Herndon (Springfield, February 9): "Are our Republican friends going to concede away dignity, Constitution, Union, laws, and justice? If they do, I am their enemy now and forever. I may not have much influence, but I will help tear down the Republican party and erect another in its stead. Before I would buy the South, by compromises and concessions, to get what is the people's due, I would die, rot, and be forgotten, willingly."
Samuel C. Parks (Lincoln, Logan County, February 11) is opposed to the Crittenden Compromise, because the integrity of the Republican party and the salvation of the country require that this grand drama of secession, disunion, and treason be played out entirely. Either slavery or freedom must rule this country, or there must be a final separation of the free and the slave states. No compromise will do any permanent good. On the contrary, if the territorial question is compromised now, it will but postpone, aggravate, and prolong the contest. Considers it mean and cowardly to leave to our children a great national trouble that we might settle ourselves.
January 2, 1861, Trumbull wrote to Governor Yates advising that some steps be taken in the way of military preparations, saying:
The impression is very general here that Buchanan has waked up at last to the sense of his condition and will make an effort to enforce the laws and protect the public property. That this was his determination two days ago, I have the best reasons for knowing, but he is so feeble, vacillating, and irresolute, that I fear he will not act efficiently; and some even say that he has again fallen into the hands of the disunionists. This I cannot believe. If he does his duty with tolerable efficiency, even at this late day, there will be no serious difficulty. The states which resolved themselves out of the Union would be coming back before many months. But if he continues to side with the disunionists, we cannot avoid serious trouble, for in that event I think the traitors would be encouraged to attempt to take possession here, and most of the public property and munitions of war would be placed in the hands of the disunionists before the 4th of March. In view of the present condition of affairs and the uncertainty as to the future, I think it no more than prudent that our state should be making some preparations to organize its military, or get up volunteer companies, so as to be ready to come to the support of the Constitution and the laws if the occasion should require. I think that there will be no occasion for troops here, and that the inauguration will probably take place. But take place it must, and at Washington, even though a hundred thousand men have to come here to effect it. The Government is a failure unless this is done.
Governor Yates's reply, if any, is not found in the Trumbull papers, but a letter from him dated Springfield, January 22, says that Frank P. Blair, Jr., had just arrived from St. Louis with information that the secessionists in Missouri had formed a plot to seize the United States Arsenal at St. Louis, which was the only depot of arms west of Pittsburg. If this should be attempted, Yates said it would lead to serious complications and perhaps a collision between Illinois and Missouri, since it could not be permitted that this great arsenal, intended for the use of the entire West, should fall into the hands of enemies of the Union. He asked Trumbull to see General Scott at once and insist that something be done which would obviate the necessity of action on the part of the state of Illinois.
Some letters from Mrs. Trumbull to her son Walter, who was on a warship in foreign parts during the month of January, 1861, supply a few items of interest.
January 21 she says:
The Senators of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida yesterday took formal leave of the Senate. The speech of Clay, of Alabama, was very ugly, but that of Davis was pathetic, and even Republican ladies were moved to tears. Gov. Pickens of S. C. sent for $300 due him as Minister to Russia, and the Treasurer sent him a draft on the sub-treasury at Charleston which the Rebels had seized.
January 24:
Called at Dr. Sunderland's42 yesterday. He said that in talking with a disunionist a few days ago he asked what the South demanded and what would satisfy them. He replied that the North must be uneducated, or educated differently; their sentiments must be changed, and it can't be done in this generation.
Just before starting home, Toombs's coachman, strange to say, deserted his kind master for a trip on the Underground Railroad, greatly to the disgust of Mrs. Toombs. She was met by Mrs. Judge McLean, who said to her, "Mrs. Toombs, are you going to leave us?" "Yes," she replied, "I am glad enough to go; here I am riding in a hack!" It was very hard, very disgusting, and Mrs. McLean, instead of trying to hunt up her fugitive for her, told her that when the South had all seceded, they would have Canada right on their borders, and where one now escaped, there would then be a hundred.
January 26:
The city begins to present a warlike appearance. Two companies are stationed quite near us on E St. and others are placed in Judiciary Square near the Capitol, and at the President's, about 700 in all. A company of light artillery arrived yesterday morning, soon after which cannonading was heard, volley after volley. I supposed the thunder of the cannon was meant to convey wholesome instruction to the revolutionists, but I learned this evening that it was a salute for Kansas, which is now a state. Thirty-four guns were fired. I understood that some of the ladies at the National Hotel were so alarmed that they began to pack their trunks so as to retreat promptly with all their luggage. I believe that Gen. Scott intends to have more troops here, but the O. P. F.43 countermands most of his orders. The Cabinet find him very troublesome even now; he still listens to Slidell and others.
A set of compromisers came here a few days since from New York with a string of resolutions and explained them to Senator King, hoping he would endorse them. Mr. King read them and handed them back silently. Said the spokesman: "I trust they meet your approval, they are good resolutions; you approve them, do you not, Mr. King?" He answered in his good-humored, laughing way, but withal very firmly: "I would resign my seat first and I think I would rather die." The same men went to your father urging him to support them, and stated that New York would not defend the public property within her limits unless Congress adopted some such action. Your father told them that if that was to be the course of New York, we might as well know it now as ever, and refused to have anything to do with their resolutions.
In the same letter she writes:
Mrs. McLean called yesterday. She said they dined at the White House once while the President was making up his mind whether or not to recall Major Anderson. The judge took the President aside to make some inquiries about the Major. Buchanan replied that he had exceeded his instructions and must be recalled. The Judge raised his hand with vehemence, almost in the President's face, and asserted with emphasis: "You dare not do it, sir, you dare not do it." And he did not.
Probably this is the only instance on record where a Judge of the Supreme Court shook his fist in the face of the President after dining with him at the White House. It is not improbable that the vehemence of the venerable Judge was one of the potent reasons deterring Buchanan from ordering Anderson to return from Fort Sumter to Fort Moultrie.44
TRUMBULL'S SPEECH AGAINST THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE
[In the Senate, March 2, 1861.]
Mr. Trumbull. Mr. President, the long public service of the Senator from Kentucky, his acknowledged patriotism and devotion to the Union, give great importance to whatever he says; and in all he has said in favor of the Union and its preservation, and the maintenance of the Constitution, I most heartily concur. No man shall exceed me in devotion to the Constitution and the Union. But, while this is so, what the Senator says of those of us who disagree with him as to the mode of preserving the Union and maintaining the peace of the country is well calculated, in consequence of the position he occupies, to mislead and prejudice the public mind as to our true position. Does he expect, or can he expect, that compromises will be made and concessions yielded when he talks of the great party of this country, constituting a majority of its people, as being wedded to a dogma set up above the Constitution; when he talks of us as usurping all the territories, as ostracizing all the people of the South, and denying them their rights? Is that the way to obtain compromises? Instead of turning his denunciation upon those who violate the Constitution and trample the flag of the country in the dust, he turns to us and talks to us of usurpations, of our dogmas; tells us that for a straw we are willing to dissolve the Union and involve the country in blood. Why are not these appeals made and these rebukes administered to the men who are involving the country in blood? If it is a straw for us to yield, is it anything more than a straw for them to demand? If it is a trifle for us to concede, is it any larger than a trifle which the South demands, and to obtain which it is willing to destroy this Union, which he has so beautifully and so highly eulogized?
Sir, I have heard this charge against the people of the North, of a desire to usurp the whole of the common territories, till I am tired of the accusation. It has been made and refuted ten thousand times. Not a man in the North denies to every citizen of the South the same right in a territory that he claims for himself. And who are the people of the South? Slaveholders? Not one white citizen in twenty of the population in the South owns a slave. The nineteen twentieths of the non-slaveholding population of the South are forgotten, while the one twentieth is spoken of as "the South." The man who owns a slave in the South has just as much right in the territory as a man in the North who owns no slave. If the Southerner cannot take his negro slave to the territory, neither can the Northern man.
Again, sir, the Senator talks of the rights of the States to the common territories. The territories do not belong to the States; they are the property of the General Government; and the state of Kentucky has no more right in a territory than has the city of Washington, or any county in the state of Maryland. As a state, Kentucky has no right in a territory, nor has Illinois; but the territories belong to the Federal government, and are disposed of to the citizens of the United States, without regard to locality.
But, sir, I propose to inquire what it is that has brought the country to its present condition; what it is that has occasioned this disruption, this revolution in a portion of the country. Many years ago an attempt was made in the state of South Carolina to disrupt this Government, at that time on account of the revenue system. It failed. The disunionists of 1832 were put down by General Jackson; and from that day to this there have been secessionists per se, men who have been struggling continuously and persistently to propagate their doctrine wherever they could find followers; and, I am sorry to say, they seem to have impressed the public mind of the South, to a great extent, with their notions. In 1850, the effort to break up the Government was renewed. It was then settled by what were known as the compromise measures of that year. The great men of that day—Clay, Webster, Cass, and others—took part in that settlement, and it was then supposed that the settlement would be permanent. The controversy of 1850 was not in regard to a tariff, but in regard to the negro question; the very question which General Jackson had prophesied, in the nullification times, would be the one upon which the next attempt would be made to destroy the Government. After a long struggle, the compromise measures of 1850 were passed. Quiet was given to the country; all parties in all sections of the country acquiesced in the settlement then made. Resolutions were offered in this body denouncing any person who should attempt again to introduce the question of slavery into Congress. Speeches were made, in which Senators declared that they would never again speak upon the subject in the Congress of the United States. It was said that the slavery question was forever removed from the halls of Congress, and we then supposed that the country would continue quiet on this exciting subject. But, sir, in 1854, notwithstanding the pledges which had been given in 1850, notwithstanding the quiet of the country, when no man was agitating the slavery question; when no petitions came from the states, counties, cities, or towns, from villages or individuals, asking a disturbance of former compromises; when all was quiet, of a sudden a proposition was sprung in this chamber to unsettle the very questions which had been put to rest by the compromises of 1850. A proposition was then introduced to repeal one of the compromises which had been recognized by the acts of 1850; for the Missouri Compromise, which excluded slavery from Kansas and Nebraska, was, by reference, directly and in express terms, reaffirmed by the compromises of 1850. But, sir, in the beginning of 1854, that fatal proposition was introduced and embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which declared that the eighth section of the act for the admission of Missouri into the Union, which had passed in 1820, and which excluded slavery from Kansas and Nebraska, should be repealed, it being declared to be "the true intent and meaning of the act not to introduce slavery into any state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States"—a little stump speech, as Colonel Benton denominated it, introduced into the body of the bill, which has since become as familiar to all the children of the land, from its frequent repetition, as Mother Goose's stories. That was the fatal act which brought about the agitation of the slavery question; and on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise followed the disturbances in the settlement of Kansas. That act led to civil war in Kansas, to the burning of towns, to the invasion from Missouri, to all the horrors and anarchy which reigned in that ill-fated territory for several years, all of which is too fresh in the recollection of the American people to require repetition. And, sir, from that day to this, the doctrine which it is pretended was enunciated in 1854 in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, of non-intervention, of popular sovereignty, for it is known under various names, has been preached all over the country, until in the election of 1860, it was repudiated and scouted, North and South, by a majority of the people in every state in the Union; and even at this session, it has been thrust in here upon almost every occasion, as the grand panacea that was to give peace to the country; whereas it was the very thing which gave rise to all the difficulties. The disunionists per se have seized hold of the disturbances growing out of the slavery question, all occasioned by this fatal step in 1854, to inflame the public mind of the South, and bring about the state of things which now exists.
But, sir, the Union survived the disunion movement of 1832; it survived the excitement upon the slavery question in 1850; it survived the disturbances in Kansas in 1855 and 1856, consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It survived them all without an actual attempt at disruption, until we came down to 1860, and Abraham Lincoln was elected President; and even now, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction at his election in some portions of the country, and all the previous troubles, the laws to-day would have had force in every part of the Union, and secession would have been checked in its very origin, had the Government done its duty and not acted in complicity with the men who had resolved to destroy it.
The secession movement, then, dates back several years. It received an impetus in 1850; another in 1854; and in 1860, by the connivance and the assistance of the Government itself, it acquired the strength which it now has. What has been the policy of the expiring administration? Its Cabinet officers boasting of their complicity with the men who were plotting the destruction of the Government; openly proclaiming in the face of the world that they had used their official power, while members of the Cabinet, and sworn to protect and preserve the Government, to furnish the means for its destruction; openly acknowledging before the world that they had used the power which their positions gave them to discredit the Government, and also to furnish arms and munitions of war to the men who were conspiring together to assault its fortifications, and seize its property; openly boasting that they had taken care, during their public service, to see that the arms of the Federal Government were placed in convenient positions for the use of those who designed to employ them for its destruction. More than this, members, while serving in the other branch of Congress, go to the Executive of the United States, and tell him, "Sir, we are taking steps in South Carolina to break up this Government; you have forts and fortifications there; they are but poorly manned; now if you will leave them in the condition they are until the state of South Carolina gets ready to take possession, we will wait until that time before we seize them"; and the Executive of the nation asks that the treasonable proposition be put in writing, and files it away. Why, sir, is there another capital on the face of the globe, to which men could come from state or province, and inform the executive head that they were about to take steps to seize the public property belonging to the Government, and warn the Executive to leave it in its insecure and undefended state until they should be prepared to take possession, and they be permitted to depart? Is there another capital on the face of the globe where commissioners coming to the Executive under these circumstances would not have been arrested on the spot for treason? But your Government, if it did not directly promise not to arm its forts, certainly took no steps to protect its public property; and this went on, until a gallant officer who was in command of less than a hundred men in the harbor of Charleston, acting upon his own responsibility, thought proper to throw his little force into a fort where he could protect himself; and then it was that these insurgents, rebelling against the Government, demanded that he should be withdrawn, and the Executive then was forced to take position. Then his Cabinet officers who had been in conspiracy with the plotters of treason, then the Chief Magistrate himself was forced to take position. He must openly withdraw his forces, and surrender the public property he was sworn to protect, openly violate the oath he had taken to support the Constitution of the United States, and execute the laws, and take side with traitors; or else he must leave Major Anderson where he was. Exposed to public view, brought to this dilemma, I am glad to say that even then, at that late day, the President of the United States concluded to take sides for the Union; that even he came out, though feebly it was, on the part of the United States, and his Secretary of War retired from his Cabinet, not in disgrace, so far as its executive head was concerned, for he parted pleasantly with the President of the United States, but he retired because the President would not carry out the policy which he understood to have been agreed upon, which was to leave the fortifications in a position that Carolina might take them whenever she thought proper.
But, sir, notwithstanding this, the Executive of the nation, disregarding the advice of the Lieutenant-General who commands the armies of the United States, and who had warned him months before of the movements which were taking place to seize the public property at the South, still leaves the property unprotected; and the insurgents go on in some of the states, before even passing ordinances of secession, and continue to seize the public property; to capture the troops of the United States; to take possession of the forts; to fire into its vessels; to take down its flag; until they have at this time in their possession fortifications which have cost the Government more than $5,000,000, and which mount more than a thousand guns.
All this has been done without any effort on the part of the Government to protect the public property; and this is the reason that secession has made the head it has. Why, sir, let me ask, is it that the United States to-day has possession of Fort Sumter? Can you tell me why is Fort Sumter in possession of the United States? Because there are a hundred soldiers in it—for no other reason. Why is Fort Moultrie in possession of the insurgents? Because there were no men there to protect it; and it is now matter of history that, had the Executive done his duty, and placed a hundred men in Fort Moultrie, a hundred in Castle Pinckney, and a hundred in Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor to-day would have been open, and your revenues would have been collected there, as elsewhere throughout the United States.
Will it be said that Carolina would have attacked those forts, thus garrisoned? She does not attack a hundred men in Fort Sumter. It is a wonder that she does not. The little, feeble garrison there is well calculated to invite attack; but this thing of secession, under the policy of the Administration, has been made a holiday affair in the South. This great Government, one of the most powerful on the face of the globe, is falling to pieces just from its own imbecility.
Mr. Wigfall. Mr. President—
The Presiding Officer (Mr. Bright). Does the Senator from Illinois yield the floor?
Mr. Trumbull. I have some further observations to make. I will yield for a single question; not for a speech.
Mr. Wigfall. For a single question. I do not wish to interrupt the Senator if it is not agreeable to him. I desire to ask a single question.
Mr. Trumbull. I have no objection to the question.
Mr. Wigfall. I understand the Senator to object to the course that the present outgoing Administration has pursued in reference to the forts. I know the Senator's candor, directness of purpose, fairness, and boldness of statement; and I desire to know whether the succeeding Administration will pursue the same peace policy of leaving the forts in the possession of the seceding states, or whether they will attempt to recapture them?
Mr. Trumbull. The Senator will find out my opinions on this subject before I conclude. The opinions of the incoming Administration, I trust, he will learn to-morrow from the eastern front of the capitol.
Mr. Wigfall. I trust we shall, sir.
Mr. Trumbull. I speak for myself, without knowing what may be said in the inaugural of to-morrow; but I apprehend that the Senator will learn to-morrow that we have a Government; and that will be the beginning of the maintenance of the Union.
Mr. Wigfall. I hope we may.
Mr. Trumbull. While the forts in the South were left thus unprotected, and to be seized by the first comers, where was your army? Scattered beyond reach, and sent to the frontiers, so as not to be made available when it was wanted. And where was your navy? The navy of the United States, when it was known that the secession movement was on foot, was sent to distant seas, until there was not at the command of the Secretary of the Navy a single vessel, except one carrying two guns, that could enter Charleston Harbor—a small vessel destined, I believe, to take supplies to the African squadron, which carried two guns. Does anybody suppose this was accidental? If it were a question of fact to be tried before an intelligent jury in any part of Christendom, does any one doubt that the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy would both be convicted of having purposely, and by design, removed the army and navy out of reach, in order that the forts might be seized, and that the secession movement might progress? And how has it been from that day to this? Irresolution and indecision on the part of the Executive—one day sending a vessel with troops to Charleston, and the next countermanding the order; and the Senator from Texas, with a taste which I cannot admire, spoke in terms of derision of his country's flag, when it returned in disgrace—"struck in the face," I think, was his expression—from Charleston Harbor. I admit it was disgraceful; but I am sorry it should have afforded the Senator from Texas, a member of the Senate of the United States, as the eloquent Senator from Kentucky said he was, any pleasure that such a transaction should have occurred.
This, then, briefly, is the reason that this secession movement has acquired the strength it has. It is because this Government has either favored it, or refused to do anything to check it. Notwithstanding the mistake of 1854, the country would have survived it all, had we had a Government to take care of and preserve it.
Now, sir, what are the remedies that are proposed for the present condition of things, and what have they been from the beginning? They have been propositions of compromise; and Senators have spoken of peace, and of the horrors of civil war; and gentlemen who have contended for the right of the people of the territories to regulate their own affairs, and who have been horrified at the idea of a geographical line dividing free states from slave states, free territory from slave territory, and who have proclaimed that the great principle upon which the Revolution was fought was that of the right of the people to govern themselves, and that it was monstrous doctrine for Congress to interfere in any way with its own territories, come forward here with propositions to divide the country on a geographical line; and not only that, but to establish slavery south of the line; and they call this the Missouri Compromise! The proposition known as the "Crittenden Proposition" is no more like the Missouri Compromise than is the Government of Turkey like that of the United States. The Missouri Compromise was a law declaring that in all the territory which we had acquired from Louisiana, north of a certain line of latitude, slavery or involuntary servitude should never exist. But it said nothing about the establishment of slavery south of that line. It was a compromise made in order to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state, in 1820. That was the consideration for the exclusion of slavery from all the country north of 36° 30'. Now, sir, I have no objection to the restoration of the Missouri Compromise as it stood in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Bill passed; and I have drawn up—and I intend to offer it at the proper time as an amendment to some of these propositions—a clause declaring that so much of the fourteenth section of the act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, approved the 30th of May, 1854, as repeals the Missouri Compromise, and contains the little stump speech, shall be repealed, and that we may hear no more of it, I trust, forever.
Since its authors have repudiated it, and have come forward with a proposition to establish not the Missouri Compromise, but to establish a geographical line running through the territory which we now have, establishing slavery south of it, and prohibiting it north, and providing that, in the territory we may hereafter acquire, slavery shall be established south of that line, I suppose we shall hear no more about leaving the people "perfectly free to regulate their own affairs in their own way"! The proposition known as the "Crittenden Compromise" declares not only that, "in the territory south of the said line of latitude, slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Congress"; but it provides further, that, in the territory we shall hereafter acquire south of that line, slavery shall be recognized, and not interfered with by Congress; but "shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance"; so that, if we make acquisitions on the south of territories now free, and where, by the laws of the land, the footsteps of slavery have never been, the moment we acquire jurisdiction over them, the moment the stars and stripes of the Republic float over those free territories, they carry with them African slavery, established beyond the power of Congress, and beyond the power of any territorial legislature, or of the people, to keep it out; and we are told that this is the Missouri Compromise! We are told that slavery now exists in New Mexico; and I was sorry to find even my friend from Oregon [Mr. Baker] ready to vote for this proposition, which establishes slavery. Why, sir, suppose slavery does exist in New Mexico; are you for putting a clause into your Constitution that the people of New Mexico shall not drive it out?
But, sir, unlike the Senator from Oregon, I will never agree to put into the Constitution of the country a clause establishing or making perpetual slavery anywhere. No, sir; no human being shall ever be made a slave by my vote. No foot of God's soil shall ever be dedicated to African slavery by my act—never, sir. I will not interfere with it where I have no authority by the Constitution to interfere; but I never will consent, the people of the great Northwest, numbering more in white population than all your Southern States together, never will consent by their act to establish African slavery anywhere. Why, sir, the seven free states of the Northwest, at the late presidential election, cast three hundred thousand more votes than all the fifteen Southern States together. Senators talk about the North and the South, and speak of having two Presidents, a Northern President and a Southern President, as if we had no such country as the Northwest, more populous with freemen than all the South. The people of the South and the people of the East both will, by and by, learn, if they have not already learned, that we have a country, and a great and growing country, in the Northwest; a free country—made free, too, by the act of Virginia herself. I do not propose to discuss the House Resolution. I have said on any and all proper occasions, and am willing to say at any time, to our brethren of the South, we have no disposition, and never had any, and have no power, if we had the disposition, to interfere with your domestic institutions.
I think, then, sir, that none of these compromises will amount to anything; but still I am willing to do this, and I think if there is any difficulty it may be settled in this way: three of the states of this Union, the state of Kentucky, the state of New Jersey, and the State of Illinois, have called upon Congress to call a convention of all the states for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution. I do not think the Constitution needs amendment. In my judgment, the Constitution as it is, is worthy to be lived up to and supported. I doubt if we shall better it; but out of deference to those states, one of which is my own state, I am willing to vote for the resolution which has been introduced into this body recommending to the various states to take into consideration this proposition of calling a convention, in order to make such amendments as may be deemed necessary by the states themselves to this instrument. So far, I am willing to go. Would it not have been better for the seceding states to have done that? Why did they not propose, instead of attempting hastily to break up the Government and seizing its public property, to call a convention, in the constitutional form, of the various states, and if the Federal Constitution needed amendment, amend it in that way. No such proposition came from them; but Kentucky has made the proposition for a convention, and I am willing to meet her in the spirit in which it is made, and am ready, for one, and would be glad if we could all unitedly pass the resolution suggesting to the states to call a convention to make any and all amendments to the Constitution which the exigencies of the times may require.
The Senator from Texas wants to know how we are going to preserve the Union; how we are going to stop the states from seceding? And our Southern friends sometimes ask us to give them something to stand upon in the South. The best political foundation ever laid by mortal man upon which to plant your foot is the Constitution. Take the old Constitution as your fathers made it, and go to the people on that; rally them around it, and not suffer it to be kicked about, rolled in the dust, spit upon, and their efforts to be wasted in vain efforts to amend it. Why, sir, has that old instrument ceased to be of any value? These gentlemen who are talking about amending it, and talking about guarantees as a condition to remain in the Union, claim to be par excellence the Union men. Why, sir, I conceive I am a much better Union man than they. I am for the Union under the Constitution as it is. I am willing, however, that a convention should be called out of deference to those who may wish to alter it; but I am not one of those who declare that unless this provision is made, and unless this guarantee is given, I will unite to destroy the Union, and cease to observe the Constitution as it is.
Sir, the Southern States have been arming. The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason] told us the other day that his state had appropriated $1,500,000 to arm its citizens. For what? To arm its citizens to fight against this Government; and then tell us that, to a man, they will fight against this Government, if it undertakes to enforce its laws, which they call coercion, the coercion of a State! Why, sir, a government that has not the power of coercing obedience to its laws is no government at all. The very idea of a law without a sanction is an absurdity. A government is not worth having that has not power to enforce its laws. If the Senator from Texas wants to know my opinion, I tell him yes, I am for enforcing the laws. Do you mean by that you are going to march an army to coerce a state? No, sir; and I do not mean the people of this country to be misled by this confusion of terms about coercing a state. The Constitution of the United States operates upon individuals; the laws operate upon individuals; and whenever individuals make themselves amenable to the laws, I would punish them according to the laws. We may not always be able to do this. Why, sir, we have a criminal code, and laws punishing larceny and murder and arson and robbery and all these crimes; and yet murder is committed, larcenies and robberies are committed, and the culprits are not always punished and brought to justice. We may not be able, in all instances, to punish those who conspire against the Government. So far as it can be done, I am for executing the laws; and I am for coercion. I am for settling, in the first place, the question whether we have a government before making compromises which leave us as powerless as before.
Sir, if my friend from Kentucky would employ some of that eloquence of his which he uses in appealing to Republicans—and talking about compromise—in defense of the Constitution as it is, and in favor of maintaining the laws and the Government, we should see a very different state of things in the country. If, instead of coming forward with compromises, instead of asking guarantees, he had put the fault where it belongs; if he called upon the Government to do its duty; if, instead of blaming the North for not making concessions where there is nothing to concede, and not making compromises where there was nothing to compromise about, he had appealed to the South, which was in rebellion against the Government, and painted before them, as only he could do it, the hideousness of the crimes they were committing, and called upon them to return to their allegiance, and upon the Government to enforce its authority, we would have a very different state of things in this country to-day from what now exists.
This, in my judgment, is the way to preserve the Union; and I do not expect civil war to follow from it. You have only to put the Government in a position to make itself respected, and it will command respect. As I said before, five hundred troops in Charleston would unquestionably have kept that port open; and if you will arm the Government with sufficient authority to maintain its laws and give us an honest Executive, I think you will find the spread of secession soon checked; it will no longer be a holiday affair. But while we submit to the disgrace which is heaped upon us by those seceding states, while the President of the United States says, "You have no right to secede; but if you want to, you may, we cannot help it," you may expect secession to spread.
Why, sir, the resolutions of the legislature of the state of New York, which were passed early in the session, tendering to the Federal Government all the resources of the state in money and men to maintain the Government, had a most salutary effect when it was heard here. I saw the effect of it at once. It was the first blow at secession. Let the people of the North understand that their services are required to maintain this Union, and let them make known to the people of the South, to the Government, and to the country, that the Union shall be maintained; and the object is accomplished. Then you will find Union men in the South. But while this secession fever was spreading, and the Union men of the South had no support from their Government, it is no wonder that state after state undertook to withdraw from a confederacy which manifested no disposition to maintain itself.
My remedy for existing difficulties is, to clothe the Government with sufficient power to maintain itself; and when that is done, and you have an Executive with the disposition to maintain the authority of the Government, I do not believe that a gun need be fired to stop the further spread of secession. I believe, sir, after the new Administration goes into operation, and the people of the South see, by its acts, that it is resolved to maintain its authority, and, at the same time, to make no encroachments whatever upon the rights of the people of the South, the desire to secede will subside. When the people of the Southern States, on the 5th of March, this year, and on the 5th of March, 1862, shall find that, after a year has transpired under a Republican administration, they are just as safe in all their rights, just as little interfered with in regard to their domestic institutions, as under any former Administration, they will have no disposition to inaugurate civil war and commence an attack upon the Federal Government.
Why, sir, some Senators talk about the Federal Government making war. Who proposes it? The Southern people affect to abhor civil war, when they, themselves, have commenced it. Inhabitants of the six seceding states have begun the war. What is war? Is firing into your vessels war? Is investing your forts war? Is seizing your arsenals war? They have done it all, and more; and then have the effrontery to say to the United States, "Do not defend yourselves; do not protect your Government; let it fall to pieces; let us do as we please, or else you will have war." The highwayman meets you on the street, demands your purse, and tells you to deliver it up, or you will have a fight. You can always escape a fight by submission. If in the right—and which is far better than to submit to degradation—you can often escape collision by being prepared to meet it. The moment the highwayman discovers your preparation and ability to meet him, he flees away. Let the Government be prepared, and we shall have no collision.
I cannot think the people of this country in the loyal states would causelessly inaugurate civil war by attacking the Government; and I regard all the states as loyal, which have not undertaken to secede. I regard Kentucky and Tennessee and Missouri as loyal states, just as much so as Illinois. Why, sir, I live right upon the borders of Missouri, and I know that the people across the river were, last fall, just as good Union men as they were in Illinois. They never thought of secession until the thing was started in South Carolina, and until some persons here in Congress began to talk about guarantees, instead of coming out for the Constitution and the Union as they are. When Senators began to introduce propositions demanding guarantees as a condition of continuing in the Union, the real true Union men, in many instances, took sides with them, and thus became, in fact, only conditional Unionists. I am happy to say that they are getting over it, not only in Missouri, but they are already cured of it in Tennessee, and I trust in all the other states save those which, in their hurry, and with inconsiderate zeal, have already taken measures, as far as they could, to dissolve their connection with the Government. Sir, I cannot think it possible that this great Government is to go out without a struggle—a Government which has been blessed so highly, and prospered so greatly. What occasion is there for breaking it up? Are we not the happiest people in the world? Do we not enjoy personal liberty and religious freedom? What is it that the people of these Southern States would have? Does anybody propose to interfere with their domestic institutions? Nobody. Does anybody deny their equal rights in the territories? Nobody. Why, sir, look at our condition. We are one of the great nations of the world. At the peace of 1783, we had, I think, something like three million population; we have now more than thirty million. At that time we had thirteen states; now we have thirty-four states; and our territories have spread out until they extend across the continent. The boundaries of the Republic embrace to-day a greater extent of country than was contained within the Roman Empire in the days of its greatest extent, or within the empire of Alexander when he was said to have conquered the world.
Sir, I cannot believe that this mad and insane attempt to break up such a Government is to succeed. If my voice could reach them, I would call upon my Southern brethren to pause, to reflect, to consider if this Republican party has yet done them any wrong. What complaints have they to make against us? We have never wielded the power of Government—not for a day. Have you of the South suffered any wrong at the hands of the Federal Government? If you have, you inflicted it yourselves. We have not done it. Is it the apprehension that you are going to suffer wrong at our hands? We tell you that we intend no such thing. Will you, then, break up such a government as this, on the apprehension that we are all hypocrites and deceivers, and do not mean what we say? Wait, I beseech you, until the Government is put into operation under this new administration; wait until you hear the inaugural from the President-elect; and, I doubt not, it will breathe as well a spirit of conciliation and kindness towards the South as towards the North. While I trust it will disclose a resolute purpose to maintain the Government, I doubt not it will also declare, in unequivocal terms, that no encroachments shall be made upon the constitutional rights of any state while he who delivers it remains in power.