side, and a herd of slaves and cowards on the other. That is it, sir, nothing more; nothing less." But rather than such base surrender he chose the latter, "let it come in any form or in any shape." He expressed, too, the additional opinion that, if there were those who were looking for further concessions from the North, "they miscalculate and mistake." Admitting every constitutional obligation in the matter of the rendition of fugitive slaves, he quoted Mr. Toombs's previous admission that the general government was faithfully performing all its functions in relation to the slave States, and contended that the sum of all the aggressions of the North upon the South was infinitely outweighed by those committed by the South upon the North. He expressed the fullest conviction that the State he represented would "stand to-day and forever fully acquit of any charge of infraction of the Constitution, or any of its provisions, be they onerous or otherwise." He cloquently alluded to the great experiment of a republic which they were then trying, which it took Rome six hundred years to try, and on which they were " just at the beginning." "At the very hour," he said, "that the States of Italy, taught by the bitter experience of centuries, are seeking by a consolidated constitutional government to come together and unite their energies for liberty, for independence, for progress, if we, untaught by all the past, reckless of the present, and blind to the future, should madly dash ourselves upon this dark ocean, whose shores no eye of prophecy or faith can discern, we shall present a sad spectacle to the world." But general debate and the miscellaneous remarks that would naturally be made in such a spontaneous discussion of the President's message were not all that the stern and threatening exigencies of the hour demanded. Something more positive and practical must be done. Measures must be devised, if possible, to check the disorganizing and disintegrating tendencies that were menacing the very existence and longer continuance of the body politic. Something must be done to avert the impending blow. The wisdom of the wisest was needed, the mutual conference and comparison of views of the most experienced and sagacious must be called into requisi tion, and the subject must be removed from the excitement and publicity of the Senate and the House to the quiet and retirement of the committee-room. Accordingly, on the very day of the delivery of the President's message, a motion was made in the House for the appointment of a special committee to which it should be referred. The motion was adopted with very little debate. A similar motion was made in the Senate, which led to longer debate, but it was likewise adopted. CHAPTER III. SPECIAL COMMITTEES UPON THE CRISIS IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE. -- General bewilderment and uncertainty. - Powell's motion in the Senate. - Debate thereon. Preston King, Green. -Douglas's patriotic appeal. -Speech of Jefferson Davis. Response by Green. - Speeches by Sumner, Dixon, Brown, and Pugh. Speech of Mason. - Mr. Wade's sharp arraignment. — Appointment of the Committee of Thirteen. Boteler's motion. - Carried, and committee appointed. - Requests and debate thereon. Resolutions. Reports. Generally conservative. That of Washburn and Tappan. True to freedom. - Debate earnest and intense. Corwin. - Speeches of Millson, Clemens, Bingham, Lovejoy, McPherson, Sedgwick, Stevens, Ferry, Humphrey, Wilson. Conservative views of Charles Francis Adams. Southern advocates of Union. — Maynard, Davis, Hamilton. — Voting. — Passage. — Senate. Debate. Mason's substitute.-Speeches of Chandler, Crittenden, Trumbull, Wigfall, Wilson, and Wade. - THERE can be no intelligent and appreciative reading of the opening debates of the session now under review without careful note of the general bewilderment and feeling of uncertainty that prevailed. While men were measurably clear in their own minds respecting the thing desired, they were very much at loss as to the best, or even possible, way of securing it. Whether occupying extreme or intermediate grounds, the wisest and most astute could only approximate conclusions on which they could with confidence rely. Both the friends and enemies of the government, being ignorant of the purposes and plans of each other, and much more of the Divine purpose and plan involved in the mighty events through which they were passing and toward which they were looking, their own were necessarily inchoate, tentative, and incomplete. Both houses had appointed special committees, and their reports became the subjects of debate and action. Though the House moved first, and its report became the basis of the final action of Congress, some account of the report of the Senate's committee and its consideration is an essential part of a history of the session. On the 10th Lazarus W. Powell of Kentucky introduced a resolution that so much of the President's message as relates to the present agitated and distracted condition of the country, and to grievances between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States be referred to a committee of thirteen members; and that said committee be instructed to inquire into the present condition of the country, and report by bill or otherwise." It became the subject of a long debate, and was not adopted until the 18th. The discussion, however, necessarily revealed at once the sentiments and lines of thought, the wishes and purposes of the different sections and schools at that great crisis. The mover purposely refrained, he said, from any consideration of the "causes" of "the unfortunate state of affairs," only seeking "to restore unity, quiet, and security to a distracted and divided people." Preston King of New York expressed his belief that the Republic would go "safely through the crisis," and his doubt of the necessity of "raising this committee at all"; but if there was 66 a fitness in it," he favored a full and free inquiry upon the various subjects proposed. James S. Green of Missouri avowed his purpose to vote for the committee, because in his esteem it was important to "use every effort not to precipitately hurry over the precipice and fall into the yawning gulf, without an effort to reason together, to pause a moment to reflect and see if something may not be done." Intimating that he had grave doubts as to the value of any amendments of the Constitution, he expressed the conviction that they were "not worth a straw," so long as a vitiated and corrupted state of public sentiment prevails, North and South." Saying that there were but two modes of government, by "common consent"" and by "physical force," he proposed a resolution " for establishing an armed police force at all necessary points along the line separating the slaveholding from the non-slaveholding States, to prevent the invasion of one State by citizens of another, and also for the efficient execution of the fugitive slave laws." Referring to the raids into Missouri, and to that of John Brown into Virginia, he contended that it was not enough to punish invaders, the government should "prevent invasion," as also "the abduction of slaves." On the subject of the required rendition of fugitives he quoted largely from "distinguished writers and jurists on the subject" to establish the constitutionality of such rendition. Lafayette S. Foster of Connecticut, having intimated his readiness to support the proposition, the more readily because it came from the dominant party, Stephen S. Douglas of Illinois, expressed his regret at hearing any allusion to party politics. He said he was willing to "act with any party and with any individual of any party" for the preservation of the Constitution and the Union. Professing himself to be as good a party man as any man living, he said, "I do not desire to hear the word party, or to listen to any party appeal, while we are considering and discussing the questions on which the fate of the country now hangs." Jefferson Davis, whose prominence and subsequent leadership in the secession movement invested his words with special significance, spoke briefly. "Mr. President," he said, "if the political firmament seemed to me dark before, there has been little in the discussion this morning to cheer or illumine it." Alluding to what he stigmatized the "quack nostrums” which had been proposed, he indicated his conviction that "men must look more deeply, must rise to a higher altitude" if they would relieve the evils which disturb the land and threaten its destruction. "The diagnosis of the disease," he said, "must first be stated before we are prepared to prescribe." Enunciating the doctrines of State rights, inveighing against consolidation, and praising the form and even the past administration of the government as of unrivalled excellence, he dwelt with all the force of the most intense expressions upon the utter inadequacy of any mere enactments of law, or the adoption of any mere amendments of the Constitution. The trouble lay deeper, he said, in the feelings of the people, in "sectional hostility," which had been substituted "for the fraternity in which the government was founded. . . . . Then, where is the remedy? the question may be asked. In the hearts of the people, is the ready reply." It was "rooted in ... |