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SPEECH 
 
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 HON. GEORGE W. SUMMERS, 
 
 OK 
 
 FEDERAL RELATIONS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 VIRGINIA CONVENTION, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 MARCH 11, 1861. 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE WHIG BOOK AND JOB OFPICB. 
 
 1861. 
 
SPEECH. 
 
 Mr. George W. Summers, of Kanawha, having obtained the 
 floor, addressed the Convention, as follows : 
 
 Mr. President, if there is nothing now before the Convention 
 claiming precedence in the order of business, I will move that 
 the Message of the Governor of the Commonwealth, communi- 
 cating the report of the Commissioners to the late Peace Con- 
 ference at Washington, which was laid on the table a few days 
 since, be now taken up. If that motion shall be successful, I 
 propose to follow it with a motion to refer the message and report 
 to the Committee on Federal Relations, and, with the consent of 
 the Convention, to submit some remarks in support of that mo- 
 tion. I move, in the first place, that the message and report be 
 taken up. 
 
 The motion was agreed to. 
 
 Mr. Simmers continued : — Mr. President, it was my purpose, 
 some days since, to have submitted a motion for the reference 
 of this report, but 1 have had no opportunity of doing so. I 
 learned that I could not effect my purpose, unless by a previous 
 motion to lay on the table the resolution offered by the gentle- 
 man from Chesterfield, (Mr. Cox,) and the pending amend- 
 ments to his proposition, a course which I did not feel at liberty 
 to adopt. I think it is due to the Convention and to the Com- 
 mittee, that the earliest possible opportunity for the consideration 
 of this report shall be had, and that the views of the Committee 
 upon it shall be presented to the Convention. Having been one 
 of the Commissioners sent by Virginia to the Peace Conference, 
 which seems to have become the name applied to the convoca- 
 tion of States lately held in Washington, and having had the 
 misfortune to differ on some points with my most respected and 
 esteemed colleagues, or a portion of them, I hope it will not be 
 considered out of place if I avail myself of this occasion to pre- 
 sent, briefly as I may, the considerations and views which in- 
 duced me to sustain the measure adopted by that Coiiference. 
 
 I remark, however, in the first place, that there were but very 
 few votes taken upon any of the propositions offered in the Con- 
 
ference upon which there was any diversity of opinion enter- 
 tained between the Commissioners from Virginia. According 
 to my recollection the first section of the adjustment agreed on, 
 in regard to the Territorial question, presented the only occasion 
 when there was any dissenting opinion entered on the journal 
 by a portion of the Commissioners from this State. 
 
 Ex-President Tyler — Except in regard to the second section, 
 upon which I raised my own dissenting voice. 
 
 Mr. Summers resumed. 1 beg pardon. I had forgotten that 
 the distinguished gentleman from Charles City, (Ex-President 
 Tyler,) my respected and venerable colleague in this commis- 
 sion, had indicated his dissent upon the second section, which 
 second section, however, received the votes of the other four 
 Commissioners from Virginia. 
 
 This adjustment, Mr. President, is the result of a procedure 
 instituted by the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, de- 
 siring, with the most patriotic motives, to make an earnest effort 
 for a settlement of the difficult and threatening questions now 
 dividing the country. I do not propose to go into details in re- 
 gard to the votings in the Conference. But I propose to ad- 
 dress myself for a short time to the adjustment itself, remarking, 
 however, in advance, that we met, in the Conference, Commis- 
 sioners from twenty-one States of this Union — seven of them 
 slaveholding States and fourteen non-slaveholding States — and 
 that while there was, to some extent, an exhibition of a spirit 
 and purpose adverse to the views of the Southern States and 
 the Commissioners from Virginia, yet, as a general proposition, 
 I was gratified to find marked indications of a spirit of fraternity 
 - — a general desire for harmony and tranquility, and an anxious 
 desire for the restoration and perpetuity of our Union. This, es- 
 pecially, manifested itself, I will take occasion to say, on the part 
 of the Commissioners representing the border non-slaveholding 
 States. Going beyond that line, I cannot permit myself to omit 
 mentioning that the State of Rhode Island was found, through- 
 out all the proceedings, in entire harmony with the wishes and 
 purposes of those of the Southern States, and active in making 
 effort for a settlement and adjustment of these questions; that 
 the State of New Jersey, by her entire delegation, was with us 
 throughout, upon every proposition; that the Commonwealth of 
 Pennsylvania, by a large majority of her delegation, and the 
 State of Ohio, by a like majority of her Commissioners, exhi- 
 bited the same purpose and spirit; and it was a matter of the 
 deepest gratification and the most hopeful interest, that through- 
 out those labors and to their close there was manifested a grow- 
 ing spirit of brotherhood, a tightening of the bonds as it were, 
 between the border States on each side of the line, including 
 Illinois and Indiana. Indiana, it is true, did not vote upon the 
 
final adoption of the measures promulgated by the Conference. 
 The Commissioners from Indiana were instructed, by the reso- 
 lutions of the Legislature of that State, to bestow no final vote 
 upon any proposition, without first reporting it to the Legisla- 
 ture then in session, for its concurrence. Following out the di- 
 rection of her Legislature, in accordance with those restrictive 
 resolutions, Indiana did not cast her vote upon the final action of 
 the body. But Illinois did, and aided materially in their sup- 
 port, on the floor, in their advocacy. 
 
 Coming, then, Mr. President, to the result of these labors, 1 
 will first make a single remark as to a general objection to the 
 whole, so far, at least, as the Territorial question is concerned; 
 an objection which I have heard repeated, and which was 
 made in the Senate of the United States, and that is, that under 
 the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the 
 Dred Scott case, the South is entitled to participation in all the 
 Territories belonging to the people of the United States; that we 
 have equal right, from the South as from the North, to migrate 
 to any of the Territories belonging to the United States, carry- 
 ing with us any species of property known to the laws of the 
 State from which it may be carried; and that this right being 
 now secured and recognized by the decision referred to, this ad- 
 justment is an abandonment, on the part of the South, of the 
 right to that portion of the Territory on the North side of the 
 line of 36 deg. 30 min. 
 
 Mr. President, I have not been accustomed to regard the 
 South as being entirely satisfied to stand upon the Dred Scott 
 decision in this particular. Were that the fact, could we, in our 
 own judgment, with safety now and hereafter stand upon the 
 Dred Scott decision, awarding equal right to the people of every 
 portion of the Union in those Territories, there would be no oc- 
 casion to seek an adjustment at all, so far as the Territorial ques- 
 tions are concerned. We all know, however, that in certain 
 quarters, that decision, beyond a given point, has not been re- 
 garded as of binding authority. We have been accustomed in 
 the South to apprehend that, by mutations in the composition of 
 the Court, that opinion may be changed; and I think I cannot 
 err in expressing it as the general conclusion of the Southern 
 mind, that a fair and equitable partition of the Territories would 
 be the most judicious mode of settling the question. 
 
 We went to Washington, Mr. President, under resolutions of 
 the General Assembly of Virginia, which declared that the plan 
 of adjustment proposed by the distinguished Senator from Ken- 
 tucky, Mr. Crittenden, would be satisfactory to the people of this 
 Commonwealth. 1 did not regard that declaration as intended 
 to present the scheme of adjustment referred to in the light of 
 an ultimatum. I do not know that any of us regarded ourselves 
 
6 
 
 as restricted to the Crittenden propositions, but that these were 
 indicated by the General Assembly as presenting one of the 
 modes of adjustment which would be satisfactory to the people 
 of Virginia, and that they were suggested as the basis of nego- 
 tiation at Washington. The adjustment arrived at by the Peace 
 Conference divides all the Territory belonging to the United 
 States by the line of 36 deg. and 30 min. of North latitude. If 
 it be an objection to this adjustment that it is a surrender of all 
 upon the North side of that line, it is equally an objection to the 
 Crittenden proposition which divides it by the same line. I ob- 
 serve that one of the distinguished Senators from Virginia in 
 the Senate of the United States made this objection; that it was 
 a surrender of the rights of the South on the North side of the 
 line of 36° 30'; and yet that same distinguished Senator himself 
 offered the first article of the Crittenden proposition as a substi- 
 tute for the first artiele of the adjustment at Washington, and so 
 far as the partition of the Territory by a fixed line is concerned 
 both are precisely alike. 
 
 Passing from that objection, and insisting that we might well 
 have thought ourselves justified in approving a fair partition of 
 the Territories by the plain directions of the resolutions of the 
 General Assembly under which we were commissioned, I beg 
 leave to submit some remarks upon the section itself. 
 
 * # # # #. # # # # $& 
 
 [Mr. Summers then proceeded to examine elaborately the vari- 
 ous amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Peace Con- 
 ference, and to show that these amendments covered every point 
 of controversy between the South and the North, connected 
 with the question of slavery, and would, if adopted, secure our 
 rights against all aggression, so far as they can be secured by 
 constitutional guarantees. 
 
 The entire speech has been published and extensively circu- 
 lated in the newspaper press. In order to lessen the size of the 
 pamphlet edition, this minute analysis of the several amend- 
 ments is here omitted.] 
 
 Now, sir, having, as T am very conscious, in an unsatisfactory 
 manner, examined the various sections of which this report is 
 composed, let me inquire what has been obtained ? Take that 
 report of your Commissioners as it is, and can it be denied that 
 a very great advance has been made in securing the guarantees 
 that were desired in regard to our rights under the Constitution? 
 The territorial question has been settled and adjusted by the 
 first section. The territories are divided between North and 
 South, and equality of right secured and perpetuated. I do not 
 intend to add to the remarks submitted yesterday upon that sec- 
 tion, further than to supply a mere omission which, at the time, 
 did not occur to my mind, and it is this: to remind the Conven- 
 
tion that the Territory of Arizona, by an act of Congress has 
 been attached to and made part and parcel of the Territory of 
 New Mexico. So that when we speak of New Mexico, or the 
 New Mexican law — when we examine this first section, which 
 declares and fixes the condition of persons held to service on the 
 south side of the line of 36° 30^— we must remember, in that 
 connection, that all the territory that we now own south of that 
 line, is comprehended and united under one territorial govern- 
 ment; and embraced in the same code, so far as regards slavery. 
 I will not recapitulate the advantages possessed and the gua- 
 rantees presented by this adjustment. They are present to the 
 memory and comprehension of all. The denial of powers to 
 the General Government, contained in the third section, are of 
 the highest import and consequence to the States. The equa- 
 lity of" power, in the acquisition of territory, the concession of 
 perfect equality of power to the unequal and weaker section, is, 
 in my opinion, of itself worth infinitely more than all the effort 
 which has been made, a»d should be secured by the most dili- 
 gent endeavor, and wilh any reasonable delay in time which 
 may be necessary to procure it. 
 
 Then there are the provisions directed to the reclamation of 
 fugitive slaves, and compensation for those unreclaimed; and, 
 finally, the irrepealibility of those guarantees, and of certain pro- 
 visions in the Constitution of vital importance to the Southern 
 States. 
 
 These measures, taken together, meet fully every cause of ap- 
 prehension which has heretofore disturbed us, and close every 
 avenue of trouble and annoyance, which can be reached by 
 constitutional amendments. I do not hesitate to say that they 
 are miles in advance of any line prescribed by any party in 
 Virginia, six months ago. Sir, these amendments will remove 
 every difficulty by which we have been surrounded. They are 
 guarantees upon which the country may repose, and with entire 
 security. 
 
 But it is said that this adjustment has proved abortive— that 
 this effort at settlement, initiated by Virginia, has proved a fai- 
 lure—because of the non-submission by Congress of those 
 measures for adoption bv the States. 
 
 Mr. President, a word on that point : I am of opinion that 
 the people of Virginia will not hold us justified in taking any 
 action that is to determine her immediate position, by a failure 
 on the part of the late Congress to propound these measures of 
 the Peace Conference for the action of the several States. 
 
 Sir, what are the circumstances attending those measures, and 
 the failure of Congress to submit them? 
 
 The resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia which 
 looked to this proceeding, were passed on the 19th of January 
 
8 
 
 last. Those resolutions required that the Commissioners ap- 
 pointed by herself, and those invited from the other States, 
 should convene in the City of Washington on the 4th day of the 
 following February. Between the 19th of January and the 4th 
 of February, the propositions of Virginia were not sufficiently 
 thrown out, to be acted upon in time for all the States to meet 
 us on the day appointed, the 4th of February. The period was 
 short and the notice was insufficient. 
 
 On the 4th of February, the day appointed, Commissioners 
 from eleven States appeared, and the Conference was organized. 
 In the course of some days thereafter, twenty-one States were 
 found assembled — making a body of some one hundred and 
 thirty members, by their representatives. 
 
 Before this body was propounded various important and mate- 
 rial amendments of your fundamental law, to be discussed, con- 
 sidered and decided, and then to be communicated to Congress 
 with a request that they should be submitted to the States. Af- 
 ter a labor of some three weeks, this adjustment which I have 
 already reviewed, was agreed upon. Its adoption occurred 
 on Wednesday, the 27th of February, and I believe on the 
 evening of the same day it reached the halls of Congress. Now, 
 Mr. President, let it be borne in mind that there were but three 
 working days left of the congressional session — Thursday, Fri- 
 day and Saturday. Congress was to adjourn on Monday, the 
 4th day of March, when it expired. Remember, in connection 
 with this, that not merely was there this absence of time, but on 
 the other hand there was a fullness of business, as there always 
 is at the closing of Congress, rendering it almost impossible to 
 take up any new propositions. I need not remind the members 
 of this body how business in a deliberative assembly accumu- 
 lates during the session and settles down in heavy mass at the 
 close. Let it be borne in mind, also, that this proposition, thus 
 agreed upon at so late a period, came before Congress not only 
 at the close of the session, when every member was more or less 
 engaged with his own particular measures, devising them either 
 for the benefit of the country, or his own personal benefit and 
 popularity, and struggling to give them precedence; but let it be 
 remembered further, that it came in at a time Avhen one admi- 
 nistration was about retiring from power and a new administra- 
 tion, under most peculiar circumstances, was about going into 
 power — that new administration, with a party discordant, to 
 some extent, and having seminal causes of its ultimate dissolu- 
 tion already beginning to manifest themselves. Let me call to 
 mind, also, that these propositions were propounded to a Con- 
 gress, not fresh from the people — elected two years ago and more 
 — not familiar with the public want and the popular sentiment as 
 it now is, changed and modified as the public sentiment must be 
 
9 
 
 by the unprecedented and startling events which have occurred 
 since their election. But, notwithstanding all these circum- 
 stances so adverse to a fair consideration of the subject, a mo- 
 tion to take up the proposed amendments in the House of Re- 
 presentatives, which could only be reached by a motion to sus- 
 pend the rules requiring a vote of two-thirds; I say a motion to 
 take up and consider received a large majority in its favor, and 
 though not a two-thirds vote, sufficient to suspend the rule, in- 
 dicated, under the circumstances, a willingness on the part of the 
 House of Representatives to take up and consider the proposition. 
 
 I need not recur to the fate of this measure in the Senate, but 
 I will say that it wont do to go home and tell the people of Vir- 
 ginia that these measures of the Peace Conference were not sub- 
 mitted because alone of opposition from a hostile party at the 
 North. These measures received the opposition, and encoun- 
 tered the hostility of Southern as well as of Northern Senators. 
 I mean not the slightest disrespect to any gentleman bearing a 
 representative character from this State, for whom I feel senti- 
 ments of personal kindness. I do not intend to designate gen- 
 tlemen by party epithets, but I will say, without meaning of- 
 fence to any, that these measures met their fate and received 
 their quietus in the Senate under the combined hostility and as- 
 sault of gentlemen of extreme opinion from both sections of the 
 country. 
 
 But, Mr. President, I would advert in this connection to some 
 facts tending still further to show that there is nothing to dis- 
 courage us; that we have not exhausted the remedies and expe- 
 dients which lie before us; but, on the contrary, that we are 
 invited by recent events to further efforts; that instead of per- 
 mitting ourselves to despair of an honorable settlement of all 
 these difficulties, there is really more ground for hope than at 
 any period before. The state of the public mind of the North 
 is more favorable to a harmonious settlement of sectional diffi- 
 culties than heretofore. There have been manifestations of this 
 more favorable proclivity, recently, which should not be over- 
 looked. 
 
 You are aware, sir, that the Congress which has just ad- 
 journed, constituted as it was, submitted by the constitutional 
 vote of two- thirds of each branch of that body, an amendment 
 to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids any 
 amendment hereafter, for the purpose of touching slavery in the 
 States, unless the same be approved and ratified by every State 
 in the Union. There, sir, is an amendment to the Constitution 
 closing up this source of apprehension, and making it impos- 
 sible for Congress, or any less number of the States than the 
 whole, slaveholding as well as non-slaveholding, to disturb this 
 great interest of the South. 
 
10 
 
 Our Constitution provides that when an amendment shall be 
 proposed in that mode, that it shall be submitted to the Legisla- 
 tures or to Conventions of the States, as Congress shall deter- 
 mine. I do not know whether the act of Congress, in this case, 
 provides that the amendment referred to shall be submitted to 
 Conventions, or to the Legislatures; but, if it is to be submitted 
 to Conventions, and this amendment shall find its way here, 
 during the sitting of this body, is there any member who will 
 not accept it and vote for it? All will be anxious to place in the 
 Constitution a guaranty declarative of the inviolability of those 
 rights in the Southern States. 
 
 Now, sir, under these circumstances, is it to be supposed by 
 any man in this assembly, that the people of Virginia are to be 
 content with such an effort? Are the people of Virginia to be 
 made to say, that all constitutional remedies and all honorable 
 expedients have been resorted to and exhausted, and that there 
 is no relief, that they will wait no more — that the day has come 
 and the die is cast ? No, Mr. President, whatever may be the 
 opinion of gentlemen here, believe me, sir, that the constituent 
 body are not prepared to utter that sentiment and pronounce 
 that ju.lgment. 
 
 Sir, I undertake to say, that there never has been a period so 
 propitious for a procurement of all the just rights of Virginia 
 and of her sister Southern States as tshe present. I say that so 
 far from being discouraged by anything that has occurred in the 
 Peace Conference or out of it, I am prepared to declare as my 
 own personal opinion, that never at any past period has there 
 been so favorable an opportunity and so inviting afield for effort 
 to settle the"se questions, and with a prospect so encouraging of 
 the best results, as the present period. 
 
 Sir, when, at any period, was the institution of slavery so 
 fully and thoroughly understood as now? It has been exa- 
 mined in all its relations, social, moral and political. The politi- 
 cal arguments, the economical views and the social and moral 
 aspects of the institution have all been explored, and I under- 
 take to say that the institution of African slavery has at this 
 moment, North and South, more enlightened support and a 
 larger number of friends than at any past period. We have 
 them in the North, and daily increasing in numerical strength. 
 There has been a waking up in the Northern mind on this 
 subject. They have not only looked into it as connected with 
 the preservation of the Union, but as a thing in the abstract. 
 And how many thousands of them now believe that this insti- 
 tution is not only not sinful, but that it is expedient. They n) 
 longer look upon slavery in the South as adverse to their 
 interests. In my own opinion, the two systems of free anl 
 slave labor not only are without any necessary conflict — are not 
 
11 
 
 only entirely free of all irrepressible antagonism— but they are 
 mutually necessary to each other, and reciprocally beneficial. I 
 state, as a fact declared to myself personally, by members of the 
 "Peace Conference" from extreme States of the North, and who 
 were themselves found voting against these amendments, that if 
 submitted to the people of their States, or if submitted to con- 
 ventions of the people of these States, they would find accep- 
 tance bv large majorities. 
 
 Sir, I have before me a series of resolutions passed by con- 
 gress, which were furnished me by a member of Congress, with 
 his own marginal notes upon them as they were passed, riie 
 adjournment of Congress is so recent that we have not yet been 
 furnished with the' proceedings of the last session, and therefore 
 I am not able to speak authoritatively from any examination of 
 the resolutions myself as to their passage through both houses 
 of Congress, but 1 conclude from the annotations that they have 
 passed both branches of the General Government. The gentle- 
 man who sent me these resolutions, a member of Congress from 
 our own State, has marked those which were "passed and 
 those which were " not voted on." I can say with certainty 
 that these resolutions passed the House of Representatives, 
 which serves the only purpose I have in referring to them, that 
 it is the present tendency of the public mind to remove all causes 
 of irritation, and to observe constitutional duties and obligations, 
 and as furnishing encouragement to look forward to a fair and 
 just settlement of all these perplexing questions. 1 will read a 
 portion of the resolutions which are marked " passed. 
 
 "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
 the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all 
 attempts on the part of the Legislatures of any of the States to 
 obstruct or hinder the recovery and surrender of fugitives trom 
 service or labor are in derogation of the Constitution of i the 
 United States, inconsistent with the comity and good neighbor- 
 hood that should prevail among the several States, and danger- 
 ous to the peace of the Union. 
 
 "Resolved, That the several States be respectfully requested 
 to cause their statutes to be revised, with a view to ascertain it 
 any of them are in conflict with or tend to embarrass or hinder 
 the execution of the laws of the United States, made in pursu- 
 ance of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, for the delivery up of persons held to 
 labor by the laws of any State and escaping therefrom; and the 
 Senate 'and House of Representatives earnestly request that all 
 enactments having such tendency be forthwith repealed, as re- 
 quired by a just sense of constitutional obligations, and by a 
 due regard for the peace of the Republic; and the President oi 
 the United States is requested to communicate these resolutions 
 
12 
 
 to the several States, with a request that they will lay the same 
 before the Legislatures thereof respectively. 
 
 "Resolved, That we recognize slavery as now existing in 
 fifteen of the United States by the usages and laws of those 
 States; and we recognize no authority, legal or otherwise, out- 
 side of a State where it so exists, to interfere with slaves or 
 slavery in Bubh States, in disregard of the rights of their owners 
 or the peace of society. 
 
 "Resolved, That we recognize the justice and propriety of a 
 faithful execution of the Constitution, and laws made in pursu- 
 ance thereof, on the subject of fugitive slaves, or fugitives from 
 service or labor, and discountenance all mobs or hindrances to 
 the execution of such laws, and that citizens of each State shall 
 be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the 
 several States. 
 
 "Resolved, That we recognize no such conflicting elements 
 in its composition, or sufficient cause from any source, for a 
 dissolution of this Government; that we were not sent here to 
 destroy, but to sustain and harmonize the institutions of the 
 country, and to see that equal justice is done to all parts of the 
 same; and finally to perpetuate its existence on terms of equality 
 and justice to all the Slates. 
 
 "Resolved, That each State be also respectfully requested to 
 enact such laws as will prevent and punish any attempt, 
 whatever, in such State, to organize or set on foot the lawless 
 invasion of any other States or Territory. " 
 
 You are aware, Mr. President, that we now have a constitu- 
 tional provision that fugitives from justice shall be demanded by 
 the Executive of the State from which the offenders shall flee, 
 and shall be rendered up, &c. That constitutional provision, 
 while it requires that the claim for surrender shall be made by 
 the Executive of the State from which the party flees, does not 
 provide upon what State authority the demand shall be made. 
 The custom and usage from the foundation of the Government, 
 I believe, has been, in cases of that charcter, for the Executive 
 of one State to make the demand upon the Executive of the 
 other. I am aware that many instances have occurred in which 
 difficulties have arisen upon demands of this sort being made — 
 some from our own State— where the Executive of the State 
 upon whom the demand has been made, undertook to decide for 
 himself whether the offence charged was an offence recognized 
 by the law of the State in which the party had sought refuge. 
 One of the men concerned in the Harper's Ferry insurrection 
 was demanded, I believe, of the Governor of Ohio, and not sur- 
 rendered. And there is the recent case in which a demand was 
 made by Kentucky upon the State of Ohio for a party charged 
 with a criminal offence fleeing into that State; and I believe I 
 
13 
 
 am very well warranted in saying that the act, to which I am 
 about to refer, grew out of this very Ohio and Kentucky case. 
 The Governor of Kentucky, perhaps, by the direction of the 
 Legislature, as to that I am not positive, appointed counsel to 
 ask of the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, 
 a mandamus on the Governor of Ohio for the surrender of this 
 fugitive from justice. This case served to draw the public mind 
 to the question, and to the want of a proper law on the subject. 
 That case has not yet been disposed of by the Supreme Court. 
 But the opinion of "the profession, and which, I have no doubt, 
 will be proved correct by the decision of the Court, is, that the 
 Court has no power to proceed against the Executive of a State 
 by way of mandamus. If the demand were made on the Judi- 
 cial branch of the Government, then, for refusal to act, or acting 
 erroneously, the higher Court could give relief. 
 
 Well, to" meet such cases, the act which I am about to read, 
 was passed by the House of Representatives at its late session — 
 I am not prepared to say certainly whether it passed the Senate. 
 
 11 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America in Congress asse?nbled. That 
 every person charged, by indictment or other satisfactory evi- 
 dence, in any State, with treason, felony, or other crime, com- 
 mitted within the jurisdiction of such State, who shall Hee or 
 shall have fled from justice and be found in another State, shall, 
 on the demand of the Executive authority of the State from 
 which he fled upon the District Judge of the United States of 
 the district in which he may be found, be arrested and brought 
 before such judge, who, on being satisfied that he is the person 
 charged, and that he was within the jurisdiction of such State 
 at the time such crime was committed, of which sucli charge 
 shall be prima facie evidence, shall deliver him up to be re- 
 moved to the State having jurisdiction of the crime; and if any 
 question of law shall arise during such examination, it may be 
 taken on exceptions by writ of error to the Circuit Court. " 
 
 Now, Mr. President, you see it is here provided that, when a 
 person charged with treason, felony or other crime, shall escape 
 from any State, that the demand shall be made by the Governor 
 of tho State upon the District Judge, instead of the Executive. 
 If he fails to do his duty, the mandamus lies, as also the writ of 
 error. 
 
 But, again, the Judge is cut off from inquiring into the na- 
 ture of \he offence. The whole scope of his inquiry is, 
 whether the party arrested and brought before him, is the person 
 charged; and that he was within the jurisdiction of the State 
 demanding him, at the time the offence was committed, and of 
 these facts the charge itself is to be prima facie evidence, thus 
 throwing the burthen of disproving them on the offender. 
 
14 
 
 This law would have relieved us of the difficulties that oc- 
 curred in the Harper's Ferry case, the Kentucky case, and a 
 large class of cases of similar character. I adduce it as another 
 practical proof, to show the tendency of the public mind. I 
 mention it to show that there is nothing in the public sentiment 
 to discourage, nothing to make us halt in our exertions; but on 
 the other hand, that there is everything to animate and encour- 
 age us in the great work of repairing and perpetuating the Union 
 and the Constitution. 
 
 Mr. President, it has been urged that neither the Peace Con- 
 ference adjustment, the Crittenden project, or anything that we 
 were likely to obtain in the way of guarantees, will induce our 
 sister States of the South to return to the Union, and that Vir- 
 ginia ought to be content with nothing short of what will satisfy 
 and restore them. Mr. President, we have duties to perform to, 
 and for ourselves. In the performance of those duties I am not 
 unmindful of the desire of the country, of my own ardent per- 
 sonal desire for the restoration of those States to their former 
 place in the Union. But, sir, I am here for one to declare my 
 opinion that, whatever in the way of guarantees, whatever set- 
 tlement of these vexed questions shall be found satisfactory to 
 the slave States still remaining in the Union; whatever shall be 
 found'acceptable to them and sufficient to secure their rights, 
 ought, a fortiori , to be acceptable to the seceded sister States of 
 the South. Sir, we have infinitely more interest in all the per- 
 plexing questions which have arisen connected with slavery, 
 than they have, or ever can possibly have. In regard to the fu- 
 gitive slave law, it is certain we are much more deeply interested 
 than they are — they lose exceedingly few slaves by escape, none 
 in comparison with the number lost by the border States. They 
 are hedged and surrounded by slave States, interposed between 
 them and the free States, so that their slaves cannot escape, ex- 
 cept in rare instances by vessels. 
 
 Again: What interest, compared with ours, have the cotton 
 States in the territorial question? Do they furnish any popula- 
 tion for the settlement of the Territories? Is there a man from 
 South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama, 
 who would leave the fertile fields of the South, to migrate with 
 his negroes into Arizona or New Mexico? What possible in- 
 ducement can exist for the removal of slave labor from the cot- 
 ton and sugar plantations of the Southern States, where it is so 
 profitable, to any of the Territories now owned by the United 
 States? Practically, the border States have more interest in the 
 territorial question than they can have. The slave migration to 
 Territories, so far as there is any, will be from the border States, 
 and not from the cotton States. 
 
 In all these questions, we have the larger interest. Nor am I 
 
15 
 
 prepared to admit that in their settlement they have any right to 
 claim a higher standard of honor, or nicer appreciation of right, 
 than ourselves. I will not anticipate that in the event the border 
 slave States shall obtain guarantees satisfactory to themselves, 
 that they will not prove equally satisfactory to the more Southern 
 States. Should these States refuse to return upon a proper settle- 
 ment of our difficulties, such a settlement as shall be satisfactory 
 to Virginia, and the other slave States yet remaining in the 
 Union, such refusal would furnish strong evidence that they left 
 us, not on the ground of the slavery issues and difficulties, but 
 for other causes, and upon a foregone conclusion. I delight, as 
 much as any one, to anticipate the hour when these States shall 
 come back to us. An apprehension was expressed from a cer- 
 tain quarter, in the discussions at Washington, that the seceded 
 States might, while out of the Union, acquire by treaty, or 
 otherwise, large portions of Mexico, and that there might be 
 difficulty in receiving them with their new accessions. I took 
 occasion then to repel the ungenerous imputation, and expressed 
 the opinion that let these States come back when they would, 
 and whether they should return as the prodigal son came, bereft 
 of all the fortune that he carried from his home, or come back 
 laden with empires and kingdoms for their dowry, they would 
 be received with open arms and joyous hearts by the American 
 people. And so they will be — and they will come. We belong 
 to the same race. We cannot long be separated. There is at 
 this moment a large amount of conservative sentiment in every 
 one of these States, more or less repressed for the moment. 
 There is a love of the old Union, lingering in many hearts. 
 Eyes are yet turned with pride and admiration to the stars and 
 stripes — to the flag which has been borne so gallantly on many 
 a field, and which has floated in triumph on lake and ocean. 
 Settle and adjust these questions and relieve that pressure. 
 You will then see, sir, the old sentiment of loyalty to the Union 
 retoning itself. You will see that progress accelerated, and in 
 time, we cannot say within what time; time is the great healer 
 of wounds, whether mental, physical or political; time will give 
 the people control of the politicians and they will return — we 
 shall again be a united people. 
 
 Mr. President, in God's name, what are we to gain by chang- 
 ing our position? I am here as one of this family council. I 
 am here to speak my mind as a free man and as a representative 
 of free men ought to speak it, in kindness and brotherly love, 
 and at the same time with boldness and candor. We have been 
 brought here for communion and for consultation. We are here 
 deliberating upon the question whether we shall pass an ordi- 
 nance taking this old Commonwealth out of the Union or 
 
16 
 
 whether we shall make further efforts to restore and perpetuate 
 this Union. 
 
 What are we to gain by secession, what can we gain by sepa- 
 rate action on the part of this Commonwealth? In regard to 
 any one of the questions embraced in the whole scope of our 
 difficulties, what do we gain by such a step? What do 
 you gain on the territorial question? The entire abandon- 
 ment of all connection with an control over them. It is in- 
 teresting to our people now only as a question of right — more so 
 in that aspect than as a practical question of value; but as a 
 question of right I would settle it fairly, justly and forever. On 
 that question are you determined to lose everything? 
 
 On the question of our absconding slave population, what do 
 you again? You exchange the constitutional provision which 
 requires the rendition of fugitives from service, the laws of 
 Congress to enforce it, and the amendment now proposed for the 
 payment in full of unreclaimed and lost slaves — you exchange 
 all these provisions and guarantees securing you in your rights, 
 for the mere chance of treaty stipulations, after we shall have 
 divided on the slave line, and after sovereign and independent 
 nations shall have taken the place of confederated States. How 
 are you to treat with them upon the question,? Can you treat 
 with England? It was tried in the Webster-Ashburton treaty. 
 Have you ever been able to open to the English mind the con- 
 ception of an arrangement for the rendition of fugitives from 
 Canada? Not at all. And across the Ohio rjver you would 
 substitute for these confederated States, not Canada merely, but 
 States once in communion with us thrown off and converted 
 possibly into worse than a hostile Canda. That is what you 
 would gain upon the fugitive slave law. And what do you gain 
 in any particular as to this institution, in which we are so much 
 concerned — the institution of slavery, which is, and ought to 
 be, a great and vital interest in this Commonwealth — an institu- 
 tion which, I am prepared to say, is founded not only in social 
 and economical expediency, but is the best of all positions for 
 the African himself — an institution morally, socially and politi- 
 cally right — what do you gain for that institution, I say, by sun- 
 dering this connection ? Instead of a Commonwealth in the 
 centre *of a great confederacy, made up of slaveholding and 
 non-slaveholding States, with constitutional and statutory pro- 
 visions for your safety and security, you exchange that position 
 for a border attitude along the line of States, no longer con- 
 nected with you, not participating in that institution, but be- 
 coming possibly, by your own act, more hostile to it than ever. 
 You abandon all the guarantees which you now have under the 
 Constitution, and all which are proposed to be added, for the 
 
17 
 
 uncertain chances of an arrangement between foreign govern- 
 ments. 
 
 Mr. President, 1 remarked awhile ago that it was better to pro- 
 tect slavery in Western Virginia than in New Mexico; better to 
 legislate for the encouragement of that institution upon your own 
 borders than elsewhere. If you do not afford such protection, 
 what is the condition of Western Virginia in regard to the insti- 
 tution of slavery? Do you not perceive that the institution at 
 once becomes worthless to us? In my region of the State, bor- 
 dering upon the Ohio river, can you hold slaves at all after sepa- 
 ration ? I come from a county which, by the census of 1S50 — the 
 census of 1860 1 have not yet seen — contained some 3,000 slaves. 
 I come from a region of country constituting — permit me to say in 
 passing — as lovely a portion of this green earth, as perhaps lies 
 within the limits of this Union — I mean the fertile and beautiful 
 valley watered by the Kanawha, abounding in all the material 
 resources of wealth, commerce and power. A country abound- 
 ing in agricultural, mineral and commercial facilities and mate- 
 rial. I come from the region of the great coal fields, the great 
 salt deposits, and the oil wells and mills now furnishing light 
 and lubrication for the whole land. Look at my neighbors of 
 the upper Kanawha, eighty miles north of me — a valley filled 
 with enterprise, with capital and adventure — rivaling in activity of 
 speculation and hope of fortune, the scenes of Pike's Peak a lew 
 years ago. Look, also, at the Wheeling region; its rich deposits 
 of coal and its extensive manufactories. Look at the region re- 
 presented in part by my friend from Monongalia, (Mr. Willey,) 
 watered by streams running to Pittsburg — the head springs of 
 the Ohio — his Pennsylvania neighbors within twelve miles of 
 his own residence, in the charming village of Morgan town. 
 What, I ask you, is to be the condition of this great portion of 
 the State. Starting from the mouth of the Sandy River, which 
 divides us from Kentucky, tracing a line by the Ohio to the up- 
 per end "of the Pan Handle, and then passing along the Penn- 
 sylvania boundary, you have about four hundred miles of free 
 State border. 
 
 Now, sir, as one of the citizens of this community, as a pro- 
 perty-holder in Western Virginia, I protest, for myself, and on 
 behalf of my constituents in like condition, against changing its 
 political and governmental relations. Give us peace; give us 
 guarantees such as are now offered and which we can get; in- 
 vite and encourage us to our coal mines, salt wells and iron fur- 
 naces — to the oil mills and oil springs — the work-shops and 
 manufactories — to the cultivation of our fertile fields, and the 
 care of our lowing herds — that is what we desire. Dismember 
 this Republic, and where will you place us? You cut off a large 
 mass of our labor, no longer to be retained among us, and sub- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 ject every product of our industry, whether of the mine, the 
 forest, the field or the shop, to the burdens of protective and pro- 
 hibitory tariffs, in the Union which we shall have left. The free 
 States contain some eighteen millions of inhabitants, and consti- 
 tute the chief market for all our surplus; they can place no tariff 
 on us under the Constitution; but, as a separate government, 
 would protect their own industry and their own productions, to 
 the injury and exclusion of ours. At the same time, by the ta- 
 riff act of the Southern Confederacy, recently passed, all pro- 
 visions for consumption are admitted, duty free; and, so far as 
 the Southern market is concerned, the cattle, flour, wheat, corn, 
 and other provisions supplied by Virginia, would be left to com- 
 petition with the great producing regions of the Western and the 
 North Western States. Are we to be placed in this predica- 
 ment? 
 
 These remarks, both as to slave labor and our surplus produc- 
 tions, are applicable to the whole State in greater or less degree. 
 Here is our northern border — the Potomac line — separated from 
 the free States only by the narrow interposition of Maryland. 
 Your whole sea cost is all to be opened up, and we are to be- 
 come, to use a homely phrase, the outside row in the corn field. 
 We are to protect slave property in States south of us, but to 
 Jose our own. So far from secession rendering the institution of 
 slavery more secure in Virginia, it will be the potent cause of 
 insecurity. Slave property cannot be retained in that position of 
 affairs; it will diminish instead of increase. We shall find this 
 diminution encroaching first upon the counties of the north-west, 
 then on the central west, compelling us to sell our slaves or 
 permit them gratuitously to run away, disabling us from holding 
 them and rendering them worthless; that border widening and 
 encroaching upon you in the centre, stretching to the east, 
 until at last, in all human probability, by such separation, Vir- 
 ginia herself in the course of time, perhaps not far distant, will 
 be placed in the attitude, if not of a non-slaveholding State, at 
 least slaveholding so partially as not to be regarded by her sister 
 States of the South as any better than a Yankee appendage. I 
 believe that the sundering and dismembering of the Union is 
 the signal not only of vast injury to the slave institutions of the 
 country, but possibly of its extinction in Virginia. God forbid 
 that such results should follow. I fear them — I point you to the 
 natural effects of causes. 
 
 But, Mr. President, not only are our most material interests to 
 be thus affected by this remedy of secession, but in other 
 aspects the consequences are not less worthy of consideration. 
 
 Europe is divided into numerous separate nationalities, bound- 
 ing each other. Frowning fortresses, bastions, embrasures and 
 all the preparations and muniments of Avar and standing armies 
 
19 
 
 constitute a necessity of the European system. Now, in the 
 United States we have heretofore had no occasion for apprehen- 
 sion from internal disasters and outbreaks. Our geographical 
 position at the same time, has given safety from invasion from 
 abroad. But, sir, when you shall divide this country by the 
 slave line — a line of 2,000 miles between the slave and the free 
 States — you at once perceive that you are immediately remitted 
 to the European status. The same causes which bring about 
 standing armies and preparations for defence and war there will 
 bring them about here. We have every reason to believe that 
 in five years time after a permanent dismemberment of this 
 Union there will be a standing army of at least 100,000 men on 
 each side of the line. It will be the only mode of safety for 
 either. It would only be the fear of each other that would keep 
 the peace. It is only that which keeps the peace in Europe 
 now; it would be only that which would keep the peace here. 
 As one section enlarged its army and navy, the other would find 
 it necessary to make a corresponding increase — precisely as you 
 find England and France watching each other ; and increasing 
 their military and naval forces pari passu. 
 
 I will not go into an examination of the expenditures neces- 
 sary to support and maintain the new government, with its army 
 and navy. That these would be vastly augmented none can 
 doubt. The increase of expense would be brought upon our 
 people, with diminished means and capacity, on their part, to 
 meet and discharge it. 
 
 I might advert to our constant liability, after separation, to 
 border raids and invasions; the worst population on either side 
 the line having it in their power to bring the two sections into 
 strife at any time. 
 
 I regard secession, then, so far from being a remedy for the 
 evils of which we complain, as an aggravation of them all, and 
 as introducing and fastening upon us, new mischiefs, of the 
 most injurious, if not fatal character. 
 
 Mr President, we talk about passing an Ordinance of Seces- 
 sion here, an ordinance for the immediate and separate secession 
 of Virginia, in the condition of the public mind of the people of 
 this State! Where would be the wisdom, the prudence of such 
 a measure, if there was a majority in this Convention favorable 
 to it? 
 
 With the known thought and sentiments of the people of Vir- 
 ginia, I cannot, believe that this Convention would, if it could, 
 pass an ordinance of secession, and send it out to be voted down 
 by a larger majority than that which registered itself in favor of 
 a reference of the action of this Convention to a vote of the peo- 
 ple, for ratification or rejection. The people of Virginia do not 
 intend to accept and ratify an ordinance of secession until every 
 
20 
 
 effort has been exhausted to avoid it; until Virginia has per- 
 formed her duty and her whole dnty to herself and to the people 
 of this country. If we pass this ordinance of secession before 
 the consummation and exhaustion of all those efforts, and the 
 performance of this whole duty, we shall send it forth only 
 to be overwhelmed by the waves of popular disapprobation and 
 indignation; to be buried so deep in the ocean that not even a 
 bubble will arise to the surface to point the place where it went 
 down. 
 
 Go on with your patriotic endeavors — make these efforts ho- 
 nestly, hopefully, fully and to the last, and when all has been ex- 
 hausted, and when the people of Virginia, as an enlightened and 
 considerate people as they are, shall be satisfied in their heart of 
 hearts, that there is no alternative, that we cannot and ought not 
 to remain longer with the States to which we are now connected, 
 then, Mr. President, and then only, the Commonwealth as a 
 Commonwealth ought to speak and act will be united from 
 centre to circumference — united from the Roanoke to the Poto- 
 mac, from the sea-shore to the Ohio. 
 
 Sir, I warn you — I warn you as a Virginian — I warn you as 
 a friend and brother, not to throw a fire-brand among the people 
 of this Commonwealth. I speak freely; I speak as one of this 
 family circle. I claim to have as large, as permanent, and as 
 abiding a love and interest in this Commonwealth as any here. 
 You shall not claim a higher niche for the glory and honor of 
 Virginia than I claim. I love her as a child ought to love a mo- 
 ther; I never entertained a sentiment at war with the loyalty of 
 a Virginian, or adverse to her peace, her interests or her glory. 
 If I know my own heart — man sometimes is mistaken in himself 
 — but if I know the sentiments of my own bosom, I would this 
 moment, for the peace and honor, safety and glory of this old 
 Commonwealth of ours, lay down this poor and worthless life as 
 a cheap sacrifice for such a good. 
 
 But I am here to demand and protect the rights of my people. 
 I came here to speak as a free man, to deliberate as such; aye, 
 and to deliberate and to speak boldly, uninfluenced by all and 
 every extreme of pressure whether from within or without. 
 
 When gentlemen talk of passing an ordinance of secession, 
 what do they mean ? Have gentlemen adverted to our position? 
 Have gentlemen, I say, adverted to our position and our sur- 
 roundings? You ask to take Virginia out of the Union by an 
 ordinance of immediate and separate secession. I am here, sir, 
 as one of her sons to protest against that course. Where is Vir- 
 ginia, and what are her duties? Gentlemen of the Convention, 
 bear with me for a moment while I refer to this subject. Where 
 are yon? Here lies Maryland in your lap — lying on your lap 
 for safety and protection. Maryland, within whose limits is 
 
21 
 
 situated the capital of this nation — Maryland has not even called 
 a convention or a legislature — which has yet made no move 
 towards a consideration of this question; and yet her fate, 
 instantly and forever, is to be settled by the movements of Vir- 
 ginia. You cannot make a move in the way of secession in 
 Virginia without precipitating Maryland. I know it; you can- 
 not do it. Maryland, connected to you by every tie that can 
 connect one State with another; by all our common rights and 
 interest in the Potomac and the Chesapeake — by her magnifi- 
 cent rail road, terminating at two points within your territory — 
 Wheeling and Parkersburg — traversing the whole extent" of 
 your Northern and North-western borders — will you go out by 
 separate State action without consulting Maryland, thereby pre- 
 cipitating her into the most painful and difficult position in 
 which a State can be placed, putting her into the hands of the 
 Federal Government with all the power of that Government 
 upon her. 
 
 But again, sir, where is the Old North State, the land of Na- 
 thaniel Macon, typical as he was of North Carolina: slow but 
 wise, hard to come up to the mark it may be, but firm and un- 
 appeasable when she does come — where is North Carolina? 
 
 V\ hy, Mr. President, if you pass an ordinance of secession, 
 you cannot get to the Southern Confederacy unless North Caro- 
 lina goes with you, for she lies between you and Georgia. 
 There is evidently no disposition on her part to secede. A ma- 
 jority of her votes have been cast against a Convention. She 
 refuses even to call a Convention to consider the question of 
 secession, resting calmly upon her dignity and upon her rights. 
 And then, what do you say of Tennessee — glorious Tennes- 
 see, daughter of North Carolina, which borders your territory 
 and receives from you the waters of the Clinch and the Holston"? 
 You know the character and sentiments of her people, true, 
 brave and loyal; the bravest of the brave, the truest of the true. 
 She has called no Convention, taken no measure or movement, 
 laying quietly, biding her time, ratifying by her vote in the 
 Peace Conference the acceptability," the entire acceptability of 
 that scheme and guaranty. 
 
 And then comes your noble and glorious daughter Kentucky, 
 the first-born of Virginia. I come from the Kentucky border 
 country. Indissolubly connected as we are with our Kentucky 
 friends on the other side of the Sandy River and with Western 
 Virginia, holding the same rights and the same interests in the 
 Ohio and the Mississippi. 
 
 Kentucky holds some six hundred miles of Ohio front, with 
 the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois all lying across the 
 stream, in full view of her. Do you mean to precipitate your- 
 selves out of the Union without considering or inquiring what 
 
22 
 
 effect that movement is to produce upon Kentucky? 13 o you 
 contemplate such a step without conferring with your other sis- 
 ters of the border, who are equally interested with you in the 
 result? Will you go out without consulting Maryland, North 
 Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky — all connected with us, hound 
 up in our fate, affected necessarily by our act of secession? Do 
 you mean to take a jump outside the magic circle which now 
 encloses us, without taking counsel with those whose fate is in- 
 timately connected with yours, and whose destiny for good or 
 evil would probably be consummated by your act? 
 
 Why, sir, we hear the argument advanced continually, that 
 whatever Virginia does, the other States will do. Mr. President, 
 have we come to this? Are we to assume before the world, and 
 put forth as our justification, the idea that Virginia can properly 
 go out of the Union in her present position, without arrange- 
 ment or consultation with her surrounding sisters, upon the the- 
 ory that so commanding is her attitude and her influence, that 
 these other States will be compelled to follow where she leads? 
 This is not an argument upon which Virginia can stand. It is 
 not worthy her ancient fame, or her yet unsullied justice and 
 magnanimity. 
 
 Sir, we are constantly expressing ourselves and in strong 
 terms against coercion. We are all against coercion. We are 
 pledging ourselves against the policy of coercion. Yes, sir, 
 and rightly; and yet, in the same breath, shall we ourselves 
 coerce? You will not let President Lincoln or the Federal 
 Government coerce any of the Southern States. You announce 
 yourselves as utterly determined to resist this policy, and yet 
 you take a course towards your sister States, that have not 
 offended you, who are relying upon you, who are hugged up, 
 as it were, in your arms and sitting upon your lap, which will 
 inevitably coerce them into a system which they would not 
 willingly adopt. You are forcing them to change their position, 
 and encounter all the perils of the change, whether they will or 
 no. By your own leap into the abyss, you are compelling those 
 States to follow, with a boast before hand, that they are obliged 
 to take the plunge if we do. 
 
 What is the difference between moral and physical coercion, 
 in the result which is to be brought about? What is the 
 difference between knocking a man in the river, by a blow, or 
 compelling him, by causes which you can control and which he 
 cannot escape, to jump in himself? Sir, the people of Virginia 
 will not tolerate such a policy towards the Slates I have referred 
 to. Here is Missouri, more distant from us, now in Convention. 
 Arkansas is now in Convention. Both these States will, in all 
 probability, propose and recommend a border slave State con- 
 ference. 
 
23 
 
 There is another State which J will not forget, for I have had 
 recent occasion to be renewedly impressed with admiration for 
 that little State. I will not forget the gallant, noble little Dela- 
 ware. With only some eighteen hundred slaves within her 
 borders, she is true and faithful to the rights of the South — as 
 true to the guarantees and obligations of the Constitution as her 
 proud soldiery were brave and intrepid in the days which tried 
 men's souls, and when, by their gallantry, they obtained the 
 subriqiiet of the "Blue Hen's Chicken." Is Delaware to be 
 consulted, or left to take care of herself? Will Virginia, the 
 elder sister, in a moment of madness, break away from the re- 
 maining members of the family without consulting their wishes, 
 without taking leave, or even telling them where she is going? 
 No. sir; when the people of Virginia shall ultimately be brought 
 to decide what shall he necessary for them, they will do so with 
 a due regard to the interests of those States which are so inti- 
 mately connected with her in interest and sympathy. 
 
 Sir, go home to your constituents, after having passed an ordi- 
 nance of secession, and tell them that you have passed it be- 
 cause you tried to get guarantees and foiled. They will ask you 
 what trial and effort has been made? Why, we obtained in the 
 l£ Peace Conference" guarantees on ail the points of contro- 
 versy, but Congress refused to submit them as amendments to 
 the Constitution, to be acted upon in the States and incorpo- 
 rated into that instrument, and the 4th of March is passed, and 
 we thought we would not stay under Lincoln's administration. 
 
 Do you suppose the people would accept and approve your re- 
 port and ratify that ordinance of secession? No, they would tell 
 you that you had not acted upon the high and patriotic policy 
 purs wed by your fathers. Our fathers did not find that a great 
 constitutional government could be built up in a day. Nor is a 
 broken government to be repaired and reconstructed in a day. 
 The fathers of the republic depended on patient, persevering, 
 honest, patriotic labor to the last, and with God's blessing upon 
 these labors, success crowned their endeavors. 
 
 I tell you, that our people will require a like honest and faith- 
 ful effort — persistent assiduous effort. Make up and present to 
 the people the issue, whether the Union is to be dissolved, if the 
 guarantees proposed can be obtained, and one mighty negative 
 would be heard throughout the Commonwealth. These guar- 
 antees can and will be obtained, and let the politicians say as 
 they please of them, they are ample, and cover every point of 
 controversy. 
 
 But we are told that something must be done immediately — 
 that we have a new administration — we don't know what mis- 
 chief that administration may perpetrate, and that we must re- 
 sume our original rights. 
 
24 
 
 Mr. President, I confess, for one, that, as a Virginian, I am 
 not willing to see her driven and impelled into any course, 
 which otherwise she ought not to take, by fear of any man or 
 any set of men. She is not to be dragooned, either by fear of 
 the Federal Government or affection for the Confederated States. 
 
 We are asked if we are willing to submit to Mr. Lincoln. 
 'We submit to the Constitution and the law, but not to tyranny 
 and oppression — when these come we shall be ready for rebel- 
 lion and revolution. But Mr. Lincoln is the submissionist, not 
 us. He is, at this moment, submitting to the noble position of 
 the border States. He is submitting to the exigencies of his 
 own position. 
 
 I have nothing to say of the Inaugural Address, which has 
 been so much commented on. My course cannot be governed 
 by any expression of opinion, or any programme of measures, 
 which must depend for their execution on the question of prac- 
 ticability, and must vary with the circumstances of the hour. I 
 shall be but little moved by newspaper paragraphs or telegra- 
 phic despatches, those swift- winged messengers of sensation and 
 alarm. I think we should act coolly and calmly, and only upon 
 full information of the facts, on which our action is to be predi- 
 cated. 
 
 We are to be alarmed by the declaration of the President that 
 it is his duty to hold, possess and occupy the forts. That means 
 war, it is said. 
 
 Why, Mr. President, I think that we ought to judge of every 
 one by rules of common sense and by the rules of human expe- 
 rience, by the same modes of consideration that we judge of our- 
 selves. Why should we construe this into the announcement 
 of a purpose to re-take forts which have been captured -fey the 
 seceded States, or any of them, and are now in their possession? 
 In the first place, there is no cause for re- taking them. They are 
 not needed for purposes of national defence at all, because they 
 are in States that have seceded. There is, therefore, no neces- 
 sity for retaking them. There is no motive to impel the admin- 
 istration to resort to force which will bring on a conflict between 
 those seceded States and the General Government. Then, 
 again, he has no means of re-taking them even if he desired. 
 He can only re-take them by a force which he has not the power 
 to raise. He has only the little standing army belonging to the 
 country, that is scattered over your entire frontier, West and 
 South-west, and utterly incapable of taking these fortified places 
 or any of them out of the hands of the seceded States. 
 
 Well, now, as to the collection of the revenue. I am not 
 aware of die existence of any law whatever that authorizes the 
 collection of the revenue for the purposes of the Government 
 anywhere, except at the custom-house, and in the ports of 
 
25 
 
 entry. We all know that in General Jackson's time it was 
 found necessary to enact a law for the purpose of conferring this 
 power. We know that that law by its own terms expired in 
 two years after the period of its enactment. We know that 
 during the session of this last Congress there was a bill pending 
 to confer that power in the present instance. We know it did 
 not pass, and there was no progress made towards its enactment 
 after the arrival of the new President in Washington. We 
 know farther, that Mr. Buchanan some time ago nominated a 
 gentleman from Pennsylvania to act as collector of customs at 
 Charleston, and that that nomination was never acted upon by 
 the Senate. I am then, Mr. President, warranted in saying 
 that there is no legal instrumentality, at this time, which enables 
 the Government to collect revenue, except the law of Congress 
 authorizing its collection at the custom-houses in the ports of 
 entry. 
 
 The idea of collecting it outside the harbor and in an armed 
 ship, even if that were an authorized lawful mode of collection, 
 I am convinced would be — especially when connected with our 
 warehousing system — utterly deficient and impracticable. You 
 are aware, Sir. President, that under the present warehousing 
 system, goods can remain three years without requiring the 
 duty to be paid upon them, unless they be withdrawn. Where 
 is the power to blockade the port? Why, the power to blockade 
 is the power to declare war, and the President is not vested with 
 the power to declare war. Hence, I say, Mr. Lincoln has not 
 the ability, if he had the inclination, to constrain the collection 
 of revenue, without further legislation by Congress. 
 
 I do not propose to discuss the question of the right of seces- 
 sion, about which we all have opinions of our own. I will not 
 go into that argument now; it is not necessary, it is not op- 
 portune. I think that, in whatever aspect that right may be re- 
 garded, we are bound to accept secession as an existing fact. 
 Seven States have declared themselves out of this Union — have 
 formed a new confederacy, and are now performing the func- 
 tions of an independent government. Now, sir, I should say it 
 is a narrow, unphilosophical statesmanship that would regard 
 the movement of. those Southern States, acting as organized 
 commonwealths, and by conventional decrees and ordinances, 
 in the light of partial insurrectionary movements in opposition to 
 State authority. Who would compare the secession of entire 
 States by conventional authority, with such a movement as the 
 Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania, or Shay's Rebellion in 
 Massachusetts? 
 
 We are living in a new era. What has happened is entirely 
 unprecedented. We have no example for it in the history of 
 the world. It is a thing the founders of our Government never 
 
26 
 
 anticipated. They made no provision for a dissolution or de- 
 struction of the Government. It has come upon us and we 
 must meet the event as best we may. 
 
 And what is that best ? I say, Mr. President, just to let them 
 alone. I would use no force. Force now is civil war, and with 
 civil war, the bonds of our Union can never be renewed. I am 
 happy to say that the news of this morning leaves no reasonable 
 ground of doubt that a pacific policy has been wisely determined 
 on at Washington, and that the troops in Fort Sumter are now 
 or will soon be withdrawn. These States must be left to time, 
 to their experiment, to negotiation, to entreaty, to sisterly kind- 
 ness. That is my mode of treatment. Under its operation all 
 may be well. The old affection will return — the memories of 
 the past will incline us to each other — our joint struggles and 
 joint triumphs, the hopes which clustered about our great expe- 
 riment of free government and enlightened civilization, and 
 which cannot be abandoned, and yet, more than all, a sense of 
 common interest and common safety, will bring us together 
 again, and our Union be more strongly cemented than ever. 
 
 Virginia is master of her own position and of her own move- 
 ment. She need fear no force around or about her. She is 
 capable of taking care of herself, and of taking care, by her 
 voice and her declarations, of the interests of her sister States 
 to a very large degree. 
 
 What then is her duty? Is she to plunge into an unknown 
 future? Is she to rush into the arms of a Southern Confede- 
 racy, the structure of whose government she has not aided to 
 erect, to take refuge in an edifice reared by other hands, and 
 none of whose apartments may suit either her necessities or her 
 convenience? Is she to hasten to a feast, where she may be, 
 perchance, an unwelcome guest; a guest only and not an original 
 member of the family? Is she to go without knowing the de- 
 sire of any one of the States bordering upon us, or whether 
 they will accompany us? Is she to go in contravention of the 
 express will of the great body of her own people? Are Ave to 
 do this on the ground that we are afraid to stay in the Union 
 longer? Are we to be whipped out of it by fear? Are we to 
 become submission is ts to the apprehensions, or to the ambition 
 of politicians? 
 
 Mr. President, let us erect ourselves to a higher, posture. It 
 delights me to gaze upon the lineaments of this noble old Com- 
 monwealth, impressed upon her in her early youth time, and 
 never hitherto effaced. Grand, noble, deliberate, just, calm, 
 wise — all these attributes she spreads out before us — she is now 
 asked to break away from this sisterhood of States ; to abandon 
 all hope of ever re-constructing our once glorious Union, and to 
 carry away with her the household gods of the nation — to depart 
 
27 
 
 with the remains of Washington in her soil, with Jefferson, and 
 Henry, and Mason, and Madison, and that long line of illustri- 
 ous sons who aided in laying the foundations of this Common- 
 wealth, deep and abiding in the principles of law and order. She 
 is asked to carry these away and to make them to the larger por- 
 tion of this nation, foreign relies, to be visited and gazed on, 
 perhaps, in after years, only at the price of some new crusade, 
 waged in vindication of the right to look upon the shrine, not of 
 him who shed his blood for the common salvation, but to visit 
 the tomb of him who was the leader and conductor of his peo- 
 ple in their great struggle which led them to a joint inheritance 
 of independence and freedom. 
 
 No, Mr. President. No! no! The duty of Virginia lies in 
 another direction. It is her's to be faithful when all others shall 
 prove faithless; it is her duty, when all others shall forget duty, 
 to stand by it to the last, and only to give up its performance 
 when that performance shall become impossible. It is her's, 
 Mr. President, not to fly from, but to stand by these monu- 
 ments of her glory — the Constitution and the Union — con- 
 structed by herself more than by all others. If these monu- 
 ments need repair, if they need retouching even, in their in- 
 scriptions, who has so much right as Virginia to lead the 
 way in this remodelling and amendment? Let her call around 
 her these sister States. I see that it is contemplated in the report 
 of your committee to call a Conference at Frankfort. Let Vir- 
 ginia call to this Conference all the slave States remaining in the 
 Union. Let her there consult, devise, express her own opinion, 
 consult the opinions and wishes of others — her daughters and 
 her sisters — she Aviil go there their equal and no more — not to 
 dictate, but to commune. She will have her full share of influ- 
 ence — she should ask no more. As the elder sister of the Re- 
 public, with all her ancient glory, her honor and her services 
 clustering around her, and which cannot be stripped from her, 
 she invites her associates into council. Her past is safe; let not 
 the error of the future dim the lustre of her former greatness. 
 The brave and powerful man is always a generous man. The 
 position of Virginia is power — her voice when uttered, is deci- 
 sive. She will not exert that power or speak the word to carry 
 her out of the Union and involve the fate of her sisters. She 
 will consult those sisters on every point of common interest, and 
 on every scheme of common deliverance. 
 
 Let her go there. Let her say that this adjustment is satisfac- 
 tory to her. Let her present it as her contribution to that con- 
 sultation, subject to approval in whole, or to modification. 
 
 The F rank fort Conference will, upon full consultation, agree 
 upon the guarantees which will be satisfactory to the slave 
 States now remaining in the Union, and will devise the plan of 
 
28 
 
 bringing them to the consideration of the other States. Let an 
 appeal be made, not to the politicians, but to the people of the 
 nation. What shall be agreed on there, will be accepted by the 
 whole nation. 
 
 And what further is the duty of this Convention ? There is 
 at this moment, Mr. President, a most oppressive, benumbing 
 weight upon the hearts of the people of Virginia, your con- 
 stituents and my constituents, and all the people of this Com- 
 monwealth. The great interests of this State are paralyzed. 
 Capital seeks to hide itself from the passing storm. Labor goes 
 unemployed. Property is depreciated. Everything is at a 
 stand-still. Why? Because of the uncertainty and dread of 
 what is to come. This state of things ought not to continue. 
 We ought to act, and act promptly, for the removal of the public 
 anxiety. We ought, in the first place, to command peace on all 
 sides. Then let us agree upon such plan of guarantees as will 
 be satisfactory to Virginia. Call this border slave State Con- 
 ference at Frankfort, or elsewhere, to deliberate upon it, and 
 ascertain whether it is satisfactory to them, and adjourn over for 
 that consultation. What more can you do ? What more ought 
 you to do ? I would have you do a little more than that. I 
 would have you to say by your action that all is not lost. I 
 would have you, by your action, remove this fear and trepida- 
 tion from the minds and hearts of our people. Say to them dis- 
 tinctly that the State is not to be precipitated; that she is doing 
 her duty under the Constitution which our fathers made; that 
 she is in the Union which they constructed, and expects to re- 
 main there. 1 would have this Convention so act as to send 
 the husbandman forth merrily to his fields again, and bid him 
 look forward with hope to a jocund harvest; renew the music of 
 the hammer and the plane in your workshops, and start afresh 
 the merchant and the man of commerce. I would unloose 
 business and enterprise now locked up; locked up because of 
 some unknown but anticipated danger. Shall we continue this 
 state of things? No, Mr. President! Remove it. Say to the 
 people in the city and in the country that Virginia knows her 
 duty and will perform it; that she will perform it in her own 
 time and in her own way. She is neither to be forced by out- 
 side or inside pressure to do wrong. If she is ever to leave this 
 Union, she will leave it with no stain upon her justice, and with 
 no remorse for duty unperformed. But she will not leave it. 
 Let that announcement go forth, and, my word for it, that, like 
 the wand which struck the rock in the wilderness, the waters of 
 joy will gush forth throughout this Commonwealth. Business 
 will revive; agriculture, commerce and manufactures will re- 
 vive. Make it known that you intend to keep the peace and 
 restore the Union — and that you are taking your own time and 
 
29 
 
 your own mode to accomplish it. Do it, Mr. President, and 
 send a thrill of gladness throughout this State and over this 
 broad land to animate every heart. Let it be known that how- 
 ever dark and lowering have been the clouds upon us, that they 
 are breaking away, and that soon the bow of promise and peace 
 will span the whole heavens again. 
 
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