V^^' "^ ^^ ♦t. ^-^^ .0'^ "^. J.^'^ 'i:^ % ^V ^ „ ^ ••«« dP'9^ [•- **..** .-iS^i-. X.^* ,4> -L . . . >^-nK O V jy... V THE UNION. SPEECH OK WILLIAM H. SEWAED, il IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON PKESENTING THE NEW YORK [JNION PETJTJON JANUARY ;n ISC.l. Mr. SEWARD said: Mr. President: I have received a communica- tion tVom Mr. A. A. Low, Jcunes A. Gallatin, Peter Cooper, and others, who are a committee of twenty-five citizens of New York, who are charged with the duty of presentinij to the Sen- ate of the United Stati-s the petition of the inhab- itants of that city, praying for the exercise of the best wisdom of Congress in finding .some plan for the adjustment of the troubles wliicJi di.slurb the peace ai:d happiness and endanger the safety of the nation. In compliance with their request, 1 waive tlie reading of the memorial, and ask that the Senate will indulge me with allowing to be read at the Secretary's desk, the resolutions the committee have adopted in regard tu the views they desire to present. i The Secreliiry read, as follows: 1 Report of the special committee to a meclin^at the roorwiof \ the Chamber of Commerce, Saturday, January "^0, 1861. I Tlie spficial committee to whom wiis iissistn'il the duty of digestiiis and presenting a proper basis ol' action for tl>e ; committee charged Vifitli the presentation to t'oiigross of i the memorial of citizens of ?Jew York, praying thai sncli measun^s may be; adopted by Congress as will restore trail- I (|uillityand peace to our now distracted country, beg leave i respectfully to report: That, since the last meeting of the memorial committee, a legislative printi'd document has been received, slated : to embrace propositions for an adjustment of pending dif- I ticulties heuvceu the northern and southern States, agreed ; upon by a committee of ihe border States, including Ijela- ware, Maryland, Virginia, Kennicliy, Missouri, and North ; Carolina, Irom the South; and New Jersey, I'eimsylvaiiia, j Ohio, Iniliana, and Illinois, from the North. These prop ' ositions contemplate boiii-acts of It-gislation and amend- | menls of the Constitution, and which, with some nnKiiti- cations and additions, are as follows, and which tin; spcicial committee adopt as part of this their repryrt. which they submit I'or the consideration of the memori^jl eommittet-, and respectfully reccnunend for their adoption as the basis of their action under the memorial, and in lurtherance of iti objects. Mr. SEWARD. Mr. President, excepting the House of RepreseiUativcs, this Senate Chamber is the largest hall that is, or ever has been, occu- pied by a legislative assembly since the world began. The memorial which I am charged to pre- sent is of such a length that, if extendi d, it would cross the Senate Chamber, in itsextremest length, eighteen times. I have already presented menio- rials from the city of New York signed by ciij- zeiis of that plact; to the number of twenty-five thousand This memorial bears the signatures of thirty-eight thousand mtn-e, making, in the whole, sixty-three thousand of the inhabitants of that city who have signed this appeal to the Senate. Th'e committee who have charg(M)f this memorial are a fair representation — I might almost say an embodiment — of the ciiizmis who direct and wield the commerce of the great emporium of our coun- try, the commerce of a continent, and a commerce which this present Viar, owing to tin,' distractions of the times, is put, for the first time, in the con- dition of proving itself to be the controlling com- merce of the world. The .memorial which they present may be regarded as a fair expression of the interest which is felt by that great r;ommercial community, and probably a fair exponimt of the interest in the same great subject which is felt by the wholecoinmercial inlerestof the United States. In any other part of the world, such a communi- cation would' command obedience. In England, France, Russia, Piussia, or Germany, a demon- stration of the will of tlie commerce of the coun- try decides the questions of war or of peace. Happily, sir, that is not the ca.si; in this great Re- public. The interest of commcrci; is butone. The interest of agriculture, manufactures, and mining, each of them, is another. Each is entitled to, and each secures, equal respect; and the consideration which they obtain is due, not to their number, not to their wealth, but is due to the circumstances under which they lend theirndvice to the Govern- ment. But I do not hesitate to say that the char- acter of these petitioners eniilli.' them to the re- spectful attention and consideration of Congress. They have asked me to support this petition. I have not yet found, though i have anxiously * :> 9 waited and hoped for, that manifestation of tem- per on the part of the people of the country and their representatives which would justify me in saying that the seceding States, or those who sym- pathize with tiiem, have made propositions which the citizens of the adhering States could accept; or, as 1 desire to speak with impartiality upon this as upon all other occasions, to put the prop- osition ill another form, that this or any other of the various propositions which have come from citizens of the adhering States, or those who de- sire to adhere to the Union, would be acceptable and satisfactory to the other party. I have thought it my duty to hold myself open and ready for the best adjustment which could be practically made; and I have therefore been obliged to ask this com- mittee to be content with the assurance that I would ■express to the public and to the Senate that the spirit in which they come is perfectly commend- aijle and perfectly satisfactory. It is gratifying to me to see that the proper spirit, the spirit of fraternal kindness, of conciliation and affection, is adopted by so large a portion of my felipw-cil- izens of the State to which I belong. I have asked them, also, in return for perform- ing my duty on this occasion, that when they have arrived at home, they will act in the same spirit and manifest their devotion to the Union above all other interests and all other sentiments, by speak- ing for the Union, by voting for the Union, and if it should be demanded by lendingand even giv- ing their money for the Union, and fighting in the last resort f(n- the Union, taking care always that speaking goes before voting, voting goes before giving money, and all go before a battle, which I should regard as hazardous and dangerous, and therefore the last, as it would be the most painful measure to be resorted to for the salvation of the Union. This is the spii'it in which I have determined for myself to come up to this great question, and to pass through it, as I sincerely believe we shall pass through it. For, although this great contro- versy has not been already settled, 1 do not, there- fore, any the less calculate upon and hope and ex]:>ect that it will be peacefully settled, and set- tled for the Union. I have not been so rash as to expectthatin sixty days, which have been allowed to us since the meeting of Congress — and I will be frank, sir, in saying that I have not expected that in the ninety days which are the allotted term of Congress — this great controversy would cer- tainly be adjusted, peace restored, and the Union firmly reestablished. I knew, sir, that sixty days, or ninety days, was the term that was fixed with definite objects and purposes by that portion of my fellow-citizens who have thought that it would advance the interests of the States to which they belonged to dissever the Union. I liave not ex- pected that reason and judgment would come back to the people and become so pervading, so universal, as that they would appreciate the dan- fer and be able to agree on the remedies. Still, have been willing that it should be tried, though unsuccessfully; but my confidence has remained the same, for this simple reason: that as I have not believed that the passion and frenzy of the hour could overturn tiiis great fabric of constitu- tional liberty and empire in ninety days, so I have felt sure that there would be time, even after the expiration of ninety days, for the restoration of all that had been lost, and for the reestablishment of all that was in danger. A great many and very various interests and elements are brought into conflict in this sudden crisis; a great many personal ambitions; a great many sectional interests; and it would be strange if they could all be accommodated and arranged and harmonized, so as to admit and give full effect to the one profoundest, strongest, and most en- during seniiment or passion of the United States — that of devotion to the Union. These, whether you call them secession or revolution on the one side, or coercion or defiance on the other, are all to subside and pass away before the Union is to become the grand absorbing object of interest, affection, and duty, upon the part of the citizens of the United States. A great many partisan in- terests are to be repressed, suppressed, and to give place — partisan interests expressed by the Charleston platform, by the Baltimore platform, by the Chicago platform, and by the popular sov- ereignty platlbrm — if indeed the Union is in dan- ger and is to be saved; and with these interests, and with these platforms, everybody standing upon them or connected with them, is to pass away, if the Union is in danger and is to be saved, before the Union can be saved. Rut it will require a very short time, if this Union is in danger and does recjuire to be saved, for all these interests and all these )5latforms and all these men to dis- appear. You and I, and every one who shall oppose, resist, stand in the way of the preserva- tion of this Union, will appear but as moths on a summer evening, when the whirlwind of popu- lar indignation arises that shall be excited at the full discovery that this Union is endangered through faction, or even impracticability on our part. I have hope, confidence, that all this is to come around just as I have said, and quite soon enough; because I perceive, although we may shut our eyes to it, that the country and mankind- cannot shut their eyes to the true nature of this crisis. There has been a real, a vital question in this country for twelve years at least — a question of slavery in tiie Territories of the United States. It was strongest in its development in 1850, when all the Pacific coast, and all the territory interven- ing between it and the Louisiana purchase, were thrown upon our hands all of a sudden, for the purpose of our organizing in them free and inde- pendent republican governments, as a basis of future States. It has been an earnest, and, I regret to say, an angry controversy; but the admission of Kansas into the Union yesterday settled at least all tliat was vital or important in the question, leaving behind nothing but the. passions which the contest had engendered. Kansas is in the Union; California and Oregon are in the Union; and now the same contest divides and distracts this Union for freedom and slavery in the Terri- tories of the United States, just as before. What is the extent of tiie Territories which re- main after the admission of Minnesota, of Ore- gon, of California, and of Kansas.' One million sixty-three thousand five lu.ndred «,id seven square miles an ann twenty-four times that of the State of New ^ ork, the hi,-estof the old and fully developed States. Twenty-four such States as his of New York arc yet to he oi-ani/.ed within the remaining Territories of the "United ^tates. iNow, under what is accepted by the Administration of the Government jis a judieial decree, upheld by it, put in practical operation bv it.every inch uf that territory is slave territory —1 speak of that decision not as 1 accept it but as It IS accepted and enforced by the existin- Administratmn— every foot of it slave territory as much as South Carolina. Over a considerable portion of It a slave code, made by a Government created by the Congress of the United States, is enforced ; so that, according to the claims of those who insist upon a right in the territory of the United States for slavery, the whole of this one million sixty-tnree thousand square miles is slave N territory. How many slaves are there in it ' I How many have been brought into it durin- i these twelve years in which it has been not only relinquished to slavery, but in which the court and the Legislature and the Administration have I maintained, protected, defended, and guarantied slavery there? Twenty-four African slaves; one ' slave for every forty-four thousand square miles; one slave for every one of the twenty-four States which, supposing them each to be of the dimen- sions ol ISew^ork or Pennsylvania or Indiana are to cover that portion of the area of our Re- pubhc. Sir, I have followed this thing in good ha e'n'''r "'"'r"",'^ '"''■-y' but I confess that I ave no fears of slavery now whore, in the pecu- har condition of things which has^xisted, slavery has succeeded in planting only one slave upon every forty-four thousand square miles of terri- tory. This then, has ceased to be a practical ques- tion In heu of It comes up a great and vital and tearful question— the question of Union or of dis- solution of the Union; the question of country or of no country; the question of hope, the question of greatness, or the question of sinking forever under the contempt of mankind. Wny, then, should I despair that a great people of thirty mil- lion will be able to meet this crisis? I have no fear This is a Confederacy. It is not an impe- rial Government, nor the government of a sin-le State; It i.s a Confederacy; and it is, as it ought to be, dependent upon the continued assent of all the members of the Confederacy to its existence, and subject to dissolution by their action; but that as- sent is to be always taken by virtue of the orV pnal assent and held, until, in the form prescribed by the Constitution itself, and in the time and in the manner and with all the conditions which the Constitution prescribes, those who constitute the Union .shall declare that it shall be no lono-er The thirty day.s and sixty days and ninety days given s by the d.sun.onists may not be enough for heir policy and their purposes. I hope and trust that It may be time enough for the policy and purposes of the lovers of tlie Union. God -rant that It may be so! But if this term shalUurTi out - ot to be enough, then I see how and when all the.se great controversies will be settled, just as . our forefathers foresaw when they framed the Con.st„ution. They provided, seve.fty years ago, i.at thi.s present controversy, this whoi eontfo- UM-sy shall be submitted to the people of the United States in convention, called according a the forms of the Constitution, and actin- in the I manner pi-escr,bed by it. Then, sir, thTs coun- t.y will find sudden relief in the promj.t and unan- imous adoption of the measures necessary f\jr its salvation and the world will see how well and how wise y a great, enlightened, educated, Chris- j nan people, consisting of thirty-four sovereign States, can adjust difficulties which had seemJd I even to themselves as well as to mankind, to be I insurmountable. ' j Mr. MASON (after other remarks) said: I can [ understand, Mr. President, what the Senator means when he recommends to his constituents I to speak for the Union; we have had a great deal I of that; I can understand what he means when he I recommends them to vote for the Union, because iie coupled It with a recommendation that they should go lino State convention; but I demand to know what he means by their contributing money for the Union. ^ •' xMr. SEWARD. I will explain to the honorable Senator If he wishes. During the present ses- sion of Congress, the Government of this Union I has seen a sudden depreciation of its credit. From I one condition of things which existed a year or , two ago, when all the stocks of the Union were at : : a premium, they have fallen until recently, at one time, the credit of the Union was at a discount of ; thirty per cent., while the credit of the State of iNew York, on her six per cent, stock, all the wlule commands a premium. The commercial ! community, who to-day petition Congress, have the treasure of the commercial city in their keep- 1 1 ing 1 have recommended to these gentlemen here, publicly, as I have heretofore recommended to them privately, that they should advance to the U nion money on loans and on Treasury notes, as t ley are now furnishing in that way to the Unioi> the funds with which the President of the United States, the Departments, the Congress, the courts, yourself and myself, the Senator from Virginia! tlie Army, x^avy, and every other branch of the Government, IS actually sustained. I have rec- ommended to them, in this crisis, that they sus- tain the Government of their country with the '^'■edit to which it is entitled at their hands. Mr. MASON. I presumed that that was the use intended to be made of the money which the Senator advised his constituents to contribute to. the Union. I did not, in my own mind, do the honorable Senator the injustice to believe that he proposed, with the money which was to be con- tributed, to subsidize or to debauch the southern States I had no such view. I took it forgrantcd that the money was to sustain the Army which was to conduct the fight that he recommends to Ills people. Mr. SEWARD. Mr. President, the honora- ble Senator, I am sure, does not mean to do mfe injustice. iMr. MASON. Certainly not; and if the hon- orable Senator wishes to correct me, I yield with great pleasure. 4 Mr. SEWARD. I contemplated, sir, after the !! which, for obvious reasons, I refrain from com expiration of all the multitudinous trials they are making to save this Union by compromise, a con- vention of the people of the United States, called in constitutional form; and when that shall have been held, or refused to be held, and found to be impossible to obtain; if then, this Union is to stand or fiiU by the force of arms, I have advised my people to do, as I shall be ready to do myself, stand in the breach, and stand with it or perish with it. [Applause in the galleries.] Mr. MASON. Then we have it definite, Mr. President. I want to bring the honorable Sena- tor, the exponent of the new Administration, to the policy wiiich is to be adopted. I understand from him" now, that remedies failing through the Constitution by the conventions of the States, his recommendation is battle and bloodshed to pre- serve the Union; and his recommendation to his people is, that they shall contribute the money which shall march the Army upon the South; for what .' To preserve the Union ? It is gone; it is menting on, therefore their States are gone and the Union is gone with them. Sir, the Senate Cham- ber is here; the States are here; the Union is here still. Flere the)'- will all be; and I expect that, in the exercise of public reason, the free choice of these States, these places will all be filled. If I contemplate in any case that it may be necessary to fight for this Union, it is because treason and sedition may arise, not alone or only in a State of the South, but in States of the North, anywhere and everywhere, be excited and armed, so as to assail the Union; and whenever it shall come to that, whether it is in my own State or in any other I State of the Union, then I expect that, whatever j can be done having been done — as I liave already ; indicated that all shall be done whicli reason can 1 do — then I expect that what is right to be done I shall be done in the way in v.'hich treason in the I last resort is necessarily as well as lawfully met. ! Mr. MASON. Mr. President, giving the hon- orable Senator the full advantage of his present broken: there is no Union now in this country, ji commentary upon the speech that preceded it, I Those States that are out of the Union have broken j yet place before the American people the fact that it as completely as if, instead of six or seven, there were now all the fifteen slave States with them; and if this battle is to be fought, it is to be fought against them upon their own soil, for the purpose of reducing them to colonies and depend- encies. It cannot mean anything else. The hon- orable Senator is too wise and experienced a statesman, the honorable Senator knows too well the construction and theory of this Government, to think for one moment that when you have sub- jugated the people of the States, you have restored the Union. Mr. SEWARD. I look, sir, to no such con- tingency as seceded States and a dissevered Union. I look to no such condition of things. The hon- orable Senator and I differ in regard to tlie future. He, wiih an earnest will and ardent imagination, sees this country hereafter rent and dissevered, and then recombined into separate confederacies. I see no such thing in the future; but I do see, through the return of rertson and judgment to the American people, a return of public harmony, and the consolidation of the Union firmer than ever before. The honorable Senator from Vir- ginia can very easily see that we may differ in our anticipations and expectations of the future, be- cause we differ so much in regard to thi> actual, living present. Here I am, sir, in the Union of the United States, this same blessed, glorious, nobly-inherited, God-given Union, in the Senate Chamber of the United States, pleading for it, maintaining it, and defending it. The honorable Senator from Virginia says it is gone, there is no Union; and yet he is hereon this same floor with me. Where, then, is he.' In the Union or out of the Union ? He is actually pres- ent here; and in spite of himself, I hold him to be still with mj'^self in this glorious old Union. I will not strain the remark, wliich he means to put forth with candor and frankness. I therefore assume that he infers that because some other Senators were here a short time ago, his associates and mine, and are not here now, but have withdrawn, under circumstances known to the world, and he proposes but one remedy, either to preserve this Union or to restore itj and that is the ultima ratio regum. Mr. SEWARD. Not to restore— preserve. Mr. MASON. I will take his own language. Let the facts be what they may, he presents but one remedy — the argument of the tyrant — force, compulsion, power. This is the only resort that the honorable Senator has evinced, either in hi.s speech or in his commentary. He says he is for punishingseditionand treason, whether it is found )n the South or jn the North. That is the only remedy that he proposes upon the existing fects. He takes no account of there being organized political communities, claiming to be sovereign, claiming to have resumed all sovereign powerthat they had once delegated to this Confederacy, now out of the Union; actually, completely outside; with not a Federal officer within their limits; with all Federal authority denied, abrogated; with laws punishing as treason at home any obedience to authority abroad; and the honorable Senator still says we know nothing of all that. It is the pur- pose of the Government, as I understand him, to ignore all that, as though it di.d not exist; and be it one man or a local combination that are resist- ing the laws, or be it three, or five, or ten million people, who are resisting the law, still it is trea- son and sedition, and he knows of no remedy but force ! Sir, I wanted to bring him to that point. I wanted, of all others, that the people of my hon- ored State of Virginia should know it, that the scales should fall from their eyes, if any there are there. I am aware of the miserable, puny, pusil- lanimous attempt to hoodwink the minds and judgment of that people by crying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. I point them now to the remedies proposed by the most potent ia the councils of the new Government, when it is to come in. [ point them to the four great remedies that are ^o heal these breaches in the Union and preserve it, to use the language of the honorable Senator. Speaking for it will not do; voting will not do; because tliasu men wlio nre to be parties to the voting; are outside of the Union, and will not vote. Moni'y! money! How is money to do it? Tile honorable Senator lias disclosed it. Not by demoralizinn; and subsidizing:: by bribery, but using it as the sinews of war. Alonoy is to do it, anil is to \n^ contrii)uted by the jjreat com- mercial city of New York, under the counsels of the lionorable Senator who represents them. Money is to be contributed as the sinews of war, because the very next in the four acts of the drama that is to be enacted is battle, battle ! Now, sir, let my people understand this. If there be any among them so puny as to be deluded by the idle elforts to circulate papers among them, slating that " there are propositions for constitu- tional amendment which will be carried — propo- sitions that will secure your rights in the Union — be patient, like good children, and wait your time" — if there be any among the manhood of the whole South puny enough to be deceived by such contrivances as those, I point them to the words of the honorable Senator, showing that money and war are looked to to reduce them, and these alone. I know, Mr. President, it is, perhaps, an in- (li-mity of my temperament to appear to exhibit something like angry emotion, when I donotfeel it. I have none, sir; none. Men who are upon the eve of measuring swords conduct themselves in a gentle mood to each other, and use no lan- guage of menace, or of thn'at, far less terms of indignity. Sir, I trust we may avoid the ullimaralioof the Senator from New York. If it be in the provi- dence of the speedy future that these slave States are to confederate, and to form an independent Government, with a nationality and a flag, an or- ganization and an army and a navy and credit — if that be reserved in the unspoken speedy future — I trust that the good sense, the humanity, the civilization, the regard for unborn posterity, will lead the people, both North and South, to repu- diate the counsels of the honorable Senator from New York. I shall look to their good sense, tlieir humanity, their civilization, to interpose the broad (Zgis of the popular will to avoid the only resort that the honorable Senator looks to — that of force and subjugation. Sir, I have told gentlemen whom I liave met here from other States — honored and honorable men, who have come as volunteers really upon a mission of peace and tranquillity — that it was man- ifest, in the state of facts now existing, there was great and imminiMit danger of a collision between the sections, and that all those who desired to preserve the Union, in my judgment, should make it the first and great work to avoid that collision, and to avoid the civil war that must ensue when men's minds really are heated to madness, when passion usurps the throne of reason, and when negotiation and deliberation are ended. Those have been my counsels. What are those of the honorable Senator from New York? Here with hostile fleets and armies arrayed against each other in two of the southern States; here when we are in momentary expectation of hearing of a collis- ion between them, what are the counsels of the i honorable Senator from New York ? Speak for the Union; vote for the Union; contribute money for the Union; and, last of nil, fight t".>r the Union. 1 1 re))eat it, sir, 1 trust the good .sense, the wis- dom, tiie civilization, the luimanily of the age, will rescue tjiis country from the counsels of tin.' honorabli; Senator from New Yorlc. Bui, Mr. President, they will liave this eflfcct at least: if that potency wiiich is ascribed to the ' opinions of that honorable Senator, delivered and pronounced in his place here as a Senator, belong ; to him, it will admonish the people now meeting in their sovereign capacity in convention in all the southern States, to let the di-lusion pass — the idle delusion that they are to havi; any security in this Government by amendments to the Con- stitution. They are not onlj' not proposed, but they arc denied and derided. We have now for : the first time distinctly shadowed forth that, which I confess, among others, I had seriously appre- liended, that the counsels of the leaders would be force, force. We have it now avowed — openly avowed. I trust the scales will fall from their eyes. j I trust that in the free States, the non-slavehold- I ing States, there is a body of good men, of wise and enlightened patriotism, freed sufiiciently from the shackles of jiarty obligations to see the con- sequences to which such counsels must lead — a war to restore this Union, or to preserve it, and that tlicy, men of sense in their generation, shall be deluded into a war under the idle pretext that they are only enforcing the laws and punishing treason and sedition. I appeal to the free States, the non-slaveholdingStates, to repudiate the coun- sels of the Senator from New York, and disown them. If in the providence of God it is to result that we are to separate into two confederacies, I trust that not the counsels of the honorable Sen- ator from New York, but the counsels of peace will prevail as the only counsels which can avert that greatest of all calamities, a war between brother and brother; a war which could conquer a peace only in oceans of blood and countless mil- lions of treasure. When the peace came, would you find a free people ? Would you find a people capable of reconstructing the Government? No. You would find a people subjugated and crouching under the tread of the despot, and you would find the warrior clad in arms with the money contrib- uted under the counsels of the honorable Senator from New York. That would be the result of war, and that is the; only result to which such counsels would lead. Mr. President, 1 earnestly trust, if, in despite of those counsels and those eflorts that are now mak- ing, under the mediation of the honored State which I am here to represent to restore harmony and to restore agovernmcnt, should fail, that there is an enlightened patriotism in this country and in all the States, that will agree to a separation in peace, and repudiate the counsels of the Senator from New York. Mr. SEWARD. Mr. President, I have been surprised at the delusion which the lionorable Senator from Virginia has been able to practice upon himself, so as to make out of a speech, peace- ful, fraternal, cordial, such as I have made, a dec- laration of war. I cannot account for it, how it 6 is that, wliile his sense of honor remains clear and bright — as I confess with pleasure it does — he avoids by design personalities which might irritate, yet his judgment is, somehow or other, so under the influence of his passion that he can see nothing but war in a speech which proposes simply this: that since this Union is in danger, every other question should be subordinate to the consideration and the removal of that danger by the pacific, constitutional action of the American people; by speech first, by vote, by consultation, by supplying and maintaining the credit of the Government, and, in the last alternative, after having exhausted all the existing means of set- tlement, and all others that might be suggested; and, finally, after a constitutional convention of the United States, called in the forms of the Con- stitution — then, to stand by this good old flag, and, if it is to fall from its eminence, be wrapped in its folds. Sir, that honorable Senator could have recol- lected that I came into the committee of thirteen; that I listened to every proposition that was made ; that I gave it deliberate — will any one say it was not fraternal ? — consideration. Will any one say that I offered no prejudices, no concessions, to pro- pitiate an arrangement? Which one of all the prop- ositions that have been made have I refused to consider? None. When 1 have voted to substi- tute a constitutional provision for the settlement of this question, such as that which was ofi'ered by the honorable Senator from New Hampshire, [Mr. Clark,] in preference to the proposition which requires us to take, in an unconstitutional and ineffectual way, the sentiments of the people on the proposition of the honorable Senator from Kentucky, did I do it in a spirit otherwise than that which belongs to a representative of the peo- ple who seeks concessions? In regard to this very proceedingof the honorable Senator's State which he so proudly commends, and in terms to which | I respond, have I not recommended to my own , State, and is it not acting, in sending commis- j sioners to meet the other States in that conven- i tion ? Does not the honorable Senator know that the State of New York stands ready to hear and | consider every plan, whether within the forms of the Constitution or without them, to settle this question peacefully and without resort to the sword, and that I am with the State of New York in that action ? It is simply because I have learned from the interest in which — the honorable Senator will excuse me for saying — I understood him to speak, that neither any suggestion that has been made yet and considered, nor any that that con- vention can make and consider and submit, or any other that has yet been projected, will be satis- factory to that interest of secession or disunion in which interest he speaks. I then have submitted alone that further one: that when all these have failed, then the States of this Union, according to the forms of the Constitution, and in the spirit in which it was made, shall take up this controversy about twenty-four negro slaves scattered over a ter- ritory of one million fifty thousand square miles, and say, whether, with the lionorable Senator from Virginia, they are willing to sacrifice all this liberty, all this greatness, all this happiness, and all this hope, because they have not intelligence, wisdom, and virtue enough toadjust a controversy so frivolous and contemptible. Mr. MASON. I will yield the floor in an in- stant to the Senator from Illinois. I do not know by what authority the Senator from New York says that I speak in a certain interest. Mr. SEWARD. I certainly should be very sorry if I have said anything unkind or disre- spectful to tlie honorable Senator — [Mr. Mason. " Not at all. ' '] — because the relations between him and myself, especially his bearing on this occa- sion, forbid me to do so. I understand the hon- orable Senator to speak in the interest, that is, in behalf of — I will withdraw (lie word "interest" — but in behalf of, sympathy for, those citizens in several of the States who have availed themselves of the power of the States to pass ordinances of secession, with the intention not again to come into the Union of tlie United States, if they can prevent it. I beg the honorable Senator's pardon if I have misunderstood him. I hope he will not be excited by that. Mr. MASON. There is nothing at all to ex- cite in what the honorable Senator meant, or in his language. I only want to know how he ascribed to me the position of speaking in any par- ticular interest. Now, the honorable Senator, as I understand him, means to assume that there are those who desire, as a preferable condition of the country, a separation of these States; but the hon- orable Senator has no authority on earth to class me among them. I am speaking, sir, in the in- terests of the State of Virginia, as I understand them as her Senator; and I am speaking upon that class of opinionswhich 1 know belong to Virginia, and certainly belong to me, that we will never re- main as constituents of this Confederacy unless there are provided, in some mode, guarantees that shall be effectual, beyond doubt, for the preser- vation of those rights that are necessary to our safety and to our honor. Why, sir, the honorable Senator knows that ; the State of Virginia, upon a great and most dis- turbing cause of dift'erence between the States, has made a distinct proposition, and has said in lan- guage, repudiating anything like diplomacy, that it is one which Virginia would accept. That is her language. She has made a distinct proposi- tion upon this question of slavery in the Territo- ries, so that Senators are not uninformed of what one of the States, at least, would be satisfied with in reference to this disputed question of slavery in the Territories. Mr. DOUGLAS. I was pained this morning when the honorable Senator from New York made a speech, conciliatory and patriotic, showing every desire to have these matters amicably arranged, if possible, that, instead of being met in the spirit in which it was oficred, his advance was again repelled,asif there was alarm and fear lest reason, moderation, and justice might return, and the Union men, north and south — the conservative men — might possibly agree upon some basis of settlement. I have not been able to conceal from my eyes that there are gentlemen on this side of the Chamber who do not want any settlement. I saw it the otiier day when the vote was taken on sxibKtitiitincjthp proposition of thn Senator from Now Hampshire [Mr. Ci.ark] for that of tin: Sen- ator from Iventucky. The extremists on the otlier side received some aid from extreme men on this side by affirmative votes, and still more assist- ance by men on tliisside rutaininj^ their seats and refusing to voti', tlins perniittinic tbe proposition of the Senator from New Hampsiiire to be adopted in consequence of their refusal to vote against it, and instantly sitting down at their tables and writingand sendingolV telegraphic dispatches that there was no hope, because the lilacic Republicans had voted down the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky! I have witnessed these things here with pain; but it is no longer worth while to conceal from ourselves the fact that the extremists on this side and on the other side are in concert, from different motives, to defeat a settlement. 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