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MR. VALLANDIGHAM'S PROJECT.

all new States annexed or admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two or more of the same, or of parts thereof, or out of territory now held or hereafter acquired west of the crest of the Rocky Mountains and of the Rio Grande, shall constitute another section, to be known as THE PACIFIC.

"The States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, and all new States annexed or admitted into the Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any of said States, or by the junction of two or more of the same, or of parts thereof, or out of territory acquired east of the Rio Grande and south of latitude 36° 30', shall constitute another section, to be known as THE SOUTH.

"Sec. 2. On demand of one-third of the Senators of any one of the sections on any bill, order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the House of Representatives may be necessary, except on a question of adjournment, a vote shall be had by sections; and a majority of the Senators from each section shall be necessary to the passage of each bill, order, or resolution, and to the validity of every such vote.

"Sec. 3. Two of the Electors of President and Vice-President shall be appointed by each State, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, for the State at large. The other Electors to which each State may be entitled shall be chosen in the respective Congressional Districts into which the State may, at the regular decennial period, have been divided, by the electors of each District having the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. A majority of all the Electors in each of the four sections in this article established, shall be necessary to the choice of President and Vice-President; and the concurrence of a majority of the States of each section shall be necessary to the choice of President by the House of Representatives, and of the Senators from each section to the choice of Vice-President by the Senate, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them respectively.

"Sec. 4. The President and Vice-President shall hold their offices each during the term of six years; and neither shall be eligible to more than one term except by the votes of two-thirds of all the Electors of each section, or of the States of each section, whenever the right of choice of President shall devolve upon the House of Representatives; or of the Senators from each section, whenever the right of choice of Vice-President shall devolve upon the Senate. "Sec. 5. The Congress shall provide by

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law for the case of a failure by the House of Representatives to choose a President, and of the Senate to choose a Vice-President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them respectively, declaring what officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall then act accordingly until a President shall be elected. The Congress shall also provide by law for a special election for President and Vice-President in such case, to be held and completed within six months of the expiration of the term of office of the last preceding President, and to be conducted in all respects as provided for in the Constitution for regular elections of the same officers; except that, if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, should the right of choice devolve upon them, within twenty days of the opening of the certificates and counting of the Electoral votes, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The term of office of the President chosen under such special election shall continue six years from the 4th day of March preceding such election.

"ART. XIV. No State shall secede, without the consent of the Legislatures of all the States of the section to which the State proposing to secede belongs. The President shall have power to adjust with seceding States all questions arising by reason of their secession; but the terms of adjustment shall be submitted to the Congress for their ap-proval before the same shall be valid.

"ART. XV. Neither the Congress nor a Territorial Legislature shall have power to interfere with the right of the citizens of any of the States within either of the sections to migrate, upon equal terms with the citizens of the States within either of the other sections, to the territories of the United States; nor shall either have power to destroy or impair any rights of either person or property in the territories. New States annexed for admission into the Union, or formed or erected within the jurisdiction of the other States, or by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, and States formed with the consent of Congress, out of any territory of the United States, shall be entitled to admission upon an equal footing with the original States, under any Constitution establishing a government republican in form, which the people thereof may ordain, whenever such States shall contain, within an area of not less than thirty thousand square miles, a population equal. to the then existing ratio of representation: for one member of the House of Representa tives."

Dr. Franklin-who failed to per

ceive the wisdom of dividing a legis- | Yet this inevitable disparity in growth and strength between the Free and the Slave States was the basis of all Southern discontent with the Union, and to counteract or overbear it the object of every device for the removal of Southern grievances and the redress of Southern wrongs.

The House Committee of Thirtythree encountered the same obstacles, and achieved a like failure, with its

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lature into two 'houses'-once compared said device to that of a Dutchman, who, having a loaded wagon stuck fast in a bog, hitched a span of horses to either end and 'whipped up both ways.' It is not certain that he might not have thus extricated his load-or, at least, overturned it; for even our old Confederation, though a feeble and vicious, was not an impossible frame-work of government. We could not have so rapidly in-counterpart in the Senate. Mr. Alcreased in wealth or power under it; bert Rust, of Arkansas, submitted to yet we need not have permanently it " a proposition which was substanheld in the scale of nations a lower tially identical with Mr. Crittenden's, rank than that of Switzerland or and which he presented as the ultiSweden. But this project of Mr. matum of the South. It was voted Vallandigham, if adopted, would down some days afterward: Yeas have given us a government which 12; Nays 15: no Republican sustainno civilized people could have en- ing it. On the 18th, Mr. Henry dured through a quarter of a cen- Winter Davis, of Md., offered the tury—a government embodying in following, which was adopted unanian aggravated form all the vices of mously: the old Confederation, with few or none of its virtues-a government requiring a President, yet rendering his election a rare and happy accident a Congress wherein the passage of a single act of any decided importance would be the event of a decade a rule hardly to be endured, yet not to be escaped without a revolution. For the chief end of this, as of nearly every kindred contrivancements having such tendency be forthwith of the session, was the construction of a balance whereby three hundred thousand slaveholders would weigh down twenty millions of freemen, and a section which systematically repels immigration, degrades industry, and discourages improvement, be ren- Mr. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, from dered enduringly equal in power and a majority of this Committee, made consideration with one cherishing a an elaborate report, on the 14th of policy radically antagonistic to this. January, 1861, favoring concession

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the several States be respectfully requested to cause their statutes to be revised, with a view to ascertain if any of them are in conflict with, or tend to embarrass or hinder, the execution of the laws of the United States, made in pursuance

of the second section of the IVth Article of the Constitution of the United States, for the delivering 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 enact

repealed, as required by a just sense of constitutional obligations, and by a due regard for the peace of the Republic. And the to communicate these resolutions to the President of the United States is requested Governors of the several States, with the request that they will lay the same before the Legislatures thereof respectively."

20 December 17th.

MR. CORWIN'S 'PEACE' MEASURE.

and compromise, but not the line of 36° 30.' Messrs. C. C. Washburne, of Wisconsin, and Mason W. Tappan, of N. H., tendered a minority report, setting forth that, in view of the Rebellion, now in progress, no concessions should be made. They closed by submitting the resolve which had been offered in the Senate by Mr. Clark, of N. H., and which has already been given.

Messrs. Birch, of California, and Stout, of Oregon, submitted a separate minority report, proposing a Convention of the States to amend the Federal Constitution. This proposal had been voted down by 15 to 14 in the Committee, and it was likewise voted down in the House: Yeas 64; Nays 108.

The Crittenden proposition was moved in the House, as a substitute for Mr. Corwin's, and rejected: Yeas 80; Nays 113.

The conclusions of the Grand Committee, as reported by Mr. Corwin and sustained by the House, were as follows:

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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 from labor, are in derogation of the Constitution of the United States, inconsistent with the comity and good neighborhood which should prevail among the several States, and dangerous to the peace of the Union.

2. [Mr. H. Winter Davis's proposition, already given on page 386.]

"3. Resolved, That we recognize Slavery as now existing in fifteen of the United

States, by the usages or the laws of those States; and we recognize no authority, legally or otherwise, outside of a State where it so exists, to interfere with slaves or Sla

very in such States, in disregard of the rights of their owners or the peace of Society.

"4. Resolved, That we recognize the justness and propriety of a faithful execution of the Constitution, and laws made in pursu

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"6. Resolved, That the faithful observance, on the part of all the States, of all their constitutional obligations to each other, and to the Federal Government, is essential to the peace of the country.

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7. Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to enforce the Federal

laws, protect the Federal property, and pre

serve the Union of these States.

"8. Resolved, That each State is requested to revise its statutes, and, if necessary, so to amend the same as to secure, without legislation by Congress, to citizens of other States traveling therein, the same protection as citizens of such State enjoy; and that she also protect the citizens of other States traveling or sojourning therein against ment, without trial, in due form of law, for popular violence or illegal summary punishimputed crimes.

"9. Resolved, That each State be also respectfully requested to enact such laws as will prevent and punish any attempt whatever in such State to recognize or set on foot the lawless invasion of any other State or territory.

"10. Resolved, That the President be requested to transmit copies of the foregoing resolutions to the Governors of the several States, with a request that they be communicated to their respective Legislatures.”

The Speaker decided Mr. Corwin's report an indivisible proposition, and the House, after refusing to lay it on the table, finally passed it by the decisive majority of 83: Yeas 136; Nays 53: the proportion of Republicans to anti-Republicans being about the same in the Yeas as in the Nays.

Mr. Corwin further reported a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution, whereby any fu

ture amendment giving Congress | covering a very large proportion of

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all the remaining territory of the United States. All these acts were silent with regard to Slavery; leaving whatever rights had accrued to the South' under the Constitution, as interpreted and affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, not merely unimpaired, but unassailed and unquestioned, by any Federal legislation or action. The passage of these acts in this form was certainly intended to soothe the prevalent madness, and to strengthen the Unionists of the South, especially of the Border States; though it does not seem to have had any such effect. And, indeed, it is not probable that any concession could have been made, after the withdrawal of Toombs, Davis, etc., from Washington, that would not have evoked the stern answer-Too late!'

XXV.

PEACE DEMOCRACY-PEACE CONFERENCE.

On the 31st of January, 1861, a | Democratic State Convention, called to consider the impending peril of Disunion, assembled at Tweddle Hall, Albany. It was probably the strongest and most imposing assemblage of delegates ever convened within the State. Not less than thirty of them had been chosen to seats in Congress, while three 1 of them had been Democratic candidates for Governor; one of them once elected, and since chosen again. Though called as 'Demo

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February 28, 1861.

cratic,' there was a large and most respectable representation of the old Whig party, with a number who had figured as 'Americans.' No Convention which had nominations to make, or patronage to dispose of, was ever so influentially constituted. All sympathizing State officers and members of the Legislature were formally invited to participate in its deliberations. Sanford E. Church, of Albion, was temporary Chairman, and Judge Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, Presi

1 Horatio Seymour, Amasa J. Parker, and William Kelly.

VIEWS OF JUDGE PARKER AND A. B. JOHNSON.

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dent. On taking the Chair, Judge | guarantees of her rights as are reParker said: quired; adding:

"This Convention has been called with no view to mere party objects. It looks only to the great interests of State. We meet here as conservative and representative men who have differed among themselves as to measures of governmental policy, ready, all of them, I trust, to sacrifice such differences upon the altar of our common country. He can be no true patriot who is not ready to yield his own prejudices, to surrender a favorite theory, and to clip even from his own party platform, where such omission may save his country from ruin otherwise inevitable. [Loud cheers.]

"The people of this State demand the peaceful settlement of the questions that have led to disunion. They have a right to insist that there shall be conciliation, concession, compromise. While yet the pillars of our political temple lie scattered on the ground, let them be used to reconstruct the edifice. The popular sentiment is daily gathering strength, and will overwhelm in its progress alike those who seek to stem it on the frail plank of party platforms and those who labor to pervert it to mere party advantage. [Cheers.]"

The venerable Alex. B. Johnson, of Utica, followed, in an address which lauded the good understanding which had always existed between the Democratic party and the South; which he attributed to a mutual dread of the undue extension and aggrandizement of Federal power. He said:

“To a superficial observer, our difficulties consist of revolutionary movements in the Southern States; but these movements are only symptoms of a disorder, not the disorder itself; and, before we can treat the disorder understandingly, with a view to its remedy, we must understand its cause; and we shall find it in the avowed principles on which the late presidential election was conducted to its final triumph-principles inculcating sectional hate in place of federal kindness; in direct contravention with the dying injunctions of the Father of his Country, and of the most eminent of his successors in the presidency, General Jackson."

He proceeded to blame the Republicans, "whose principles and conduct have produced the mischief," for refusing to give 'the South' such

"What the guarantees should be is in vain for us to prescribe, having no power to either inaugurate them or to conduct them to a successful consummation; but, speaking for the Democratic party of this State, and of, we believe, the whole Union, and, indeed, for a vast body of citizens not identified with any party, we feel safe in saying that no guarantee will be unwelcome that shall give the South, and all its property, the same rights that are or shall be possessed by the North and its property: the same rights which the South possessed at the commencement of the confederacy: Slavery being at that time no object of antagonism, but the common institution of all the States but one; and we will accord this equality the more readily, by reason that any settlement which shall continue any inequality between the North and the South will be prejudicial to the permanency of the settlement, and hence should not be offered by the North, even if the South, from a love of the Union, should be willing to remain, therein with less than an equality of its advantages."

He considered the prescribed modes of amending the Constitution, and

then continued:

till the seceded States shall have become "Possibly, all remedies may be withheld confederated together and refuse to return. In the possibility of this unhappy determination, and which the present aspect of parties compels us to consider, we are certain that the will of a large portion of the citizens of this State is against any armed coërcion, on the part of the General or State governments, to restore the Union by civil war; and, in this connection, we have seen with_disapprobation the haste evinced by our Legislature to imbrue their hands in fraternal blood, and the pernicious zeal which, without even the apology of any legislative direction, induced the transmission of this aggressive intention to the governors of not only the seceded States, but of the Border States, who, at the time, were struggling to restrain their citizens from secession, and thus revealing to us, that, unless our Northern people interfere, the mistaken sectionalism, which has produced our present misfortunes, is not to be corrected by any evidence of its destructiveness, but is to be continued by partisans, till the South is either subjugated or destroyed. The advocates of this horrid violence against the doctrines of our Declaration of Independence,. and which, if successful in its object, would

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