722 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



REPLY OF THE MAJORITY. 



The following paper was sent to the Presi- 

 dent, signed by the majority of the represent- 

 atives from the Border Slaveholding States. 

 It was prepared by J. "W. Crisfield, of Mary- 

 land: 



WASHINGTON, July 14, 1862. 

 To the President : 



The undersigned, Representatives of Kentucky, Vir- 

 ginia, Missouri, and Maryland, in the two Houses of 

 Congress, have listened to your address with the pro- 

 found sensibility naturally inspired by the high source 

 from which it emanates, the earnestness which marked 

 its delivery, and the overwhelming inpprtance of the 

 subject of which it treats. We have given it a most 

 respectful consideration, and now lay oefore you our 

 response. We regret that want of time has not per- 

 mitted us to make it more perfect. 



We have not been wanting, Mr. President, in respect 

 to you, and in devotion to the Constitution and the 

 Union. We have not been indifferent to the great dif- 

 ficulties surrounding you, compared with which all 

 former national troubles have been but as the summer 

 cloud ; and we have freely given you our sympathy and 

 support. Repudiating the dangerous heresies of the 

 secessionists, and believing, with you, that the war on 

 their part is aggressive and wicked, and the objects 

 for which it was to be prosecuted on ours, as defined by 

 your Message at the opening of the present Congress, 

 to be such as all good men should approve, we have 

 not hesitated to vote all supplies necessary to carry it 

 on vigorously. We have voted all the men and money 

 you have asked for, and even more ; we have imposed 

 onerous taxes on our people, and they are paying 

 them with cheerfulness and alacrity; we have en- 

 couraged enlistments and sent to the field many of 

 our best men ; and some of our number have offered 

 their persons to the enemy as pledges of their sincerity 

 and devotion to the country. We have done all this 

 under the most discouraging circumstances and in the 

 face of measures most distasteful to us and injurious to 

 the interests we represent, and in the hearing of doc- 

 trines avowed by those who claim to be your friends most 

 abhorrent to us and our constituents. But, for all this, 

 we have never faltered, nor shall we as long as we have 

 a Constitution to defend and a Government which pro- 

 tects us. And we are ready for renewed efforts, and 

 even greater sacrifices, yea, any sacrifice, when we are 

 satisfied it is required to preserve our admirable form 

 of government and the priceless blessings of constitu- 

 tional liberty. 



A few of our number voted for the resolution recom- 

 mended by your Message of the 6th of March last ; the 

 greater portion of us did not, and we will briefly state 

 the prominent reasons which influenced our action. 



In the first place, it proposed a radical change of our 

 social system, and was hurried through both Houses 

 with undue haste, without reasonable time for consid- 

 eration and debate, and with no time at all for consult- 

 ation with our constituents, whose interests it deeply 

 involved. It seemed like an interference by this Gov- 

 ernment with a question which peculiarly and exclu- 

 sively belonged to our respective States, on which they 

 had not sought advice or solicited aid. Many of us 

 doubted the constitutional power of this Government 

 to make appropriations of money for the object desig- 

 nated, and all of us thought our finances were in no 

 condition to bear the immense outlay which its adop- 

 tion and faithful execution would impose upon the Na- 

 tional Treasury. If we pause but a moment to think 

 of the debt its acceptance would have entailed, we are 

 appalled by its magnitude. The proposition was ad- 

 dressed to all the States, and embraced the whole num- 

 ber of slaves. According to the census of 1860, there 

 were then very nearly four million slaves in the coun- 

 try ; from natural increase they exceed that number 

 now. At even the low average of three hundred dollars, 

 the price fixed by the emancipation act for the slaves 

 of this District, and greatly below their real worth, 



their value runs up to the enormous sum of twelve hun- 

 dred millions of dollars ; and if to that we add the cost 

 of deportation and colonization, at one hundred dollars 

 each, which is but a fraction more than is actually paid 

 by the Maryland Colonization Society, we have four 

 hundred millions more ! We were not willing to im- 

 pose a tax on our people sufficient to pay the interest 

 on that sum, in addition to the vast and daily increas- 

 ing debt already fixed upon them by the exigencies of 

 the war; and, if we had been willing, the country 

 could not bear it. Stated in this form the proposition 

 is nothing less than the deportation from the country 

 of sixteen hundred million dollars' worth of producing 

 labor, and the substitution in its place of an interest- 

 bearing debt of the same amount ! 



But, if we are told that it was expected that only the 

 States we represent would accept the proposition, we 

 respectfully submit that even then it involves a sum 

 too great for the financial ability of this Government 

 at this time. According to the census of 1860 



Kentucky had 225,490 slaves. 



Maryland 87,188 " 



Virginia 490,887 " 



Delaware 1,798 " 



Missouri 114,965 " 



Tennessee 275,784 * 



Makingin the whole 1,196,112 " 



At the same rate of valuation these would 



amount to $358,883,600 



Add for deportation and colonization $100 



each 119,244,533 



And we have the enormous sum of $478,078,133 



We did not feel that we should be justified in voting 

 for a measure which, if carried out, would add this 

 vast amount to our public debt at a moment when the 

 Treasury was reeling under the enormous expenditures 

 of the war. 



Again, it seemed to us that this resolution was but 

 the annunciation of a sentiment which could not, or 

 was not likely to be, reduced to an actual, tangible pro- 

 position. No movement was then made to provide and 

 appropriate the funds required to carry it into effect ; 

 and we were not encouraged to believe that funds 

 would be provided. And our belief has been fully 

 justified by subsequent events. Not to mention other 

 circumstances, it is quite sufficient for our purpose to 

 bring to your notice the fact, that, while this resolu- 

 tion was under consideration in the Senate, our col- 

 league, the Senator from Kentucky, moved an amend- 

 ment appropriating $500,000 to the object therein 

 designated, and it was voted down with great una- 

 nimity. What confidence, then, could we reasonably 

 feel that if we committed ourselves to the policy it 

 proposed, our constituents would reap the fruits of the 

 promise held out; and on what ground could we, as 

 fair men, approach them and challenge their support? 



The right to hold slaves is a right appertaining to 

 all the States of this Union. They have the right to 

 cherish or abolish the institution, as their tastes or 

 their interests may prompt, and no one is authorized 

 to question the right, or limit its enjoyment. And no 

 one has more clearly affirmed that right than you have. 

 Your inaugural address does you great honor in this 

 respect, and" inspired the country with confidence in 

 your fairness and respect for the law. Our States are 

 in the enjoyment of that right. We do not feel called 

 on to defend the institution, or to affirm it is one which 

 ought to be cherished ; perhaps, if we were to make 

 the attempt, we might find that we differ even among 

 ourselves. It is enough for our purpose to know that 

 it is a right ; and, so knowing, we did not see why we 

 should now be expected to yield it. We had contrib- 

 uted our full share to relieve the country at this ter- 

 rible crisis ; we had done as much as had been required 

 of others, in like circumstances ; and we did not see why 

 sacrifices should be expected of us from which others, 

 not more loyal, were exempt. Nor could we see 

 what good the nation would derive from it. Such a 

 sacrifice submitted to by us would not have strength- 

 ened the arm of this Government or weakened that of 



