724 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



candor the reasons on which we forbore to vote for the 

 resolution you have mentioned ; but you have again 

 presented this proposition, and appealed to us, with 

 an earnestness and eloquence which have not failed to 

 impress us, to " consider it, and at the least to com- 

 mend it to the consideration of our States and people." 

 Thus appealed to by the Chief Magistrate of our beloved 

 country, in the hour of its greatest peril, we cannot 

 wholly decline. We are willing to trust every question 

 relating to their interest and happiness to the consid- 

 eration and ultimate judgment of our own people. 

 While differing from you as to the necessity of eman- 

 cipating the slaves of our States as a means of putting 

 down the rebellion, and while protesting against the 

 propriety of any extra territorial interference to induce 

 the people of our States to adopt any particular line of 



Eolicy on a subject which peculiarly and exclusively 

 elongs to them, yet when you and our brethren of the 

 loyal States sincerely believe that the retention of sla- 

 very by us is an obstacle to peace and national har- 

 mony, and are willing to contribute pecuniary aid to 

 compensate our States and people for the inconveniences 

 produced by such a change of system, we are not unwil- 

 ling that our people shall consider the propriety of 

 putting it aside. 



But we have already said that we regarded this 

 resolution as the utterance of a sentiment, and had no 

 confidence that it would assume the shape of a tan- 

 gible practical proposition, which would yield the 

 fruits of the sacrifice it required. Our people are in- 

 fluenced by the same want of confidence, and will not 

 consider the proposition in its present impalpable form. 

 The interest they are asked to give up is to them of 

 immense importance, and they ought not to be expected 

 even to entertain the proposal until they are assured 

 that when they accept it their just expectations will 

 not be frustrated. We regard your plan as a proposi- 

 tion from the Nation to the States to exercise an *i- 

 mitted constitutional right in a particular manner 

 and yield up a valuable interest. Before they ought 

 to consider the proposition it should be presented in 

 such a tangible, practical, efficient shape as to com- 

 mand their confidence that its fruits are contingent 

 only upon their acceptance. We cannot trust anything 

 to the contingencies of future legislation. If Congress, 

 by proper and necessary legislation, shall provide suf- 

 ficient funds and place them at your disposal to be ap- 

 plied by you to the payment of any of our States or the 

 citizens thereof who shall adopt the abolishment of 

 slavery, either gradual or immediate, as they may de- 

 termine, and the expense of deportation and coloni- 

 zation of the liberated slaves, then will our States and 

 Eeople take this proposition into careful consideration, 

 )r such decision as in their judgment is demanded by 

 their interests, their honor, and their duty to the whole 

 country. We have the honor to be, with great respect, 



C. A. WICKLIFFE, Chairman, of Kentucky. 



GARRETT DAVIS, of Kentucky. 



R. WILSON, of Missouri. 



J. J. CRITTENDEN, of Kentucky. 



JNO. S. CARLILE, of Western Virginia. 



J. W. CRISFIELD, of Maryland. 



J. S. JACKSON, of Kentucky. 



H. GRIDER, of Kentucky. 



JOHN S. PHELPS, of Missouri. 



FRANCIS THOMAS, of Maryland. 



CHARLES B. CALVERT, of Maryland. 



C. L. L. LEARY, of Maryland. 



EDWIN H. WEBSTER, of Maryland. 



R. MALLORY, of Kentucky. 



AARON HARDING, of Kentucky. 



JAMES S. ROLLINS, of Missouri. 



J. W. MENZIES, of Kentucky. 



THOS. L. PRICE, of Missouri. 



G. W. DUNLAP, of Kentucky. 



WM. A. HALL, of Missouri. 



BEPLY OF THE MINORITY. 



WASHINGTON, July 15, 1868. 



MB. PRESIDENT : The undersigned, Members of Con- 

 gress from the Border States, in response to your ad- 



dress of Saturday last, beg leave to say that they 

 attended a meeting on the same day the address 

 was delivered for the purpose of considering the 

 same. The meeting appointed a committee to report 

 a response to your address. That report was made 

 on yesterday, and the action of the majority indi- 

 cated clearly that the response reported, or one in 

 substance the same, would be adopted and presented 

 to you. 



Inasmuch as we cannot, consistently with our own 

 sense of duty to the country, under the existing perils 

 which surround us, concur in that response, we feel it 

 to be due to you and to ourselves to make you a brief 

 and candid answer over our own signatures. 



We believe that the whole power of the Government, 

 upheld and sustained by all the influences and means 

 ot all loyal men in all sections, and of all parties, is es- 

 sentially necessary to put down the rebellion and pre- 

 serve the Union and the Constitution. We understand 

 your appeal to us to have been made for the purpose 

 of securing this result. A very large portion of the 

 people in the Northern States believe that slavery is 

 the " lever power of the rebellion." It matters not 

 whether this opinion is well-founded or not. The be- 

 lief does exist, and we have to deal with things as they 

 are, and not as we would have them be. In conse- ' 

 quence of the existence of this belief, we understand 

 that an immense pressure is brought to bear for the 

 purpose of striking down this institution through the 

 exercise of military authority. The Government can- 

 not maintain this great struggle if the support and in- 

 fluence of the men who entertain these opinions be 

 withdrawn. Neither can the Government hope for 

 early success if the support of that element called 

 " conservative" be withdrawn. 



Such being the condition of things, the President 

 appeals to the Border State men to step forward and 

 prove their patriotism by making the first sacrifice. 

 No doubt like appeals have been made to extreme 

 men in the North to meet us half way, in order that 

 the whole moral, political, pecuniary, and physical 

 force of the nation may be firmly and earnestly united 

 in one grand effort to save the Union and the Consti- 

 tution. 



Believing that such were the motives that prompted 

 your address, and such the results to which it looked, 

 we cannot reconcile it to our sense of duty, in this try- 

 ing hour, to respond in a spirit of fault-finding or quer- 

 ulousness over the things that are past. We are not 

 disposed to seek for the cause of present misfortunes 

 in the errors and wrongs of others who now propose 

 to unite with us in a common purpose. But, on the 

 other hand, we meet your address in the spirit in 

 which it was made, and, as loyal Americans, declare to 

 you and to the world that there is no sacrifice that we 

 are not ready to make to save the Government and 

 institutions of our fathers. That we, few of us though 

 there may be, will permit no men, from the North or 

 from the South, to go farther than we in the accom- 

 plishment of the great work before us. That, in order 

 to carry out these views, we will, so far as may be in 

 our power, ask the people of the Border States, calm- 

 ly, deliberately, and fairly to consider your recom- 

 mendations. We are the more emboldened to assume 

 this position from the fact, now become history, that 

 the leaders of the Southern rebellion have offered 

 to abolish slavery amongst them as a condition to for- 

 eign intervention in favor of their independence as a 

 nation. 



If they can give up slavery to destroy the Union, 

 We can surety ask our people to consider the ques- 

 tion of emancipation to save the Union. 



With great respect, your obedient servants, 



JOHN W. NOELL, of Missouri. 

 SAM. S. CASEY, of Kentucky. 

 GEORGE P. FISHER, of Delaware. 

 A. J. CLEMENTS, of Tennessee. 

 WM. G. BROWN, of Western Virginia. 

 JACOB B. BLAIR, of Western Virginia. 

 W. F. WILLEY, of Western Virginia. 



