168 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



peace. Do you mean to say that that is not to 

 be allowed us, that we shall neither have peace 

 in the Union, nor be allowed the poor boon of 

 seeking it out of the Union ? If that be your 

 attitude, war is inevitable. "We feel as every 

 American citizen not blinded by passion and by 

 prejudice must feel, that in this transaction we 

 have been deeply aggrieved; that the accu- 

 mulating wrongs of years have finally culmi- 

 nated in your triumph not the triumph of 

 Abraham Lincoln, not your individual triumph 

 but in the triumph of principles, to submit 

 to which would be the deepest degradation 

 that a free people ever submitted to. We can- 

 not ; calmly, quietly, with all the dignity which 

 I can summon, I say to you that we will not 

 submit. "We invite no war ; we expect none, 

 and hope for none." 



Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, still further replied : 

 "As the Senator from New Hampshire very 

 properly remarked, it is time to look this thing 

 in the face. The time is rolling rapidly to the 

 consummation of these great objects ; and, in 

 my opinion, there is nothing this side of heaven 

 that can prevent their consummation. You talk 

 about concessions. You talk about repealing 

 the personal liberty bills as a concession to the 

 South. Repeal them all to-morrow, sir, and it 

 would not stop the progress of this revolution. 

 It is not your personal liberty bills that we 

 dread. Those personal liberty bills are obnox- 

 ious to us not on account of their practical 

 operation, not because they prevent us from 

 reclaiming our fugitive slaves, but as an evi- 

 dence of that deep-seated, wide-spread hostility 

 to our institutions, which must sooner or later 

 end in this Union in their extinction. That is 

 the reason we object to your personal liberty 

 bills. It is not because that in their practical 

 operation they ever do any harm. But, sir, if 

 all the liberty bills were repealed to-day, the 

 South would no more gain her fugitive slaves 

 than if they were in existence. It is not the 

 personal liberty laws ; it is mob laws that we 

 fear. It is the existence and action of the pub- 

 lic sentiment of the Northern States that are 

 opposed to this institution of slavery, and are 

 determined to break it down to use all the 

 power of the Federal Government, as well as 

 every other power in their hands, to bring 

 about its ultimate and speedy extinction. That 

 is what we apprehend, and what in part moves 

 us to look for security and protection in seces- 

 sion and a Southern Confederacy." 



Mr. "Wigfall, of Texas, declared his view of 

 this point thus : " We simply say that a man 

 who is distasteful to us has been elected, and 

 we choose to consider that as a sufficient ground 

 for leaving the Union, and we intend to leave 

 the Union. Then, if you desire it, bring us 

 back. When you undertake that, and have ac- 

 complished it, you may be like the man who 

 Surchased the elephant you may find it rather 

 ifficult to decide what you will do with the 

 animal." 

 Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, closed the debate 



on printing the message with these words : " I 

 do not rise for the purpose of protracting this 

 unnecessary and most unfortunate debate ; but 

 I rise simply to say in the presence of the rep- 

 resentatives of the different States, that my 

 State having been the first to adopt the Consti- 

 tution, will be the last to do any act or coun- 

 tenance any act calculated to lead to the separ- 

 ation of the States of this glorious Union. She 

 has shared too much of its blessings ; her peo- 

 ple performed too much service in achieving 

 the glorious liberties which we now enjoy, and 

 in establishing the Constitution under which 

 we live, to cause any son of hers to raise his 

 hand against those institutions or against that 

 Union. Sir, when that Union shall be destroyed 

 by the madness and folly of others, (if, unfor- 

 tunately, it shall be so destroyed,) it will be 

 time enough then for Delaware and her Repre- 

 sentatives to say what will be her course." 



On a subsequent day Mr. Powell, of Ken- 

 tucky, introduced a resolution respecting the 

 reference of the President's message, which 

 was changed by amendment to the following 

 form : 



Resolved, That so much of the President's message 

 as relates to the agitated and distracted condition of 

 the country, and the grievances between the slaye- 

 holding and non-slaveholding States, be referred to a 

 special committee of thirteen members, and that said 

 committee be instructed to inquire into the present 

 condition of the country, and report by bill or other- 

 wise. 



Mr. Powell, on offering the resolution, thus 

 stated its object : " Mr. President, the object of 

 the resolution under consideration is to initiate 

 measures to save the country from its present 

 perilous condition ; to avert, if possible, a dis- 

 memberment of the Union, and restore peace, 

 harmony, happiness, and security, to a distract- 

 ed and divided people. Events are rapidly 

 crowding upon us which, if not arrested, will 

 speedily overthrow the Government. The mere 

 anticipation of these sad and melancholy results 

 has already caused distrust, alarm, and ruin in 

 many parts of the country." 



Mr. King, of New York, said : " I am not one 

 of those who despair of the republic ; I believe 

 we shall go safely through this crisis, as we 

 have passed through many others that in my 

 period of time have been said to exist. If there 

 be any thing that ought to be inquired into, in 

 my judgment it is, whether the laws be sufficient 

 to enable the Government to maintain itselfj 

 and to enforce its constitutional powers." 



Mr. Douglas, upon the resolution being again 

 before the Senate, said : " I am ready to act with 

 any party, with any individual of any party, 

 who will come to this question with an eye 

 single to the preservation of the Constitution 

 and the Union. I trust we may lay aside all 

 party grievances, party feuds, partisan jealous- 

 ies, and look to our country, and not to our 

 party, in the consequences of our action." 



Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, argued that the 

 fault was not in the form of the Government, 

 nor did the evil spring from the manner ia 



