CONGRESS, U. 



175 



will utter its voice, and I tell you there is no 

 power ou God's earth that can stand before 

 that." 



The Vice-President, in announcing the Com- 

 mittee of Thirteen on Mr. Powell's resolution, 

 remarked that the Chair had found a great deal 

 of difficulty in framing the committee, but had 

 tried to compose it in the spirit which he be- 

 lieved actuated the Senate in ordering its ap- 

 pointment. It will be observed that upon this 

 committee were two Senators from one State. 

 This was unavoidable. " Of course the author 

 of the resolutions becomes the chairman of the 

 committee ; and I am sure the Senate will, for 

 many reasons, recognize the fact that it was 

 proper that the eminent senior Senator from 

 Kentucky should also be a member of that 

 committee. The Secretary will read it." 



The Secretary read the committee, as fol- 

 lows : Mr. Powell, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Crittenden, 

 Mr. Seward, Mr. Tooinbs. Mr. Douglas, Mr. 

 Collamer, Mr. Davis, Mr. "Wade, Mr. Bigler, 

 Mr. Rice, Mr. Doolittle, and Mr. Grimes. 



Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, was excused from 

 serving on the committee, upon his own re- 

 quest. He said : 



" The position which I am known to occupy, 

 and the position in which the State I represent 

 now stands, render it altogether impossible for 

 me to serve upon that committee with any 

 prospect of advantage." 



Subsequently a motion to reconsider the vote 

 excusing Mr. Davis was carried, upon which 

 he rose and said : 



" If, in the opinion of others, it be possible 

 for me to do any thing for the public good, the 

 last moment while I stand here is at the com- 

 mand of the Senate. If I could see any means 

 by which I could avert the catastrophe of a 

 struggle between the sections of the Union, my 

 past life, I hope, gives evidence of the readiness 

 with which I would make the effort. If there 

 be any sacrifice which I could offer on the altar 

 of my country to heal all the evils, present or 

 prospective, no man has the right to doubt my 

 readiness to do it. Therefore, when Senators, 

 entertaining the same opinions with myself, 

 came to me and expressed regret that I had re- 

 fused to serve, I could but tell them that I had 

 only obeyed what I believed to be propriety in 

 the case, not desiring to shrink from the per- 

 formance of a duty, still less to indulge in per- 

 sonal feeling. I therefore answer the request 

 of the Senator from Florida, knowing also that 

 it is made after consultation with others, that 

 if the Senate choose that I should be placed 

 upon the committee, and continue to serve 

 there, I shall offer no further opposition." 



The motion to excuse the Senator was then 

 withdrawn. 



On the 31st of December, the committee re- 

 ported as follows : 



The Committee of Thirteen, appointed by order of 

 the Senate, of the 20th instant, have agreed upon the 

 following resolution, and report the same to the 

 Senate : 



Resolved, That the committee have not been able to 

 agree upon any general plan of adjustment, and re- 

 port that fact to the Senate, togethar with the journal of 

 the committee. 



On a subsequent day the report of the com- 

 mittee and the resolutions of the Senator from 

 Kentucky were taken up ; also a brief resolu- 

 tion of nearly similar import offered by Sen- 

 ator Johnson, of Tennessee ; also resolutions of 

 Senator Lane, of Oregon. 



Mr. Douglas addressed the Senate. He com- 

 menced by saying that no act of his public life 

 had ever caused him so much regret as the ne- 

 cessity of voting in the special committee of 

 thirteen for the resolution reporting to the Sen- 

 ate their inability to agree upon any general 

 plan of adjustment, which would restore peace 

 to the country and insure the integrity of the 

 Union. If we wish to understand the real 

 causes which have produced such wide-spread 

 and deep-seated discontent in the slaveholding 

 States, we must go back, he said, beyond the 

 recent Presidential election, and trace the ori- 

 gin and history of the slavery agitation from 

 the period when it first became an active ele- 

 ment in Federal politics. 



Having traced the agitation down, he as- 

 cribed the present crisis to the fact that the 

 Southern people have received the result of the 

 recent election as furnishing conclusive evi- 

 dence that the dominant party of the North, 

 which is soon to take possession of the Federal 

 Government under that election, are deter- 

 mined to invade and destroy their constitution- 

 al rights. "What shall be done, he asked, in 

 the case of South Carolina ? Our right of ju- 

 risdiction over that State for Federal purposes, 

 according to the Constitution, had not been 

 destroyed or impaired by the ordinance of se- 

 cession, or any act of the convention, or of the 

 de facto government. The right remains ; but 

 the possession is lost, for the time being. 

 " How shall we regain the possession ? " is the 

 pertinent inquiry. It may be done by arms, or 

 by a peaceable adjustment of the matters in 

 controversy. 



After examining many incidental questions 

 relating to the mode of adjustment, he said : 



" I repeat, then, my solemn conviction, that 

 war means disunion final, irrevocable, eternal 

 separation. I see no alternative, therefore, but 

 a fair compromise, founded on the basis of mu- 

 tual concessions, alike honorable, just, and ben- 

 eficial to all parties, or civil war and disunion. 

 Is there any thing humiliating in a fair com- 

 promise of conflicting interests, opinions, and 

 theories, for the sake of peace, union, and safe- 

 ty ? Read the debates of the Federal conven- 

 tion, which formed our glorious Constitution, 

 and you will find noble examples, worthy of 

 imitation ; instances where sages and patriots 

 were willing to surrender cherished theories 

 and principles of government, believed to be 

 essential to the best form of society, for the 

 sake of peace and unity." 



On another day Mr. Crittenden called up his 



