CONGRESS, U. 8. 



201 



different bnt equally efficient weapons. "We 

 will not permit the consumption or introduc- 

 tion of any of your manufactures; every sea 

 will swarm with our volunteer militia of the 

 ocean, with the striped bunting floating over 

 their heads, for we do not mean to give up 

 that flag without a bloody struggle it is ours 

 as much as yours ; and although for a time 

 more stars may shine on your banner, our chil- 

 dren, if not we, will rally under a constellation 

 more numerous and more resplendent than 

 yours. You may smile at this as an impotent 

 boast, at least for the present, if not for the 

 future ; but if we need ships and men for pri- 

 vateering, we shall be amply supplied from the 

 same sources as uow almost exclusively furnish 

 the means for carrying on, with such unexam- 

 pled vigor, the African slave-trade New York 

 and New England. Your mercantile marine 

 must either sail under foreign flags or rot at 

 your wharves. 



" But, pretermitting these remedies, we will 

 pass to another equally efficacious. Every civ- 

 ilized nation now is governed in its foreign re- 

 lations by the rule of recognizing governments 

 ' de facto? You alone invoke the doctrine of 

 the ' dc jure' or divine right of lording it over 

 an unwilling people, strong enough to maintain 

 their power within their own limits. How 

 long, think you, will the great naval powers of 

 Europe permit you to impede their free inter- 

 course with their best customers for their 

 various fabrics, and to stop the supplies of the 

 great staple which is the most important basis 

 of their manufacturing industry, by a mere 

 paper blockade ? You were, with all the wealth 

 and resources of this once great Confederacy, 

 but a fourth or fifth-rate naval power, with 

 capacities, it is true, for large, and in a just 

 quarrel, almost indefinite, expansion. "What 

 will you be when not merely emasculated by 

 the withdrawal of fifteen States, but warred 

 npon by them with active and inveterate hos- 

 tility ? 



" But enough, perhaps somewhat too much, of 

 this. We desire not to speak to you in terms 

 of bravado or menace. Let us treat each other 

 as men, who, determined to break off unpleas- 

 ant, incompatible, and unprofitable relations, 

 cease to bandy words, and mutually leave each 

 other to determine whether their differences 

 shall be decided by blows or by the code which 

 some of us still recognize as that of honor." 



The cause of their action, he says, is not the 

 mere election by the forms of the Constitution, 

 of a President distasteful to them, as it was 

 so often and so confidently asserted. " It is 

 this : we all consider the election of Mr. Lin- 

 coln, with his well-known antecedents and 

 avowed principles and purposes, by a decided 

 majority over all other candidates combined in 

 every non-slaveholding State on this side of 

 the Pacific slope, noble, gallant New Jersey 

 alone excepted, as conclusive evidence of the 

 determined hostility of the Northern masses to 

 our institutions. We believe that he conscien- 



tiously entertains the opinions which he has so 

 often and so explicitly declared ; and that, hav- 

 ing been elected on the issues thus presented, 

 he will honestly endeavor to carry them into 

 execution." 



The proceedings of the House of Representa- 

 tives, from the commencement of the session un- 

 til this time, although of the same general char- 

 acter with those of the Senate, serve, when 

 taken in connection with the latter, to show 

 more clearly the views thus far entertained of 

 the powers and duties of the Government, and 

 its ability to obviate the crisis. In the House 

 the difficulties of the country produced as much 

 impression as upon the public at large. The 

 first apprehensions had settled into a firm con- 

 viction that the movement begun in South 

 Carolina was calm, deliberate, and decided. 

 The leaders in the extreme South made up in 

 bold determination and bitterness of crimina- 

 tion for what they lacked in numbers. The 

 Republicans in the North, restive and uneasy, 

 maintained a firmness and fixedness of purpose 

 which brooked no change, and which was large- 

 ly due to the extreme portion of their party. 

 Meantime, the mass of the people in the central 

 States, in the heart of the Union, who enjoyed 

 all its genial blessings, were filled with alarm. 

 The defeated Democratic party, always inter- 

 preting the Constitution after that strict con- 

 struction peculiar to the Southern States, and 

 aware by long experience of the true nature of 

 the difficulties, were not only equally alarmed, 

 but greatly embarrassed by being stripped of 

 all political power. 



Not a step was taken to arrest the progress 

 of secession before Congress assembled. In the 

 House, a body so sensitive of the public im- 

 pulses and convictions, a flood of propositions 

 aiming to restore the harmony of the country 

 were promptly introduced. Scarcely had the 

 President's Message been read, when Mr. Bote- 

 lor, of Virginia, and Mr. Cochran, of New 

 York, rose to move resolutions in reference to 

 so much of it as related to the condition of the 

 country. 



The resolution adopted was this : 



fit-solved, That so much of the President's Message 

 as relates to the present perilous condition of the coun- 

 try, be referred to a special committee of one from 

 each State. 



The vote was ayes, 145 ; noes, 38. 



Pending the vote the spirit of many of the 

 members from the most Southern States was 

 conspicuously shown. Mr. Singleton, of Mis- 

 sissippi, declined to vote for the reason that the 

 Legislature of the State of Mississippi had called 

 a convention of the people of that State to take 

 into consideration the subject-matter before the 

 House. He was not sent here for the purpose 

 of making any compromise, or to patch up ex- 

 isting difficulties. " I leave, sir, to the sover- 

 eign State of Mississippi to determine for her- 

 self her present Federal relations." 



Mr. Hawkins, of Florida, stated that a con- 



