212 



CONGRESS, IT. S. 



gentlemen upon the other side of this House. 

 I beg. I invoke it for her, as my mother, who 

 cherished me in tile early part of my life, and 

 upon whose bosom sleep my honored parents, 

 and where dwell to-day my near kindred; and 

 I ask you to present to her, far gone as you 

 may consider her, the olive branch. Tender it 

 gracefully ; you can afford to do it, as guar- 

 dians of this great and powerful Government. 

 South Carolina maybe, and in my judgment 

 she is, extreme in her precipitancy. I have 

 regretted it; I have remonstrated against it, 

 and I have implored the people of my own 

 State, notwithstanding her example, to delay 

 their action, and never to follow her example 

 until assured that it would meet a hearty and 

 undivided response from the people of Georgia. 

 "Will you, under these circumstances, urged and 

 entreated as you are by men who are as much 

 and as faithfully attached to the Union of these 

 States as you yourselves are, refuse to make this 

 last effort in behalf of conciliation between 

 these distracted sections of our common coun- 

 try ? I hope not. I hope the door to concil- 

 iation is not yet closed. There are good men 

 yet from the North in this House. There are 

 good men yet in the other wing of the Capitol ; 

 and I mistake if they do not yet send forth 

 words of love and kindness to soothe an exas- 

 perated people, and thus give quiet to an af- 

 flicted nation. I regret not to find a greater 

 degree of it in my honorable friend from Ohio. 

 Surely the time has not yet arrived to determine, 

 as positively as he does, that if there can be no 

 reconciliation there must be a resort to the 

 stern arbitrament of war. Surely he does not 

 mean what he says : that there must be an ac- 

 commodation or a fight. Not yet not yet, 

 sir, I would hope. Let him, let every man 

 who feels that there is an inevitable result, 

 wait for the accumulated voice of American 

 patriots to come up and determine this ques- 

 tion. I abide that result with confidence and 

 hope. I trust that the convention of my own 

 State which is sitting to-day, and in which is 

 assembled a large amount of the best intelli- 

 gence and the best patriotism of that State 

 will give time to the people of the United 

 States to confess their conservatism, their at- 

 tachment to the Union, and their devotion to 

 the interests of the several States. I believe it 

 will do it ; and I trust, if my State shall re- 

 solve to secede in this the hour of her extrem- 

 ity, as she believes, that she will make her se- 

 cession prospective, so as to afford ample time 

 to intervene, and still save the great structure 

 under which we live, and which has blessed us 

 so long." 



Mr. Burnett, of Kentucky, offered the fol- 

 lowing amendment to the clause making an ap- 

 propriation : 



Provided, That no part of the appropriations made 

 in this bill shall be used by the Federal Government 

 in making war, or in any attempt, to subjefct any State 

 which has or may hereafter secede from the United 

 States. 



He said : " I want that the country shall un- 

 derstand, and that we on this side of the House 

 shall understand, distinctly from gentlemen on 

 the other side whether it is their purpose to 

 wage war or not. 



" Under the terms of ' enforcing the law,' 

 and ' the execution of the law,' gentlemen cover 

 up their purposes to make war. [Cries of ' Oh, 

 DO ! ' from the Republican side of the House.] 

 It must result in war, gentlemen. You may 

 blockade the port of Charleston to-morrow ; 

 send down your floating custom-house, and un- 

 dertake to collect the revenue, and the first 

 gun that is fired results in civil war. 



" It must do that. We all so understand it. 

 I do not want gentlemen, under the term of 

 ' enforcing the law,' to shrink from the an- 

 nouncement of their purpose, which is to make 

 war. It is nothing else. The mere blockading 

 of the port of Charleston is, in my judgment, 

 an act of war. I believe, whether gentlemen 

 so regard it or not, that the President has no 

 power to use the army and navy of this coun- 

 try, except as subservient to the civil author- 

 ity. South Carolina, as has been before re- 

 marked on this floor, has no Federal officers. 

 She has no Federal judiciary there. None of 

 the powers in that State recognize the author- 

 ity of the Federal Government, or can enforce 

 obedience to any of the la\ys of Congress. And 

 yet you propose to send an armydown there, 

 under the name of enforcing laws, to make war 

 upon South Carolina. It is nothing else ; and 

 there is not a sensible man on that side of the 

 chamber who does not so understand it. If 

 that be your purpose, come up like men and 

 say so. Do not shrink from it. Do not under- 

 take to carry on war under a specious pretext 

 of enforcing law." 



Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, replied : " Mr. Chair- 

 man, I do not apprehend that anybody on 

 this side of the House contemplates making 

 war on any State of this Confederacy, unless 

 war is first made by that State on the Federal 

 Government. There is no war contemplated 

 by this Government, or by any gentleman on 

 this side of the House, except a defensive war, 

 for the protection of its executive officers, and 

 of the men engaged in the discharge of execu- 

 tive and ministerial duties." 



Mr. Burnett: "May I ask the gentlemaa 

 from Ohio one question ? " 



Mr. Stanton : " Yes, sir." 



Mr. Burnett : " If you do not intend to make 

 war, why do you object to my amendment ? " 



Mr. Stanton: "Mr. Chairman, I will tell 

 the gentleman why. If, in the execution of 

 those laws, the officer of the law is resisted by 

 a military power, by State authority ; and if it 

 become necessary for his protection, and for 

 the discharge of his duties, that the United 

 States shall defend itself, protect itself, protect 

 its property, its arsenals, its forts, its exec- 

 utive and ministerial officers ; if it becomes 

 necessary to make defensive war, then I sup- 

 pose the money appropriated by this act will 



