242 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



want to carry on this war for the purpose of 

 subjugating the people of any State, in any 

 shape or form ; and it is a false idea gotten up 

 by bad men for bad purposes that it ever has 

 been the purpose of any portion of the people 

 of this country. I am willing, therefore, to 

 meet them face to face, and say I never had 

 that purpose, and have it not now. But we 

 say, notwithstanding we have not that purpose, 

 and distinctly avow it, we have a purpose, and 

 that is to defend the Constitution and the laws 

 of the country, and to put down this revolt at 

 whatever hazard ; and it is for them to say 

 whether it is necessary for us in the course of 

 accomplishing a legitimate and proper object to 

 subjugate them in order to do it. I hope not ; 

 and if it is necessary and we could do it, I 

 should want to keep them subjugated no longer 

 than was necessary to secure that purpose. 

 That far it must go, and no further. To that it 

 must go at all events and hazards. As to the 

 word, sir, I would as soon take that as any 

 other. It expresses the idea clearly, and I am 

 satisfied with it." 



Mr. Doolittle, of "Wisconsin, regarded the res- 

 olution as an act not altogether legislative in its 

 character, but as a declaration of the purpose 

 of the Government. It was a deed in that 

 sense, which is to have its effect upon the 

 American people, and he desired that it should 

 be passed in the language in which it had been 

 presented. 



Mr. Willey, of "Western Virginia, stated the 

 views of the people of the Old Dominion on the 

 war. He said : u There is a fear among many, 

 there is a prejudice wide extended in the public 

 sentiment of Virginia, that the design of this 

 war is subjugation ; that the design of this war 

 is to reduce the Old Dominion into a prov- 

 ince ; that the design of this war, literally, in 

 the language of the honorable Senator from 

 Vermont, is to pass our people under the yoke. 



" Sir, I do not understand such to be the pur- 

 pose of this war. The Legislature of the State 

 which I represent does not understand such to 

 be the purpose of this war. My constituency 

 are for the preservation of the Union, the vin- 

 dication of the Constitution, and the execution 

 of the laws. We believe that in the success of 

 this war, in carrying out these legitimate pur- 

 poses, is involved the great question of consti- 

 tutional liberty itself now and forever among 

 our people, and among all people ; and I here, 

 from the Old Dominion, as an humble member 

 on this floor, am instructed by my Legislature, 

 and am prepared to vote for every necessary 

 measure, and for every necessary man, without 

 stint, let, or hinderance, to carry on the war 

 until all resistance to lawful authority is put 

 down ; until the Constitution is vindicated, and 

 restored to all its legitimate supremacy ; and un- 

 til the Union is reestablished on a basis never 

 to be overthrown. 



" But, sir, candor constrains me to say, that 

 if any different purpose shall be avowed, if it 

 shall ever be intimated or declared that this is 



to be a war upon the domestic institutions of 

 the South, and upon the rights of private prop- 

 erty, every loyal arm on the soil of the Old Do- 

 minion will be instantly paralyzed. Sir, pass 

 this resolution in the language in which it is 

 printed, and you give muscle and vigor to every 

 loyal arm in the Old Dominion, and you will 

 multiply the friends of the Union by thousands 

 whenever our people are disimbued of the prej- 

 udices that exist in their minds." 



Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, stated that ha 

 had repeatedly, as long as he had been in 

 Congress, and before that, avowed his senti- 

 ment to be that the Government had no more 

 right, no more legal or constitutional authority 

 to interfere with slavery in the States than they 

 had to interfere with the condition of the serfs 

 in Russia, or with the rights and wrongs of the 

 laboring classes in England. " I said that when 

 I acted I was going to say with the party out 

 of power ; but when I acted out of power, with- 

 out a party when I acted as the soldier did, 

 fighting on his own hook. That has always 

 been my sentiment. I have always proclaimed 

 it, whenever I had occasion to speak upon it ; 

 and, acting with the party that is in power to- 

 day, I am willing to stand by the profession 

 that I made when I was out of power. I be- 

 lieve that the General Government have no 

 power upon this subject at all, and that they 

 cannot have under the Constitution." 



Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland, thus expressed 

 his views : " I indicated by my vote a few 

 minutes ago that my opinion is that this deplor- 

 able civil war has been forced on the country 

 by the disunionists of the Southern and North- 

 ern States. I wanted to go no further, but 

 merely to express that idea. I am not prepared 

 to admit that it was brought on exclusively by 

 the Southern States, because it will be very 

 well recollected by gentlemen here that there 

 were propositions of peace offered at the last 

 session of Congress, in the very closing days of 

 that session, which, if they had been accepted 

 at that time by the majority party in the Sen- 

 ate, would have avoided the war which is upon 

 us to-day. 



" It was the refusal in part of the majority 

 party to accept of measures of conciliation and 

 peace before Congress adjourned last spring. It 

 is also perfectly true that if the members of the 

 Southern States who vacated these seats long 

 before Congress adjourned, had remained here, 

 there would not have been war. I believe that 

 if the majority party had pursued a different 

 course before Congress adjourned than the one 

 that they elected in rejecting every overture 

 and every proposition for peace, we should 

 have been to-day without the sad calamity that 

 has befallen us." 



Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, could not 

 vote for the resolution, because he did not 

 agree with the statement of facts contained in 

 it. He said : " I do not intend to go into the 

 antecedents of this unhappy difficulty. My own 

 opinion is, that there have been errors upon 



