710 



UNITED STATES. 



ernment for a nation was in operation in 

 these States, and the property thus seized 

 was held, as the new Government avowed, 

 to be accounted for in a peaceful settle- 

 ment with the Federal Union, or to be \ised 

 for the defence of those States, if assaulted by 

 the same Union. They asked for peace, and to 

 be " let alone," but were determined to hazard 

 a war sooner than return to their former alle- 

 giance. 



Among the other States, Kentucky made an 

 application to Congress to call a National Con- 

 vention to amend the Constitution of the Unit- 

 ed States, and requested the Legislatures of 

 all the other States to make similar applica- 

 tions, and appointed commissioners to a con- 

 ference of the Border States to consider and, if 

 practicable, agree upon some suitable adjustment 

 of the present unhappy controversies. Some 

 of the States of the North appointed com- 

 missioners to this conference, which agreed 

 upon terms for an adjustment, but no State ac- 

 tion followed. Not a single slaveholding State 

 complied with the request of Kentucky to 

 apply to Congress to call a National Conven- 

 tion, whilst three non-slaveholding States so 

 complied, and several others prepared to 

 follow. 



A Peace Conference was called by Virginia, 

 in which twenty States were represented. Such 

 measures would have been recommended as 

 were desired by the seceding States if they had 

 been present by their votes to secure their adop- 

 tion. Three territorial bills were passed by 

 Congress, in no one of which was inserted the 

 prohibition of slavery as insisted upon hitherto 

 by the Republicans. The North condemned the 

 personal liberty bills of the States, declared in 

 favor of a faithful execution of the fugitive 

 slave law, and concurred in proposing, by the 

 requisite constitutional majority, an amendment 

 of the Constitution guaranteeing positively and 

 forever the exemption of slavery in the States 

 from the interference of Congress. This was 

 one of the guarantees embraced in the scheme 

 of Mr. Crittenden and also in the scheme of the 

 Peace Conference. 



Rhode Island repealed its personal liberty 

 law outright, whilst Vermont, Maine, Massa- 

 chusetts, Pennsylvania, and "Wisconsin had 

 under consideration the repeal or essential mod- 

 ification of their respective laws of this descrip- 

 tion. Not less than a quarter of a million of 

 the people of the North, besides societies and 

 representative bodies without number, petition- 

 ed Congress for the adoption of any adjustment 

 satisfactory to States of the Southern Border. 



After such a manifestation of public senti- 

 ment, there was nothing to justify the President 

 in declaring that he should adopt a policy of 

 coercion towards the seceding States. In his 

 inaugural, he expressed himself in favor of a 

 National Convention, and announced his policy. 

 "Whether it intended peace or war, was greatly 

 discussed, at the time ; public sentiment, how- 

 ever, generally believed it was to be peaceful. 



But on this point he is himself the most satis- 

 factory exponent. In his Message, at the ex- 

 tra session in July, he says : " Finding this 

 condition of things, and believing it to be an 

 imperative duty upon the incoming Executive 

 to prevent, if possible, the consummation of 

 such attempt to destroy the Federal Union, a 

 choice of means to that end became indispen- 

 sable. This choice was made, and was declared 

 in the inaugural address. The policy chosen 

 looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful meas- 

 ures, before a resort to any stronger ones. It 

 sought only to hold the public places and prop- 

 erty not already wrested from the Government, 

 and to collect the revenue, relying for the rest 

 on time, discussion, and the ballot-box. It 

 promised a continuance of the mails, at Govern- 

 ment expense, to the very people who were 

 resisting the Government ; and it gave re- 

 peated pledges against any disturbance to any 

 of the people or any of their rights. Of all that 

 which a President might 'constitutionally, and 

 justifiably do in such a case, every thing was 

 forborne, without which it was believed pos- 

 sible to keep the Government on foot." 



Such was the degree of excitement in the 

 country that the declarations of the inaugural 

 respecting the policy of the Government, which 

 might in ordinary times have been considered 

 quite explicit, were now looked upon as very 

 unsatisfactory. Even the intimate friends of 

 the Administration were unable to say whether 

 peace or war was before the country. A feel- 

 ing of solicitude pervaded all classes, which be- 

 came deeper and stronger under the continued 

 uncertainty. 



Meantime, commissioners from the Confed- 

 erate States, Messrs. John Forsyth and Martin 

 J. Crawford at first, who were joined after- 

 wards by A. B. Roman, arrived at Washington. 

 On the 12th, Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford 

 addressed the Secretary of State, stating their 

 character as commissioners, and the object of 

 their mission : 



SIR : The undersigned have been duly accredited 

 by the Government of the Confederate States of Amer- 

 ica as Commissioners to the Government of the United 

 States, and in pursuance of their instructions have 

 now the honor to acquaint you with that fact, and to 

 make known, through you, to the President of the 

 United States, the objects of their presence in this 

 capital. 



Seven States of the late Federal Union having, in 

 the exercise of the inherent right of every free people 

 to change or reform their political institutions, and 

 through conventions of their people, withdrawn from 

 the United States and reassumed the attributes of 

 sovereign power delegated to it, have formed a gov- 

 ernment of their own. The Confederate States con- 

 stitute an independent nation, de facto and de jitre, 

 and possess^ a government perfect in all its parts, and 

 endowed with all the means of self-support. 



With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions 

 growing out of this political separation, upon such 

 terms of amity and good will as the respective inter- 

 ests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the 

 two nations may render necessary, the undersigned 

 are instructed to make to the Government of the 

 United States overtures for the opening of negotia- 

 tions, assuring the Government of the United States 



