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STATE OF THE UWIOW. 
 
 or :[HE 
 
 . E. P. WALTON. 
 
 OF VERMONT, 
 
 L'PON THE REPOET OF THK 
 
 COMMITTEE, OF THIRTY-THREE UPON THE STATE OF THE UNION 
 
 DELIVBRED IN TICK HODiiE OF EEPRKSENTATIVES, FEBRUAEY 16, 1861. 
 
 The House havinp under consideration the report from the select eommittpe of thirty- 
 three- — 
 
 Mr. WALTON siud : 
 
 Mr. Speakeii : The events of the last ninety days show that the Federal Government 
 is still nn rxperiment, and perhaps as doubtful now as it was when Washington de- 
 clared, in his first inaugural address, that "the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty. 
 and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeplr, 
 perhaps as finnlh- staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American peo- 
 ple." It has successfully resisted all assaults from without, and stimulated within a 
 growth ofciviliztttion, material wealth, and moral power unparalleled in any nation or 
 
 ■ fig« of the "world. It has multiplied the population of the nation by ten, and its produc 
 live power by more than ten times tea ; it has extended its domain from ocean to ocean, 
 and brought the scepter of commercial supremacy within its grasp ; and for the freedom 
 
 •of its people, the novelty of its political machinery, and the brilliancy of its results, it 
 has commanded universal admiration and respect. And now, while at peace with all 
 abroad, and but for the wretched, and we may hope temporary, consequences of malad- 
 ministration of the Government, prosperous at home, we are threatened with an instant 
 atfd utter failure of the experiment which Washington inaugurated, and with the instant 
 and utter wreck of the empire which he founded. It is national death ; it is death to 
 our power, security and grandeur ; it is death to our national name and fame ; and a 
 PWllion deaths, it may be, through anarchy and civil war. 
 
 I For more than a quarter of a century, South Carolina has deliberately and persist- 
 edtly aimed at the destruction of the Union : and this design was not more monstrous 
 In. iniquity th^n it has been masterly in execution. The great statesman who first con- 
 oeived it saw the end from the beginning, shaped the means to the end, and so saga- 
 ciously shaped them that the very virtues of the people, and that patriotism which he 
 offended, have been made instruments for his work. By the assertion of new and strange 
 pro-slavery principles, at first repulsed by everybody, but ultimately carried out, in a 
 large degree, by the annexation of Texas, the Mexican war, the fugitive slave law of 1850, 
 th& Kansas and Nebraska act of 1854, the repudiation of the Missouri compromise, 
 
2 
 
 and the raid upon Kansas : by pro-slavery agitation and pro-slavery acts — the South 
 was aeduced ou the one hand, and the North repelled on the other, until all the old na- 
 tional parties were demolished, and the North and the South politically divided by a sec- 
 tional line. The Whig party in the South was blotted out in 1S52 ; the Democratic 
 party of the North was divided, and the Whig party of the North blotted out in 1856 ; 
 the Democratic party of the North was deliberately assassinated by its southern allies in 
 the spring of 18G0 ; and thus was secured the fore-ordained triumph of the Republican 
 party in November last. Aye, fore-ordained.prayed for, labored for, waited for, and re- 
 joiced at by the plotters of disunion, and by none more heartily and sincerely. The 
 election of Abraham Lincoln was not the reason, but the occasion, for disunion ; and 
 the occasion was instantly and impatiently improved by ordinances of secession. 
 
 The Government here had ample warnings of the designs of the conspirators ; and but 
 for the neglect of the Executive, the secessions of this day might have been as harmless 
 as were the nullification of South Carolina in 1832, and her secession in 1852. The Pres- 
 ident was warned by avowals of the secessionists ; and as early as October last he was 
 specially warned by the highest officer of the Government in military rank, and the 
 peer of 'the highest in the world in military reputation, of the dangers to v^hieltt he coun- 
 try was exposed, aud of the remedy within his reach. Warnings were 'neglected ; trea- 
 son lurked in the Cabinet, under the very eye of the President, and reveled' tli'rough the 
 Executive Departments. The Army was dispersed in distant Territories, and the Navy 
 in distant seas ; the loyal Noitb was disarmed to arm the disloyal South ; and the Trea- 
 sury was depleted to rob the Government itself of the means of defense. The prepara- 
 tions for secession, rebellion, and trea'sou were effectively made, and nowhere more 
 effectively than in the Executive Departments at this cnpital. State after State has se- 
 ceded; our forts, arsenals, magazines, hospitals, po5t offices, custom-houses, mints, and 
 money, have been seized ; the Constitution and laws of the United States have been vio- 
 lated, and the power of the nation defied. The President has notified us of these event.s 
 in message after message. I think (he tells us) this is very wrong in the southern peo- 
 ple, and the northern people are very much to be blamed for it. I regret it ; I cannot 
 helj) it ; I am impotent. 
 
 '• The CireekB are strong, and skillful to their strength flSflaviJaa 
 Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiiint ; 
 But X am weaker tlian a woman's tear ; 
 Tamer than sloi?]) ; fonder than ignorance; 
 
 Iress valiant than the virgin in the night ; ' > '- f''^ ■t':''" 
 
 Aud skilk'.ss as unpractic'd infancy." 
 
 The President has failed to use the means that were in his power todefeud the Gov- 
 erumeni. Perhaps it ought to be said that he has been deceived and paralyzed by the. 
 infidelity of his advisers ; but, in any event, he has cast himself upon Congres-s. Hith- 
 erward the eyes of thirty million people are turned, and here the hopes, of all the loyal 
 and the patriotic are centred. True it is that here, until a very recent date, they looked 
 and hoped in vaiu. Congress was as powerless as the Executive. Here, too, was dis- 
 loyalty to the Federal Government ; here no men, and no set of men, able to control .tlie 
 iiction of the Senate and the House. All that is changed. In this House, at least, the 
 representatives of the Republican party command a majority in numbers ; and they must 
 and will be held responsible for all that .shall here be done, and .ull that Hliall be 
 left undone. 
 
 What shall we do ? What shall we refuse to do? The answer must depend upon 
 the necessities of the case and the extent of our powers ; we must do only what we have 
 the right to do, and what is expedient to be done. Six States have declared that they 
 are no longer under the jurisdiction of this Government; a seventh has withdrawn from 
 the Union conditionally, and others remain conditionally. Six States are now assem- 
 bled in convention to form a new confederation ;• and the address of its prcisidinjg pffi^per 
 declared the position they contemplated. Said he : ' i!5%7 0q rj-. 
 
 " We meet as representatives of sovereign and independent States, which by their solemn ifi^Km'iiiis^fiSte 
 dissolved all the political associations which connected them with the Government of tho United Statos. It 
 is now a fixed and irrevocable fact that the separation is perfect, complete, and perpetual • and a Rreat duty 
 13 now imposed ou us to provide n government for our thture security and protection We can and should 
 exwnd to oar sister Statos, and onr late sister States who are identified with ns in intofi56t feelings .ind in- 
 stitutions, a cordial in vitation to unite in a common destiny, and be desirous at the same "tim« of maintain- 
 ing with our late confederates friendly relations, political and commercial." ■ . . 
 
 It becomes us first to inquire whether these States are really out of the Union or in it. 
 If they are out, our duties are plain. We are at once to put them on the footing of for- 
 eign nations, and I will say of the most favored foreign nations ; for neither passion nor 
 prejudice shall ever extinguish the generous sympathies and charities due to f.hildren of 
 
3 
 
 acouiraou ancestry. If theyare outofthe Union, bya separation that ia •' pert'ecL, complete, 
 and perpetual.'' then arewc absolved from all obligations duy to them as member.s of the 
 U^iioa — to protect them against foreign invasion, and domestic insnrrection and rebellion, 
 and to respect and defend their rights as States, and the rights and interests of their inhabit- 
 antjs as citizens of the United States. Our political, commercial, postal, and other laws, have 
 no validity there ; our courts and custom-houses and post and land offices are to be 
 closed, the mails suspended, and our and their commerce put upon an entirely different 
 footing. We assume new powers as to them— the treaty-making power, and powers of 
 pejice and war. To be sure, it has been argued again and again that we have no power 
 to make war upon a seceding State : but nobody will deny our power to make war upon 
 a foreign State : and it behooves all concerned to remember that there is not a kingdom 
 ia the world against which we ever had, or ever can have, stronger or more grievous 
 causes) of war than with this extempore kingdom of cetton. The seizure of forts, arsen- . 
 als, magazines, and other property of the United States, by armed men, under the au- 
 thority of the seceding States, were overt acts of war. The surveillance by arms over 
 the navigation of the Mississippi, and the robbery of the national Treasury by Louisi- 
 ana, are outraged upon our national rights, for which instant atonement would be de- 
 manded from any other nation, backed, if need be, by a thousand cannon and a million 
 baTOBet.s. 
 
 But, sir, I will not contemplate the picture or the prospect of actual war, nor even the 
 ptvspect of two lines of standing armies and threatening forts in two confederacies, 
 stretching one thousand or three thousand miles, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, or 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I will only add, that if the seceding States are really 
 out of tlie Union, we have new and urgent duties upon our hands, in the settlement of 
 new, dilticnlt, and all-important questions. The public debt, the public lands, the public 
 buildings, the national .ships, the national obligations growing out of public treaties — 
 such, for instance, as those touching the slave trade- — -the claims of States and citizens 
 of the United States upon the Government : all these topics present questions of the 
 gravf St import. The navigation of the Mississippi, and the control of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, is another matter that will permit no delay. And then how will you settle with 
 the seceding States, including an item of $'200,000,000 spent for the purchase and de- 
 fense of territory now occupied by them? Sir, if these States are out of the Union, let 
 ufl turn our attention to these questions. There are none graver, none more urgent. If 
 these States are not out of the Union, then the old obligations and powers remain upon 
 UK^— all of them iti full force, all of them unimpaired. Those obligations we are to dis- 
 charge, and those powers we are to exercise, just so far as the circumstances of the case 
 will admit. I ask, then, are the seceding States out of the Union? 
 
 I do not intend to discuss the right of secession or revolution, which has been so 
 'largely argued in this debate ; for, in my judgment, the matter is completely settled by 
 the Constitution itself. There is no power, express or implied, conferred by the Gonsti- 
 futton, upon any department of this Government, to perform the last, the all-essential: 
 an4 the crowning rtiit of successful secession or revolution : that is, the recognition of 
 the' independence of a seceding or revolutionized State. States may secede in fag.t ; 
 they may form independent governments, and receive the recognition of the W'.rld ; they 
 may re.iist, and sQCCe.sgfully resist this Government; and yet this Goverrimeut has not 
 the conHtitutional power to recognize their independence, nor a constitution J right to 
 treat them as independent States. The Constitution was designed not only :i3 a " per- 
 fect " Union ; it was designed also for " posterity,'' and therefore as a perpetual Union. 
 •Section ten of article one is, throughout, a prohibition of secession, because it is a pro- 
 hibition to everv State of powers essential to an independent nation. The abrogation 
 of the Constitution and laws of the United States is rebelliou, and resistance to them by 
 ftfrCP I.-? treason. A persistence, however long, is but continued rebellion and treason. 
 -■^ofaVt then, as this Government is concerned, until the new power of recognizing the 
 independence of a rebellious State shall have been constitutionally conferred, we are to- 
 refuse su\h a recognition ; to refuse to recognize the agents of seceding or rebellious 
 States : t» refuse to enter into a settlement of any of those grave questions to which I 
 have alreaclv alhided ; and, to the best of our judgment and ability, we are to mamtam 
 the dovereigntv of tlie United States, to execute the laws, and bring back the rebellions 
 StAte.s to their allegiance to the Constitution, and to their late and madly lost estate ol 
 liberty, security, prosperity, and peace. ^ ... 
 
 I confess that I have thought it will be a hard necessity, for the want ot constitatiomil 
 l.ower la'acknpwledge the independence of a seceding State, to endure a protracted pe- 
 riod o( imft^^y or t^f Iwrrors of civil war. Perhaps it will be a necessity too hard to 
 
be borne, imperative enough to warrant an assumption of undelegated power, as in the 
 , instance of the acquirement of that very Territory which is now the theater of this 
 grievous discontent. But we are not yet warranted to make an assumption like that.' 
 the necessity may come; it has not yet come. In spite of the confident declaration dP- 
 the ex-Secretary of the Treasury, I must deny that the seceding States arc yet out of the. 
 Union, and still indulge the hope that this declaration, like various other official and 
 equally confident estimates from the same quarter, is altogether to6 illusive to warrant 
 any assumption of undelegated power. In no instance yet has the ordinance of sece'gC* 
 sion become the act of a State, or been recognized by the sovereign power of a State^— F. 
 mean the people. The ordinances have been adopted by conventions, elected in the 
 fever of an excitement stimulated by false representations ; hastily elected, without ma- 
 ture deliberation, and without a full vote of the people. The constittitions of 3otitK'' 
 Carolina and Florida provide that — ' Jivao 
 
 ■<■: ^).fi 
 
 " No convention of the people shall be called, unleus by the concurreuce of two-thirds of both briiucb^v 
 
 of the whole represontiition." '.'' 
 
 And I am not aware that this provision has been complied with in either State. B-e 
 that as it may, I find that in none of the other Slates are conventions authorized: at all 
 by their constitutions ; and in all the seceding States I find that their constitutions cam' 
 he amended only by enactments of two Legislatures in succession, with from three 'to 
 Hix months' notice previous to the election of the second Legislature; or by enactment 
 of the Legislature, three to six months' publication, and a ratification by the people. 
 Yet these conventions, which ordained secession and abrogi;;led the laws of the United 
 State.a, did also abrogate in part, or change, the constitutions' of their States. 
 
 Thus, the revolution is twofold ; it is a revolution in the States against their constitu- 
 tions, and a revolution in the United States, and against their allegiance to the Federal 
 Constitution. It h double-distilled rebellion, and in no State has it been ratified by a 
 vote of the people. By the constitutions of their own States, and of the United Stsutes, 
 they are not out of the Union yet. By the patriotism and prudence of their people, on a 
 calm review of these revolutionary proceedings, and the sad results already suffered ; 
 by their regular and constitutional action, let us hope that these States will "yet be de- 
 clared to be within the Union, redeemed fr®m the usurped power of aspiring demagogues, 
 and purified from their polluting touch. Surely, we may refuse to acknowledge the in- 
 dependence of States which have not yet seceded. At least, until the people of the 
 seceding States have ratified or acquiesced in the revolution that has been attempted, we 
 cannot recognize their independence. . ■ 
 
 Conciliation, compromise, concessions — for more than sixty days these have been 
 pressed upon us, powerfully and persistently ; pressed upon us from without by timid 
 and mistaken friends and bold and avowed enemies ; pressed upon us by. the first not 
 more to preserve the Union, than by the last to annul the late verdict of the country and 
 destroy the Republican party; but worse than these, pressed upon us for temporary 
 peace, or a temporary policy, at the expense of principles which never cun., be surren- 
 dered ; pressed upon us to keep the cotton States within the Union, at the risk of driving 
 the northern States out of it; pressed for the conciliation of rebels who will not be con- 
 ciliated, at the risk of disaffecting the loyal, who will not be degraded. I know there 
 are men among them who are actuated by nobler motives than some of these, and who 
 do not contemplate consequences such as these. .; 
 
 I know there are good men here, generous, pure, and patriotic men, of almost every 
 section and of every party, who are actuated by the best of motives, and have appealed 
 to us with all the charms of eloquence, enforced by the claims of fraternal affection and 
 the fears of fatal results. Alas! that these have been so few; alas! that among thfc 
 Representatives of fifteen States, the instances have been so rare that each deserves 'a 
 monument more lasting than marble. And each will have it, in the memories of all 
 good men : 
 
 "They «ay be is a very man per sp, 
 And stands alone." 
 
 Conciliation, forbearance, kindness! Yes, Mr. Speaker, I will accord all these, oven 
 to rebels in arms. Christianity demands it ; humanity demands it ; the ties of blood 
 and the bonds of a common n.ationality demand it ; and I would prove to a wondering 
 world that my country, above all others, responds to such demands as these. Our Gov- 
 ernment is based, more directly than any other, upon the affections and theSvill of the 
 people, and it must be more lenient than any other to the mistakes and the offenses of 
 the people. We must appeal from the people mad to the people sane ; we must bear and 
 
forbear. As our Governmeut originated, so m\;st it be maintained, by the voluntary and 
 unrestrained will of the people. Jf it cannot be so maintained, then is our sy.stem radi- 
 cally -wrong, and destined to certain failure. 
 
 Had Ireland rebelled against Great Britain, as seven States have rebelled against the 
 Federal Government — had the rebels seized the port and castle of Dublin, as our ports 
 and forts have been seized — there is no man here who will for a moment doubt the 
 course the British Government would have adopted. In three days a fleet would have 
 been in the port of Dublin ; within an hour the rebels would have been summoned to 
 surrender, and, within twelve hours, the city would have submitted or been burnt to the 
 ground. Her remedy would have been force, as it was, within the remembrance of us 
 h11, in the last rebellion in Canada ; and the most destructive and unsparing force, as it 
 was within this very city and on the very spot on which this building stands. It is ours to 
 vindicate the superiority of republican government ; the superiority of justice over 
 force; of humanity over cruelty. It is ours to preserve, and not to destroy ; to heal, 
 and not to kill. The task may be difficult ; but we have no right to say that it is im- 
 possible. It may be that we shall fail; but if we fail in such an endeavor, our system 
 of government is itself a failure. 
 
 But I trust we cannot fail ; I trust there is for u.> no such word as fail. The mem- 
 bers in that family of States, which compose this nation, need no other remedy than 
 that which, in like circumstances, we apply to members of the domestic family. The 
 rebellious States are but maniacs of a larger size. It is ours to put these maniacs in a 
 .■'traight-jacket ; kindly, gently, as we would a revered mother or a darling child ; to 
 protect them from harming themselves, as well as from harming us; to administer un- 
 pleasant medicines, perhaps, but nevertheless very necessary and very salutary ; to 
 nurse them into health and sanity, gently, faithfully, unremittingly; and, at last, (God 
 willing,) through patience and long-sutfering, welcome them back, restored and in their 
 right mind, with renewed affections and mutual joy. How madly are the seceding 
 States crushing their own people ; how madly crushing the merchants of the North, 
 who have confided in them ; how madly would they crush the entire country if they 
 could ! The disease is, indeed, madness, and it indicates its own remedy. 
 
 Concessions, compromises: a few words on this topic. It has had a prominence be- 
 yond all other.'} here, and, perhaps, throughout the country. There are compromises 
 that cannot be made under any circumstances, on any conditions, at any price. You 
 cannot compromise the consciences of the people, or of any considerable portion of the 
 people; you cannot compromise their earnest and honest convictions; you cannot 
 compromise their will. The people are greater than Congress, than conventions, than 
 States, than all the States combined in our Federal sy.stem. We may propose ; they 
 will dispose. Wc may attempt to traffic in their names ; they will take care of our bar- 
 gains, and, if need be, take care of us. We cannot compromise liberty; it is above 
 price. We cannot compromi.se rights, justice, honor; these are not merchantable. Cot- 
 ton and calico, shoes and sugar, wheat and woolens, can be sold or exchanged ; we can 
 make bargains about them ; but we can never bargain away the rights of the individ- 
 uals who produce them. Those rights are to be respected and protected; and the only 
 bargain to be made about them must be complete and mutual, the act of all the parties, 
 'and binding upon all — a mutual engagement of each to respect and protect the rights 
 of the other. 
 
 There are various conditions absolutely essential to such a compromise. The parties 
 must be present, in person or by representatives ; they must stand on an equal footing 
 and with equal powers ; they must act voluntarily and freely upon their own judgments, 
 unswerved by passion and linawed by threats ; and throughout their act there must be 
 equivalents to sanctify it by justice to all the parties. Such a compromise — voluntary, 
 mutual, complete, and just— will be ratified and respected, or enforced. It will stand 
 against all the assaults of sectional interests, political insanity, and armed rebellion. I 
 will not say that the people I represent will reject a compromise like that. They will 
 voluntarily do anything that, in their judgment, is right and necessary to be done; they 
 will never be forced to do anything that is wrong. I will not say that such a compro- 
 mise is impossible; but I do believe that it is utterly impossible now. It is a work of 
 time: it will demand e.vaniination, deliberation, debate, with all patience and wisdom. 
 We are not prepared for the work, and the country is not prepared for it. Present events 
 may be preparatory^ and possibly the best preparation. If existing dangers shall not be 
 averted, they will indicate the necessity and the gravity of tbc work. These dangers 
 warn us, and warn tl*c States and the people, to work wisely, as those who are responsible 
 for a nation's fate — not hastily, not rashly, not cowardly. 
 
Such a compromise is impossible now, because the necessary conditions are all want- 
 iujr—everv one is wanting. The parties are not here. For more than sixty days a com- 
 mittee of this House has been huntiiifi; up grievances and concocting compromises ; and 
 with the knowledge of that fact, and in spite of it, State after State has wheeled into the 
 march of secession and rebellion ; their Representatives have withdrawn from the com- 
 mittee and from the Capitol, and Congress has been stripped, by their act, of the power 
 to redress their grievances. With their votes, any congressional act could now be car- 
 ried through both Houses, over every Republican in either branch ; and, with the aid of 
 Representatives from the border free States and the commercial cities of the North, they 
 might now carry, by a two-thirds vote, reasonable propositions for amendments to the 
 Constitution. As tho Senate and House now stand, a two-thirds vote cannot be had for 
 any propositions broad enough to settle the questions in dispute. If the present pro- 
 jects fail, as I believe they will, they will fail because the very States you would con- 
 ciliate have willfully and contemptuously closed the door against concessions. Again : 
 the contracting parties to a compromise cannot stand here with equal powers, because 
 the seceding States are not represented here at all ; and the Representatives of the 
 remaining States cannot freely act, because they are forced to act under a more than 
 half-executed threat of disunion and war, if they do not surrender without a single con- 
 dition to save either their honor or their rights. The disaffected States that still remain 
 stand in a position liarfily less repulsive. I know they have loyal men here, as true at 
 heart as the truest, and as good as the best. They do not threaten, but plead; they 
 have no malice, but overflow with fraternal affection ; they have no passion but a pas- 
 sionate love for the Union ; and yet their aSectionate and passionate plea is, compromise 
 or secession. Not that they will secede if they can help it, but that their States will 
 secede. The ultimatum of the seceders was, submission or disunion. In effect, the pro- 
 positions are identical, however wide may be the ditference in the spirit of those who 
 propose them. Practically, they are one ; and it is the highwayman's demand—" your 
 money or your life.'' 
 
 Now, sir. were all the other conditions of an eifective compromise complied with ; 
 were the parties here and agreed, as they are not ; were the propositions complete in 
 equivalents, and perfect injustice, as they are not, yet I would not dare to accept them 
 under a threat. Who threaten ? Not one-third of the freemen of the nation, and not 
 one-half of the States. Who are threatened? Two-thirds of the people, a majority of 
 the States, and the Federal Government which represents the whole. It is a submission 
 of the majority to the minority ; and that is a subversion of the democratic principle of 
 Government. " It is a submission of the Government to rebellion ; and that is demoraliza- 
 tion and degradation of the Government. It is more : it is licensed rebellion for all 
 future time. It is a prockimation to the world of the perpetual insecurity of the Gov- 
 ernment and the Union; insecurity of public credit; insecurity of treaty obligations; 
 insecurity of peace ; insecurity of commerce ; insecurity of the States and the people, 
 and insecurity of all their vast and varied interests. It is a total failure in the first ob- 
 ject of all Government, to wit: security to the governed. It is a total failure of the 
 American experimeni. For one, I will refuse it, and risk the consequences of refusal. 
 It is more dangerous to surrender to rebellion than to resist it. 
 
 A compromise under such circumstances, and with such possible consequences, is a- 
 work to be refused by the present Congress. Indeed, the day for congressional compro- 
 mises is past. We have learned, by sad experience, that they are neither binding nor 
 irrepealable, and are forced to resort to constitutional and permanent guarantees. If it 
 be admitted that Congress has the power to initiate these, it must also be admitted that 
 Congress and the States are not now in a proper condition for the work. The States 
 and the people are in no temper to warrant expectations of submission either on the one 
 side or the other — in no temper to deliberate. They will not and cannot deliberate under 
 mutual threats, and mutual outrages, perhaps, and in the reign of anarchy and vio- 
 lence. Human nature itself is against it. 
 
 Washington has taught us the lesson of the day in that address from which I have 
 already quoted. Let us reverently listen to it : 
 
 " H.iving thus imparted to 3-on my sentiments as tliey have been awakened by the occasion whioli brings 
 us together, I shall t«k« my present leave, but not without resorting onoe more to the benign Parent of the 
 human race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleaBed to favor tho American people with oppor- 
 tunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity, on 
 a form of f;overnment for tho security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine 
 blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the. wise 
 measures, on which the success of this Government may depend." 
 
 Thus was the Constitution formed ; thus must it be revised or amended. By no com- 
 
mittce of thirty-three gentlemen of this House, however patriotic or wise ; by no decree 
 of partisans, such as we are, selected for other purposes, and overburdened with other 
 duties : .and by no snap-judgment of the popular will, inflamed by all the passions ot 
 party, maddened by the crimes, and distressed by the consequences of rebellion and trea- 
 son. No, sir ; no. This is not the time or the mode to settle a question for ail time. 
 There is a better : it is constitutional ; it is feasible ; it may possibly be accepted with 
 unanimity by all parties and by all the States ; it is a remedy within the reach of the 
 States : let the States consider it. It is a convention called under all the provisions and 
 bound by all the restrictions of article five of the Constitution, and with ample power to 
 report a revised Constitution or amendments, and even, if need be, to submit an ordi- 
 nance for the separation of the Union and the construction of new confederacies. It 
 will f'-e time — the best medicine for these diseases of the body-politic; it will give op- 
 portunity for the redress of all grievances, northern or southern ; and it will give to the 
 seceding States the only mode of relieving their present position without mortification 
 or dishonor. I would leave it to the States, following the honorable lead of Kentucky, 
 to call for such a tribunal ; and I would leave all matters in dispute, all compromises, 
 all contingencies, to that tribunal, and to the final judgment of the people or the States. 
 
 We have other and pressing duties, and first, to preserve this capital, the archives of 
 the Government, and all the public property. Not that I regard it as indispensable to 
 retain this District as the capital or the province of a northern confederacy, in the event 
 of a separation of the free and slave States. Were Maryland to go, with Annapolis 
 hallowed by a material event in the life of Washington, and Virginia with his tomb, I 
 could surrender even the city that bears his name. The people of the north will forever 
 remember and revere him without a monument; at least without one of these, which 
 shall thenceforth mark not so much his fame as the eternal shame of those who have 
 been recreant to his teachings, and the destroyers of his work. 
 
 This capital must be preserved, not so much for the sake of public and private prop- 
 erty to the amount of many millions, as for the rights of every State, and the interests 
 of all the peojjle. Dissolve this Union into two or t«"enty confederacies, and yet there 
 shall not be one that can afford to lose this capital. It is much to say that here are 
 records essential to every Slate — of its history, its services, its glory; but it is more to 
 say that here are the records of its rights and obligations. The State Department, with 
 its records of all our national rights and obligations; the Treasury Department, with its 
 records of commerce and navigation, of revenue and expenditure, of the national debt, 
 which somebody has got to pay, of debts which have been, and of proofs of claims of 
 citizens of every State and Territory which ought to be, paid ; the War and Navy De- 
 partments, with all the records of the services of States, and of citizens of every State, and 
 of expenditures in all past time for every State and Territory ; the Post Office Depart- 
 ment, with all its records, which will be as essential in the future administration of the 
 postal service as the present, liowcver numerous may be the confederacies to be served; 
 and the vast Interior Department, with its Patent, Land, and Pension Offices — its bu- 
 reaus of Indian Affairs and of Agriculture — its records and proofs of the generous ces- 
 sions of public lands by the old thirteen States — its records and proofs of land title? in 
 all the l.ind States and Territories — and its records of patents, of the census, and of the 
 public buildings : all these must be preserved at any hazard and at any cost. The se- 
 ceding States cannot afford their destruction or mutilation ; the remaining States can- 
 not afford it; the people cannot afford it; for in any event — Union or disunion — these 
 are the strongest bonds of justice and peace; and tlac Administration that will not de- 
 fend and preserve them, will be treacherous to the sacred rights of all the States and all 
 the people. 
 
 Next, we must have a Government here, with the will, the power, and the means to 
 assert all its constitutional rights and discharge all its duties, in the extraordinary com- 
 plications of domestic and foreign questions in which it is now involved. With such a 
 Government four months ago, these complications would have been prevented. The 
 new Government must grapple with them all, with brave and loyal hearts, though it be 
 with unpracticed hands. It will need infinite wisdom; may God give it 1 It will need 
 extraordinary powers and remedies; these it is. for us to give. Herein is our duty: to 
 preserve the Government, not to pamper rebellion against it ; to preserve its dignity 
 and authority, not to bring them into contempt ; to maintain the Constitution unim- 
 paired, not to disfigure it with hasty patch-work ; to save, if it be possible, the peace of 
 the country, not to plunge it into war; to save the business of the country, and secure 
 the regular psrsuits of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce, not to blast them all 
 by anarchy ; and to preserve (God willing) the Union of the States from dissolution and 
 disgrace, not to trifle with it, as it has been trifled with by timid counsels and official 
 
8 
 
 treachery. I dure uot say that all 'his can be done ; but sure I am that it is the duty of 
 the Government, and the duty of this House as a responsible part of the Government, to 
 try. The tri.il must be made, and it should be made ; by moderation to the offending: 
 States, using none of our great powers unnecessarily for the injury of any of them, but 
 rather for their protection and benefit; by forbearance, until forbearance ceases to be a 
 virtue ; by firmness in the execution of the Constitution and laves, so far as the circum- 
 stauces of the case require; and, amid all the dangers that surround, by ever aiming to 
 be right — always right — though star after star madly shoots from the firmament, and the 
 glorious Federal constellation dissolves in eternal night. 
 
 I trust that the grand experiment is not to be a failure ; I trust yet in the solid com- 
 mon sense of the people, and to the instinct of self-preservation, yet to be aroused by the 
 consequences of secession and anarchy; I trust yet to the patriotism of the peoc'e; hut, 
 above all, in an overruling and omnipotent Providence, to preserve, as one peop'.ij, those 
 He hath ?o bountifully blest; to bring peace and order out of contention and confusion ; 
 and to make this nation for centuries to come, as it has been for almost a century that 
 has passed, the noblest example of liberty and order, and "the republican model of 
 government" for all nations and people. 
 
 W. H. MooEE, Printer) Penn. Avenue, earner of ] 1th street. 
 
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