CHAPTER XXIV. WAR FOR UNION. THE HE people of the North were not willing to permit the country to be precipitated into the horrors of a revolution without making an effort to preserve peace. They felt that the measures taken in South Carolina bore the marks of "haste, of passion, of distrust of the popular judgment," as a prominent New York journal expressed it. It was thought that a small number of headstrong leaders desired to force the Southern States to act before time had been allowed for calm discussion of the reasons for secession. There was ground for this view of the case, as the columns of the public newspapers of the South showed plainly, and as the utterances of the cooler statesmen there also proved.* In accordance with this desire, the Northern journals offered many suggestions of bases for the peaceful settlement of the differences between the sections, and many propositions for conciliation, compromise and peace were made in legislative bodies. When Congress convened at Washington, December * John Minor Botts, a Southern Unionist, in his book entitled "The Great Rebellion, its Secret History," says that the Virginia Legisla ture "made hot haste, without consulting the people, and without the slightest authority." Page 184. Mr. Botts was a writer of great vehemence, and not impartial, but much may be learned from his pages. 3, 1860, President Buchanan presented his solution of the problem in his annual message, in an amendment to the Constitution of three paragraphs, providing that the right of property in slaves should be distinctly recognized; that this right should be protected in the Territories; and that the validity of the Fugitive Slave Law should be firmly asserted. These suggestions were referred in the Senate to a committee of thirteen, which, after four weeks of deliberation, reported its inability to agree upon any general plan of adjustment. On the Monday after the delivery of the President's message, a number of plans were, however, presented in the House of Representatives, by John Sherman* of Ohio, Charles H. Larrabee of Wisconsin, Thomas C. Hindman of Arkansas, John Cohcrane of New York and others. They ranged from a proposition to have a convention of all the States, to a simple demand that the requirements of the Constitution should be observed. All were referred to a committee on the national peril, composed of a representative from each State. After deliberating four days, this committee presented a resolution stating that the discontent of the Southern people are "greatly to be regretted," and that "any reasonable, proper and constitutional remedies necessary to preserve the *John Sherman, brother of General W. T. Sherman, was born at Lancaster, Ohio, in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, in 1844. He entered political life, was three times chosen to office from 1854 to 1858, and became prominent. He was sent to Congress in 1860, and became Senator from Ohio in 1866. One of the ablest debators, he has been prominent in discussing financial affairs, and for a time was Secretary of the Treasury. With the late Thaddeus Stevens, he prepared the bill for the reconstruction of the seceded States, in 1866. EFFORTS FOR PEACE. 505 peace of the country and the perpetuation of the Union should be promptly and cheerfully granted." On the seventeenth of December, the House passed a vote deprecating "the spirit of disobedience to the Constitution," and recommending the States to repeal all statutes in conflict with that sacred instrument. Another vote affirmed the duty of the President to "protect and defend the property of the United States," but the Southern members permitted it to pass without their votes. On the eighteenth of December, Senator Crittenden* of Kentucky, a statesman who on account of the purity of his character and the great length of his term of public service, commanded the respect of the country, offered, as his contribution to the efforts for peace, suggestions for four amendments to the Constitution, not differing essentially from those presented by the President in his message. When the time for action came, January 16th, 1861, a substitute for Mr. Crittenden's resolution was passed, declaring that the Constitution needed "to be obeyed rather than amended," and that "compromises for particular difficulties, or concessions to unreasonable demands,' were not to be looked upon as means of extricating the country from present dangers; that attempts to dissolve the Union, or to construct a new Constitu He was a *John Jay Crittenden, born in Woodford Co., Kentucky, in 1787, entered the Senate in 1817, and again in 1835. He was a warm friend of Henry Clay, and approved his compromise measures. member of the Cabinet of Harrison, but resigned on the accession of Tyler. From 1850 to 1853 he was a member of Fillmore's Cabinet. He was in the Senate again from 1855 to 1861. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Secession movement. His death occurred in 1863. |