Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1851-05-29
REMARKS OF Mr.. STANARD,
On the Report The Committee Of Eight, common
IN called the Compromise.


In CONVENTION, WEDNESDAY, May 2lst, 1851.
Mr. STANARD. had the honour yesterday to
submit simple proposition to the Convention,
which accompanied with an explanation of some
five or ten minutes. merely to put the Convention
in possession of the points | desired to present,
and was content then to leave it to their deci-
sion. | should not again have entered upon the
subject. made the proposition because UNDER
stood both from the discussion that has taken
place, and from the statement of one of the mem
bers OF the Committee of Eight, with whom l
had spoken few moments before submitted my
amendment, that it was the purpose of the com
mlttee In the scheme they proposed to give to the
West what the West was now entitled to upon
the suffrage basis in the House of Delegates,
and to give to the East double the representation
that the East would be entitled to upon the mixed
basis in the Senate. Believing that to be their
object and being satisfied from the documents 10
which | called the attention of the House. that
this object was not attained, but that the West
got by this so called Compromise, not only all
that it is now entitled to in the House OF Delegats
on the suffrage basis, but two more than it could
claim even on that basis-a fact which is now
conceded in all hands--I felt it my duty to
bring this matter to the notice of the Converl-
ton and to invoke their Judgment upon it.
wished to see if we were prepared to go further
than the committee themselves Gas l understood
them) designed to go-if we were to out-com-
promise the compromisers-and to give to the
West two more in the House of Delegates than
even they intended the West should have.
proposed, therefore, so to modify the report as
to make the representation in the House of
Delegates 81 West to SO East, instead of 80
West to 68 East--and it was upon a pro-
position of this kind. accompanied as it was
with a bare explanation of its character, that
gentlemen have been pleased to 60 into dis
cussion of matters from all allusion to which
have throug hout carefully abstained, and to
attempt to justify their own course by arraignng
the course of other gentlemen, both in and out
of this hall. When | say "arraigning, l mean
that they have attempted to show that in sustain
ing this so called compromise, they have provided
better protection for the rights and interests of
the Eastern people than did the members of the
Eastern committee of conference and such other
Eastern members as may have concurred with
that committee in the propositions submitted by
them to our Western brethren, and this, too, not
withstanding the incontestible fact, that each
and every one of the propositions thus submitted
was unanimously rejected by the Western COM
mittee and that rejection unanimously concurred
in by the Western caucus, while as respects this
Compromise (Which we are told is so much bet.
ter for the East, and so much worse for the West
than the propositions thus maze and rejected)
every Western vote stands recorded in its favour
and every Eastern vote but seven stands record
ed against it-and of those seven, three were the
members of the committee who reported it.
Reverse the votes of the Eastern committee
men, end even now this scheme would be defeated
And vet we are to be told a scheme thus sustain
ed by the West and repudiated by the East is bet
tor for bo Eout worst IL q Vast than no
propositions submitted by tho Eastern committee
of conference and unanimously rejected by the
Western committee and the Western meeting. Sir,
| must be pardored for saying, with all due res
pect, that genemel must be driven to extremi-
ties indeed, when they find it necessary to assume
positions and to hazard assertions like these. If
they have no better to offer for the support
they have given to this mis-called compromise than
is to be found in the proceedings or votes of their
Eastern associates either in or out of this hall,
then, indeed, is their case hopeless-utterly hope
less have said, sir, that have maze no allusion
to the proceedings, either of Eastern or Western
gentlemen out of this hall, whether in com nit
tees of conference, caucus, or otherWse-t was
not my purpose to allude to them in any the re-
hottest manner; but, as they have been alluded to,
feel it TO be not only my right, but my duty to
meet and to repel the positions that have been as
L
think can, most conclusivey that so far from this
thing called compromise being better for the
East than the propositions made by the Eastern
committee, it is decidedly worse for the East than
one at least, if not two of the propositions offer
ed by the Western committee And | feel it to
be the more incumbent on me to do this, because
these positions have not only been taken by the
Aenteman from Albemare Mr. Randoph) but, as
Z understand, have been endorsed by the distin-
guished gentlemen from Kanawha (Mr. Sum-
mers). He, as well as the gentleman from Al
bemarle, has found in the proposition submittedby
the Eastern committee of conference to the Wes-
tern committee a Qualifications of the course of
those Eastern members who have united with the
West in the support of the proposition of the
committee of eight
Mr.. SUMMERS. AS to that matter, only re-
ferred to the second proposition submitted by the
committee of conference, as having proposed
larger majority upon joint ballot to the West than
the proposition now before us. l spoke of the
proposition submitted in the House by the gentle
men from Fauquer (Mr. ScotD as containing the
same principle and the same admission that the
compromise itself did-there being merely diff
ference AS to time
Mr.. STANARD. | understood the gentleman
perfectly, and had he allowed me to proceed he
would have found that should not have m; stated
his position in any respect. AS regards the pro-
position of my friend from Fauquer (Alr. Scott,)
that gentleman himself has avowed that he
brought it forward as matter of necessity, not as
matter of choice-to use his own language, sit
was not his choice, but Hobsons choice" And
have already stated that that proposition did not
command my support except as competing pro-
position to this report of the committee of eis hit,
to which, in my humble judgment, it has been
shoyed tn no decidedlv nrefaranle But do not
mean to be drawn off into any discussion of this
matter at this time. ! am now considering the
attempt made by gentlemen to shelter themselves
behind the propositions submitted by the Eastern
Committee of Conference, and before advert TO
those propositions in detail, desire to state the
circumstances under which they were submitted,
and the action of the Eastern meeting with res
pect to them, so that my own course and that of
Eastern gentlemen who acted with me, may be
fully understood now and hereafter. do this as
an act of sheer justice, TO disabuse the public