The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-28
THE NATIONAL CRISIS.
THE PEACE CONFERENCE
RECONSIDERATlO AND ADOP-
TION OF THE FRANKLIN
PROPOSITIONS.
PROSPECTS OF FINAL SETTLEMENT.

to-day revised and passed, by vote of nine t
eight, the Franklin substitute. 1t is understoo
| that the Virginia and North Carolina Commission
ers divided on the question, and that there was
majority 10 each of those States against it. Thi
latter statement, however, is not authentic.
The Conference has adjourned.
The Washington Star of last evening furnishe
us with the following particulars attending tn
final action of the Conference
The Peace Congress met this morning at 10 A. NJ.
and again peoceeded to consider the first branch
their plan of settlement, which vas lost yeSer daY
After considerable discussion, they came to a di
rect vote upon the adoption of the franklin propo
sition, and it was carried.
The majority of both the Virginia and Nort
Carolina delegations voted cheek by jowl with tn
Greeleyitess against it, and Mssouri's delegation
was equally divided. So Missouri did not vote
nor did Kansas vote, her delegation being equally
| divided.
Upon all the other branches of the plan of settle
| ment a majority of indiana'S delegation took th
| responsibility of voting in the Affirmative, without
| waiting to consult their Legislature instructed
! On that-the first-branch, covering the question
of slavery in the Territories they declined voting
| have varied the result, had it been thrown i
would have been for the proposition. Illinois
voted for it, and New York was equally divided.
About p. NJ, the Convention adjourned sine die
1
The House of Representatives will endorse the
settlement by the constitutional majority required.
| Every border State has been saved to the Union
by the Conventions work of to-day, and the return
| of the seeded States to the Union is now but
| question of short time.
The Conference adjourned sire de at l o'clock.
| Many of the Commissioners have already left for
| their homes.
[Second Despatch
The proposition before the Peace Conference
voted on by sections The first with reference
to dividing the Territory, was barely adopted. In
diana did not vote at all. Kansas and New York
were divided. North Carolina, Virginia and Mis-
rGur, voted negatively. The result was eight
against seren, and but for the temporary absence
of. one of the New York Commissioners, there
would have been tie-vote.
URGENT APPEAL TO MR.. LINCOLN 70 INTERPOSE FOR A
SETTLEMENT.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.-Last night ex-senator
Bell, Of Tennessee, Messrs. Douglas, Guthrie and
Rives, and Governor Hicks, and others, urgently
appealed to Mr.. Lincoln to interpose his influence
for settlement of the pending difficulties. Their
in ervicw continued several hours.
The Commissioners from the Southern Cenfeder-
acy expected to arrive here before the close of
this week. They are accredited to the incoming
Administration, and pending the efforts to negoti-
ate, nothing will be done calculated to disturb the
public peace.
ExPresident Tyler communicated the PROPOSE
tiOn to the Speaker of the House, but that body
has not yet been officially informed of its contents
Some of the commissioners say if their confer.
ence has been productive of no other good result,
it has produced most friendly feeling among them
One OF the federal soldiers, stationed on Capitol
Hill, killed his sergeant this afternoon by shooting
him in the heart. The act in revenge for the
latter having caused the soldier to receive punish
ment for former misconduct.
In addition to other farewell calls on the Presi-
dent to-day those of the Judges of the Court
of Claims, with their officers and the clerks of the
Post Office and Interior Departments and their
chiefs.
The Senate was more than an hour in Executive
session to-day on the Army appointments, but not
liking the manner of making them, they were
directed to be returned to the President.
Private and later teegraphic advices from Texas
state that the U. s. Arsenal at San Antonio has
ports in Northern Te:xiass. The cannon, etc., at
Brazos, Santiago, and at Brownsville has also been
seized. There is nothing in the despatch confrma-
tory ofthe report prevalent here to-day that Gen.
Twggs has been shot by soldier. This rumor has
caused much solicitude and excitement.
Partial returns show that in Galveston, Harris
and Austin Counties the vote for secession $40
against 13O.
Report of the Select Committee or the Corr
respondence Between the President and
the South Carolina Commissioners.
WAsHINGToN, Feb. 27.-The majority of the House
Select Committee Of Five, Messrs. Howard, oil Mi
chigan; Dawes, of Massachusetts,, and John Ii.
Reynolds, of New York, made a report to the
House to-day through the last-named gentlemen.
relative to the correspondence between thePresident
and the South Carolina Commissioners, who had
for their object of their mission hither, demand
on the Government for the delivery OF Fort Sum-
ter to the authorities of that State. The Commit
tee say Considering the position assumed by the
President in his annual Message in respect to the
right of State to withdraw from the Union and
the total absence of power the part of the Exec
utive to recognize the validity of any such attempt,
they cannot but regard the mission itself as well
as the manner in which it had been treated by
the President, as among the most remarkable
events OF the extraordinary times In which we live
Under the tull conviction that there is not the
slightest encouragement to secession, the Commit
tee cannot perceive on what principle the President
has assumed to entertain or hold official COM
municatiou of the character disclosed with the
Representatives of South Carolina, for it seems,
to the Committee, obvious enough that under the
principle announced in his annual message the gen
tlemen composing the commission acting under the
sanction of dsloyal State could be regarded in
no other light than engaged in a revolutionary
effort to subvert the Government, and, being so
regarded it would appear to have been the plain
duty of the Executive to enforce the laws against
known or suspected of completely in any movement
of reasonable character.
The committee are not able to imagine any cir
cumstances under which the President would have
been justified in entertaining diplomatic intercourse
with south Carolina in her present attitude to the
general Government, except upon the assumption
that by the action of her authorities she had sue
ceeded in establishing the position of indepen-
dent power, owing no duty whatever to the gov
ernment of the United States. The reception by
the President of such a communication, under such
circumstances, and to the dignity of an official
reply, involves, to some extent, a recognition
of the assumed position of the rebellious state.
The Committee are not prepared to give their
sanction to every act of the Executive Department,
which in express terms or by implication may seem
to place the responsible aiders and abettOrs of Sc
cession, in any State of the Union, in any other
aspect than that of traitors to the Constitution of
the United States.
The Committee say they are not able to resist
the inference that in the beginning of the reyOlu
tonary movements against the Government, there
were relations of extremely friendly character
between those who contemplated rebellion and
those whose duty it was to suppress it.
The minority report, made by John Cochrane,
takes the ground that by reference to the public
Message, the President so far from his having ad
mitted the Commissioners from any seeding State
to diplomatic intercourse, he explicitly refused to
do so, and rigidy guarded against the presumption
He never received them otherwise than distin-
guished citizens. And the only reason of the ques-
tion being presented to Congress, as appears from
the report, was this refusal of the President and
the reference of the whole question to that body.
The correspondence shows that the commission
stated in reference to this attitude of the
President, "that they felt special solicitude as
to the character in which the President might
recognize them."
The report says in the whole course of the pub
shed correspondence, it will be impossible to de-
tect the most trifing deviation from the evident
annunciation by the President in his message to
Congress, at its opening, OF his "Inteuton to de-
fend with the whole power of the government"
and to its rights with all its constitutional
yigor.
The ardent aspirations of the uncalculating zeal
have denounced as timidity, these dictates of So
briefly Repusive impetuosity has derded them,
and the ungenerous impulses of political hostility
have visited upon them the invectiyes of acri-
monious controversy. But the sober sense of the
public will inevitably prevail these Fictitious
stimuIants of faction and discord, and ultimately
will be recognized and ackno wedged, that which
palliates the shock of disupion by the preservation
of peace-which preserves from desolation, by
barricading the paths of blood, and now is the
casion for conciliation, compromise and adjust
ment By the counsels of moderation and peace.
FROM OUR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT.
AN IMPORTANT DAY IN CoNGREss-THE GILMAN OF
THE CRISIS.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2.
This has been an eventful day in Congress, and
tomorrow promises to give us decisive result up
on all the propositions pending for settlement of
our national difficulties.
The first business in the House to-day was the
consideration of the report of the Committee of
Thirty-three and the various amendments offered
| thereto. The proposition of Mr.. Burch, of Cali
| forna, for a National Convention was negatved
| and similar fate attended the amendment of Mr..
Kellogg of Illinois, which received but SO votes,