New Orleans daily crescent., 1861-01-31
To the People Of Virginia.

lc the hIcuhluhu lfh.J eiiqutref.l
We deem ii our duty, as your Representatives
at Washington, to lay before you such information
as5we may possess in regard to the probable act.
ion Of Congress in the present alarming condition
of the country.
AT the beginning Of this session, now more than
half over, committees were appointed, in both
Houses of Congress, to consider the state of the
Union Neither committee has been able to agree
upon any mode OF settlement of the pending is
sues between the North and the South.
The Republican members in both committees re-
iected propositions acknowledging the right of
property in slaves, or recommending the division
Of the territories between the slaveholding and
non-slayeholding States by geographical line.
q In the Senate, the propositions commonly known
as Mr. Grittenden's were voted against t.by every
Republican Senator y and the House. on a vote
by ayes and noes, refused to consider certain
propositions moved BY Mr.. Etheridges which were
even less favorable to the South than Mr.. Critten-
denis. u
a resolution giving pledge to sustain the Presi-
dent in the use Of force against seeding States
was adopted in the House of Representatives by
large nariority; and in the Senate every Repub-
can voted to substitute for Mr. Crittendens propo-
sitions, resolutions offered BY Mr.. CLARK OF New
Hampshire, declaring no new concessions, guaran-
tees or amendments to the Constitution were ne
cessary; that the demands of the Soutl, were un,
reasonable, and that the remedy for the present
danger was simply to enforce the laws, in other
words, coercion and war.
In this state OF facts, our duty is to warn you
that it is vain to hope for any measures Of cnncI-
alton or adjustment (from Gongressl which you
could accept. We are also satisfied that the Re-
publican party designs, by civil war alone, I'd
eoercc the Southern States. under the pretext of
enforcing the laws, unless it shall become speedily
apparent that the seeding States are SO numerous
determined and united as to make such an attempt
hopeless.
We are confirmed in these conclusions by our
general intercourse here; by the speeches Of the
Republican leaders, here and elsewhere; by the
recent refusals Of the Legislatures of Vermont
Ohio and Pennsylvania to repeal their obnoxious
Personal Liberty laws: by the action of the Illinois
Legislature on resolutions approving the Crittenden
propositions, and by the adoption Of resolutions in
the New York and Massachusetts Legislatures
doubtless to be followed by others) offering men
and money for the war of coercion.
We have tins placed before you the facts and
conclusions which have become manifest to us
from this post of observation where you have
placed us. There is nothing to be hoped from Con-
gress- the remedy is withyou alone, when you as
semble in sovereign Convention.
We conclude, by expressing our solemn con-
vcton, that prompt and decided action by the
people of Virginia in Convention, will afford the
surest means, under the Providence of God, of
averting an impending civil war, and preserving
the hope of reconstructing Union already
dissolved.
4 j. NJ Mason, +. S. MARTIN.
&BI X. NJ. r. HUNTER, H. A. EDMUsDSoN,
ID. @. De jARNRTrE, ROGER A. PRYOR.
NJ. r. II. GARRETT. THos. =. BoCoCK,
SHELTON H. IEAKF, A. G, JENKINS.
WASHINGTON Cry Jar. 26. 1851
lowing to the detention Of Ex.Goy. Smith, at
his home in Virginia, by sickness, this address
could not be presented to him for his signature.
There is no doubt he would have joined in it, if
present.