Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-04-05
SPEECH OF
HON. G.. w. SUMMERS.
N THE CONVENTION, MARCH11.

purpose, some DAYS since. to have submitted q
motion for the reference of this report. but
have had no opportunity of doing so.
learned that could not effect my purpose
unless by previous motion to lay on the ia
! BILE the resolution offered by the gentleman
from Chesterfield. ( Mr.. Cox.) and the pending
amendments to bis proposition, course which
l did not feel at liberty to adopt. think il
is due to the Convention and to the Commit
tee. that the earliest possible opportunity fol
the consideration of this report shall be had
and that the views of the Committee upon ii
shall be presented to the Convention. Hav.
ing been one of the Commissioners sent by
Virginia to the Peace Conference, which
r seems to have become the name applied to
the convocation of States lately held in Wash
ington, and having had the misfortune to diff
fer on some points with my most respected
ana esteemed colleagues, or portion of them
nope 1t Will not be considered out of place
II avail myself of this occasion to present
briefly as may, the considerations and views
Which induced me to sustain the measure
adopted by that Conference.
remark. however, in the first place, that
there were but very few votes taken upon any
OF the propositions offered in the Conference
upon which there was any diversity of opin.
ION entertained between the Commissioners
from Virginia. According to my recOllec-
ton the first section of the adjustment agreed
on, In regard to the Territorial question, pre-
sented the only occasion when there was any
dissenting opinion entered on the journal by
portion of the Commissioners from this
State.
Ex-President Tyler-Except in regard TO
the second section, upon which | raised my
own dissenting voice.
Mr.. Summers resumed. l beg pardon.
had forgotten that the distinguished gentle
man from Charles City, (Ex-President Tyler. J
4 ~ II IL
commission, had indicated his dissent upon
the second section, which second section,
however, received the votes of the other
| four Commissioners from Virginia.
This adjustment. Mr.. President, is the re-
| suit of procedure instituted by the General
Assembly of this Commonwealth, desiring,
with the most patriotic motives, to make an
| earnest effort for settlement of the difficult
| and threatening questions now dividing the
country. do not propose to 60 into details
in regard to the votings in the Conference
But l propose to address myself for a short
| time to the adjustment itself, remarking
| however, In advance, that we met, in the Con-
| ference, Commissioners from twenty-one
| States of this Union-seven of them slave
holding States and fourteen non-slaveholding
| States-and that while there was, to some
extent, an exhibition of spirit and purpose
| adverse to the views of the Southern States
4 y
as general proposition, l was gratified to
| find marked indications of spirit of fra
ternity-a general desire for harmony and
| tranquility, and an anxious desire for the re-
storation and perpetuity of our Union. This,
especially, manifested itself, will take ocea-
sion to say, on the part of the Commissioners
representing the border non-slavehoIding
| States. Going beyond that line, cannot
permit myself to omit mentioning that the
State of Rhode Island was found, throughout
all the proceedings in entire harmony with
| tue wishes and purposes of those of the
Southern States, and active in making efforts
for settlement and adjustment of these
questions; that the State of New Jersey, by
her entire delegation, was with US through
out, upon every proposition; that the Com
monwealth of Pennsylvania, by d large ma
jority of her delegation, and the State of Ohio,
by a like majority of her Commissioners, ex-
hibited the same purpose and sprit;an it was
a matter of the deepest gratificationand the
most hopeful interest, that throughout those
labOrs and to their close there was manifested
a growing spirit of brotherhood, a tightening
of the bonds as it were, between the border
States on each side of the line, including Hi
nOis and Indiana. Indiana, it is true, did
not vote upon the final adoption of the
measures promulgated by the Conference.
The Commissioners from Indiana were il
structed, by the resolutions of the Legisla-
ture of that State, to bestow no final vote
upon any proposition, without first reporting
it to the Legislature then in session, for its
concurrence. Following out the direction of
her Legislature, in accordance with those re-
strictiVe resolutions, Indiana did not cast her
vote upon the final action of the body. But
Illinois did, and aided materially in their
support, on the floor, in their advocacy.
Coming, then, Mr.. President, to the result
of these labors will first make single re-
mark as to general objection to the whole,
so far, at least, as the Territorial question is
concerned; an objection to which have heard
repeated, and which was made in the Senate
of the United States, and that is, that under
the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in the bred Scott case, the |
South is entitled to participation in all the |
Territories belonging to the people of the |
United States; that we have equal right, |
from the South as from the North, to migrate |
to any of the Territories belonging to the |
United States, carrying with US any species |
of property known to the laws of the State |
from which il may be carried; and that this |
the decision referred to, this adjustment is an |
on the part of the South, of |
the right to that portion of the Territory on |
the North side of the line of sc deg. 80 min. /
MIR. President, 1 have not been accustomed |
to regard the South as being entirely satisfied |
TO stand upon the bred Scott decision in this
particular. Were that the fact, could we, in
our own judgment, with safety now and |
hereafter stand upon the bred Scott decision,
awarding equal right to the people of every
portion OF the Union in those Territories,
there would be no occasion to seek an adjust
ment at all, so far as the Territorial ques-
tons are concerned. We all know, however,
that in certain quarters, that decision, be-
yond a given point. has not been regarded
as of binding authority. We have been ac- |
in the South to apprehend that, by |
mutations in the composition of the Court,
that opinion may be changed; and think
cannot err in expressing it as the general
conclusion of the Southern mind that fair
and equitable partition of the Territories
would be the most judiciOus mode of settling
the question.
We went to Washington, Mr.. President,
under resolutions of the General Assembly
Of Virginia, which declared that the plan of
adjustment proposed by the distinguished
Senator from Kentucky. Mr.. Crittenden,
would be satisfactory to the people of this
/ did not regard that decla-
ration as intended to present the scheme of
adjustment referred to in the light of an uI-
Iamatum. l do not know that any of US re-
garded ourselves as restricted to the Critten-
len propositions, but that these were indi-
Gated by the General Assembly as presenting
0ne of the modes of adjustment which would
be satisfactory to the people of Virginia, and
hat they were suggested as the basis of ne
collation. at Washington. The adjustment
arrived at by the Peace Conference divides
Ill the Territory belonging to the United |
States by the line of Sc deg. and 80 min. of
North latitude. II it be an objection to this
adjustment that it is a surrender of all upon
he North side of that line, it is equally an
objection to the Crittenden proposition which
divides il by the same line / observe that |
one of the distinguished Senators from Vir-
yinia in the Senate of the United States made
his objection; that it was surrender of the
lights of the South on the North side of the
inc of Sc, so; and yet that same distinguished |
Senator himself offered the first article of the
Jrittenden proposition as substitute for the
irst article of the adjustment at Washington,