The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1862-12-20
SPEECH OF EX-GOVERNOR MORE
HEAD, OF KENTUCKY.
HISTORY OF AN INTERVIEW OF SOUTHERN POLL
TICIANs WITH MR.. LINCOLN.

TICIANS WITH MR.. LINCOLN.
The Liverpool Mercury of Oct. l3, contains a
speech of ex Governor Morehead, of Kentucky,
on the Secession of the Southern States. The
following part of it is an important contribution
TO the history of the months preceding the out
break of the civil war. Mr.. Morehead, after
assuring his audience that he was originally q
Union man, and opposed to Secession, he con-
When the Legislature of Kentucky, in my alb
sence elected me unanimously 10 90 as one of
the delegates to the Peace Convention ] accept
ed the Office and went to the city of Washington,
hoping as our old mother State, Virginia had
made the call, and as all the Slaveholding States
that then remained in the Union would send dele
gates and perhaps those in the North would also
send delegates, that we might be able to obtain
such puarcn ees rs would avert, at least, trltri
cidal war. We failed in that Every offer that
was made on the part OF the South was indig-
nantly spurned by the representatives from the
Northern States. Men sad in that Convention
that they would see the Union shattered into
ten thousand fragments before they would give
a solitary guarantee.
In that state of affairs, and knowing the course
that Mr.. Scward-whO. it had been announced to
us was to be the Premier Of the incoming Ad-
ministration-had pursued, l met him, and
Eecm III proper W SHY HcTc, uS utt'c S,biu
on other occasions, that he pledged his sacred
honor that there should be no collision between
the North and the South Hear, hcar.] May"
said he, Gov. Morehead," laying his hand on my
shoulder to make it more emphatic, "let me once
hold the reins of power firmly in my hands, aud
if | don't settle this matter to the entire sliisfac
ton of the South in sixty days, | will give you my
head for a football" Hear hear] Although
confess that had little confidence in Mr.. Seward,
| thought ii utterly impossible that an honorable
man could make pledges OF that kind and 50
shortly afterward violate them in the most shame
less manner. Shortly after that Mr.. Lincoln
came to Washington City in the manner that you
have all read and his intimate friend, Judge
Logan, called TO see me before breakfast one
morning. before had got out of my bed, and
announced to me as ii secret, the fact and the
manner of bis arrival in the city of Washington,
speaking in terms of ndi gnaion against those
who had advised course Of that sort, and stated
at the same time that Mr.. Lincoln with whom
had served in Congress, and with whom was
upon very intimate terms s. mentioned my name
first OF all alter he had met him, and desired an
interview with me. l said to Judge Logan that
| would prefer other gentlemen should be with
me- and not have the interview alone; and he
stated that Mr.. Lincoln had also named Il gentle
man. The gentlemen selected rs the persons to
meet him were Mr.. W. G. Rives, of Virginia.
formerly United States Minister to France;
Judge Summer Of the same State; Gen. Donovan.
from Missouri, who distinguished himself in the
Mexican war; and myself and Mr.. Guthrie, who
had been Secretary OF the Treasury under Mr..
Pcree's administration. AT II o'clock his polit-
ictl friends had ascertained that he was in the
city. and the room filled, and Judge Logan
came to us, and informed us that We must defer
the meeting until we could have it with him
alone Sevrr. days elapsed. We did meet him
about o clock at night and had Il conversation
with him OF several hours duration. | took occa-
shortly aitcrward as well as | could to write
down that conversation.
The substance OF it was ahout this: Mr.. Lin
coin commenced the conversation, after receiving
us very kindly. by stating that he was accidently
elected President OF the United States; that he
had never aspired to a position of that kind;
that it had never entered his head; but from the
fact OF his having made race for the Senate OF
the United States with Judge Douglas in Illinois,
his name b. came prominent. and he was acci
dently selected and elected afterwards rs Presi
ident of the United States; that running that
race in local election, his speeches had been
published; and that any one might examine his
speeches and they would find that he had said
nothing against the interests of the South. He
dcfed them TO point out any one sentence in all
the various addresses that he had made in that
canvass. that could be tortured into enmity
against the South. except, he remarked, one
expression namely, that 81 house divided against
itself must fall; they must either be all Slave or
all Free States;" and he said that he explained
afterward that that was an abstract opinion, and
never intended to be made the basis of his poiti-
cal action. He remarked at the same time that
the clause in the Constitution of the United
States requiring fugitive slaves to be delivered
up was Il constitutional provision, was a part
of the organic law of tie lard and that he
would execute that with more fidelity than any
Southern man that they could possibly find, and
he could not imagine what WAS the cause of the
deep and apparent enmity that existed toward
him throughout the entire South - looking at me
at the time as il to invite an answer from me.
replied that he was very much mistaken If he
supposed that the deep pervading feeling through
out the South originated in any personal enmity
toward himself; that | did not suppose that there
was any feeling Of that kind on the part OF an
individual in the South; that he was the repre-
sentative OF great party elected on platform
which they considered would, if carried out, be
destructive to their dearest and best rights; and
that it was on that account and that alone--the
attempt to overthrow u common Government,
the Government for all the States, in antagonism
to the interests OF a portion OF the very States
whose Government it was-whch was the cause
OF the deep and settled feeling which existed
throughout the entire South.
We appealed to him then to give the guaran-
tees that was demanded by the Southern men in
that Peace Conference, representing to him that
it was. in his power, that he was mt that time a
power in the State, that he held in the hollow of
his hand the destiny of thirty millions of people;
that il he said the guarantee should be made and
would make it. there would be no difficulty in
carrying out any programme that might be adopt
ed He said that he was willing to give consti-
tutional guarantee that slavery should not he
molested in any way, either directly or Indirect
ly, in the States; that he was willing to go fur
ther, and give guarantee that it should not be
molcsted in the District of Columbia; that he
would go still further, and say that it should not
be disturbed in the docks, arsenals forts and
other places within the slaveholding States; but
as for slavery in the Territories, that his whole
life was dedicated in opposition 10 its extension
there; that he was elected by party which had
made that portion OF his platform. and he
should consider that he was betrayng that party
il he ever agreed, under any State of the case TO
allow slavery to be extended in the Territories.
We pointed out to him that there was not an
acre of territory belonging 10 the United States.
whtre the foot OF the slave could ever tread;
that there were natural laws which would forbid
slavery going into New Mexico, mountainous