Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-09-29

who Responsible for the Failure of
the Criftenden COmprOmise-The
Plan Proposed by ur. Crittenden i'm
Congress during the Session of q 6O-
81 for the Adjustment of our NatiOn-
al Difficulties and the Perpetuity
of the Union!
Upon the assembling of Congress, December
Sd, 1860. every State in the Union represent
ed in the House of Representatives, and in the
Senate all but South Carolina. Secession
was Threatened BY the Gulf States. The repre-
sentatives of Southern States generally demand
ed additional constitutional guarantees for the
protection of their rights under the Constitution.
1t is not proposed here to decide whether those
demands were just unjus., whether the tri
umph of a sectional party in the Presidential
election of 1860 was justification on the part OF
the Southern States for demanding those addi-
tiona guarantees for the protection of the rights
which they regarded as having been put in jeo-
parjy by the success of that party. The ques-
ton to be examined is. Could the present civil
war and the threatened permanent dsuniOn of the
States have been averted by the adoption of the
plan of adjustment proposed by the Senator from
Kentucky, commonly known as the CRIrTENDEN
Compromise?
STATE OF PUBLIC MIND IN THE SOUTH.
In speech in the Senate, January Sd, 1861
(see appendix to Congressional Globe, p. 49,, Mr..
DOUGLAS thus referred to the state of public mind
in the South:
But we cannot close our eyes to the fact that
the Southern people have viewed the result of
that election (Mr Lincon's) as furnishing evil
dence that the dominant party OF the North,
which is soon to take possession of the Federal
Government under that election, are determined
to invade and destroy their constitutional rights
Believing that their domestic institutions, their
hearth stones and their family altars, are to be
assailed, at least by indirect MEANS and that the
Federal Government is to be used for the inau-
guratiOn of a line of policy which shall have for
its object the ultimate extinction of slavery in all
the States, old as well as new South as well as
North, the Southern people are prepared to rush
wildly madly. as think into revolution, dsun-
ion, war. and defy the consequences whatever
they may be, rather than to wait Tor the develop
ment of events or submit tamely TO what they
think is fatal blow impending over them and
all they hold dear on earth.
WITHOUT COMPROMISE DIsUSIoN INEVITABLE
Approaching the condition OF the country and
the necessity Of compromise to avoid the calami-
ties of civil war and disunion, Mr. DOUGLAS, in
the same speech, ION page Al said:
In my opinion we have reached a point where
disunion Is inevitable, unless some compromise
founded upon mutual concession can be made.
prefer compromise TO war. prefer concession
to dissolution of the Union When avow
myself in favor OF compromise, do not mean
that one sue should give up all that it has claim.
ed, nor that the other side should give up every
thing Tor which it has contended. Nor do | ask
any man TO come TO my standard but / Simply
say that will meet every one half way who il
willing to preserve the peace of the country and
save the Union from disruption upon the princi
pie of compromise and concession
In the same speech ION page 42) Mr. DOUGLAS
adds:
In my opinion we have now reached a point
where this agitation 1.-THE slavery question: must
close. and all the matters in controversy be fin.
ally determined by constitutional amendments
or civil war and the disruption Of the Union are
inevitable.
regret the determination, to which apprehend
the Republican Senators have come, to make nc
adjustment. entertain no proposition, and listen to
no compromise of the matters in controversy
fear from all the indications, that they are dis
posed to treat the matter as party question, &c
be determined in in reference to its effect.
upon the prospects of their party, rather thar
upon the peace of the country and the safety o.
the Union. l invoke their deliberate judgment
whether IL is not dangerous experiment for any
political party to demonstrate to the American
people that the unity Of their party is dearer tc
them than the union of these states