The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-11-08

Oh Of Rx.Governer MersheaA Of ~.
~e.:SyX Of a. inseF yc., o. Seeshern
The Liverpool Mercury of Oct Is, contains .
speech of Ex-Governor Morehead, Of Kentucky,
on the Secession of the Southern States. The
following part of it is an important contribu-
ton to the history of the mouths preceding the
outbreak of the civil war. Mr.. Morehead, az
ter assuring bis sudiene that he was originally
q Union man, and opposed to Secession. con
tnued:
When the Legislature Of Kentucky, in my ab.
.ence elected me unanimously to 60 as one of
the delegates to the Peace Convention, I accept.
ed the Office and went to the City Of Washing
ton. hoping, as our old mother State, Virginia,
had made The call, and all the Slaveholding
States that then remained in the Union would
sepd delegates, and perhaps those in the North
would also send delegates, that We might be able
N obtain cue b guarantees ~ would avert, at
least. fratricidal war. We failed in that. -
Every offer that was made on the part of the
South was Indignantly spurned by the represen.
ts,iyes from the Northern States Men said In
that Convention that they would see the Union
shattered into ten thousand fragments before
thew would give one solitary guarantee. In that
stale of affairs and knowing the course that
Mr.. Seward-who, it had been announced to US,
was to be the Premier of the incoming Admin
istration.-had pursued, met him, and l do
not deem il improper to say here, as have said
on other occasions, that he pledged his sa-
cred honor that there should be no col
lision between the North aud South. Hear,
hear "Nay," said he, Gov. horehead," lay
ing his hand on my shoulder, to make it more
emphatic, 'let me once hold the reins of power
firmly in my hands. and If don't settle this
matter to the entire satisfaction of the South in
sixtv DAYS, will give you my head for foot
ball" Hear, hear. Although confess that
| had but little confidence in Mr.. Seward,
thought it utterly impossible that an honorable
man could make pledges of that kind and 60
shortly afterward violate them in the most
shameless manner. Shortly after that Mr. Linz
coin came to Washington City in the manner
that you have all read of, and his particular and
intimate friend, Judge Logan, called to see me
before breakfast one morning before I had got
out of my bed, and announced to me a. . Sc
cret the fact and manner of bis arrival in the
City of Washington, speaking in terms of indig.
nation against those who had advised course
of that sort, and stated at the same time that
M. Lincoln-wth whom he had served in Con.
gress, and with whom was upon very intimate
aforementioned my name first Of all after be
had met him, and desired an interview with me.
said to Judge Logan that would prefer that
other gentlemen should be with me, and not
have the interview alone, and he stated that Mr..
Lincoln had also named other gentlemen. The
gentlemen selected as the persons to meet him
we're Or. W. G. Rives, of Virginia, formerly u
States Minister to France; Judge Sumner, from
the same State; Gen. Donovan, from Missouri,
who distinguished himself in the Mexican war,
and myself and Mr.. Guthrie, who had been Sec.
Rotary Of the Treasury in Mr.. Pierce's admins
tra.ion. At IL o'clock his political friends had
ascertained that he was in the city, and the room
was filled, and Judge Logan came to US, and in
formed us that We must defer the meeting until
We could have it with him alone. Several days
elapsed. We did meet him at o'clock at
night, and had conversation Of several hours
duration with him. took occasion shortly af-
terward, as well as could, to write down that
conversation.
The substance Of it was about this: Mr.. Lin
coin commenced the conversation, after receiv-
ing US very kindly, by stating that he was acct
IDENTIFY elected President of the United States;
that be had never aspired to position of that
kind; that it had never entered his head; but
that from the fact of his having made race for
the senate of the United States with Judge
Douglas, in the State of Illinois, his name be-
came prominent, and he was accidentally select.
ed and elected afterward az President 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 hud that he bad said nothing against
the interests of the South. He defed them to
point out any one sentence in all the various ad-
dresses that he had made in that canvass that
could be tortured into enmity against the South,
except, he remarked, one expression, namely,
that "a house divided against itself must fall;
they must either be al Slave all Free States"
and he said that he explained afterward that
that was an abstract opinion, and never intend
ed to be made the basis of his political 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 . consti-
tutional provision, was part of the organic
law Of the land, and that he would execute that
vtn more fidelity than any Southern man tina.
they could possibly find, and he could not i'm
agne what was the cause of the deep and ap-
parently settled eDmity that existed toward him
throughout the entire South, looking at me at
the time as if to invite an answer from me. /
replied that be was very much mistaken If he
supposed that the deep pervading feeling thro,
out tie South originated in any personal eurnity
toward himself; that did not suppose that there
was any feeling Of that kind on the part of an
individual in the South; that be was the repre-
sentative of great party-of merely section
party-elected on platform which they con-
sidered would, il carried out, be destructive of
their dearest and beet rights; and that il was on
that account, and that alone-the attempt to
throw a common Government, the Government
iorall the States. in sntagonism to the interests
oapo'tion of the very States whose Govern
meht il was--which was the cause of the deep
ard settled feeling which existed throughout the
entire South We appealed to him then to give
me guarantees which were demanded by the
SOUTHERN men iu that Peace Conference. repre-.
sen'I1g to him that il was in his power, ha. lie
~asat that time power in the State, tina, he
ned IN the hollow OF his hand the destiny OF
INIT! million vi people, that il he sal. tnas the
guarantee should be made and would make it,
'aefe would he 10 difficulty il carrying out any
PVsTamme that u,igbt be adopted