The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer., 1863-01-16
Mlsttllantons.
THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE.

A number of gentlemen of Clearfeld
county, Pa, recently addressed letter to
Ex-Gov. Bigler, of that State, requesting
to be furnished with a brief history of the
proceedings of the United States Senate
on the resolutions familiarly known as the
Crittendcn Compromise, to which the
Governor replies as follows:
CLEARFIELD, Sept. 20, 1862.
GENTLEMEN i am in receipt of your
letter and with pleasure proceed to COM
ply with your request. In doing this [
shall endeavor to be brief, though it must
be obvious that anything like full histo-
ry of the proceedings of the United States
Senate on the resolutions familiarly known
as the Crittenden Compromise, and the
occurrences incident thereto, cannot be
compressed into a very short story.
You can all bear me witness that in the
addresses | have made to the people,
since my retracy from the Senate | have
not sought to press this subject on their
consideration in any party light have
held that the government and country
must be saved no matter whose folly and
madness had imperiled them-that we
Should first extinguish the flames that are
consuming our national fabric, and after
wards look up and punish the incendiary
who bad applied the torch but as the
subject has been brought before the
community by distinguished member of
the Republican party, for partisan ends,
and statements made inconsistent with
the record, it is eminently proper that the
facts-at least all the essential facts
should be given to the public.
1t is not true that some Republican
members of the Senate supported the
"Crittenden Compromise" and some op-
posed it. They opposed it throughout
and without an exception. Their efforts
to defeat it were in the usual shape of
postponements and amendments and it
was not till within fnw hours of the close
of the session that direct vote was had
on the proposition itself
On the l4th of January they cast uni
ted vote against its consideration, and on
the 18th they did the same thing, in order
to consider the Pacific railroad bill.
But the first test vote was had on the
18th day of January, on the motion OF
Mr.. Clark, of New Hampshire, to strike
out the Crittenden proposition and insert
certain resolutions of his owu, the only
cbject manifestly being the defeat of the
tv..ner. The yeas and nays on this vote
were as follows:
Yeas-Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bing-
ham, Cameron, Chandler, Clark, Cola
mer, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden,
Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan,
King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten
Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and
Wilson-25.
Nays-Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg.
Bright, Clingman, Crittenden, Fitch.
Green, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson,
Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, Sauls
bury, and Sebastian-23.
So Mr.. Clark's amendment prevailed
and the Crittenden proposition was defea.
ted. On the announcement of this
result the whole subject was laid on the
table.
This was the vote on which some six OIL
eight Senators from the Cotton States
withheld their votes, of this I shall speak
hereafter.
It is true that, within few hours af'
ter these proceedings, as though alarmed
about the consequences Of what had been