The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-10-28
Tbc Republican Party and the Wa
--aWhO is KespOnsfble---TheT Ties.
timony of Rouglas...HOXy the War
Might Have Been Avoided.

Upon the assembling of Congress, Deem.
Der Sd, 1860, every State in the Union was rep
resented in the House of Representatives, and
in the Senate all but South Carolina Secession
was threatened by the Gulf States The rep
resentstyes of Southern States generally de-
manded additional constitutional guarantees
for the protection OF their rights under the
constitution. It is not proposed here TO de-
eide whether those demands were just or I'M
Just or whether the triumph of sectional
party in the Presidential election Of 1860 was
a justification on the part OF the southern
States for demanding those additional guaran-
tees for the protection of the rights which they
regarded as having been put in jeopardy by
the success Of that party The question to be
examined is. could the present civil war and
the threatened permanent disuniOn of the
States have been averted by the adoption of
the plan OF adjustment proposed by the Sem
alor from kentucky, commonly known as the
Crittenden Compromise:
STATE OF PUBLIC MIND IN TIE SOUTH.
In speech in the Senate, January j. 1861,
(see appendix to Congressional Globe, p. So, Mr..
mind in the South:
But we cannot close our eyes to the fact that
the Southern people have viewed the result Of
that election (Nlr. I.incolns) as furnishing evil
dencc that the dominant party of the North,
which is soon to take possession of the Federal
government under that election, are deter
mined to invade and destroy their constitu-
tional rights. Believing that their domestic
institutions, their hearthstones and their family
to hn I'D If lno-f sv1dsN nf
means, and that the Federal government is to
be used for the Inauguration of line of policy
which shall have fer its object the ultimate eX-
tnction of slavery in all the States, old as well
as new South as well rs North, the Southern
people are prepared to rush wildly, madly, as
think, into revolution, disunion, war. and defy
the consequences whatever they may be- rather
than to wait for the development of events, or
submit tamely to what they think is a fatal
blow impending over them and all they hold
dear on earth.
WITHOUT COMPROMISE DisUNIoN INEVITABLE.
Approaching the condition of the country
and the necessity Of compromise to avoid the
the calaInities of civil war and disunion, Mr..
DouGIAs. in the same speech ION page Al
said:
In my opinion we have reached a point where
disuniOn is inevitable, unless some compromise.
| prefer compromise to war. prefer conces-
sion to dissolution of the Union. When 1
avow myself in favor of compromise, do not
mean that one side should give up all that it
has claimed, nor that the other side should
give up every thing for which it has contend
ed. Nor do l ask any man to come to my
standard but | simply say that will meet
every one half way who is willing to preserve
the peace of the country, and save the Union
from disruption upon the principle of compro-
mise and concession. !
In the same speech ION page 42) Mr. DouG-
LAS adds:
In my opinion, we have now reached point
where this agitation (the slavery question: must
close, and all the matters in controversy be fl
nally determined by constitutional amend
ments, or civil war and the disruption of the
Union are inevitable. l regret the
determination, to which apprehend the Re.
publican Senators have come, to make no ad-
iustment; entertain no proposition, and listen
To no compromise of the matters in cOntrO-
versy. l fear, from all the indications, that
thew are disposed to treat the matter as party
question. to be determined in caucus in refer
ence to its effects upon the prospects of their
party. rather than upon the peace OF the coun-
try and the saIety of the Union. Invoke their
deliberate Judgment whether it is not danger
Gus experiment for any political party to de-
monstrate to the American people that the
unity of their party is dearer to them than the
Union of these States.
CRIrTENDEN's PLAN PROPOSED.
Such was the condition of the public mind
and the necessity of adopting some measures
to prevent the calamities of civil war and dis
union. so forcibly set forth by Mr.. Douglas in
his able speech in the Senate, from which the
foregoing extracts are quoted, that the eminent
statesman and patriot of Kentucky, John j.
Crittenden, felt called upon as duty to his
country to propose plan of adjustment to the
Senate and the people, which he did December
18Th. 1860. See Congressional Globe, vol.