The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-08-18

preventing Africans from ever becoming citi-
zens; q constitutional convention; and referred
to the Committee of Thirteen in the Senate
in the Senate and Thirty-tree in the House.
They were the result of anxious cogitation on
the problem which threatened to dispart the
country. They remain upon the records to
illustrate the variety and magnitude Of the in
terests springing out of the institution of
slavery and the duplex character of our
State and Federal Governments. They
were, for the last time, thrust into the
legislative tribunal for tranquil solution before
the conflict in the forum Of reason should be
replaced by
-" the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery.'
The public record shows what result was
reached by these committees, or rather how
'resultless were their labors. Mr.. Corwin, for q
majority, presented his resolutions and bills !;
Mr.. Adams declined to recommend even his
own propositions, inasmuch as he believed the
South would accept nothing he could offer.
Washburne, Of Wisconsin, and Tappan, of New
Hampshire, of the committee, offered nothing
by way Of compromise. The conservative men,
with Taylor, Phelps, Rust, Whitley, Winslow,
Nelson, Hamlin, and others Of the committee,
wished to 60 further than Governor Corwin.
They recommended the Crittenden proposition.
The votes on the C0rwin measures were
strangely homogeneous. The vote on the Crit
tenden proposition was well defined, but Is not
so well understood. From the frequency OF
inquiries since the war as to this latter vote, the
people were eager to know upon whom to fix
the responsibility of its failure. It may as well
De stated that all other propositions, whether
Of the Peace Convention or the Border State
project, or the measures of the committees,
were comparatively of no moment; for the
Crittenden proposition was the only one which
could have arrested the struggle. It would
have received larger vote than any other. II
would have had more effect in moderating
Southern excitement Even Davis, Toombs,
and others Of the Gulf States would have &C.
eepted it. I have talked with Mr.. Crittenden
frequently on this point. Not only has he con-
hrmed the public declarations of Douglas and
Pugh, and the speech of Toombs himself to
this effect, bat he said 1t was so understood
I'm committee. At one time when the commit
tee was in session, he said: Mr. Foombs,
wiN this compromise, as q remedy for ali
wrongs and apprehenSions, be acceptable to
your" Mr.. Toombs, with some profanity, re-
piled, Not by o good deal; but my State will
accept it, and I will follow my State to -"
And he did.
will not open the question whether 1t was
wise then to offer Accommodations it may not
be profitable now to ask whether the millions
of young men whose bodies are MANNED. or
whose bones are decaying under the sod of the
South, and the heavy load of public debt under
which we sweat and toll, have their compensa.
ton in black liberty. Nor will discuss wheth-
er the blacks have been bettered by their pre-
cipitate freedom, passing, as so many have,
from slavery through starvation and suffering
to death.
There is no comfort in the reflection that the
negroes will be eXterminated with the exter-
mination of slavery. The real point is, could
not this Union have been made permanent by
4
ternal blood and military rule? By an eQuita-
BILE partition of the territory this was possible.
We had then 1,200, 900 square miles. The Crit
tenden proposition would have given the North
900 600 of these square miles, and applied to
Chicago doctrines to that quantity. Il would
have left the remaining fourth, substantially,
to be carved out as free or slaYe States, at the
option of the people when the States were adj
mitted. This proposition the radicals denounc-
ed. Notwithstanding the then President elect
was in minority of a million of the popular
vote, they were determined as Mr. Chase
wrote to Portsmouth, Ohio from the Peace
Convention, to use the power while they had
il. and prevent settlement. 1t has been stat
ed, to rid the Republicans of the odium of not
averting the war when that was possible, Tia.
the Northern members rendered the Southern
the Crittenden Compromise, which the South
rejected. This is untrue. It was rendered by
Southern Senators and Northern Democrats to
the Republicans. They, in conjunction with
some half dozen recusant Southern Senators,
rejected it. 1t was voted upon but once in the
House, when 1t received eighty votes against
one hundred and thirteen. ..E-
These eighty votes were exclusively Demo
crafts and Southern Americans, like Gllmer,
Vance and others. Mr.. Briggs, of New York,
for it. He had been an old Wing. and never q
Republican. The Republican roll, beginning
with Adams and ending with Woodruff, was q
unit against 1t. Intermingled with them was
one Southern EXTREMIST, Gen. Hindman, who
desired no settlement There were many
Southern men who did not vote, believing that
unless the Republicans. who were just acced-
ing to power, favored it, its adoption would
be delusion.
The plan adopted by the Republican Senators
to defeat II, was by amendment and postpone.
ment On the 14th and 18th of January they
cast Ill their votes against it's being taken mp;
and on the 18th, when it came up. Hr. Clark,
Of New Hampshire, moved to strike it out
and insert sometAing which he knew would
neither be successful nor acceptable. The vote
On Clarkb amendment was Is to %; every
aye being Republican, and every mo, +" ex-
cent Kennedy and Crittendea (Americans) be.
ing Democrats. On this occasion six Southern
Senator'S, including Benjamin and Wigfall, did
not vote. They could have defeated the mo-
ton Of Mr.. Clark. In reference to this vote
We have the testimony of President johnson.
in speech on the expulsion Of Senator Bright
Jan. 81, 1862, TO this effect:
II sat rather behind M. Benjamin, and I
am not sure that my worthy friend (Nr. La
tham) was not close by when he refused to
vote and / said to him, Mr.. BENJAMIN, why
do you not votei Why not save this propo-
sition, and see If we can not bring the country
toit7' He gave me rather an abrupt answer,
and said he would control his own actions
without consulting me or anybody else. Said
/, Vote and show yourself an honest man.
Soon a. the vote was taken, he and others tele-
grapned South, We can not get any compro-
mise"
Doubtless the rest Of the six Senators had
the same sinister motive for their retieence in
voting and readiness IN telegraphing. But