Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-07

tho Crittenden plan OF adjustment, with
the Powell nendm ent providing that IL
should apply to all future acquisitions OF
south Of the line OF IS degrees
30 meridian. A letter from DR.. william
Jayne to Trumbull. dated Springfield.
J~SLuary rs, 1851. says that Governor Yates
had received telegraph dispatches from the
governors OF Ohio and Indiana asking
whether Illinois would appoint peace COM
missioners In response to a call sent out
by the governor OF Virginia TO meet at
Washington on the 4th OF February.
Lincoln" he continued. advised Yates
not. to take any action at present. He said
no would rather be hanged by the neck TIL
he was dead on the steps OF tho capitol
than buy or beg a peaceful inauguration
But Mr.. Llncoin's words neither FASTENED
nor retarded the secession OF the southern
states. The effective public sentiment OF
the south was that avowed by Senator
Mason OF Virginia in a casual debate with
Trumbull on December 2 1856, when he
said that the election OF anybody by the re-
publican party would result in a dismem-
of the union. The candidate. he
added. might be a man Of straw. the princi-
pies he represented were the only things
the south would take account of.
Mr.. Lincoln's record was that OF a man
opposed to the extension of slavery into
the territories OF the United states. II he
had spoken at the Springfield meeting
of November 20 and had said that he was
willing to divide the unoccupied and UNI
organized territory between freedom and
slavery by a geographical line he would
have rent the republican party In twain
and disabled It from offering any effectual
resistance to any other demands of the
NNs.nll z,.,h A AOAlnEntinn
have stopped the secession movement?
Evidently not. They had demanded not
a division of existing territory, as the
Crittenden plan provided. but the right
to take slaves to all the territories and
hold them there as property until adj
mltted to the union as states. That was,
Jefferson Davis minimum. Would the
granting OF half their demand four months
before Mr.. Lincoln's Inauguration (ac-
before MI. Lincoln's inauguration (accom-
panied by an explosion and paralysis or
the republican party have moderated their
claims? Nobody who reads the history OF
those times can imagine such d thing.
would Not Have stopped IL.
Would the granting of all that they had
claimed before the election OF Lincoln have
stopped secession after his election? Not
II Mason spoke the truth In his colloquy
WlIn ~
to secede before Lincoln was elected and
II never paused an instant. 1t did not act
upon any abstract theory about equal
rights In the territories" Its motor was
one OF internal combustion. 1t found apt
EXPRESSION In the speech of Senator WigfaH
of Texas, a native South Carolinan' VINO
said: IT say to you that we cannot i've
in peace, either in the union or out OF H.
until YOU have abolished your abolition
societies"
Now IL anybody fancies that 1t was posi-
BILE to stop secession at this stage by sooth-
ing words, or verbal promises, or Crltten-
den compromises, he must believe either
that South Carolina would have taken
back track, or that the other cotton states
would have looked on quietly at the coer-
cicn of South Carolina by a republican adj
ministration.
To one looking back at the republican ma
tional convention Of 1860 1t Is evident that
the choice for president from the outset
Law between Lincoln and Seward. No other
candidate had a ghost OF a chance we
--e now able to say that II Seward had
been president instead OF Lincoln there
would have been no armed resistance to
the withdrawal OF such southern states as
then desired to secede. 1t was Stewards
conviction that the policy of peace and
noncoercion would have quieted the seces-
sion movement in the border states, and
that the gulf states would then have re-
turned homeward like repentant prodigal
sons. His proposal to Lincoln to seek a
ouarrel with four European nations which
had done us no harm in order to arouse a
feeling of Americanism In the confeder-
ate states was an outgrowth OF this con-
viction. II was an immoral proposition,
akin TO that of Bismarck when he used
France as an anvil on which to weld Ger
many together, but 1t was not an unpatri-
otto one. since It was bottomed on a desire
TO preserve the union without civil war.
Traces of this Idea are found in the
speeches of jefferson Davis before his
state seeded. He would nave preferred
that the secession movement should not
extend beyond South Carolina, and to that
end he used all his Influence against the
coercion of that state. Seward may have
derived his idea from Davis. or. more prob
ably, was confirmed by him in an idea to
which he was previously inclined.
Garrett Davis Speech.
The question has been much discussed,
and is candidly treated by Mr.. James
Ford Rhodes in his admirable history,
whether C~rittenden's proposed amendment
70 the constitution ought to have been
adopted or not. The only plausible argu-
ment for adopting 1t would have been to
prevent secession and civil war; and here
lies q wide field for difference OF opinion
as to whether It would have prevented
them or not. Garrett Davis OF Kentucky
was In a position to know what were the
fixed purposes OF the secessionists at that
time. In a speech In the senate on jan
uary y, 1852. on the resolution to expel
senator Bright OF Indiana, he said:
What have they said again and again ?
The United States ~overnment believe
they do not call 1t that; they call It Lin
coins government'-'may give US a blank
piece of paper and It may ask US to writs
on that blank piece OF paper our own con-
ditions and terms and We can write M
conditions and terms upon which we will
ever consent to return to the union.'"
The chances are ten to one that AZ would
not have been acceptable to the cotton
states without the Powell amendment
applying to future acquisitions of territory.
With that clause included, would not
demands have arisen thereafter for the
acquisition OF Cuba. Mexico, etc. for
future slave states. 20 maintain the balance